Lodgers' Tax Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

I'm Connor Tharp. I'm the vice chair of the Lodgers Tax Advisory Board. Sorry.

Hello. I'm Dana Even, member of the Lodgers Tax Advisory Board. Hello. I'm Sonia Reese, and I'm Jess Sonia Reese.

No. You're not.

There's no

Brandy, do you wanna go ahead and introduce yourself?

Hi. I'm Brandy Ingeman. I'm the executive director for the Los Alamos Arts Council.

Terrific. Thank you. So everyone should have a copy of today's agenda. If we're good to go ahead, do I have a move to approve the agenda?

I'd like to move to approve today's agenda as presented.

I'll second that.

Awesome. So all in favor, aye. Any opposed? Nope. So that passes. We move the agenda as presented. The first thing in your agenda packet is the minutes from the Lodgers Tax Advisory meeting that we had back in December. Hopefully everybody had a chance to review those. Are there any changes that anyone knows of?

I'd like to move to approve the meeting minutes as presented.

I'd like to second that.

All right. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We'll go ahead approve those meetings from our December meeting. Now we're up for public comment for items not on the agenda, if anyone wants to comment. No one online. Alright. So we'll go ahead and move into our monthly reports. The first one is from Destination IQ.

Hi, everyone. Good to see you again. I'm gonna go over some data now that we have all of the marketing strategies that we're contracted to do this year up and running. Once I go through data, Kirsten will jump in and update everybody on the projects we're working on currently. So, Ellen, are you controlling this? Yes. Okay. Well, you can scroll to the next slide, please. Okay. Just as a reminder, everybody has access to this.

What you'll see here are links to our detailed website data report, our meta ads report, our Google Ads report, as well as the accounting spreadsheet that we use to record, all the payments that the county has made to us so that we have, a transparent accounting throughout the year. What I'm gonna do is look at some highlights. So if we scroll to the next, slide. So what I wanna look at first is your total website user traffic. So these are all the users that are coming to your website from various, channels.

What's great is that you did have Google Analytics set up prior to us starting, so I am able to look at year over year data in tourism. I do like to do that as opposed to month to month because tourism is very seasonal. So, if we look at the total website users, you're up almost a 150% in December '25 versus, December '24. Now that's largely because we've now added the Google search and meta advertising into your marketing strategy. At this time last year, you were not running those ads.

You had a few months of ads supplied by the New Mexico tourism office, but the way that the coop works is you don't have them for the full year. So that's gonna make your biggest difference. But what I really like to see here is the next block. You'll see your direct traffic is up just about 70%. So this is a nice, pretty visual correlation between the ads that we're running and brand awareness.

So folks are seeing your URL, and they are typing it directly into their browser. So they're not just getting to you via the ads now. They're recognizing you as a destination, and they're going directly to the website. So that's really powerful because we can pay for people to visit your website till the cows come home. But if we start seeing folks that are actively engaging in your website outside of the ads, that's where the big win is. So same story below is organic reach is up almost 17%. Same thing. Folks are starting to become a bit more aware of the Los Alamos brand through the ads that we're running. So they're looking for you and finding you through organic search results as well. So really exciting.

That's a great correlation between the paid marketing and then the kind of the direct and organic traffic. On the right there, you'll see the paid search because there was nothing last year. It's a ridiculous amount of percentage increase, but you got about 1,800 visits. Those are highly engaged visitors, website users, because of the way that Google search works. It targets people based on the keywords they're looking for. Paid social drew, 1,455 web users in December. We did not launch until middle December. Is that correct, Kirsten? Correct. Half of a month of traffic.

So I anticipate to see that number increase January and and onwards. I can't because there wasn't there were no visits in 2024, there's no percentage increase, but we'll start seeing that as we collect more data. And then here's a really interesting one. So organic social is not the goal of organic social is not to drive website users. It's really to increase engagement and discussion about the destination.

But there are opportunities to visit websites from organic social posts or from the account page. So that number, 1,277, is not the highest number, but if you see it compared to last year at 61 so what this tells me is that folks are engaging with your account. So we're getting them to your account via the ads, and then they're going to your account page and engaging at that point. So, again, another piece of correlation between the effects of the the positive effects of having meta advertising. So really like to see that as well.

We're kind of seeing I guess the point I'm trying to make is, like, you're starting to see how everything works together and how the ads affect kind of the more organic visitation. So, yeah, so all really good stuff. I'm I'm it happened really fast, and I'm really happy to see it. Some highlights. So we put some we do get a detailed report from all of our individual ads managers, and I like to pull some highlights out of that.

So this is from your meta ads. Now our individual ad managers do look month to month because they are constantly trying to tweak and improve the account as they go linearly linearly through the year. Sorry. So month after month. But you're seeing a really strong click through rate on your meta ads.

You're seeing almost 6,000 total clicks. Now those are not clicks to the website. That's activity on the on the ad. So as we as I said earlier, like, we could see from the organic search, there is driving more website traffic. People are clicking on the ad to likely get to your account and explore in more detail. So we'd love to see that. This winter wonderland, Carousel is your top performer. I'm not sure that this is what Los Alamos looks like currently. If you're anything like Colorado, we don't have snow. So I I I would guess that you probably don't either.

But this one had 224 landing page views, almost a 100,000 impressions, so people are seeing it. The other thing I wanted to put on this slide I thought would be of interest to you is the breakdown of demographic. So we're targeting Albuquerque and Santa Fe as your drive market. We are targeting Dallas, Fort Worth, and Colorado. So some highlights for each one of those.

So the highest click through rate was Albuquerque and Santa Fe. So and with 3,056 of that total, almost 6,000 clicks. So almost half of the total clicks in your ads came from Albuquerque, Santa Fe. So love seeing that engagement. I know that's an audience we really wanna reach.

They Albuquerque could certainly turn into an overnight visitor, and Santa Fe would, as a day visitor, could drive sales tax and support local businesses. We're seeing strong conversions on the Dallas Fort Worth. And Colorado is doing great too. Two point fifth 53% click through rate, 1,000 almost 400 clicks. So great interest from all of those markets. So I think, Ellen, I think that was this was a good kind of demographic to start with. Any questions so far? K. Why don't we go on to the next slide?

Hey. Can I ask you a quick question? Sure. Dana with Holiday Inn.

Hi, Dana.

Hi. And great reports, by the way. Thank you.

Oh, appreciate it.

But my question is, we do get a lot of people beyond Dallas Fort Worth out of Texas. Is that the only market that we're looking to focus on, or are we going to extend beyond that?

We can certainly extend beyond that if there are other markets that that you feel like you wanna target or when we start getting start looking at the data where folks are coming from. This has just been kind of the traditional targeted market. And, you know, we have a limited spend. So what we need to do is once we start seeing other potential markets, evaluate where that spend is best goes. So if you know off the top of your head, you know, let's say, you know, like, gosh, Houston is a great market or Austin is a great market, you know, certainly let us know. We can explore that. We're just getting started here. So

So can we do a shorter term market campaign, or does it always have to be the full year?

We can do a shorter term. We can also just add another geo target to the ads. And and all that means is that budget just gets spread out a little bit more. So it it just becomes slightly more die diluted, if you will.

I was just curious. We do tend to have a period of time where we have a lot of people from San Antonio. We do have a lot of people from other areas as well. And I can go through some of my information and kind of forward that on as well. But I was just curious. Sorry to stop the flow, but thank you for the information.

I love questions, and that's excellent feedback. And nothing here is set in stone, and that's part of the work we do. We're always examining and always tweaking. Geotargets is actually a very easy thing to change. So

Thank you.

Just one thing to consider, the more targeted areas you reach, like I said, that the budget just gets diluted a little bit, but it it usually doesn't affect the the overall performance very much. So

So let me ask you. So so we are I see that we are kind of focused on the whole state of Colorado. Is that something that I I guess I don't know how much Texas Monthly or something like that is. It has a whole state spread. Would something like that take us really far out of our budgeted numbers for Texas?

We could let me see if I can answer that question. We can certainly fine tune Colorado if maybe we just wanna target the Front Range as an example, you know, the Denver's, the Colorado Springs, or maybe even not North Of Denver because you start getting out of that drive market at that point. So maybe what we'll do Kirsten, let's make a note for Chris Mhmm. To just check double check those geo targets and see if we can have specifics on cities in Colorado if we wanna hone in on parts of Colorado and then also expand Texas. And was it San Antonio?

You said off the top of your head, you know, that folks are coming in from there.

Well, Houston is a little further down. We do have some that come up, but it really is kind of that San Antonio, Fort Worth and then up or Dallas, Fort Worth and then up towards New Mexico. And, you know, again, I'm just one person, but I just just from what I see in my demographics and where I get people from, we do get a lot of people from Texas that come up here. And even if they're just staying for a night or two on a road trip, they'll a lot of them don't even realize that we're up here up here. And for them to come for a night or two and then continue on their trip to wherever they're going, we get quite a bit of that. Okay.

That's that's some great feedback. Let's look to expand our effectiveness with it, Kirsten, especially those cities that are more in the West Side of the state as well because that is a stronger drive market. Right. Okay. So Google search ads, these are the ads that are keyword based.

So folks put in the key start start they search for a term and the sponsored ads show show up. That's what these Google search ads are. These, we did start in November. So we can start looking at month to month change as Sam tweaks that account and improves it. So we saw impressions increase almost 50% from two from 20,000 to about 30,000.

So, your ads are being seen by more people. And at the same time, your interactions grew a little over 33. So they went from about 1,600 to about 2,100. So, that means that more people are clicking on those ads as well. And by doing that, your cost per click has also, dropped. So you went from 70¢ to 40¢ cost per click. So now you're getting more bang for for your buck. It's pretty typical for a new Google search campaign or account that they start with a higher cost per click, and just over time, it tends to drop. But I also wanna give credit to Sam. She's really excellent at what she does.

So I know that she had a hand in that as well. I'm not gonna say it was just time and Google. I also thought it'd be fun to include some of these keywords. So these were the top keywords that are drawing people to the website. Probably not a surprise that Bandolier is one of them.

What is nice is that you still have a 7.85% click through rate. Bandolier is gonna be a very competitive term because you're competing against not just the national park system, but any state or local website that promotes Bandolier or sites like, TripAdvisor or Expedia that may market it as well. Typical the benchmark for travel or the click through rate benchmark for travel is about 4.6%. So you are well above that for a highly competitive keyword. The next keyword I love too, because we spoke specifically about trying to increase day trips into Los Alamos because during the week, you may not have that, lodging capacity, but at minimum, we can get people up for the day to support those local businesses.

So we saw an almost 7% click through rate with 20 210 clicks. Manhattan Project, not a surprise. Attractions in Los Alamos, those are all very in line with the copy that's on your website and a little less competitive. But then we get into a broad keyword like hiking trails Mexico. Now you're competing against every DMO in New Mexico that has a hiking trail or that promotes hiking.

And you're at a little bit below benchmark, but I'm okay with that click through rate because of how broad of a keyword that is. And that's those are visitors who know they wanna go hiking in New Mexico, but maybe don't know where they wanna go. So you're attracting or grabbing folks that don't necessarily have Los Alamos on their radar, but could now have it on their radar based on this marketing technique. No surprise. Los Alamos performs well.

Hiking trails, Los Alamos, that's specific, and then you're getting into additional Los Alamos terms. So we always wanna see those Los Alamos terms perform well. They're kind of low hanging fruit. But if we can get those broader terms to perform well, we're grabbing an audience that that we may not have had outside of these Google search results. So that's kinda neat there. Okay. Next slide, Ellen. I can step in here on the projects and tasks. So that's been a problem. Marketing. Thank you, everybody. Any

questions on any of that before I take over for the tasks? No. Great. Thank you so much, Lindsay, for going over this.

Sure. No problem.

So for the projects, we have been hard at work doing a lot of design work for some ads, especially for the New Mexico true coop campaign. We have a lot of deliverables that we're meeting this this week, actually. And even with the holidays, the team just really jumped on there, especially Jim, our copywriter. He did phenomenal on getting those out. So we just have one more to turn in, and then we'll be done with our deliverables there.

Along with, we got some new footage, for the video feed too. So I'm excited to get those up and running. Helen, we definitely are excited for that. So we have the initial marketing assessment that we're currently working on as well. Along with the other ad suite outside of the co op, we got the Gradus digital ad actually finalized today. So that's really exciting. It should be down in the completed tasks. And we are working on getting the leads into Constant Contact. I got a little hold up on that just with, not having the access in order to do so, but we are currently working on that. Completed tasks.

We got the Google and Meta ads up and running. Meta took took a little bit, was a little painful, but we got creative with Ellen's help. And those are up and running as you saw. Immersion trip. Thank you all for hosting us. We had a great time in December before the holiday season. Our future tasks that we will be jumping into are the tourism marketing data, plan development as well as the annual marketing plan development. So those are our current tasks on our plate. Any questions? Anything on your guys' radar?

I have two quick questions if I can, if that's alright. Mhmm. So first of all, this report is great. I love this. This is so accessible.

This is probably one of the more accessible reports I've seen just from in general. So one of my questions as I was reading through this is, what are we doing to make sure that all of our our local small businesses, because I know that's one of the big concerns, can I know that they have access to this, but I only know that they have access to this because I've been at your presentations and at these meetings? Is there something that we're doing as a board or the Destination IQ is doing or something that the staff is doing to then sort of, like, send this out to the local businesses? Because the first thing I did was send this to my marketing director. And I said, these are the things that this this company is doing.

Let's find ways that we can tag on to that. And she came up with a great plan for, like, coming in today to to ski, hike, whatever, warm up with the blah blah blah. So what are we doing to sort of make sure that those small businesses that have a lot of concerns and and maybe could really benefit from knowing what's happening and what sort of traffic is being driven and how how are we getting that into their hands?

I can speak to that. This is Ellen at Los Alamos County.

Doctor. Hi, Ellen.

Yeah, I figured you'd know.

Doctor. We are working onthere's a review process, obviously, that has to go along first before we publish a webpage that's going to have all this information and the running data and reports. And once that happens, we are planning to put out a press release to inform the general public. And then obviously in our I'm drawing a blank at the correct the bottom line. Yeah, it's the correct e newsletter.

That will obviously have that information in as well as the county line to inform people this information is available to you if you're interested, and just let them know it exists And, you know, if they have any feedback or comments, who to contact about that, about, you know, what they're seeing at their location, that sort of thing. So we are aiming to hopefully do that, before the end of the month to have that launched.

Okay. Just as long as I figured there was a plan in place, but I know it's a question that'll be asked. Yeah. And I wanna kinda be able to point folks. I wanna kinda circle back to what Gina asked about the the Dallas, Fort Worth, and the general Colorado.

So right now, we're looking at these month to month, it sounds like. Like, you're looking at the data at the end of each month for the previous month. Are we thinking about the fact that spring breaks are about to trigger across this across the board? And we I'm with Dana. We see a lot of spring break traffic out of Texas that comes through Dallas Fort Worth, but we see it from basically every area of Texas between about the March all the way through the April.

And in between that, we see Arizona. And then the other big market that we see for spring breaks is California, especially the ones who are coming from the other national lab sites. So we see, you know, the Livermore families and things like that. So that's just more of a a data point for you to kind of be thinking about too, like, without over saturating or kinda, like you said, diluting that money. If if we're taking a look at when people typically travel spring break, you know, summer, and then again during balloon fiesta.

But I can probably provide some of that data just from our end of where the typical spring breaks tend to fall and the amount of tourism we see. And a lot of those people tell us, like, yeah. We kind of planned this last minute. We decided, you know, last month where we were gonna go. Because families who are on spring break travel tend to be on a tighter budget than folks who are planning well in advance. So that's just a a little bit of following up on Dana. But that was really it. That's a great report. Thank you. Well, I appreciate Really easy to use.

I appreciate the compliment. I have a last minute planner, so I wasn't until I got married to a last minute planner. So I appreciate that. What we can do, and, Ellen, we can discuss this at our next meeting, is develop a spring break focused ad.

Yep. That's already on my

my list. So And get those markets that and forgive me. I see miss Engman. What is your first name? I feel so Brandy. Yeah. Brandy. Okay.

Yeah. Nobody nobody calls me by my last name. It's Okay. People do. So Brandy, it's great.

I know. I feel weird just asking. We can Brandy, if you wanna send us some of those markers that you're able to identify through the work that you're doing, that would be really useful. Yeah. I think that's a great idea. And and the neat thing about spring break is where you're located is a lot of people say, I wanna go somewhere warm, especially, like, from Colorado. And we all think that New Mexico is warm, and then we go and it's not. But at minimum, we can get some folks down there. Right? You know, just so yeah.

So if you could send Ellen that list, and we have it on our to dos to discuss and to get with our ads manager. K. Kirsten, are you all set with the was there anything else on that deck that you needed to talk about?

Nope. I am good. Thank you.

So we're all set unless anybody has any questions for Destination IQ.

No. It all looks great. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Yeah. It's been

really fun.

Thank you.

Alright. And then we're on to discover Los Alamos, and Melanie could not be here today. So all of her reports are in your agenda packet. So you will see everything that she has reported out in there.

Yeah, these are all available for reference. Something I do want to point out, if I can get to the slide, there is some visitation information we have been waiting on that should be in from the National Park Service come January 15 is their deadline for numbers. So right now there's a lot of bandolier numbers that you're seeing as zero or kind of like unfinished, unofficial numbers. So I just wanted to point that out when you're looking at the December report regarding annual visitation, there is quite a bit that's missing from Bandelier due to the fact that all their information is not in yet. I believe it's September and onward that they have not yet reported on. But, yeah, that's

all we really have for these reports.

Alright. Awesome. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions over those reports?

Just if I could, Ellen, just I think that one of the things that I have always had questions about with these reports is how it's decided, which attractions are going to report. And then a question that we were asked by a local artist recently after they discovered that Brenda Fleming was being displayed in the visitor center. I honestly don't know how you guys get folks to be displayed in the visitor center, and I'd like to be able to answer that question. We don't have to answer that in this meeting. I just would like a little more information about, how we're directing local businesses on how they get displayed in those areas, how the displays are rotated, who who like, if it's a first come, first served.

And then also, like I said, the data, which places are reporting because I see, you know, like, the parks and the Bradbury and the history museum and the nature center, but I don't necessarily see things like I don't know if you guys get reports from, like, the golf course on the difference between locals that are using the golf course versus you know, things like that. I don't know how high up on our radar those are, but I would really like to see this sort of expanded out just a little bit so that we're capturing a a bigger picture of things that people are using beyond just the the things we expect them to use.

Mhmm. So Yeah. Regarding the visitor center, your point of contact who is in charge of all of that is Melanie Pena. So she'd be the one you contact. I I can't recall if it's quarterly or monthly that they switch out the businesses, but she's the one who does all the directing regarding that. So that's your contact for artwork and businesses.

Are there any other comments or questions? All right. Then I think we will go ahead and move on to our work plan.

All right. So the next item is regarding more discussion around the work plan. We started this in December, and if you guys recall, there was much discussion about how we could break it down and also be more specific with some of the goals and achievements you have listed in this. So there is a recommended action once we get through any edits or comments based on the updates made to it. I think for the sake of time to make sure that we stay on task, I hope that the board members have already reviewed the current draft and instead I'd just like to start with, I guess, kind of the top of it when we look at the one point zero secondtion and kind of go through each section and say, Do you have any comments, questions, concerns around changes to verbiage?

Instead of going individually. I think that might help us a little bit for time. So we'll start with 1.1. Does anyone have any concerns or edits that they feel need to be made to any of the 1.1 for the top activities for the previous year?

All right, I think we're good to move on.

All right. We will move into the 1.2 which is the top five accomplishments for the previous calendar year. Are there any comments, questions, or concerns around what is currently listed there? 1.2.

Ellen, can I make a suggestion, please?

Absolutely. Go for it, Brandy.

For one point two point two, it would be good to link that seven year review strategic strategic plan. Just just something instead of just during which most of the year was reviewed and discussed, it'd be good for for public sake, for future board sake to to have a quick way to see that.

I can make that addition.

Thank you.

Any other comments or concerns around, the one point two secondtion?

Alright.

We will move on to 1.3. Any comments, questions, or concerns around the lessons learned from the previous calendar year? I'm not seeing any. Okay. Moving on to two point o, which is your calendar year 2026 work plan.

Any comments, edits, concerns around any of these for your upcoming year? And for this one as well in 2.1.2, Brandy, I can also link to it again there.

Go for it.

In two point one point three, is this the board's job, or is it county and staff's job? Because the the 2.1 overarching theme is special projects or assignments given to this board. I just wanna make sure that we're

Yeah. Impervient. This is in, if I recall correctly, regarding some of the state statute. You can utilize lodgers tax funds to do things like enhance amenities, you know, and utilize outdoor facilities and encourage some of this other stuff to allow for more overnight stays. So I think what this personally, refers to is the the correlation connection that I see in two point one point three is utilizing your lodgers tax funds for some of the things that we discussed around marketing efforts to, you know, help increase the capacity by highlighting some of our indoor and outdoor facilities and to the amenities that exist.

Does that make sense how that would connect to your funds since you're helping fund marketing efforts?

Yes. Could we add that language in there? Oversee the funding that helps to promote the the, you know, the laundry list of things.

Yeah.

Just so that there's a clarified Give me one second.

I agree with is that Connor? I think you're just

small on my screen. Sorry.

Yeah. I that that was I would say too, like, if we could put something in there, like, work within the lodgers tax state statute to advise on the promotion of tourists, blah blah blah blah blah. Something that makes it really clear that, like, I can't run an ad for someone. Like, I can't do that. So just just to keep us really clear with the public.

Give me one second. I'm trying to wordsmith. Okay. I'm going to throw out some language. Let me know if you like the edits or if this sounds good to you. I think to 2.1.3, we can add the sentence at the end. This will be done within the lodgers tax state statute to advise on the spending of funds to encourage these overnight stays. Does that work?

Anything anything that refers back to what our our restrictions are.

Mhmm.

Any other comments, questions, concerns about 2.1?

Alright.

We'll go into 2.2, which is list other projects and or activities being proposed by this board or commission in priority order. Any questions, comments, concerns about what is currently listed or edits you'd like to make?

Ellen, for two point two point three

Mhmm.

Explore ways to highlight the small business community to visitors and increase can can we say visitor length of stay? That's just my sort of pedantic point.

Related to there so you know who you're

referring to.

Yeah. Increase visitor length of stay in Los Alamos County in order to help the development of the small business community. I I think something that because just knowing the small business community in Los Alamos, they want to be very specific about how they're being benefited in that section. So something that, you know, yes, it highlights the small business community and increases the length of stay, which in turn then benefits that small business community. I know it seems a little redundant, but I think we need to highlight that given that there is a lot of questions and concerns from that particular community about how this money is being spent in in benefit of that particular section.

Yeah.

Anybody else have any concerns with two point two?

All right.

Two point three is listing the guiding documents. The thing that we added that I don't believe was in the 2025 version was the plans that are being created by Destination IQ. Once they're delivered and approved by the county, there are obviously additional items that you can refer to as to what work is being done in tourism. Three point o is regarding interfaces with other county departments and boards or commissions necessary to achieve the work plan. If you feel anything is missing, please just unmute and call it out.

This was the section I had the most notes on. So I I try to come at this as though I don't understand how things work. Mhmm. So to kind of so, like, interfacing with these county departments without bloating this section tremendously

Mhmm.

Helping the public better understand what those interfaces mean at each of those levels. So interfacing with county council, county managers, to me, an interface could be as simple as reporting, but understanding the difference between what county council can do because they can approve plans and they can suggest things, whereas the county development department might be the one that executes things. I don't necessarily know it's a change that you can make easily, but I do think it's something we need to keep in mind is that one of the transparency questions that comes up a lot is who does what. And you have a a pretty significant section here that you could sort of broaden those into how each of those departments might be utilized without writing 15 paragraphs. So that's something just to maybe put in our pockets is to make sure that we understand that the community might have questions about what those interfaces look like in the long run.

Mhmm. And then especially with the other boards, I see, like, interfacing with the art and public places board. You know, we see it all the time. Well, why can't we use art and public places money to keep the the shoe store from going out of business? You know? But we know that that's not how that works. So even just, again, maybe links to each of those departments or boards. Mhmm. So that folks can take it upon themselves to educate themselves about what those different areas might look like.

Yeah. I can definitely add links to that

for each of those. It it seems like the fastest. And I I do believe

that Otherwise, like you said, it becomes

responsibility. Yeah.

A lot of paragraphs. Yeah.

But I I do know that the the quicker someone can click on something and be like, well, I don't know what the community development department is. We're just we're just showing that we do care that they educate themselves on those things.

Four point zero. Anything anybody feels we need to add?

Alright.

And we'll move on to five point o, which is list acting active working groups within this board commission, if any, along with the purpose. I did make it a point to note that there was one task, but we we were unable to assign a liaison willing to be able to kinda run that group last year. Is there anything else anyone feels we need to add there at this point?

This this doesn't prevent us from forming working groups later.

Okay. At any time, your chair can decide to create a working group and give it a purpose. Thank you. It's it it isn't required that it has to be in your work plan because things can come up that then lead you to say, I think we need to have a working group to examine this certain thing. Right?

Right? The next part is the attachment A. I'm gonna try to just high level this because it's a high part. So basically we're checking off what boxes related council priorities this board is doing, communication and engagement, intergovernmental tribal regional relations and partnerships, fiscal stewardship, local businesses, downtown revitalization, educational arts, cultural and historical amenities, tourism and special events, open space, parks and recreation. And those are all the ones currently checked to be related to the work that you currently do.

Any comments, questions there? I'm going to read through real quick the edits that I will plan to make and the way that this is approached is I'll make the edits and then send them to your chair for approval. And the action Jen will add on to this that, you know, once she has approved it, you know, based on the edits today. So in one point two point two and two point one point two, we will be adding a link to the seven year review of the tourism plan for easy access so people understand what that is. In 2.1.3, we will be adding the sentence to the end of it.

This will be done within the lodgers tax state statute to advise on the spending of funds to encourage these overnight stays. In 2.2.3, changing the language to say and increase visitor length of their stay in Los Alamos County to help benefit the small business community. And then in three point o, add links to each of the different departments, boards, and commissions listed. And with that, I'm gonna point at Jen for the action.

Yeah. That all sounds great. Thank you so much, Ellen. I think everybody's happy with those changes. So then I think we just need to move and

So you have to say the full motion.

It's right there for you. You got this.

Where is it?

Oh, you gotta find it.

Oh, it's on the big screen. Alright. So I make a motion to approve the 2026 Lodgers Tax Advisory Board work plan as discussed with the edits in today's meeting?

I second.

Alright. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? No. So it moves. Thank you for putting that up there, Ellen. I was concerned I would miss something out of that. All right. So we're going to move on to discussion of meeting times. You can see staff put in there Ellen put in there for us a little bit a blurb. We did some research on when other lodgers tax advisory boards meet. Yeah. Go right ahead. Alright.

So this is regarding discussion and approval of the 2026 meeting times. There are two attachments, a quarterly option as well as a bimonthly, so every other month option. And now I'll kinda go through the history like Jen was talking about. So historically, the Lodgers Tax Advisory Board has met monthly on the third Tuesday from twelve to 01:30PM. However, in calendar year 2025, quorum challenges resulted in only seven of the 12 scheduled meetings being held.

It should be noted that in 2024, there were three meetings held, and in 2023, only six meetings held for Lodgers Tax Advisory Board due to lack of quorum. To address this issue, two alternative meeting schedules, a bimonthly option and a quarterly option are attached for the board's consideration. For context, several New Mexico municipalities meet bimonthly including Ruidoso, Moriarty, Las Cruces, and Rio Rancho, while others such as Edgewood, Corrales, and Espanola meet quarterly, and Farmington meets once annually. For context, they approve the budget and that is all they do in that meeting. Taos County meeting no more than six oh, excuse me, I hopped ahead.

Among counties, this is counties, not you know, communities or municipalities, counties meeting frequently also varies. With Santa Fe County meeting monthly, Taos County Meeting no more than six times per year and Sierra County Meeting quarterly. It should be noted that the counties listed all offer grant programs. So this is funding that they are offering to their community for events that are occurring. It is also recommended the board discuss which schedule they feel is best based on the quantity of work of the board.

I also want to point out, just because you approve your only meeting quarterly, that doesn't mean that if you feel there's a need for a special meeting, you can still schedule and host one. Your chair and your vice chair can make that choice. The same goes for bimonthly. If you feel there's something important that has come up that you want to work on, you can add in a special meeting, and we just have to give notice accordingly to the public so they're aware that meeting is occurring. And with that, I will open it up for discussion amongst the board.

All right. So does anyone have any strong opinions either way, whether we go quarterly or bimonthly?

Have a question. Sorry, Brandy. Go ahead.

Nope. Nope. You go ahead.

Okay. Thanks. As far as time goes, I know that at the last meeting, we discussed having them in the evening. Is that an option with decreasing the frequency, or is that not at the top they all say one to two?

That's correct. We determined that keeping the time at this point might just be good for consistency. Okay. And again, being that there are fewer happening that could incentivize people who are interested to attend them at this point. That is something that we felt, you know, maybe a year down the line, you could consider.

Okay. Thank you. Mhmm.

Ellen, if you could tell me so in 2023, this board met three times, in 2024, seven times, and in 2025, or did I get those wrong?

2023, six meetings. 2024, three meetings. 2025, seven meetings. Does that help?

Yeah. And then you said Rio Doso and Las Cruces are meeting bimonthly?

Bimonthly includes, yes, both of those that

K.

I think yes.

I I would lean in more towards the bimonthly rather than quarterly because because of the community we live in and the active engagement that we have from the small business community. I think six times a year is is a an easier ask for those of us on the ground while also sort of being able to give more give that business community more opportunities to meet with us than a quarterly would and and to have their voices heard and and be able to attend and hear what we're doing. So that that would be my I would lean towards a bimonthly.

And, you know, the twelve to 02:00 time frame every day is our quietest time in the hotel industry. I don't know about your the other industries we have on the board. But it's not so much sometimes the time as having to cover a shift, which is what keeps you or kept me from being able to come. I've only been on this board, I think, the last year, so before I was on the other. But, you know, there's so much that you guys, you know, that we wanna do, that the bimonthly for this year, at least this year, would probably be a good option so that we can really focus on moving forward with some of these things that we wanna get done.

Any other comments before you want to put it to a vote?

I don't think so. Sonya, do you have any comments? No? No, I'm good. All right. So it sounds like there's a little bit stronger support of the bimonthly schedule. So why don't we just start with the bimonthly schedule? Can we do that?

Okay. And I just have to take notes for vote.

Okay. So I guess I will just put it to a vote. All those in favor of meeting bimonthly for 2026 with the dates listed in there? What? Yeah, that's what I'm trying to do. It's okay. So I've I'll start out with those words this time, Connor, so I'm not confusing.

A second.

I'm trying to get all the everything in there. Great. So I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we meet bimonthly in 2026 with the meetings that are shown in the agenda packet. So all those in favor?

Second.

Oh, thank you. All right. Second there. Connor got our second. All those in favor?

Yes.

Alright. I think that carried unanimously. So we will meet bimonthly in 2026. And I think the last thing on our agenda Well, we did that. Yeah, you go ahead and do the next one. It's the Lodgers Tax Advisory Board.

This is a discussion of boards and commissions terms. At the November 13 boards and commissions luncheon, one of the items at the time, chair Cole discussed, was the boards and commissions term limits and how members felt about the current terms. Currently, Lodgers Tax Advisory Board terms are thirty six months in length, so that's three years. And the term limit is two, so you can serve a max of six years of your time. What she requested is to have boards and commissions discuss this topic and if you feel there should be any changes made around length or terms.

And then based on any discussion or opinions you shared today, I can bring that back to county staff.

Ellen, I I've mentioned this, on other occasions that I think the length of the terms is too long. So I would I I think six years is plenty to serve on one board, but it would be better if the length of the terms were two years with a maximum term limit of three terms simply because there are especially a board like this, we have a sort of a cohort of people who are going to be in and out of their roles potentially where they may no longer meet the role. And I also think it would help with recruitment of new board members. Three years, there's something psychologically about three years that feels a lot more difficult than two years. Committing to something for two years is is middle school.

Committing to something for three years is, you know, almost high school. So I that would just be my only thing. I've mentioned this before as a citizen, and I would love to have that feedback go back to chair. Well, the, yeah. Randy's the new chair, mister councilor Reidy. But I I think that's the feedback is shorter terms with that still six six year ability, you know, so that you get that sort of longevity of knowledge, but someone doesn't feel like they're they're cutting out a full third of their term if they need to leave at the two year mark or whatever. So just just my 2¢.

Yeah. Go ahead.

I think it allows Brandy's proposal allows for more staggered terms too so you don't lose 60% or however five of the six four of us five of us are the same term length, I think, right now. So staggering them, I think, would be helpful in that sense.

Any other comments? Alright. I think we're down to voting for Sharon Beitstier. So we need to vote in or keep the current chair and vice chair of the board. So if anyone wants to talk about if you would like to be chair or vice chair, I think that's what we do. Or not be. Or nominate someone. Thank you. Boy, we're really having trouble today. And my kid wasn't up at three a.

M. Yeah, so either nominate someone for a chair or vice chair, or if you would like to be in either position, go ahead and speak up.

Well, I personally would love to see our current chair and vice chair, stay in their positions if that is something they're willing to do.

That would be my question to the current chair and vice chair is would you like to continue your roles? Because sometimes it can feel like an obligation, and it's okay to say I'd like to not do this again.

As chair, I am great with continuing as chair.

And in that case, I'm also in favor of that. And who's vice chair is is that is that Connor?

It's Connor. It's me, Brandy. Hi. Hi.

How are you feeling? Fired. Okay. So so my same question goes to you. I I think sometimes we tend to, not ask the the current folks how they're doing and if they would like to continue before we we ask them to continue those roles.

I'd be happy to continue serving. Thank you for asking.

Then I would go right along with what Dana said, and I'd like to nominate, our current chair, Jennifer Olson, to continue in her role as chair and, our current vice chair, Connor Tharp, to continue in her role as vice chair.

And I would love to second that.

Alright. Great. Thank you. All in favor? Carried unanimously again. So thank you so much. I really appreciate everyone showing up today, and I really wanna thank the everybody on the board for showing up to do this work. I really appreciate your presence and your thoughtful responses and all that you add to this meeting every single month and now bimonthly. We got Linda.

I just have a quick comment, Board. Last meeting, the 2026 Council Strategic Leadership Plan was brought up and it was noted that it was not on the website. That has, the the pretty version of that has been, uploaded to the website. If you go to council page and look under plans and documents, you can find that 2026, plan. So just wanted to note that.

Thank you. Can any of us move to adjourn? Because some of us have to go tinkle.

Yes. And and you can go ahead and move that, and then we will meet again on March 17. Yep.

Then in that case, I move that we adjourn this meeting.

Terrific. Thanks so much, and thanks for your time, Brandy. I know today was a

Thank you so much for being willing to service Cherigan.

Yeah. Yep.

Alright. Thanks.

You all.

Thank you.