The Crookston Visitors Bureau board met on Thursday morning at the Crookston Inn. The agenda included reviewing a treasurer’s report, visitor guides distribution updates from Nite to Unite and Ox Cart Days, and an Ox Cart Days Update from Jess Bengtson regarding the Hershey’s S’mores event.
The meeting began with the approval of the July 8 meeting minutes and then moved to the treasurer’s report. Jess Bengtson called in over the phone to review and discuss where the accounts balance is, and the board approved all bills payable.
HARVEST FESTIVAL GRANT
The board reviewed a request from the Red River Valley Sugarbeet Museum for a grant regarding the Harvest Festival for $715. During the CVB transitioning phase, the Sugarbeet Museum went ahead with the Harvest Festival when receiving a grant was impossible. The board decided to refund the Sugarbeet Museum rather than say it “fell through the cracks,” and Chair of the CVB Nell DeBoer spoke more on the decision. “Between the transition of the old CVB and the new CVB, we just wanted to make sure anyone that fell through the cracks was taken care of,” said DeBoer. “The Red River Valley Sugar Sugerbeet Museum is a wonderful community member, and this event is significant to us, so we just wanted to make sure he was taken care of.”
WHAT BRINGS YOU TO CROOKSTON REPORT
The board then discussed the “what brings you to Crookston” numbers, and DeBoer gave a rundown on the numbers from the past month. “We want to make sure that if there is a potential to promote things based on why people are coming into town that we’re doing that,” said DeBoer. “We want to put our marketing towards what will help Crookston and getting people here.”
CROOKSTON VISITOR GUIDE DISTRIBUTIONS
The board then received an update on the Crookston Visitor distributions from Night to Unite and Ox Cart Days. Crookston Visitors Guides will be handed out to all visitors and citizens over the course of Ox Cart Days at various locations for anyone interested.
OX CART DAYS
One of the bigger topics from the meeting was the CVB’s presence during the preparation for Ox Cart Days and their focus. “We gave Ox Cart Days the full $3,000 to promote their event,” said DeBoer. “They’re looking for overnight stays from people around the Twin Cities and Fargo area, and the mission of the CVB is to promote overnight stays, and the Ox Cart event brings a lot of people in.”
HERSHEY’S UPDATE
The biggest topic was an update from Jess Bengtson regarding the Hershey’s event during Ox Cart Days. Hershey’s will be sending a crew to cover the event and shooting video and filming the City of Crookston. DeBoer talked about a great advantage to have such a big company like Hershey’s covering the event. “The Hershey event just kind of fell in our laps,” said DeBoer. “It gives us some national recognition, and for them to help promote the town is a wonderful thing. We foresee extra people coming into Ox Cart Days now because of this event, and we’re hopeful it’s a huge success.”
Hershey’s will also be sending the city a pallet of Chocolate in honor of the event. The board will store the chocolate and use it the day off as part of the advertisement for Hershey’s and promotion for the event.
ADVERTISING FUTURE
Dean Adams gave a budget update to the board, and the rest of the meeting was used to discuss advertisements and new opportunities. “We’re just trying to find the best route to spend our marketing money,” said DeBoer. “We are in a co-op with Minnesota Tourism which helps bring people in; a lot of the new platforms are a part of social media and YouTube; we’re really trying to find different platforms and for people to be aware of Crookston and want to come to visit.”
The CVB will continue local advertisements with KROX, the times, and a six-month agreement with INewz.TV as well as the new options they’re pursuing on a wider scale.
The next CVB meeting will take place sometime in early September, and there are talks about potentially starting two meetings a month due to the number of agenda items.
