Council - Special Meeting

So we think this is a great way that we can get the word out about Las Vegas. And Coach, do you want to talk about the wrestling program that you've got for the winter? Yep.

So Chris Regie, the wrestling coach. So, yeah, I mean, basically, we do a big alumni outreach. I mean, that was a big reason for my coming here was the alumni base and the fans and supporters we've got. So they are third annual alumni duels, and we've had increasing numbers the first couple years we've had. I've already had alumni reach out to me that they want to come to this year's event with their families. So we kind of just make it a big alumni weekend where we do it on Saturdays. So we kind of make it like an alumni weekend, mixing of the eras type of thing. And so all the alumni are wanting to come back. We have families coming in, and they're going to stay for the weekend, you know, as your kids are coming for the semester. So we couple that with an event so they can watch their kids wrestle, get to meet some of the alumni from the past. We honor them before the match, before the last match of the day. We're actually doing a national champion's banner unveiling for Hector Hernandez, who's worked in the Secret Service. Our other national champs, Seth Wright, they have banners in the Wilson Center. So we're getting those taken care of, doing a big unveiling of that. We do a social after the event, the alumni duels with all the families of our current wrestlers that come down. they meet the alumni, they all come down to Buffalo Hall, so we kind of put together that, just kind of mix the areas that everybody meets. So that's one of them that we get to.

We're all in the hall. Okay.

So yeah, that's basically our alumni weekend. Then we do another one where it was literally the only team in the country that's done this, only school that's done this, at a dual at Buffalo Hall this year. So kind of the same thing, we're running with that. We had Literally the weekend that Doolin and I had media outlets getting hold of me, like wrestling media outlets. Alumni wanting to come, already asking when it was next year, so that's going to be a bigger event. It's February 13th, day before Valentine's Day, so we're doing a big thing for grandmothers, mothers, and just significant others of all of our students and the alumni.

We're doing some roses, things like that.

Just trying to make it a big family thing where families want to come back to town, It's been awesome, you know, and that kind of piggies back into our summer camps where we've had, in my two years here, we've had right around 250 to 300 kids per camp at our summer camp, our overnight one, and then various one-day clinics that we've had. So over the course of two years here, we've brought in over 1,000 kids to campus, you know, through our various camps, overnight ones and the one-day clinics. A lot of them are alumni's kids, you know, and then the alumni are coaching at high school, so they're able to come back for the summer for a couple days and bring their teams down and kind of mention some of their stories at Highlands and then show the kids that they're coaching, you know, where they went to school and then they get to see our facilities. So it's all been a big hit and all three of these things all play off of each other so we can kind of really see the value of just bringing our alumni back into the field and getting them into town and then we've seen We've had 30, 40% of our roster have been New Mexico residents. A lot of that is just getting these kids back here two or three times a year either to watch a dual meet or to come to our summer camp. But we can keep putting things on like this. I know the families want to stay for a weekend and see everything. So it's all been a great hit, you know.

And the one thing Coach really mentioned, and I don't know if this group knows, that New Mexico Highlands University is the only collegiate wrestling program in the state of New Mexico. No other schools, state, UNM, Western, have a wrestling program. If anyone knows how popular youth wrestling was, I WAS A WRESTLING MOM MYSELF. I SPENT MANY HOURS IN A GYM ACROSS THE STATE HAVING A PLACE TO BRING YOUR KIDS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL. AND IF THEY WANT TO CONTINUE THAT, IT'S GOING TO BE HIGHLANDS. IT'S A HUGE RECRUITMENT TOOL FOR US AND A GREAT BENEFIT FOR THE CITY OF LAS VEGAS IF WE BRING ALL OF THOSE FAMILIES THAT COACH CRITZ IS REACHING. FOR A WEEKEND AND FOR THOSE TWO WEEKENDS IN JANUARY AND FEBRUARY. SO I HOPE YOU CAN COME TO ONE OF THOSE EVENTS. JOIN US FOR BRAWL AT THE HALL. AND I STAND FOR QUESTIONS ON ANY OF THE BUDGETS OR THE PROPOSAL THAT YOU MAY HAVE WITH REGARDING THIS AND THE WAY WE PLAN TO MARKET OUR FALL AND WINTER EVENTS.

I DID WANT TO MENTION, WE DIDN'T PUT IT IN HERE ABOUT THE BASKETBALL ALUMNI WEEKEND. So basketball spans the winter and the spring quadrants. And so we were thinking that we would apply for lodgers tax for the spring. But actually, our alumni weekend, which is a big weekend for basketball, is in February. And so it does fall within this period that we are seeking support for.

We do receive support. IN THAT WE WILL REALLOCATE SOME OF THOSE MARKETING DOLLARS FOR BASKETBALL. THAT'S ANOTHER GROUP, I WANT TO SAY 4,000 DIFFERENT ALUMN HAVE TIES TO BASKETBALL.

NEW QUESTIONS?

I'M LOOKING AT THE YEAR FY27 PROPOSED BUDGET. It looks like your total expense you're saying is $53,600 with the revenue of $23,300. And your marketing expense is $30,000, of which you're asking $25,000 from us. So you're covering $5,000.

we would increase our marketing efforts to expand to wrestling and basketball.

So what percentage of money of your budget do you use for your own marketing?

For our own marketing right now, our marketing that stands, we currently, and this is our direct mail, and our email marketing is about $18,000 for that. And that is ongoing. We have two mailers that go out twice a year, one announcing spring and summer, and one announcing fall and winter that go to our entire alumni database. OUR WEEKLY E-MAIL MARKETING THAT WE PRODUCE IN-HOUSE INTERNALLY GOES OUT TO 20,000 ADDRESSES. WE BUILD THAT INTERNALLY AND WE DESIGN IT THERE. WE HAVE DEDICATED OFFICE STAFF THAT DOES THAT. AND WE COSTWISE, THAT COSTS ABOUT $300 A WEEK. AND THAT GOES YEAR ROUND. WE WOULD WORK WITH COACH FRIGIE HERE AS WELL AS THE BASKETBALL COACH TO generate a marketing campaign specifically for those youth that we haven't reached previously. Now that we've already touched them per se and they've been to Las Vegas, now we want to invite them back. We had 600 youth and their families already here over the summer. So they have seen Las Vegas. They've experienced a little bit. Now we want to continue to bring them back. Minimal marketing, right? You went, well, not minimal. Coach Friese went person to person, school to school, and invited these teams to come and participate.

Can you tell me exactly what kind of information does your fall mailer contain within the mailer itself?

It contains information about the events that we schedule from July 1st through January 1st. And the majority of those I described are homecoming. But we have mixers. We have athletic events that we list. And the athletic events that we promote from the alumni office are ones that directly invite alumni to come back for different sports. For every sport, we do have an alumni day, appreciation day or night.

Sorry, go ahead, finish.

And we have different art events. We have two galleries on campus that we manage. And several of those events have art openings. Those invite people from everywhere that we mail our mailers to. And so we go to all 50 states for mailers.

Are you charging for some of the events?

There are a couple of homecoming events that have a fee. And I believe that is all. They are classified as stewardship events.

So the only, if we're charging, it is the cost to cover food and drink costs. The foundation and its relevant departments absorb everything outside of the food and drinks. If we have a cowboy lounge, which is listed here, For example, Purple Range Lounge, 200 guests. Each guest who isn't working the event will pay a $25 fee, but that includes a full dinner and two cocktails. So it's really just covering costs. They're not meant to be for profit as we operate as a nonprofit. Last year at the Alumni Tailgate, if anybody did participate, we gave away $300. 300 t-shirts to the first 300 people that came to the tailgate. Those were all branded with the City of Las Vegas Logers Tax logo on the sleeve and Highlands Elevated Homecoming on the front. And a lot of the advertising that we push out, if you notice in the packet, we've included some photos, people wearing those t-shirts and that branding was good.

Any other questions? I've got a couple. You okay, Kim?

I'm doing some math.

Okay, she's doing math. Let me ask you a couple questions. Maybe just one. You mentioned families come back into town and they stay the weekend. So these families, when they come back, they're alumni, right? They come into town.

Not necessarily for the wrestling program.

Okay. Okay. And do they do other things besides whatever's going on at Highlands?

So, I mean, we've had just the families come in and hang out. I mean, they're not wrestling alone. We play a sport. Families in Albuquerque, we play a sport here. My son wrestles here. He came to one of our camps and got him back.

Notable landmarks? I'm sorry.

Yeah, yeah. Notable landmarks, the stuff they remembered, showed them the downtown, the surf. They went to Charlie's, obviously. So just small little things like that that their families weren't aware of. And now they bring them back with their kids and some of their family members and fans and some of their assistant coaches came down. So just a new influx of people coming into town with the alumni kind of bringing them back in on their sides.

And what about homecoming? I mean, do people just come to homecoming activities?

Well, no, actually. I think as soon as we've announced the date for homecoming, our local merchants and restaurants are gearing up for it. So the restaurants are packed during homecoming week. BECAUSE SEVERAL OF THEM, ESPECIALLY THE ATHLETIC GROUPS, YOU KNOW, THEY HAVE REMAINED CLOSE-KNIT OVER THE YEARS. THEY'LL CREATE THEIR OWN LITTLE MINI REUNIONS. DICK'S IS BUSY. CHARLIE'S IS BUSY. MY GOSH, I THINK CHARLIE'S MIGHT BE THE BEST WEEKEND OF THE YEAR. SKILLET. YOU KNOW, ANY PLACE, BARACHOS. AND, OF COURSE, THE PLAZA IS FULL. IN FACT, WHEN I WAS CHECKING ON RESERVATIONS TO GET you know, to make for some of the people that we have coming in. I know for a fact this was already over maybe close to two months ago. Plaza was already full for the weekend, and so was Casa Nena. And so we looked for other hotels to position those people.

So then what you're calling alumni are potentially tourists? And you could be classified as tourists?

We are no longer located here yet. I mean, ultimately. I mean, Highland's goal is to bring alumni back to campus, to contribute to campus, participate in events. But in partnership with city, county, and other things, I mean, goal is to also enroll their kids and have islands continue, you know, as a legacy for generations, but in order to keep them here, we have to work. You know, it's a much broader project to provide housing and have AFFORDABLE LIVING AND EVERYTHING FOR THEM TO RELOCATE HERE. BUT FOR NOW WE FOCUS ON THE TOURISM PORTION AND ALUMNI AS TOURISTS. WE DID HAVE ONE SMALL DISCUSSION THIS WEEKEND THAT I THINK WE'RE GOING TO EXPLORE THAT HAS TO DO WITH RESTAURANTS IN TOWN DURING HOMECOMING WEEKEND. ONE OF OUR PARTNERS IS CRAIGER'S SMOKING TACOS AND HE IS GOING TO WORK ON AN NMHU BRANDED BARBECUE SAUCE. And we're going to assist him with marketing that. We thought, let us reach out to every local restaurant to see if there is a special menu item that they want to prepare during homecoming weekend and make that offer. And we could put it together and brand it on a poster and now share it with everyone who's attending so they kind of have a quick reference of, oh, you know, Charlie's is going to have you know, cowboy burger or something like that. And if they want to do, you know, and meet us halfway and create that, you know, enticing menu item, we will market and brand it to them, to our attendees.

Thanks. Mr. Chairman, in speaking with staff, it was staff's recommendation that there be two separate applications, one for homecoming and one strictly for the wrestling, for your consideration.

So, Mr. Chair, that's probably a good idea. Look, where I have some concerns here is that we're basically funding your existing newsletter from alumni to students. I mean, two year, you know, from the year to two alumni. And that's not our, that's not our job to replace light items in budgets. And it has to be pretty specific, like the wrestling event, this is a date, this is how we're marketing it, the radio, so on, and it's clear. It's not, this is like a mix of, hey, you're already sending flyers out and you're asking us to help pay for it so you don't have to. Those are my concerns. They need to be specific to the event. Great. We did wrestling. You want to market it? Let's do it. You're going to do this by radio. You're going to put up a billboard. I mean, you're going to do it electronically. This is the budget for that event. So my concerns here is we're basically subsidizing your guys' budget, and that's not what I read for the laws of lodgers tax.

It would also be our request that we have an exact budget Bullet point, how much was for the homecoming? How much advertising is for the parade? How much of advertising goes to which event? Because she mentioned basketball, wrestling, all these other things. So how much of the advertising, is it going to be print advertising? Is it going to be radio? Is it going to be TV? We'd like to know a breakdown of how much is going to each one of those items, if that's possible.

For the purpose of, you know.

I'm assuming non-alumni can go to these events as well, right?

Of course. That is our, that's our list. That's our contact list right now. That's our group. But when we do advertise, we do encompass everything that's happening, obviously, for, you know, through those mailers and everything like that. FOR WRESTLING AND ATHLETICS, THIS IS NEW TO US. WE JUST ABSORBED THE H CLUB BOOSTER CLUB UNDERNEATH THE UMBRELLA OF THE FOUNDATION 501 . SO ADVERTISING FOR ATHLETICS-RELATED EVENTS AND PARTICIPATING WITH ATHLETICS WILL BE NEW TO US THIS YEAR. AND WE HAVE DISCUSSED POTENTIAL, YOU KNOW, WHAT WE COULD DO. WE TALKED ABOUT THE BILLBOARD.

THAT IS ALREADY IN DISCUSSIONS THERE.

WE DID IT FOR MATANZA LAST YEAR. AND WE WERE IN THE PROCESS OF WHEN THIS CAME UP, ESPECIALLY BECAUSE OF THE DATE, THE DATE CONSTRAINTS, OUR FUNDRAISER FOR ATHLETICS WAS APPROACHED LESS THAN TWO WEEKS AGO AND SAID BECAUSE OF THE DATES, IT NEEDS TO BE ON THIS PROPOSAL. SO UNFORTUNATELY, YEAH, WE WERE DIRECTED TO COMBINE IT IN THE PROPOSAL. SO NOW WE NEED TO SEPARATE IT. I WOULD HAVE DONE THE SEPARATE PROPOSAL EITHER WAY. BUT, YES, WE CAN DEFINITELY COME UP WITH A MARKETING PLAN SPECIFIC TO ATHLETIC EVENTS AND CARVE OUT THE HOMECOMING EVENTS. THE NUMBERS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED RIGHT THERE AS TO WHAT THE REACH IS BASED ON THE COUNTS OF ACTUAL EVENTS THAT HAVE HAPPENED.

HOW CAN WE DO THAT HERE SO THAT WE CAN How can we hear something like that today so that we can take action?

Well, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, this $25,000 is all going to be contingent on all of it as it encompasses all of it. If we ask them just to simply, if the board approves this amount and then they just come back with a separate application for the resting, Would itemizing this number for this is going to be the total number for both of the events. We just need a separate application for the wrestling. So as long as they bring that back, I don't see if Mr. Madrid wants to add anything to that.

No, I think the application is more of a marketing plan, which is a good one. And on the highlands, Class of 81, 82, a little partial. But the data that's included, I think, is indisputable. But I agree with the others that the application should be for a single event. Although there's multiple days of homecoming, I think it can be considered a single event. And I think it would also be appropriate to arrive at a lower number of funding that you can approve today FOR THE HOMECOMING EVENT ITSELF, AND THEN CONSIDER THE OTHER EVENTS IN THE FUTURE. YOU DO HAVE SOME TIME FOR THAT. BUT THAT'S HOW I WOULD PROCEED. THAT'S HOW I WOULD RECOMMEND PROCEEDING, BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF THE APPLICATION SHOULD BE FOR A TARGETED EVENT. IT DOES MEET THE PUT HEADS IN BEDS. I'VE SEEN FROM EXPERIENCE THE PEOPLE THAT DO COME PROVIDE ACCOUNT FOR HOMECOMING. I THINK THE ONLY PART THAT IS A LITTLE BIT CONVOLUTED IS THAT WE'RE EXTENDING AN EVENT APPLICATION FROM OCTOBER INTO FEBRUARY. SO I THINK THAT SHOULD BE JUST CUT OUT AND DISCUSSED AND APPROVED TODAY. AND BASICALLY, MR. CHAIR, I THINK ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TODAY IS ARRIVE AT SOME NUMBERS AND SPECIFICALLY STATE

Mr. Chair. For the newsletters in general, did you see an issue there, a conflict of how that would meet our criteria?

The question is a good one because that will depend on who they're going to. Are they going to ALL GRADUATES ARE GOING TO THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY. THAT MARKETING.

IT'S NOT TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

IS EVERYONE WELCOME OR IS IT A TARGETED GROUP?

SO THAT'S WHAT I WAS KIND OF ASKING. OF COURSE EVERYBODY IS INVITED. SO THAT'S WHERE THAT GREY AIR OF THE NEWSLETTER BECOMES PROBLEMATIC AND TYPICALLY WHAT YOU GUYS USUALLY. I think what all the staff is trying to say is to make it easier because we're trying to turn the school event into a tourism event and what we can do as a board. And the cleanest way we can do it is help you for the marketing of an event. It gets more and more complicated. So it's been approached that we combine some things, but this is more of it gets tougher when we're trying to, I guess, be your marketing budget versus helping you market an individual event. The wrestling portion of it seems very strong. I know when that tournament shows up, there is a lot of not only alumni, but parents and so on that show up along with it. So that could be a deemed tourism sport event. So the cleanest way is like, hey, we're marketing this wrestling event and we're doing it through these. BEDIA BUYS, AND THIS IS HOW MUCH, AND IT MAKES IT EASIER FOR US TO APPROACH. WITHIN YOUR BUDGET, ARE THERE SPECIFIC, I MEAN, YOU BROKE DOWN NEWSLETTER, BUT AS FAR AS ADVERTISING FOR A SPECIFIC AMOUNT AT A SPECIFIC PLACE, HAS THAT BEEN BROKEN OUT YET, SO WHAT I SEE UNDER THE EXPENSES, I'M TRYING TO...

SO WE SAID THE BILLBOARD ADVERTISING, THE QUOTED COST THERE WAS $500 A MONTH FOR THE BILLBOARD, SO WE SAID THREE MONTHS. FOR THAT, $1,500. PROMOTIONAL PRINT ADVERTISING FLYERS, POSTERS, AND PROMOTIONAL COLLADIERAL, $3,000 WAS OUR ESTIMATED COST OF THE T-SHIRT INITIATIVE, DOUBLED THIS YEAR. So I believe 600, the first 600 guests will get the lodgers tax branded t-shirt. Statewide wrestling and youth family outreach. We started at 2,500, but then we would encompass them in the direct mail and promotional campaign. And just for some contests, when you said open to the community, approximately 30% of our mailing list, if not higher, my last calculation, goes into alum, but our addresses in Las Vegas more on surrounding communities. So obviously Highlands Reach goes to this community. So mostly everyone is on the alumni list in this community. So we are reaching the general public because someone local has some sort of connection to Highlands, and that's why they are on our mailing list. Another fun fact here is we partnered with a company called Alumni Finder this year, and we added 12,000 new contacts to our database for the next mailer. They were able to find just by first name, last name. It's sort of an AI type company tool, but they were able to give us back current addresses and even email addresses for alumni and contacts that we didn't have before. And one of those alum reached out to us just last week with a gift and was happy to be connected to. It was the very first thing he's received from Highlands in all his 50 years of being graduated. SO WE UNDERSTAND THAT THAT INVESTMENT THAT WE MADE WITH ALUMNI FINDER TO MARKET THOSE, IT WAS A $6,000 INVESTMENT ALREADY MADE, PAID FOR WITH DONOR FUNDS, BUT WE KNOW IT HAS EXPANDED OUR REACH ALREADY.

LET ME ASK YOU, IF WE GAVE YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO AMEND YOUR APPLICATION, YOUR PROPOSAL, within the next, within, but before the end of this meeting, could you do that and bring back your numbers rather than us trying to dictate, based on the feedback you've received from us and kind of the discussion that you've had, could you do that?

Sure.

So basically take the budget proposal and insert the marketing data details based on the quotes that we have received so far into how we will spend the marketing dollars. So we carve the newsletter out of it.

Can we do that?

I think the newsletter at this point is going to be tougher for what I am hearing from recommendations and from my own personal thing as far as of how it's directed for it. And if it's clear marketing for an event and if you can make it as clear as possible, then certainly to me that makes it easy for the

The way we recommend suggesting the board is to table this to a time certain, which would be before the end of this meeting. AND THEN GIVE THE GROUP THE OPPORTUNITY TO WORK ON THEIR, AMEND THEIR APPLICATIONS SO THAT WE CAN ACCEPT THAT. RATHER THAN US TELLING YOU TO CUT THIS, CUT THAT, IT'S WHAT YOU CAN DO BASED ON THE FEEDBACK AND INFORMATION YOU GOT. MR. MADRID, IS THAT SPACE OPEN? RIGHT HERE? YES. THERE'S SOME SPACE THERE WHERE YOU COULD WORK. I'D ENTERTAIN A MOTION TO TABLE JUST TILL THE END OF THE MEETING. THAT WAY WE CAN HEAR THE OTHER APPLICATIONS.

I move that we table this request.

To the end of the... To the end of the... Before the end of the meeting. There's a motion to table this request before the end of the meeting, and that means we'll have you back.

Second.

There's a second. All in favor?

Aye. Aye.

All opposed? Same sign.

Okay. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman.

Yes. Mr. Madrid would like to address...

Yes, sir. Mr. Chair... IN THE EVENT THAT THE TIME IS VERY SHORT FOR THEM TO REWORK THIS, I WOULD PROPOSE AN ALTERNATIVE WHERE ANY ONE OF YOU WOULD MAKE A MOTION JUST TO APPROVE A PRO-RATED AMOUNT, A BOTTOM LINE THAT WOULD CUT OUT THE JANUARY, FEBRUARY EVENT AND BRING BACK A DETAILED BUDGET THAT WOULD SATISFY THAT AMOUNT.

BUT IT WOULD BE AN ALTERNATIVE. BECAUSE IT'S SO CLOSE, IT WOULD BE A DETAILED BUDGET THAT WOULD HAVE TO GO TO STAFF, NOT TO THE BOARD.

RIGHT. RIGHT. AND THAT WOULD ALLOW YOU TO DO A PRO-RATED AMOUNT, BUT ALSO ALLOW THEM A LITTLE MORE TIME TO REBUDGET THE LINE BY LINE FOR THAT AND STILL GET FUNDED. SO JUST AN ALTERNATIVE. JUST COME BACK WITH NUMBERS BEFORE THE END OF THE MEETING.

WE KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT.

MR. CHAIRMAN, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD, THE NEXT ON THE AGENDA IS THE LATIN DESIRE CART CLUB. THEY ARE REQUESTING $3,500 FROM LODGERS TAX. THE TOTAL COST OF THE EVENT IS $5,000. WE HAVE MR. MIKE RIBBON.

So what we are planning, okay, so we're planning the car show, which is October 4th. And it's going to be at West Las Vegas High School. And what we've been doing is we're, so far we've been advertising through, you know, social media only. So what we're trying to do is encourage people to come down on Friday. The show's Sunday. We're trying to encourage them to come Friday, kind of like a meet and greet on railroad area. And at that time, you know, we got people coming, spending two nights, three nights here in town. And we're, you know, encouraging them. Also, we're mentioning that fall festival in Mora on Saturday. So, you know, we got people wanting to make it all, you know, to come and stay here in Vegas. And that brings more, you know, lodging here to Vegas, gas and food. And what we're doing, let's see, we're doing that. And so far we got some people committed coming out of Colorado already. We got like maybe five cars. And our card show is just what we're planning to do. We did this in the past. We used to have our own events and then give scholarships to Highlands and West and, I mean, to Robertson and West, to the students, and give all the money we would make, we'd give it back. So this year we're kind of getting back into that. We're celebrating our 38th year as a card club. And, you know, we're getting into this. And the funds were $5,000 that we talked about. The budget is basically we're paying out of our own pocket. Each member, we've got 26 members, and we usually just everybody puts in their share. And, you know, what we're needing money for is we're wanting for advertisement to actually make official flyers and be able to go out, you know, to different car shows out of town and, and pass out the flyers. Social media people see something, and by tomorrow they forget. So it's helping, but, you know, we've got to keep pushing at it. And with flyers, we can actually leave them at different places. We can advertise through the radio, to the optic, when it gets closer. And at this event we're having, too, we're actually having Gonzalo's going to be playing, and that's going to be like a – We're doing the car show part, and we're having Gonzalo's playing. We're getting Cuarenta Cinco. We're getting Mezcal to be playing at that car show. So in turn, it's going to be not just a car show. It's like a city event, like the thing at the park on Fridays. So we're trying to make it not just a car show thing. It's a whole community thing.

That was my question. I saw that you had them. So you're going to have them at the event then? What's that? You're going to have the bands at the event?

Yeah, yeah. We're going to have Gonzalo. We're going to have Cuarenta Cinco, Mezcal, and another band that they've been working on from Albuquerque called Smooth. Okay.

So yeah, so we got... Are they donating their concerts to the event?

Are they doing what?

Are they donating their concert?

Yeah, it's going to be a free event to the public.

Are the bands donating their concert to the event?

Yeah, they're working with Gonzalo on that. So the bands won't be charging? They're not charging nothing.

You know, I went to the Luna. Participated in it last spring and I was pretty impressed because they brought in 150 cars So there's there's quite of interest for car clubs in Las Vegas.

It's coming back We got we got a lot of car club friends in in Espanola Albuquerque that That they're actually sharing what we're sharing on Facebook. They're sharing it to their friends so so it's going all over and we do got commitment from a lot of clubs in in Espanola and So we're probably right now, we've been talking to people and stuff. We're already looking about at 150 cars so far. And, you know, I know the other guys, other car clubs like we do. I go to this car show, you know, one guy follows me too. Before you know it, there's 10 of us. So with those other clubs, we're going to get more people.

Tell me about the meet and greet on Railroad.

Well, the meet and greet is what we're just going to do is just kind of like have like a, not a kind of like a car show, but we're just whoever shows up. That's what we're trying to tell the people from out of town come down this day. So there's something for you guys to do. We hang out here, cruise around town. go different places. If they cruise around, they're going to need gas. They get hungry. We get them here Friday. They spend the night because the show's Sunday, so that's already two nights that we're bringing this money into town. So that's what we're working on to do that. And we'll hang out there, park there, cruise around, maybe go Plaza Park, hang out there for a while, and just, you know, Story Lake, the castle, you know. So we just want to encourage that, you know, so it's not too congested as far as, you know, too many cars in one place, you know, just cruising around.

I have a question about the advertising. Where will you be advertising and how will you be advertising? Are you going to have postcards, flyers?

Yeah, we're in the process. We're making flyers. We're going to be making flyers, and then we're going to drive out to other car shows. Like Española, on the 19th, there's a big car show in September over there, so most of us are going over there, and we're going to be passing out flyers to whoever's at the car show, plus all over Española. We're going to be hanging that. That's why we want to make an official. I mean, we have it made. We haven't just done it yet. You know, we get backing from you so we can put your logo on it. And that way we're going to make a big, you know, we already have it. We're just waiting for that. And then we're going to actually, you know, take him out of town and just hand deliver him. And then when it gets closer, we're going to do some ads through the radios.

Something, Michael, something you might want to consider. I saw it successful in a couple of places. Since you are doing hard copy, you explained the problem with social media. Sometimes people just forget about it. Yeah, they do that. And the flyers, sometimes we pick them up and put them in our car and they kind of get lost. But you may want to consider that they're not expensive, but once you start printing stuff, you're going to be making print. Just some business cards that basically say the date and stuff and have your logos and things on it. That might be something you consider, and they're not real expensive.

Yeah, we have the big flyers, and we're planning on making just little cards, yeah. And we're going to, you know, I mean, we have a good... The people, we have the, you know, good clientele, if you will, that have supported us in the past that will come. And then from there, they're passing things down. We've been 38 years, so we're older than our kids. And we got car clubs, you know, like with us, and we can pass not just to our kids, our age-wise people, but from there it's going down all the way, and we're kind of wanting to get this. We're starting to do it over being that we're 38 years. We want to be on 40th year. We want to have like a big two-day car show event here in town and have just kind of like the 4th of July fiestas kind of celebration.

Who's going to be printing your advertising?

Northgate print, Jean Romero. So we're going to be doing that with him.

So your request is for sponsorship or does it include, I don't see that it includes here, did you get a quote from Northgate, how much you would charge?

No, we haven't got a quote with him because we're actually ordering plaques too. And I don't know if plaques fall in with you guys because it's not advertisement-y. So we're just doing, you know, the advertising part with that and the radio, you know. And what we're planning on doing, depending on the money, is we might make T-shirts too. So that's a good, you know, walking advertisement right there.

I think, you know, I read the application, and I think you're trying to figure out where you want to advertise that, but you want to know how much money you have so you can see if you can buy T-shirts, if you can buy this or buy that.

Yeah, yeah, because like I said, basically this car is still $5,000. We're actually going to pay out of pocket. Everybody is going to pay themselves, and if we get money, then we know, you know. But all the money will be for advertisement, you know. If we get, you know, money, we can advertise three times more on the radio and give, you know, twice as much flyers, so.

Mr. Chair, I mean, so for, look, as far as the plaques and trophies, I mean, it wouldn't be for marketing yet.

Yeah, that's coming out of the market.

And I'm not sure about the travel-related promotional, because there's no information there. But if we carve out a suggestion that there is approval of that, you know, whatever is approved, that it be directed for marketing and that offsets it, and then you provide specific, you know, what... places that that you are whether it was the radio station or or so on if it ends up the other gray area has always been the the print materials to me as long as it goes outside of Las Vegas or a sign you know that's not inside of it it's outside of Las Vegas that could be a promotional item so if you are going it

To the other places with the card or with the things then that those that can be eat be permission items that are that are going outside of town You know pretty much the state Colorado and Here in town so some of these events It's other shows that are advertising passing out their stuff at materials at these events.

So that happens there. We have a consideration motion

I move that we approve this request for advertising for the requested amount of $3,500.

So on the motion, I think we should specifically say, so that council knows that we're approving it with the caveat that it's for the advertising only. Yes. Not the other items in the description.

Specifically for advertising and promotion. Yeah.

Okay.

There's a motion.

I'll second that motion.

There's a second. All in favor?

Aye. I have a motion from Ms. Clayton, a second by Mr. Bocklet. We do have a consensus.

Passes.

Mr. Chairman, the 3,500, so that'll be for, you said marketing and promotion, so is it marketing as in radio and print?

Yeah, that's what he basically presented. MR.

The T-shirts, that would cover T-shirts as promotional, as advertising, so.

MR. Well, the T-shirt, that would fall in on the T-shirt, right? MS.

If the logo is on the T-shirt.

MR. Yeah, yeah, yeah. MR.

I can get you the logo. I'll get you the logo.

MR. Okay.

MS. For future.

On the plaques, can we put your logo?

We can put the logo, but we're not sure. What I've heard is, I've heard differently.

Okay, just on what has to do with marketing part, which would be T-shirts and the flyers.

T-shirts and advertising and flyers and radio.

We've been counting the T-shirts and so on because we've been assuming that those T-shirts would be leaving and marketing for us. the plaque may set in a room forever and it's not doing any promoting for us. So that's some of the reasoning. So we've come to now be supporting T-shirts and so on because they're walking billboards, like you said, are walking promotional. So that's as long as you put our guidelines in when you talk with Chuck and so on.

You mentioned that you plan on making this a big event in two years. My advice is that you start working on a budget that, for this year, collect everything that you paid for from everybody, including the people that gave money and the bands, and put that in your budget so that we can see what kind of in-kind is being given. And when you're going to request next year or two years from now, You can show how many people attended this event, and it makes it a lot easier for us to make a decision on how much to fund.

Mr. Chair, I don't know if this is going to be a Scott question, but Mr. Weir, do they have to be a nonprofit, enter this club? So I don't know, I didn't see in the packet, but I'm assuming you have the paperwork for the club, or if not, you probably need it because you might have issues when it goes down to funding.

Yeah, we just run as a non-profit. Okay.

Yeah, I just thought of it now. Usually it's caught at the funding, but I don't want you guys to be caught off guard for when they're trying to fund you guys.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Is the other group ready?

Mr. Chairman, members of the board, the next one on the agenda was the city, the photo booth. Do you want to hear that first, or do you want to go with islands?

I can do the photo booth. Sir? Yes, you can do the photo booth.

Okay. So the photo booth, you can see it's a 360 photo booth. The city would like to use that for all our events. It is designed to... When subject enters the photo booth, the city can put, whether it's Balloon Fiesta, isotopes, the city logo, anything behind it. So it would be for promotional items to promote the city of Las Vegas in that aspect. As you can see, it is $1,549 for this equipment. The city would like to use that starting with the Balloon Fiesta this year.

There wasn't a write-up on it, so tell us a little bit about the photo booth. What does it do?

Like I just said, they enter the booth. It's a 360 photo, so it goes completely around them, but it has a digital capability where the city can put whatever it is in the background through the computer, whether it's a picture of the city, Gaina's Canyon, Hermit's Peak, whatever we want to put back there, we can't. So we'd like to use it for fiestas, 4th of July fiestas, for balloon fiestas or isotopes, any of the events that we currently have. We would like to use this equipment, especially like Lucis and El Rio, that type of thing.

Are you charging for that?

No, no. It would just be kind of like a keepsake for the people. It would be digital, so once they take the picture, we email it to them, and they have their photo. Then they can go have it printed, but we can put anything on it because it is digital.

Are you going to put the lodger's logo on it as well? All the 3D images would have that on it.

So as far as marketing and promotion? That's all it would be used for. Okay. Yeah, I understand taking the photos and they'd stay here, but... I guess one of the more I'm trying to hear is we're going to take these pictures and use them for general photography that we use for our marketing campaign for the town.

It would all be for marketing, for promotional.

Every event that we're holding.

To promote the city.

Yeah.

That's the reason we wanted to take it too. THE BALLOON FIESTA THIS YEAR TO KIND OF PROMOTE THE CITY OF LAS VEGAS. THERE'S WELL OVER A MILLION PEOPLE THAT GO THROUGH BALLOON FIESTA, SO THAT'S KIND OF LIKE THE CATALYST THAT WE STARTED THIS. AND THEN FOR ALL OUR OTHER EVENTS AS WELL, BUT MANY OF CAPTURE ALL THOSE PEOPLE AT THE BLOOM FIESTA.

SO NOT A TEMPORARY, I THINK IT'S A PERMANENT, SO WE COULD SAY TOURISM INFRASTRUCTURE. RIGHT. MAYBE USING THAT THE CITY OWNS THE PHOTOS, CITY'S DOMAIN. YES.

DO THEY HAVE TO SIGN A FORM BEFORE THEY TAKE THEIR PHOTO THAT THE CITY CAN USE THEIR PHOTOS?

YES.

And regarding the digital format that you would be putting on the background, is there anything on there that will also say visit Las Vegas, New Mexico, or I visited the fiestas at Las Vegas?

Well, that's a thing we're going through, Sunny 505 now, our marketing firm that we use, and they have our logo on there. So that would be the top, the original Las Vegas, New Mexico, and it would all be for advertising and promoting the city. The whole purpose is a marketing tool for events.

So let me get this right. So they'll get a copy. Staff will handle and maintain the main copy.

We email them a copy.

Provided to the client or the person who took the picture. You send that through email, text message, some way?

It may be email.

email, then does that email become part of the database? Right.

Mr. Chair, yeah, I mean, that's the main, as long as we have full control, I'm looking at this as marketing, marketing infrastructure, as long as we're able to use this, because we've been paying for We have to end up paying for photos or paying for photographer and so on to have for use to feed whichever marketing company. So if we can do it ourselves, use these photos and use it freely, then we don't need to spend as long as that's the use. So this is just buying it. Are there any other ongoing costs?

As far as I know, that's the only cost. That's what staff has explained to me. My question was, is there a fee that we have to pay, like a yearly fee to use a software? But staff has explained to me it's all encompassed.

And the staff are willing to do this? Management of the...

I'm staff, so it'd probably be me.

Oh, good.

At least for the next couple of years.

Let's see what else we can give you.

So where is it going to be stored?

It'd probably be in my office.

And maintenance, if it breaks down?

That would be, that I couldn't answer. I mean, it's like anything else. I mean, if it breaks down, we'd have to have it repaired.

It's probably there, but the watermark for each one of those photos. Yeah. Apparently it's in the software. Yep, city of Las Vegas, larger specs and wherever that goes, that's, all those pictures are going with that. on the watermark that does go up.

Is there any way you can give us, like, an example, a presentation of what, an example of what you would be using as your backdrops?

We'd have to design those yet.

Oh, you haven't designed them yet. Never mind.

WHAT'S THE PLEASURE OF THE BOARD?

I MOVE THAT WE APPROVE THE REQUEST FOR THE PHOTO BOOTH TO BE USED FOR PROMOTION OF LAS VEGAS EVENTS, AT THE EVENTS.

FOR THE AMOUNT OF?

FOR THE AMOUNT OF $1,549. Motion from the purchase What is the extra money for yeah, so that so it looks like 1,000 249 Stop put that together.

I couldn't tell you I'd have to divert to stuff. I was well.

There's a difference in between the size 31.5 is 1,249. 39.4 is 1,449. So if you're asking for the bigger one, that's what you're asking for.

I mean, the bigger, look, it's coming off of Amazon. So the bigger one is $1,499 that I see on here. But what's being selected right now is the 31.5 inch one. Yep.

And then there's another one for 45.3 inches. So, and that one costs more, but.

Yeah. I'd have to refer to stuff. Is there something...

So this is not quite not like a deadline thing. It's something like a tool that we'd like to definitely use. Is there something we could push to October and we could get some more information on, like the background and stuff like that?

Yes, we'll start October 3rd.

October 3rd?

We have to be there by roughly the 28th.

Oh, for?

For Balloon Fiesta.

So specifically, like you mentioned, you're wanting to have this for Balloon Fiesta. Okay.

Is it different shipping and handling?

As I said, Mr. Chairman, staff put this together. I'd have to refer to staff.

Okay.

We're making a switch. Look, the Balloon Fiesta is an event that we, year after year, we're saying we need to take advantage of. It's the most visited event for our state. So we, I'm assuming we have our booth and everything.

The booth and everything is set up. WE HAVE OUR PARTNERS, UNIVERSITY WILL BE JOINING US AS WELL AS LUNA COMMUNITY COLLEGE.

OKAY. AND SO, AGAIN, AS WE REPEATED, THESE PHOTOS WOULDN'T JUST BE, WE WOULD BE ABLE TO USE THEM AS PROMOTION. HOPEFULLY WE GET A LINEUP OF GOOD PEOPLE. I'M NOT CLEAR ON THE BACKGROUND AS WELL, SO I GUESS WE'RE CREATING A BACKGROUND, OR CAN THAT CURTAIN BE OPENED AND THE BACKGROUND BE THE BALLOONS?

WELL, THERE'S DIFFERENT IMAGES THAT YOU CAN PLACE ON THERE. ON THE BACKGROUND OF THE BOOTH? Yeah, and it's all done digitally.

I think when you stand on it, you, as the person that's being photographed, you don't see the background. That's automatically...

It's like a green screen.

Yeah, it's automatically put in after they take the photo. The software makes that with the photo that you choose to have as the backdrop.

That's good.

So there's a motion to approve for the... Well, I guess I'm going to change my motion to the request for $1,549. But to the cost of what you're actually purchasing. So if it's less than that, that's what we'll...

Right. I mean, if it's less than, that just stays there.

Is that...

So the motion is for up to $1,549. Yes. Okay.

WE'LL GET A PRESENTATION OF RESULTS FROM . OKAY.

SO MOTION? SECOND. THERE'S A SECOND. ALL IN FAVOR? AYE.

MOTION BY MS. CLAYTON, SECOND BY MR. BACHTA. THE MOTION DOES CARRY. Mr. Chairman, members of the Board, going back to New Mexico Highlands University after they have had a chance to amend their application, would you like to?

We have been brainstorming advertising options for not just alumni and homecoming, but other events in order to more reach direct mail. So I went back to my research for the EDDM program, which is the Every Door Direct Mail, where you essentially buy a postal route. And the quotes that we had received was $10,000 to reach 20,000 households. We can go into the map. We can target our areas or routes. We can target our household income, average age. So we can consider a secondary mailer to an additional 20,000 recipients to promote our events for homecoming for the three-day weekend. at the cost of $10,000 outside of our normal newsletter, which is currently subsidized by donations that we receive. Billboard advertising was included in the request. I'll just highlight it there. The quotes that we received were $500 monthly for three months to do a Billboard ad here in Las Vegas. Media advertising in the form of social media, Facebook and Instagram promotes The investment would be approximately $250 a month for three months. There is minimal cost to that. Most of that is mostly effort in creating the social media posts and promoting them. You can do that internally. If this group hasn't already noticed, we did install two new poll banners on campus crossing National Avenue directly above. directly across from the sub. We had had previous discussions as to possibly sharing that advertising space with the city since those banners are available. We'll put that back on the table there since they do cross National Avenue and could be used to advertise events held downtown plaza area and such when not in use for university events. The cost of a printed banner is $800. We have not ordered that banner yet for our homecoming events. Depending on the outcome of this, we could still brand that banner with lodger's tax and have that available and be up in September. And radio advertising has already been on our radar. We just hadn't received or put into work the quotes that we got. Radio advertising for local, it looks like it's between $50 and $75 a spot or 30-second spot our university relations team could potentially put through. Some ads for local, we've always just done the free Tuesday invite ad. We've never done the paid advertising on radio. But now that we have a dedicated university relations team, we can do that and have budgeted $1,500 for that and $1,500 for spots in Albuquerque. Believe it or not, the spots on Albuquerque radio are lower. Those are actually just $50 for a 30-second spot. across that. We can, depending on the target audience, which obviously we want to target the age range of people bringing families and alum and such coming back to Las Vegas, you would choose the group, the advertising group, which goes across country music, classic rock, and things like that. So a $1,500 investment would be allocated to that for a total revised budget on alumni homecoming of $16,000. I would need a little more than 24 hours to revise the proposal for the winter events, which is wrestling, and to build a marketing plan specific to that if we do it separate from our homecoming marketing plan, which is supposed to launch in the next week or two.

Mr. Chairman, I would remind the members of the board that the Highlands, their homecoming parade is at the end of September. So I just got that permit approved today. So we're kind of at a time crunch.

I've got $10,000 for your DVD stuff.

FOR EDDM, WHICH IS A NEW A NEW AVENUE FOR ADVERTISING OUR MAILER.

BILLBOARD AT 15? MM-HMM. AND 250 TILES THREE, THAT WOULD BE... THAT'S 50.

BANNER AT 800? YES. AND THEN RADIO ABOUT 1,500 IN ADS?

THREE THOUSAND IF WE GO LOCAL AND ALBUQUERQUE.

YOU HAVE TO DECIDE WHETHER WE'RE SEPARATING OUT THE JANUARY AND FEBRUARY EVENTS OR NOT. AND THEN WHATEVER IS LEFT IS WITHIN THE NEXT MONTH, THROUGH SEPTEMBER, SO ON. SO WE'D HAVE TO JUSTIFY A BILLBOARD RUN FOR ONE MONTH.

WE WOULD BUILD THAT SEPARATELY.

FOR IT. SO THE BILLBOARD RUN WOULD BE FOR WHICH EVENTS?

THE BILLBOARD RUN WOULD START IMMEDIATELY, NOW IN AUGUST, AND RUN AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, AND OCTOBER.

ALL RIGHT.

SEPTEMBER 1ST TODAY. SEPTEMBER 2. We would drop that down to two.

Okay. SO I THINK YOU WERE KIND OF, LIKE, I DIDN'T WANT YOU TO MISS IT. AS FAR AS THE ADVERTISING WITHIN TOWN, AGAIN, THAT WASN'T, THAT'S NOT, YOU KNOW, PART OF THE PURVIEW FOR MARKETING FOR US, FOR MARKETING PROMOTION OF TOURISM. SO AS FAR AS SHARED BANNERS OR SO ON OR NEEDING CREDIT FOR, I WAS KIND OF CONFUSED ON NEEDING TO PUT LODGER'S TEXT ON THERE. I THINK WE WERE KIND OF MISSING SOMETHING. WE DON'T NEED TO ADVERTISE LODGER'S TEXT. WE NEED TO CERTAINLY PUT THAT. PROMOTION WAS FUNDED, BUT WE'RE NOT MARKETING LARGEST TAX. AND THEN THE RADIO STATIONS, YEAH, THE REACH, WHEN YOU SAY LOCAL, WHEN WE'RE FUNDING IT, WE'RE MAKING SURE THAT RADIO STATION CAN REACH OUTSIDE MARKETS. SO IT KIND OF DOES BOTH, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO REACH OUTSIDE MARKETS FOR IT. Now, as far as the mailers, you're proposing a brand-new mailer. Okay, that's not similar to the mailer you were already doing.

No, it would be something completely different. The mailer that we're doing is event-focused and registration-focused. A brand-new mailer through EDDM, you know, the design concept is different. The post office requirements are different. It's more of a half-page postcard type mailer, 50 cents a household. That would give us the opportunity, and I'd have to do this in the short time right now, to target specific households and specific routes. and also cross-check those addresses, those 20,000 addresses to ensure that they didn't already receive. So they would be 20,000 new addresses that would receive the promotion for coming back onto campus.

Where would those addresses be?

Those addresses would be throughout the Southwest. Throughout the Southwest? Throughout the Southwest.

How would you pick the addresses?

The EDDM. What would be the criteria? What would be the criteria? Like I said, we would try to determine those households, which are family-related households. So we would say households probably 30 plus in age. And... go throughout the Southwest. I mean, the criteria, you can go in there, if you've used the UDDM program, you can choose annual income, you can choose age, and you can choose home value on that. So the targeted marketing would go there. It would need to go to 20,000 new addresses that aren't already on our list.

BUT WE HAVE NO WAY OF DETERMINING THAT. I'M CONFUSED. AGAIN, FOR THE PROMOTION THAT WE'RE ASKING, LIKE FOR THIS EVENT, RIGHT, SO IT'S EASY. RADIO STATION, IT'S NOT SELECTIVE ADDRESSES. IT'S EVERYONE THAT'S WITHIN THAT RANGE. So on yeah, they have never TV or that's everyone they're not part of a club or a chain or whatever so it's open to everyone and that's that's where we're kind of at an impasse here on on The thing so what we were hoping was the focus on if you had the individual events that you're marketing Okay, billboard was one of them radio stations in one of them. I mean we can agree on those two two points and Mr. Chair, if we can provide funding within this time scope that they can get a billboard done and said radio announcers. I mean, if there is any other, I mean, Chuck uses a lot of the other TV ads or whatever from various sources, but if there's other ways you can market this event through media other than in his letter that you send out, save that money for the newsletter, then we could certainly help you to get the word out about homecoming and about these events. That's the cleanest way I can make it.

I can work with Steph, too.

Yeah.

We've experienced such a shift here that it is hard to find media outside of social media that expands the reach for a lot of businesses and a lot of this. We're thinking hard and thinking through this, but sometimes social media and just those little promotes have been our best and most successful campaigns in that way. The direct mails do reach other people. If we scratch cross-referencing and removing people who have already received our mailer off that. And if they receive a duplicate and we do a whole new design and we find a way to do that, then we are just going to reach 20,000. We're going to plan to reach 20,000 households in the Southwest with an invitation to campus for the three days in October.

The mailer is kind of like what you'll be doing with the photos. Because you develop a list that's mutually exclusive. I mean, you're going to be sending information out to people on the list for the photos, right? That's mutually exclusive. That's a group. We're talking about a different group.

You can also use like KNMX radio, our local radio station, KNMX. They cover all of northern New Mexico, southern Colorado, and the panhandle of Texas. That would be one option for them, as well as our local, what we use is KRQE, and we can get, KRQE has five different subsidiaries that they also target. So there's other options and avenues there. So it just depends what they want to do.

As far as the photo booths go, again, the ownership of those photos, we're going to be able to present them to anyone.

But what I'm bringing up is the list, the name of the person that took the phone. You're going to have their name.

And their email.

That's exclusive. That's unique.

We could share that.

And all I'm saying is, so we funded that. And how is this different if they're going to get a list?

I have a question regarding the new advertising venue that you want to use. How do you envision that advertisement to get people to come here if they're not going to be part of an alumni?

The selection of events that we've procured and have been putting together I think have Their draw is different crowds of each one. We've got events, the 5K, right? And this is targeting mental health, youth. People who participate in 5Ks statewide are always looking for those to bring their family to. So that is a different group. So that reach is going to have people who probably have never seen anything like that, and they're going to travel to participate in this particular 5K. The lounge, depending on the musician, we already have that musician secured, has a different draw as well. So... That's how I see how we will find new visitors here, because all the different events have a variety of different draws. Obviously, Tailgate will bring families, former football players, even football players across the state. I mean, as a mom of teenagers, we traveled to watch football games all over the state of New Mexico, regardless of our connection to that area, and it was just what's available, what's happening this weekend. What is our other... What is our other one?

So is the mailer going to be like a one-time thing, or is it going to be throughout a time frame?

We would probably try and plan and do it twice a year. Again, one in the fall or announcing the fall, and another one in the spring and summer. but using the EDDM program instead of our database. So we would look to expand our existing database now. Right now, our market is to our existing database. We don't buy lists.

One more question. With that said, how would you be directing people of places to stay in Las Vegas? How would you include that in your advertising?

There is, I believe the chamber has a link that I've referred people to personally. That's a real quick, here's a QR code, and it does talk about restaurants to see and people to stay. That is the one thing I can think of from the top of my head. If Las Vegas in general or the city or anything like that has a comprehensive website posting, Facebook posts and stuff, we definitely can include that and share that across.

We currently have 515 rooms in the city right now. If the chamber does, she is correct. They do have access.

Well, I'm just asking, how would you incorporate that into your promotional piece? You've answered. Thank you.

I guess, Mr. Chair, the for their newsletter, you guys are doing exactly what you need to do. So I don't want that to be confused. The tough part is, because now we're trying to flow, okay, typically these type of ones, we're trying to flex it to be in a tourism type event, okay? So now we're taking on roles that we didn't otherwise take on because these are things that the university and its boosters and the club was handling to do. So to me, our assistance was not to take over that, was to assist you guys. You guys are already doing this. You've already sent newsletters out. This is the alumni's, it's actually what you do. And so what I'm hearing is we're kind of subsidizing that instead of saying, hey, you guys are already holding events. You've sent out these newsletters. You're doing this. We want additional marketing that we could send out to the public. VIA THESE VENUES. THAT MAKES SENSE TO ME. BUT THE CORE OF WHAT YOU'RE DOING OF THAT BUDGET, WHAT I'M SEEING IS BASICALLY WE'RE SAYING WE'RE GOING TO START DOING THAT FOR YOU.

YOU WOULD ASSIST IN THIS. RECENT EVENTS AND EVERYTHING LIKE THAT HAVE CUT ALL OF OUR BUDGETS BY 30%. SO THERE IS SOME LEVEL OF SUBSIDIZATION, BUT, YES, WE ARE OPEN TO this feedback exactly in helping us bring the tool because the university is not siloed per se, but they are siloed per se. We have been doing this marketing, and we have been doing this marketing solo, and the people that have flowed in have trickled into the community without us asking them to trickle into the community. So your feedback is saying, yes, tailor your marketing and advertising and start announcing some of these community things, start connecting in with some of these community things. And that's what I think that's the plan here. If we can design it and make it happen is now let's include a intentional connect to the city of Las Vegas and its surrounding activities and events. because unintentionally we've already been creating that.

Give me a recommendation.

Give me a recommendation.

We'll vote on it We we asked them to present to come back with some numbers and some some some exact Items that they would be proposing they've come back with that I don't think that I don't leave Highlands should be in a bubble and I think this is an initiative that shows that they're coming out of that bubble and And, you know, they've been on top of the hill in the middle of the town. And I think it's an important institution in the community. It's important that we support our institutions and that we coordinate with institutions that we have in our community. Because if we don't support our institutions, institutions are liable to be lost. And the thing that keeps this community going has been the fact that we're subsidized by government, by government institutions. And we have quite a few of those around. We're trying to promote our tourism marketing in order to support and supplement that. This is, you know, here's an initiative for that. And so it's up to the board and what we recommend to city council with regards to funding initiatives. Once again, I made the point earlier that The alumni are tourists. I ask the question specifically. The alumni are tourists. They come here and they say they're alumni and you see them. You can see them with their shirts and their caps and our caps. But at the same time, they're out there doing tourist kinds of activities. TWO ACTIVITIES THAT A TOURIST WOULD DO. AND THE PURPOSE OF THIS LODGERS TAX IS TO FUND TOURIST RELATED ACTIVITIES. AND LOOK AT THE DEFINITION IN THE STATUTE, WHICH I HAVE BEFORE ME, LOOK AT THE DEFINITION OF OUR ORDINANCE, AND IT'S BASICALLY A TOURIST IS A PERSON WHO TRAVELS FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUSINESS, PLEASURE, OR CULTURE TO THE CITY. THESE PEOPLE WILL BE TRAVELING FOR ANY OF THOSE THREE REASONS, WHICH INCLUDES BEING BEING ALUMNI, SO THAT'S MY POSITION ON THIS AND HOW I FEEL ABOUT IT. SO I THINK WE'VE ASKED THEM, NOW WE BASICALLY JUST HAVE TO DECIDE WHAT'S APPROPRIATE FOR THIS FALL EVENT. I EXPECT SOMETHING WILL BE COMING BACK TO US LATER ON THE WRESTLING THAT WE HAVE A LITTLE BIT MORE TIME FOR.

Look, we can, you know, my suggestion is approve what, I just don't want to set precedent to start paying for stuff because that's going to be of an avalanche, right? Our purpose, yes, there are tourists, but at the same time, our purpose isn't to take over other entities' budgets or so on. So if we keep it clean on being able to cover the clean marketing promotions that they've talked about, as far as the billboard, the radio, and if that's social media costs, if that's something that we can take on, those are clean promotional items that we can approve out of what they've asked.

Where will the billboard be at?

When we had some times, I believe it's on the hill.

Have a local billboard. There's a billboard and there's an outreach for 20,000 people. Which one has more impact?

which will have more impact, the outreach.

So the billboard is not a freeway billboard? You're talking about a billboard inside?

We've received quotes on, yes, specific quotes that I can bring to the committee today. There are other billboards that the university currently has under contract that I've seen, freeway billboards, and I can do some of that research and get that information within the next 24 hours if that's if it's the cost, but I don't have access to the university's budget to see what the cost of those billboards are. And they use those to promote recruitment and enrollment, not travel and tourism.

Mr. Roybal is going to come back later. You asked him, Tina. You asked him, bring us some more information for next time. He's going to come back for next year, right? He's going to come back next year, and his advertising for next year's event is going to come off of the people that register off his registration form for his car shows this year. And there's going to be, once again, a mutually exclusive list of people who happen to go to car shows. Mutually exclusive list of people who happen to take picture with a booth. This is a mutually exclusive list that's generated off of people that are not alumni but are related to or have interest in the university, right?

Perspective students in the future. Mr. Chairman, during the fiestas, it's another example. This year, we had over 19,000 people. A big majority of those people that come are alums. I mean, they come back because they went to school here. Hector and I went to Highlands at the same time. We were classmates, so I agree with them. Highlands is unique in the fact that people come back with their kids, with their grandkids, so I agree with them that the possibility of getting a lot of the students... My niece has just started at Highlands, and my whole family's from Highlands, and she's from Espanola, so... IT WORKS.

IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT THIS IS A REIMBURSABLE GRANT, CORRECT? THAT'S HOW IT WORKED LAST YEAR. SO, I MEAN, I'LL JUST ADD THIS. THE MAILER IS GOING TO TAKE A VERY, VERY STRONG EFFORT BETWEEN JULIE AND MYSELF AND OUR MARKETING TEAM to put together, but I have no doubt that it's something that we can get out in the next two weeks. Cross-promoting, of course, with the tool that I have, which is the Chamber link, but if that does not happen, it isn't reimbursed. If we don't prove that we had the reach, then it's not reimbursed through the grant when we request reimbursement for this. So that's the only one that I believe would be up for question. The other advertising avenues are very, very easy to um, put into place and get done. And you know, like the city has shared, um, our alum are going to continue to come regardless, but we would like to share with them some more things to do outside of campus activities. They're going to continue to visit Charlie's and their hotspots regardless. But if there are other things that we can promote, we will do that. And we welcome that feedback as to how.

So just an example of that. We, again, in my mind, we could certainly assist, okay? But, okay, have any flyers, just say larger stacks didn't exist. Have any flyers gone out just for the students in the moonlight just now, or they wouldn't go out unless we provide this money?

The weekly advertising, our social media advertising, and our newsletter goes out regardless of what that is. So yes, the money would help subsidize that and increase, you know, we'd put some more time into the design. We'd be more intentional with the promotion. The fall mailer has gone out. It is in our alum's hands right now. The t-shirts have not. They have not been purchased and printed. UNTIL WE KNOW THE OUTCOME OF THIS. THEY WERE SO SUCCESSFUL LAST YEAR, BUT THEY'RE NOT A BUDGETED ITEM. WE DON'T HAVE THE FUNDING FOR THAT. THE POLL BANNER, STILL WANT TO MAYBE OPEN THAT DISCUSSION A LITTLE BIT MORE AS A SHARED VENUE WITH RESPECT TO TOURISTS WHO MAY ALREADY BE HERE. AND THE RADIO ADVERTISING HAS NOT GONE OUT. LET'S SAY WE FUND THESE

So that would be dependent on us funding it every year from here on out, and the university would say, okay, lodgers tax will be taken care of?

No, we don't. We do a zero-based budget every year, so we don't plan it unless we have guaranteed funding.

We're a nonprofit, so there's no.

We don't have predictions on donations.

Okay. And so as far as booster donations or any of those, I'm guessing that's why you're here.

We're getting there. We're getting there now. We instituted a new CRM, which is a client relationship manager software that is helping us be more intentional with our With our gifts and little reminders and make this a monthly gift, make it a recurring gift, we didn't do that before this year. We relied 100% on alumni donations and grants that we would write in our office. Athletic boosters, yes, for specific sports. As I mentioned before, that's just new to us right now, having a connection with our athletic boosters. H Club was an independently run 501c3 before they came under the foundation run by Mr. and Mrs. Abreu.

Well, I recommend... Go ahead. I WOULD ASK THE BOARD TO CONSIDER A MAILER AT 10 AND THEN RADIO AT 3,000 FOR A TOTAL OF 13,000. BECAUSE THE BILLBOARD DOESN'T MAKE SENSE.

YEAH, NOT IT BEING INSIDE OF TOWN, THAT'S MORE OF A. SO WHAT IF YOU HAD, JUST TO BE CLEANER, I MEAN, LOOK, WE COULD LOOK AT IT, I'M SURE COUNCIL WILL HAVE TO SEE IT AS WELL.

IT WOULD BE THE MAILER TARGETING A DIFFERENT AUDIENCE.

YEAH.

WHICH IT'S SO YOU'RE GETTING THEY ALREADY HAVE ONE METER GOING TO THEIR FIRST 20,000. THERE'S AN ADDITIONAL 20,000.

THOSE ARE ALREADY GOING OUT?

THEY ALREADY WENT OUT.

The first mailer has. And it went through 15,000. 15,000? 15,000 households of alum in our database. The EDDM would be new. They'd be new households. And as I mentioned before, I mean, when you think homecoming, you think football. But Islands has, you know, the foundation has consistently put on events that are non-athletic. because of those families and groups that are coming. So I think we have a little bit for everyone in this three-day weekend. So if those mailers reach households that don't have an NMHU affiliation, I think we're going to see visits from that because of the other, because of the variety of the different events that we have.

Regarding that, sending it out to a different type of, group of people, how would you be able to determine where they're coming from and what they came for? I don't know if you can give an example about that.

We collect QR code registrations for every single one of our events that does capture that data. foundation of it. So you walk in, you scan your code, you scan the QR. If you're not already pre-registered, you scan it to attend free or not. The t-shirts have a QR code on them since those are just given to walk-up attendees, but those do have a QR code on them to enter their information. This is a free gift provided to you. But scan this code real quick, and this is what you get. So the CRM that we have is the ability to collect out of that. Our most event that we had on Friday night, which was the Department of Business Administration put on a back-to-business bash, and every business graduate as well as local faculty, existing faculty, existing staff and everything were invited, and we checked everybody in. We checked in over 116 attendees within 15 minutes, and they were using our QR code system and everything, and we captured all of their information. And in that information, they opted to receive or not receive future promotions from us. So I feel like we added 116 people right there to our reach.

So on the $15,000, let's say, I mean, just the other things, to literally mail them these things, it's costing us, or the budget's extraordinarily high because you're paying for printing, you're paying to mail it out. That's not cheap for the outreach. So within this same database that you're sending these guys, we don't have their electronic information as far as their emails. And so that we can have a campaign to reach out to in the same way.

We do.

And that email would have certain cookies they could say yes or no to, but we know where they're coming from or they could respond to or have a QR code on that email. And certainly you could provide that data back to us, which would be easier than a piece of paper they had that was printed that didn't go anywhere. So is there a way that, hey, you had said marketing event that was an e-marketing event that we could help you promote with the same database that you're sending it to all these people, but we save the money by printing it, not printing as many, let's say, and putting more money towards the electronic portion of it.

The electronic portion of it doesn't cost a whole lot.

And it could go to even beyond that database. You could post it everywhere, so it goes to the public. Anybody, any schmo walking down the street, they see that same bit of information, so it didn't just go to that select few. You were able to send it to that and target them, and it's out to the public.

I think we're going to see a stronger... need and bigger discussion on that when we work on our winter events for athletics and sports and youth wrestling. Our alumni tested email marketing is not the greatest. They are the mail and email are open rate on the weekly newsletter in a certain demographic of our alumni 40 and up. Right.

So I'm sure you have demographics, and there's others that have changed, but like I said, you're printing less and even less for the last, for the guys, you know, millennials on up, but for the much older, don't get me wrong, you're still printing and trying to air it, but hey, you're able to do a bigger e-campaign now. Because I've heard it all the time, yeah, we print, we print, but it's, this thing is, The thing is, the demographic that just needs to print is getting smaller and smaller. So the generation that's took over now, we can't live without these items. So we, you know, I open up less mail than I do email. Like email is every day, every minute we're opening it up. Mail might pile up or I'm not, if it's not. important, you know, on the envelope itself, it's probably not getting open. I just see it as more mass marketing.

We don't have the data yet on the 12,000 new addresses, emails, and everything that we've received, but that was a huge influx to our newsletter, and that's what I hope we're going to see more on the email marketing, but

Just the way we can flex. So that way, this burden, this cost, right, for year to year again, it doesn't seem like it would be... Good use, so I'm just, you know, it makes it easier for us to approve is that it needs, like I said, we're still providing marketing assistance that's going out to everyone. Look, Mr. Chair, can we, I mean, we can approve 10K for, the billboards are out, but you can 10K for a very clear If they have radio ads, there's radio ads. If they have e-marketing that they can do, they can have e-marketing to do. Like I said, if they're saying it's reimbursement, if it falls within those guidelines, then we can approve it with that criteria.

Okay. Pleasure of the board. Let me know. You saw my recommendation. You heard my recommendation. I have a motion.

I thought member Krutek made a motion for $10,000. Yep, that's my motion.

Okay, there's a motion for $10,000.

I'll second.

I'll second. There's a second. All in favor?

Aye. We have a motion by Mr. Bokta, a second by Ms. Clayton. The motion does carry. Thank you. Thank you. That's it on the agenda, Mr. Chairman.

Any agenda? No reports. Special meetings. So we're going to need specials because we've got quite a few applications. So just to let the board know. Do you have an idea more or less, Andrea? I don't right at this moment. I don't.

We need to meet with Scott and with Mr. Marcus and then we'll get back to the board. and we will be delivering the packets to the board.

No, if you can get us packets.

We'll make that happen.

I explained to Mr. Griego that sometimes we run out of print material at our homes, so we don't print packets, and I end up trying to read the agenda on my phone.

We'll make packets and deliver them to your homes.

Appreciate that.

Mr. Chair. Just on the approvals for today, since council has to see it as well, it's important that the caveats that we did present to approve are communicated to council.

We have the forms ready. We're going to go back now and we'll get those ready to go to council because they have to be approved now. And that way council can ratify it.

So they're not saying no or whatever because, you know, they need to know that, hey, this was our reasoning. So I think some of them, you know, watch the logistic expert, but some of them don't and it might not be fast enough minutes for them to see. So, Mr. Chair, I was just hoping that because we did have caveats for approval that they see it so it's easier for them. We don't want it bouncing back because they couldn't.

We'll include it in the agenda item for ratification.

With that motion to adjourn First and second adjourn favor 351