CVB Board Meeting
May 26, 2016, CVB Conference Room
Board Present: Chairman Deb Sanders, Sharon Petersen, and
Mary Jane Oard, Samantha Kenner
Absent: Mukul Gosh, Jeff Sheets, James Holland
Guests: Kathy Hageman, Reflector Chronicle
Staff: Michael W. Player, CVB Executive Director, Jeana
Lawrence, Tourism Assistant
Chairman Deb Sanders called the meeting to order.
Additions to the agenda: Transient guest tax added to old
business.
Items from the public: None
Minutes: April 23rd, 2016, minutes were presented. Nothing
was added or removed. Mary Jane Oard moved to approve them
and Samantha Kenner seconded them.
Financials: were provided and will be gone over in-depth
quarterly. Kenner asked about the 5-Star Art Festival budget line
in the financials and was wondering whether anything was going
to be done with the festival. Michael Player said he would look
into it and see what can be done with the festival for the next
meeting.
New Business:
Trolley: Player explained plans for the trolley billboards and
said he would like to get the trolley to be a rolling billboard for
the attractions and businesses in Abilene and will pursue cost for
the next meeting. He also said he will mount the Chisholm Trail
banner on the sides to help advertise.
Community Foundation: the Community Foundation of
Dickinson County awarded the CVB $15,000 for marketing TRT and
promised an additional $10,000 matching grants.
Old Business:
Planes, Trains & Automobiles: the Abilene Fly-In fed about
150 more pancake breakfasts (approximately 650+ in
attendance) than in the past on a beautiful day and already they
are starting to think about expanding next year's event. There
was a Country & Western concert at Old Abilene Town that
evening which was light in attendance because of the heat. The
ASVRR saw an average amount of people going on the train. The
only expense was two radio remotes, since the concert was paid
for by Greg Wilson and Old Abilene Town.
Mother's Day Sale at the Civic Center: a successful
Mother's Day sale went on in the Civic Center on the same day as
the Fly-in that sold gifts for mothers, etc. and had a big turnout
of 17-vendors. Note: their highest attendance during the day
followed the Fly-in. Hopefully, this will happen again next year.
Pig-Out BBQ at the CVB: 60 people were fed during Tourism
Week's Pig-Out at the CVB BBQ. Mayor Dee Marshall made a
proclamation, citing the influences tourism has over the state,
the city and the local economies and thanked all the tourism
partners in Abilene. The next one will be June 7th and Player
intends to invite persons from the medical field to eat at the CVB.
Deb Sanders asked who from the tourism industry in Abilene
attended and Player said most of the antique owners came to
discuss their upcoming special event, AntiqueFest and they were
excited for that. Media were also invited, since it was National
Media Day.
Kenner suggested that next year the CVB should take the
opportunity to thank the tourism partners in Abilene and hand
out awards to volunteers.
National Greyhound Week: a luncheon was put on for the
National Greyhound Association at Thunderstruck and was well
attended. Michael Hook gave a historic presentation about
Abilene.
Transient Guest Tax vote: the tax voted on last meeting and
passed by the City Commission will take place June 1st, 2016,
and raised the bed tax to 8%.
Chair's Report- Deb Sanders: Sanders talked about the
weekend of the Kansas Sampler, which 8,200 people attended
despite the stormy weather on Sunday. The Sampler was a great
way to connect with other Kansans and communicate what there
is to do in Abilene and Dickinson County. Janelle Dockendorf,
financial director of Dickinson County, and William Snyder from
the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum both worked
to make the Dickinson County tent look great. Sanders and
Michael Hook both picked up ideas for setting up a large fair
while at Winfield. Next year is the final Kansas Sampler but
Marci Penner and others at the Sampler Foundation are working
on continuing the Sampler in a different way, though no one is
sure yet what that entails.
Sanders also mentioned briefly that this meeting will be Kenner's
last meeting and that William Snyder from the Eisenhower will
fill her place at the next one.
Event Coordinator Report- Michael Hook Update:
Chisholm TRT Update: Hook presented an outline of all the
events he expects to go on during Labor Day weekend as well as a
timeline of accomplishing different tasks to get ready for the
event. He also reported that he has reached out to various Native
American tribes and groups and is trying to organize a Native
American Powwow, since there was also a powwow at the 100th
Anniversary of the Chisholm Trail.
Hook discussed the various advertising outlets, such as the 30minute Smoky Hills Public TV program that will be featuring
Abilene, who has recently been shooting footage for the show
and expects it to start running in August. He is also looking at
advertising in various magazines and publications, any where to
get the word out about the event, and will also start pushing the
event harder on social media.
Red Steagall, Country Entertainer and Cowboy Hall-Of-Famer
has been booked as one of the main headliners for this year’s
special event. Hook also is in contact with people from Dodge
City and Oklahoma to get a herd of longhorn cattle to Abilene
and have a cattle drive through downtown. He will have a city
meeting later this month, going over the route of the cattle and
the various locations for the event. For the parade, he plans to
use bleachers from the Greyhound Association so people can see
the longhorns and also plans to contact the railroads to shut
down the trains for that weekend.
Next year, famed Cowboy, Jim Gray will attempt to have cattle
driven up from Texas to Abilene and expects to arrive with the
cattle in time for the 4th of July Celebration in Abilene.
Michael W. Player’s Director Report:
New Visitor Guide magazine sales: Player announced his
new plans for a "Discover Abilene" magazine, which will be a
joint venture with the Chamber of Commerce to assist in
execution and funding. It will serve both as tourist magazine as
well as a new resident guide for anyone who is thinking about
moving to Abilene. Player explained the magazine will have a
much larger presence than the current brochure and thus will
take up more space on card racks and stand out among the other
brochures. It will help promote our Chisholm Trail 150th
Celebration on the cover and Player explained there will be a
Then and Now feature storyline which focuses on prominent
inspirational figures in Abilene's history as well as pillars of the
community today. Currently, Hook is writing feature stories on
the lives of Joseph McCoy and Terry Tietjens while Cecelia
Harris is writing stories about CL Brown along with Dennis and
Elizabeth Weese.
This is a combined effort with the new owners of the Abilene
Reflector–Chronicle with a goal of $20,000 worth of ad spaces
needed to publish the magazine with special thanks to the
Chambers efforts from Director, James Holland along with the
Emporia Gazette Communications Director, Kathy Lafferty and
Reflector-Chronicle Sales Director, Kim Maguire. With the
$20,000 budgeted, the plans are to print 50,000+ magazines but
if more ads are sold he could do more printing.
Sharon Petersen asked whether or not the magazine will fit in the
brochure racks and Player explained that many racks don't have
slots and are open, so the magazine should fit in any rack.
Petersen also voiced some concern that the ad rates were too
high. Player said he and Holland worked to get a fair price based
on a cost-per-thousand from the Emporia printer that was better
than the previous print (@cost savings of $1.00 per magazine vs.
the small pamphlet in the past). In addition to printing the
magazine, the Emporia press will also assist in printing a special
event pullout section to hopefully be placed in all of their
newspapers across Kansas (Abilene, Junction City, Emporia and
Wamego) featuring the City of Abilene and the Chisholm Trail
150th.
There was also discussion about the Chamber members and nonmembers price difference shown on the rate card. Player said
that the price was better than the price in the old Abilene
brochure because ads will be bigger and more visible than the
small ones in the brochure.
Sanders voiced some concern that the money's worth from the
previous brochure has not been met, since it was expected that
100,000 copies were to be made and only 32,000 were made.
Player explained that at the time he went to press the CVB was
out of brochures and so the Abilene brochure was reprinted with
the collected $9,400 worth of advertising and that 32,000 plus
overruns was the best he could get from Consolidated Printing
with the money he had. The failure was from the botched effort
in 2015 from the previous designer who had been hired but
abruptly quit before completing the production and that 100,000
quantity for printing was never a realistic number based on costper-thousand.
The Metal Stampede: the Metal Stampede sales of longhorn
steers have been going well so far. K-State students at Kansas
State’s Manufacturing Institute have made more steers at a
cheaper cost ($325) so Player plans to utilize them for mass
production. The 2D steer sale price will be $1,000, while the 3D
steers are $1,500 and the cowboy is $2,000. The Arts Council of
Dickinson County will work with the CVB to paint a logo of a
cattle brand on the steer for $25 per steer. The steers are meant
as a fundraiser for TRT and to motivate people to volunteer as
surrounding towns gets excited for the special event; Chisholm
Trail 150th “ Trails, Rails & Tales” Celebration.
Player also mentioned a grassroots movement approach for
reaching volunteers, which will include press releases, special
flyers, handouts, bookmarks, and maps to encourage members of
the communities to volunteer for TRT.
AntiqueFest May 24 - 29 with Antique Appraisal Show:
maps and flyers have been handed out to business owners and
places around town to advertise for AntiqueFest. There will also
be ten 7 foot street banners that show where the antique stores
and specialty collectible shops are and they will also serve as
way-finding signs for TRT event in September. The Antique
Appraisal show will take place at the Shockey-Landes Building
and will have five different appraisers and members of the
community are welcome to bring in antiques to be appraised for
a small fee of $5. A 32 foot AntiqueFest billboard will be going up
on I-70 shortly to help advertise for the event.
Abilene's 5-Star Farmer's Market: Farmer's Market will
begin soon and signs and posters have been distributed to area
businesses within a two-block radius about the parking lot being
closed off.
CVB Spring Plant Sale: A spring plant sale will be going on
Memorial Day weekend under the Portico of the CVB and the as
a fundraiser for TRT. Any proceeds from the plant sale will be
donated to TRT.
Committee Reports: none
There being no further business, Oard moved and Kenner
seconded a motion to adjourn.
Respectfully submitted,
Jeana Lawrence, Tourism Assistant