The Crookston Visitors Bureau (CVB) met on Friday morning in the conference room located inside the UMC store in downtown Crookston.
Due to the lack of quorum, there were no agenda items that action could be taken. Therefore, only discussion was brought to each item.
The CVB board began the meeting by discussing the Oxcart Days reimbursement regarding an advertising and marketing grant for the Oxcart Days committee in the amount of $3,000. The CVB Bob Magsam Chairmen reported that the Oxcart Days Committee will receive this reimbursement.
Recently, the CVB hired a Social Media intern from UMC to advertise the CVB and make it more visible to the public. “We hired a gal on board that has been doing our social media stuff on Facebook, Instagram, etc.,” said Magsam, “She’s been doing a wonderful job; we’ve been getting a lot of positive comments. I had this on the agenda just to bring light to what’s going on and for board members to discuss any ideas they may have and want her to work on.”
Magsam reported to the board that he has discussed with the hotel owners in Crookston, and they may be interested in advertising CVB information on televisions in the hotel lobbies. “They have televisions in their lobbies, and they haven’t quite utilized them,” said Magsam, “We’re going to get our social media person in touch with the hotels, try to put different slide shows and things in our community, and target each individual hotel.”
The board also had further discussions on partaking in the Community Voice App. The Community Voice App serves as a community bulletin board and updates every community on events throughout Crookston. For the city to purchase this app, it requires a one-time cost of $10,000 and a yearly subscription cost of $2,500. Magsam explained to the board he has been in discussion with local entities to partner with the CVB to negate some of the cost.
“We did have a meeting with some of the other players that we wanted to see,” said Magsam, “For example, the City of Crookston, CVB, and the Chamber of Commerce. We did have that meeting, and sometimes the wheels turn slow with government agencies because of budgeting reasons and things of that nature.” The board believes this app would be beneficial for the community because of the convenience of operating this app. The app would be free for whoever resides or visits Crookston, where individuals can download it on their cell phones or smart devices.
“I think this would be such a benefit to the city. There are communities in our region that are utilizing it,” said Magsam, “There are Universities utilizing it. It’s more of a community bulletin board. That’s how I look at it. It’s getting all of the information in one location. So visitors to our community, college students, whoever it might be, just to have a one-stop-shop to see what’s going on in Crookston.”
The meeting closed with the announcement that the 2024 budget meeting will occur within a year, although no date is set. Magsam explained that it is required that the CVB budget be established before the year’s end.
The next CVB meeting will take place on Thursday, December 14, in the conference room of the Crookston Inn.
