The Crookston Visitor’s Bureau (CVB) met on Thursday morning for a regular meeting inside the Crookston Inn in the Northshore Room.
After the Call to Order, the bureau began the meeting by reviewing and approving their meeting minutes on November 16 and Treasurer Jess Bengtson’s report for the bills payable. Bengtson reported that they received a lodging tax check for October on December 12 for $6,366.10 and had paid $783.67 for Nell DeBoer’s payroll, a $250 ad for a website advertisement on KROX, and $24.54 for the bureau’s consumer cellular. They were currently waiting for two potential withdrawals of $2,475 to KVLY for their final bill for summer commercials and $3,000 to Ox Cart Days for marking grants. They were currently waiting for another $250 purchase for another ad on KROX, $89 for a monthly advertisement on Wisconsin Media, $74 for their Post Office Box, and $141.67 for reimbursements to Nell DeBoer, giving them a total monthly expense of $783.67. The bureau approved the minutes and report unanimously.
Payroll Accountability
The bureau then heard a payroll accountability from Interim Coordinator Nell DeBoer. The bureau saw that their Lodging Tax for October was $6,227.69, which was $3,801.22 less than what they had received last year. Bureau Vice Chair Bob Magsam noted that October was usually high with the sugarbeet harvest but voiced his pleasure in it being consistent with the recent month’s tax comparison of around $6,000.
QuickBooks
The bureau then heard a report from Treasurer Jess Bengtson on their QuickBooks, to which she reported they were scheduled to be ready by the beginning of the year.
Marketing Crookston to Crookston
Magsam then gave a recap of a presentation he gave the Crookston Rotary and Lions. Magsam explained he had made a presentation with DeBoer to tell them the goals of the bureau and some of their plans for 2023 and form potential partnerships with them for future events.
Magsam continued with a recap of a meeting he had with Crookston Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mark Landa, where he gave the same presentation but had gone further into discussions about partnerships for future events to help get out-of-town people to visit and stay in Crookston. One event he had in mind was an upcoming hockey tournament scheduled for Friday, March 3, to Sunday, March 5, to help get out-of-town people to visit and stay in Crookston. “With the CVB, we’re only allowed to do certain things, and we cannot be the host of an event such as that. So, we felt our side of the table on this is to make partnerships and go out and try to figure out who can do what to enhance and show everybody what our community is about and try and promote the local businesses and things of that nature,” CVB Chair Bob Magsam explained. “We’ve been spreading the word with those service clubs, and we sat down with the Chamber of Commerce director and had some good discussions and a little bit in detail of that event, but just a general conversation with Mark and the Chamber as far as how we can really start to work together again.”
Magsam explained he had also done the same publicly by having an appearance on KROX’s Valley Talk on December 6.
UMC Marketing Class Update
The bureau then heard from Bengtson on a recap of the UMC’s Marketing Class update when they met with them on December 12. Bengtson reported she had met with six UMC marketing students to offer many suggestions for the CVB could target people in their younger age group. She explained they mainly were using social media to help spread the word about restaurants and attractions in Crookston and creating marketing suggestions for 2023 and ways to use them. One idea they had was using National holidays like National Cookie Day to highlight local businesses visitors could visit to celebrate the day. Magsam mentioned there were talks of a potential internship UMC could offer students with the CVB, which he and other members believed was a great idea for the bureau to help recent graduates and college students get jobs and build connections. “There is nothing concrete in the works by any means, but it’s been a great conversation about what maybe could happen in the future. They have some great tools to put in our toolbox with the marketing side out there and the classes they have. It would be a great collaboration between the community being the CVB, and the university,” Bob Magsam explained. “We both could utilize each other for positive good for our community. Hopefully, good things will come, and more discussions will be had in 2023, but I think we’re headed in the right direction.”
Marketing Meeting Budget
Magsam then gave a report on the bureau’s marketing budget meeting that was held on December 7. He noted that the primary budget item would be marketing with new and local media outlets with all different forms of advertisement for media outlets like KROX, iNewz, the Crookston Times, and bigger forms of media like Hulu to help broaden the horizon of advertising the city and bureau. Magsam reported that at the end of the meeting, the group felt it was important to meet again and make another decision on advertising with ongoing partners and felt after crunching the numbers, 35% of their budget should be set aside for outside marketing used to promote Crookston in different forms, such as digital, live stream, radio, and television, but their annual commitment would remain the same.
Visitor’s Guide
The bureau then discussions on its Visitor’s Guides. Magsam reported that there was some information on the guide’s events calendar had been incorrect, which they needed to fix, but was happy to see that people were reading them. Jess Bengston reported that many college students had seen it and said they liked the guide as it taught them things about the towns they never knew about. Magsam also reported that Travis Oliver and his Community Projects class at the Crookston High School had finished the bureau’s logo signs and visitor guide brochure holders and sent out press releases and photos to RBJ’s the Crookston Library, KROX, and the Crookston Rotary Club. Magsam explained the sign and brochure rack had been delivered to CHEDA for the entryway, and another was set to be delivered to the Crookston Sports Center.
What Brings You to Crookston
The bureau then began recapping November’s “What Brings You to Crookston” results. DeBoer reported that 201 people had come to Crookston for work, seven for the UMC’s horseshow, 90 for UMC visits, campus tours, and sports events, 48 for winter sports (hockey, basketball, and wrestling), 35 had come in for hunting, four for weddings or baby showers, 32 for concerts in Grand Forks, four for the bird counting events, and two had stayed due to Bad Weather.
Thief River Falls request
The bureau then began a discussion about their request for referrals from Thief River Falls. Laurie Stahlecker reported she had gotten a call from AmericInn Manger Cory Dallager about Thief River Falls hotels always being full. She explained that Thief River Falls had advertised hotels in East Grand Forks but not Crookstons’ during the recent Thief River Falls Amateur Hockey Association (TRFAHA) hockey tournaments. After they had reached out to Visit Thief River Falls, she reported they had received confirmation from Executive Director Amanda Hughes that they would begin advertisements of Crookston’s hotels for future hockey events.
2023 Budget Proposal
The bureau then heard from Magsam and Dean Adams on the budget proposal. He reported that they had made some changes to their proposed incomes, with them raising their expected lodging tax from $45,500 to $65,000. However, this was much higher as they had a total revenue of $67,764.42. For their General and Administrative expenses, they had planned to raise the payment of the Part-time Tourism Director from $10,800 a year to $12,000. Other changes included raising their Directors’ and Officers’ Insurance from $750 to $1,500, but they had only spent $1,363, for a total of $12,497.47, which decreased $2,829 from their proposed budget of $15,326 for 2023. For their Marketing and Promotion expenses, they used $1,367 for it and $64.67 for marketing postage. They had also spent $13,470.28 in the production of their Visitors Guides and $7,970.21 for Advertising on the regional media outlets and across the state. These additions made their total expenses for Marketing $30,915.43. This gave them a total expense amount of $44,916 with an income of $45,500 which gave them a net income of $584. However, several members of the bureau believed they could spend more of the money they received from their Marketing grants to improve their marketing purposes and, after much discussion, agreed to raise their expenses for it from $12,000 to $20,000, which raised their proposed expenses total for 2023 of $83,426. “We had some funds in reserve, which is stuff that built up over COVID, so our budget group felt that certainly, our due diligence of that lodging tax money is to spend it and spend it in a way to market Crookston,” Bob Magsam explained. “We are taking some of that reserve money that increased what our projected income is for 2023. We’ll offset that and get out there and advertise quite a bit.” The bureau approved the budget proposal unanimously.
The Crookston Visitor’s Bureau’s next meeting will be on Thursday, January 12, in the Crookston Inn Ballroom.
