Lodgers' Tax Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Call to order 12:10. Next on the agenda is approval of today's agenda. Is there any questions, additions, discussion?

Move to approve.

Alright. We have a first.

Mhmm. Yeah.

Great. We have a second. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Great. Review and approval of meeting minutes. First one here is from May 6. Are there any changes to the minutes from our last meeting in May? Kevin?

Yeah. I think there, was a couple things I noticed. One is that I had distributed a matrix of these questions that we're pursuing answers to on what Datify can do for us. And I noted that wasn't incorporated in the minutes, and would ask that that be corrected and put in there. The second thing was in term with regard to our discussion of the work plan, talked about and I think it was agreed that the work plan should get posted on the web page for the lodgers tax board just for public being able to to see our work plan. Okay.

Yeah. So it was my understanding you requested to have that be in the next, meeting. So it is on this agenda for the record, regarding the work plan. But if you'd like that to also be published online, I can make that happen too. I don't feel that that needs to be a part of the minutes themselves since it will be in these minutes because it's a part of this agenda as a record. Regarding the matrix, it was my understanding that that wasn't sent until after the meeting, so that would not have been a part of the discussion.

Well, I handed that out at the meeting, and then you asked me to email it to you, which I did. So

Yeah.

Okay. So based on the guidance I'm receiving, because that wasn't handed out prior, so it could be a part of the agenda proper as part of the packet, that is not needed to be included in the minutes.

Well, how will anyone know what we were talking about when we talked about that?

Okay.

So, Kevin, do you know I can't recall if that was my recollection is it wasn't included as part of the record when we were having that discussion. Are are you aware that that might have gone a different direction or anybody else who's on the board? Was that ever put into record as a part of the to be a part of the agenda or the minutes?

My recollection is that it was under board communications, and I handed it out. I brought enough copies for everyone. And then you asked me afterwards to email you an electronic copy of which I did. I could go back and look at the video, I guess, if if that's necessary. Is there an objection to that being part of of the the of the record?

Yeah. So, because the public couldn't view it at

the meeting, that's where the discrepancy is over here regarding including that in the minutes because, they weren't able to view that. Even the people that were online that are on this call now were not

able to review that and see that in real time during the discussion.

So so how could do we make it public? What's the proper way?

Can I get you to do this one? Thanks.

So, essentially, what the document is is a visual aid or for all intents and purposes, an exhibit to the discussion at the meeting. So unless that document and I'm not saying it was. I'm saying I think the recollection between staff and and myself is that if it was not available for public view at the time of the meeting in the form of either being published to the screen or courtesy copies being provided at the time of the discussion, then at that time, it could not be introduced into the record proper, and it would therefore not be appropriate to include that in the minutes. If, however, there is a different recollection that, in fact, that was available for view by the public. It was a visual aid to the discussion that, like I said, was available for anybody who was participating online, in person, that they were able to view, then, yes, we would include that as a record of that discussion.

But simply disseminating it to members during the discussion in a format that is not available to public view and then therefore not including it or asking it be included as a record to that meeting in those minutes, it would not be appropriate now, after the fact to include them as part of that record.

So what's the proper way to make it available? Say a public member is watching the video of our discussion and is interested in knowing what were we talking about. What's the proper way to make that public?

So, ideally I mean, and You switch. Sure. I said I I switched. Why do I have so many mics? Ideally, if there's a means by which if it's sent electronically to Ellen perhaps during the time of the meeting, she can do a share screen option and then project it through any members who might be online.

But also, in doing so, it's clearly available to anybody who might be attending in person. So making sure that she has it in some format that she can then publish through the means that we have here. Or another alternative would be to, if you have copies for members, but maybe not for the public, reading through it or saying, I'm looking at a document that says, we're discussing a 10 item list, and it is related to this topic. It's been provided for the members here today. We'll make sure that a copy is included in the minutes.

I'd like to ask this be included as an exhibit or visual aid as part of the record. So just basically stating that what so that whatever you're looking at, whatever you're discussing, is if not available for publication in the forms we talked about, at least it's clear what you're looking at so the public you don't have access to something and are discussing something that is not available to the public. There may be sort of as an additional step to that, there are situations, certainly, where you might be having a discussion and an item, a document perhaps, comes up that was maybe not part of the agenda packet, but maybe contributes something to the discussion in that situation. Again, ideally, it's in a format that we can publish to a screen or make copies available to the public. But there's nothing that then precludes you from saying, you know, we were given this document.

We've clearly been relying on it in this discussion. We'd like to add this as a record or as an exhibit to this discussion. And you can do it at that time. What's important is that you make sure that anything that you are relying upon is both available to the public at the time it is discussed, and also that you make sure verbally that you ask it be part of the record and is not just, you know, a visual aid like a slide in a presentation, or if we pull up something online to support the discussion but don't really need it in the minutes, it is clear that that was a record to the discussion. And it's preserved in case somebody wants to go back and see what you were referencing as you discussed that.

So I think it would probably be possible today if it's available to be shared with Ellen, and we can kind of confirm that that's the same document that you were discussing at that time. I think when we amend the minutes, it would be possible to include it. But we would have to have a means of being able to say, oh, we this is the document we're using, by the way. This is the exact same thing. We would like that to to have the minutes amended to include this this document and then have it available for the public.

So I think it will come up and follow-up today. And so, Ellen, you have that. And so presumably, we'll we we can take care of that today and make it part of today's minutes when that when that comes up.

Sure. Yeah. And then because we're doing it after the fact, you know, it will you know, maybe yourself and then a second, it would might make sense to say, please confirm that this is the same document we were discussing at that time. And, you know, just so that we're clear, it's it's the same exact thing even though there's been some difference in time between.

Yeah. And it can just pertain to today's minutes and today's discussion.

Sure.

It might it can carry over as well if it's something you might be continuing to use. So yep.

Alright. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes as presented?

Move to approve.

Thank you, Kevin. A second? Second.

Hello?

Second. Thank you. All in favor of approving the minutes, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Great. Minutes are approved as presented. Thank you. Our next section is public comment for items not on the agenda. Is there anyone online or in person with public comment?

Alright. Seeing none. We'll move on to the n m true co op marketing plan update. We do have a lot of presentations today. So a 192 pages to be exact. So if we can hold the questions and comments to the end of the presentations just to try to, you know, keep everybody's, brain on straight and let people get through through their presentations, that would be appreciated. Awesome. Joni, I think that's you.

Okay. Can you guys hear me okay? Mhmm. Alright. Perfect. This is a very large document, so I'm going to go through the highlights. Hopefully, every everybody's had a chance to review it. And, counselor Hand, welcome. I don't know if you've had a chance to view it. So I'm just gonna give a little bit of an update, and then we'll go through some of the specifics.

So, Los Alamos County has been participating with the New Mexico tourism department cooperative advertising program since it was started in 2012. And since the pandemic, so since 2020, the way that the state has worked is they pay $2 for every dollar we spend with them. So it used to be a one for one match. Now it's a two for one match. It's been a very robust for us.

So I just wanna remind everybody, our budget is a 132,500. Out of that, we spend 15,000 toward this New Mexico true campaign. The additional funds come from the county's general funds. Then we also spend 7,500 a year with Datify, which is our data tracking system. So net net, we have about a $110,000 for everything else.

So it's a very small budget, which is why the New Mexico True has been so appealing to us because it gets us in places we couldn't afford on our own. So, Ellen, let's just scroll down, and let's start with the recap of '25. So I think you've you've pulled up that summary. Yes? Okay.

So this is what, we applied for and what was awarded. So you'll see that it's a, over $200,000 advertising package, and the state is paying a $133,000 $614. The county pays $66.08 $0.07. So out of the lodgers tax fund, 15,000 out of out of the budget of the $132.05 that that I have, that Sunny 505 has, and the remainder came from the counties for that 66,000. So we, we did a still photo production, and you'll see some of the photos later on as we scroll through the report.

It was really, really fabulous. We're always looking for new photos and to update what we have to things fresh. The regional micro influencer seasonal destination program, this was the first year. It was really fabulous. And so what the tourism department did was they brought in, regional social media influencers.

And social media influencers are especially, effective with, I would say, Gen X and millennials. So what we're seeing in tourism trends right now is that the younger demographics really rely on recommendations from their peers. So we had a different social media influencer in town for three days, four times every quarter. And then those influencers shared it out on their social media. We got great assets also in the report. Then we had

in the hand

Yeah. If you it's if you Kevin, if you click on the link, everything's in there. It's like a 100 page report from, New Mexico True, and that that link is live on the PDF that Ellen sent.

So not in the handout, but it's in the, link In

the agenda.

In the agenda as

huge. So I expect you to read it, and I'm gonna give you a pop quiz. Just kidding. But there's a lot there. It's I mean, it really goes into a lot of depth. New Mexico Magazine, we had a custom written article as well as digital distribution. New Mexico Magazine has a circulation of 90,000. 60% are from outside of New Mexico, and it's a paid subscription. So that's a really good place for us to be people who love New Mexico. Manage search.

So we did six months. This is Google AdWords. And you'll see as we get further in the report how that worked, but people, you know, that were searching for certain items like national parks in the Southwest, one of our ads show up. Then we had a digital package, which included New Mexico in travel and tender ads. So these are people who have expressed an interest in visiting New Mexico, and then they get served up our ads.

And then we had Facebook, both static, and then remarketing. So the the agency that the New Mexico tourism department works with is mBuy. And so what they're doing is they're running static ads on Facebook, and people who don't interact don't click on our ad continue getting it served up. I always like to explain this to people. Find it like, if I look at a pair of shoes on Amazon and then I don't buy it, and then for three days, I see those same pairs of shoes everywhere I go on the Internet, that's remarketing.

And the statistics show that 40% of people when they're remarketed will then purchase. So that's why we target those people. So that's the New Mexico travel and tender ads. Then the New Mexico true adventure guide, this is the semiannual publication that the tourism department puts out. They do a fall excuse me, a summer issue and a winter issue.

Circulation on that that they print is 300,000. That gets distributed to visitor centers throughout New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Arizona. Also gets taken to trade shows that the tourism department goes on, and then it lives online at newmexico.org. And then Denver fifty two eighty magazine. This is the lifestyle magazine of the Denver Metropolitan Area. Their circulation is about a 150,000, and then they also have a robust online and digital program. So we had three full page ads with them. Okay. Next slide. Back to the report.

And, again, this is a really, voluminous report, so we'll just kinda go through the highlights. So that was for fiscal twenty five that ended on June 30. So, hang on just a second. One thing just before you go on, Ellen. So you'll see for that $200,000, we had eight and a half million impressions. And to the right, you just see there, those were some of the ads that we did at Bandelier. And then then let's move forward to 2026. So this started last week. Actually, I guess not last week. No.

Two weeks ago since we're on the fifteenth on on July 1. So we have a little bit less money, to work with this year. Still Still $15,000 is being budgeted out of the lodgers tax, tourism marketing contract. The balance will come from the county, and we've been awarded a 163,500. Los Alamos' commitment for that is 54,500. First thing we're doing is video production, and that will be in the fall. We felt this was really necessary. The last time we did video production in with the New Mexico tourism department was in 2019. So we feel like it's it's old, and we needed to refresh. So we'll be doing that.

We're redoing the micro influencer seasonal destination program. It will be with four different social media influencers. We're continuing with the managed search. We upped our digital package this year to the sterling level. Last year, we were at the pinion level. So the difference is this year, it includes Instagram, and it includes sponsored content and YouTube. So YouTube is now the second largest search engine behind Google, so that's another great place for us to be. And then we have the New Mexico travel and tender ads and then rich media static ads. So all that gets added to that sterling silver package. Alright.

Let's keep going back to the report. So the creative brief, let's just pause here for a second. So our outdoor recreation is really one of the things we love to promote because we have hundreds of miles of hiking, biking, skiing. We also frequently talk about the gateway to three national parks, Bandelier, the Vios, and the Manhattan Project. And then, of course, history, science, and discovery for all ages.

Oppenheimer, we still see a bump from the movie. Thank you, Chris Nolan. The, Bradbury Science Museum, the Los Alamos History Museum, the Los Alamos nature center, science fest, etcetera. Our main demographics are Albuquerque, Dallas, and Denver, and this has been verified by both people who check-in at the visitor center and give us their ZIP code as well as what we're seeing from the Datify software. So the demographics that we are targeting, Gen Xers, which is people forty three to fifty eight, millennials, twenty seven to forty two, young boomers, empty nesters, fifty nine to sixty four.

Not to say we're gonna turn anybody away who's younger or older, but that tends to be the primary people that are visiting. And then the psychographics, what makes them wanna come here is history, outdoor, cultural heritage. And, we also are looking for day trippers. So everybody is aware that we have limited lodging capacity in Los Alamos. So we are also looking to promote things to people from Santa Fe, Taos, Albuquerque, and that includes all the free attractions, our festivals, outdoor rec, and then turning them into repeat visitors.

And then, of course, we want everybody to support the local businesses, eat, drink, explore while they're there. So, basically, our tone is welcoming. We're a small mountain town with science and history. We're affordable. We're family friendly, and we love science and discovery.

So we'll look. We're gonna scroll through a lot of this, but this is interesting. You know, we call them personas, the types of people, what they do, what kind of media they consume, and we can keep going. There's links. And, Kevin, all the things in blue are links that you can, know, you can go into and and look at more specifically.

So let's keep going, Alan, because, I mean, really, this is a very long report. Okay. We can stop on some of the data lit data data analytics, so we'll keep going. And so what I love about this is they give us very specific metrics so that we can see that the money was spent as we purchased it and what what was delivered. So what you'll see here is this is from Facebook, the travel and tender ads, the Google AdWords, and the sponsored content.

We spent 46,951. And, again, we only spent a third of that. Two thirds was paid for by the tourism department. And we had 4,400,000 impressions and total clicks of 50,363. So it's a little over it's, like, 1.1%, which is right in the kinda standard for the national metrics on that.

And then it breaks it down so you can see quarter one, quarter two. The pie chart shows what percent went to Facebook, when what what went to travel the travel and tender, what went to, sponsored content, and what went to SEM search engine marketing, also known as Google AdWords. And we can keep going. Well, let's just stop here for a second because it also shows here the amount of people. This I think this is pretty interesting.

On the Intender ads, we actually were able to go all the way to who booked hotel rooms, which is great. So we had a tracking pixel that on the website. So if you look at the New Mexico travel and tender, those ads drove 36 bookings, 16 hotel night stays, 629 in destination visits for Los Alamos. And then the top three most booked dates were, December 30, January 14, and November 9. And the average lead time was a little over a month, and the average stay was one point six days.

So that's interesting just to see that people are tending to book closer to the time of departure, not doing long, long planning out. Anyway, lots here to read. Okay. And also their recommendations. Then we have quarter three, smaller spend.

It's kind of our shoulder season. And, also, just just let me just say one thing. The quarters are the fiscal year quarter. So quarter one is July 1 to September 30. Quarter two is October 1 to December 31. Quarter three is January 1 to March 30. Our that's our shoulder season. And quarter four is April 1 to June 30. So it's not calendar year. So just important to get our heads around that as we're looking at these.

Okay. Keep going down. This is some of the different ads that we did, certainly pushing Oppenheimer, Bandolier. This is what ran in that September, October, November period. So that you can see here, so this is budget travel.

So these are how the ads are showing up in a New Mexico travel and tender display. So the story is whatever they were featuring there. It looks like it was, Santa Fe and Taos, Northern New Mexico, and our ad shows up right there. So it's just another example, smarter travel. So so these ads are showing up where people are on the Internet.

So we're buying the demographic. So, Melanie, if I was buying you and I want, you know, a young boomer who's active and loves history, wherever you go on the Internet, those ads are gonna get served to you. Just fun. And then this is showing the, sponsored content, what that looks like. And some of our micro influencer seasonal.

So there's Becky at Albuquerque Adventure, some of her posting, and then our still photo production. So we did a really fun shoot with an Oppie look alike. Obviously, Oppenheimer has long since left us, but we have a whole bunch of shots of this person, you know, dressed in the typical Oppie suit, Oppie hat, and so we shot him in various places around, the county. And then we had a young family at the Bradbury. I mean, the Bradbury is such an amazing asset, and it's a hard one to shoot.

And so we did half a day there on Monday when they closed. And then we had this active boomer couple, and we did some hiking. So we have some great new assets to use. And then our den Denver 5280. Keep on going. This is Chris Desmond from Desmond Travel. So so his posts and then the managed search. So these are, the Google AdWords. So this shows what they look like. So, again, I'm online, and I'm searching great hiking spots, Northern New Mexico, and up pops the ad.

And then they gave us plenty of things for for takeaways. I think that's pretty much it, Ellen, that we need to go over. Just keep scrolling. I don't know if I can't remember how long the Yeah. So then this is the it's the definitions. Yep.

Mhmm. Yeah. And then it gets into the definitions and things like that. And as you can see, they really kinda give us after every campaign. I'm gonna scroll back to this one. You know? It's really great that they offer things like going forward, the search team recommends focusing more of your budget on, you know, the keyword scenic view instead of some of the other words that we tried for. And that's really beneficial because it helps you better target your audience, and then, we get more people that actually are more realistically to come and visit Los Alamos.

And Ellen and I spend a lot of time on the phone with the New Mexico tourism department. So they're monitoring these every day and filling us in and and making recommendations. So with that, do we wanna open it up for questions? But if you haven't had a chance to read it, I would say read it and maybe we spend some more time on it at the next meeting because it's there's a lot here.

I have a couple questions that and I think Joni's idea is good going to the next meeting, but it might be questions to anticipate for the next meeting or something. The the one is when I look at the performance summary, it talks about Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denver, not Albuquerque. And if I remember right, Albuquerque wasn't part of the plan last year, but did I pick up right that it's going to be part of the plan in the next year?

So we market Albuquerque separate from New Mexico True. So we so with New Mexico True, they only give us two destinations. So we're we're doing Dallas, Fort Worth, and Denver. And with our additional marketing, we go after Albuquerque.

So that's will be the same in the the coming year?

Yes.

The second question I have on the page about the performance summary on NM travel and tenders, it talks about return on ad spend. And I see that's not in the glossary and not not for today, but maybe the next time you you could provide information of how they create that number or how they'd

Okay.

Create that number or to explain explain it. You know?

I will. That's a that's a New Mexico true question. But I'll find out. And they they have some advanced software that we don't have, and that would be my guess is how they're doing it. But I'll get a firm answer for the August meeting.

Oh, one one last question then. When you did those first couple of slides, I kinda quickly tried to tally up. So if I understand right, Los the Los Alamos share in f y twenty five is about was about 65,000 of the of the expenditure. And in the coming year, it's anticipated to be 53,000. Do those sound about right?

They're about. Yes.

Yes.

And only a fraction of that is larger sex, correct?

That's correct. As Joni mentioned, it's only 15,000 of whatever those numbers might be. And some of that is based on when we put in for the grant, they determine and kind of decide, here's what we can offer you. And then we have to decide yes or no based on our budget. So for example, that's why this year we were able to go up into the what is it?

Sterling? Correct me if I'm wrong, Joni, for that one that she mentioned that we increased, and that was because what they offered to us was different year to year. Obviously, you know, not not every single year you can have a budget where you can afford to get new photos and video assets unless you're a major city that can handle that kind of monetary amount.

I think for the money that we're putting in, this is a great return.

I'll explain. It is. And and, you know, it's it's it's interesting because it started during the pandemic, you know, where everybody was really hurting that they did the two for one And then they kept it for '21 as we were coming out of the pandemic. And I kept saying, I don't know that this is gonna go on forever, and then it's continued. So, I mean, we've had it now through 2026.

It's always dependent dependent on the amount of money that is awarded to the tourism department from the legislature. So it's you know, historically, how did it was one to one for as long as I can I've been doing tourism marketing for over thirty years, and it used to be just one for one match. This two for one is so helpful for small communities. So when it's tourism day next year at the legislature, and I know it's a budget year next year, the more people we can get up there to talk about how important this is to small communities like Los Alamos. Because you look at you know, as I said, when we started, we have about a $110,000 budget, and then we get 200,000 from the tourism department.

You know, that's that's huge for a community like us. So plug for lobbying our legislators.

Any more questions for Joni and her marketing plan update? Alright. Ellen, is this year seven progress report you?

That is indeed me. Yes. You're up. Alright. So I did include as an attachment the entire strategic plan that's a little over 80 pages if I recall correctly.

So bear with me because I need to scroll through that to get to the next section we are focusing on. So the way that I kind of broke this down, as a part of your work plan, you're kind of tasked with determining what is the status of our current plan and what still needs to be completed and what are your recommendations and suggestions to get to that point where we can say we've either, you know, gone through and initiated all these things, or here's where they stand, and here's here might be why this initiative did not happen that was suggested in the plan. It should be noted that we did work with an external vendor back in 2018 when they created this. Just bear with me. I'm trying to move as fast as I can here.

Let's see. And then what we're gonna be getting into today is I think I'm almost at the part of the report almost, of the the kind of full view of what we're getting into, which is the 1.1 and the one point twos of these suggestions. Maybe. I think we're almost there. Here we go.

In the in the priorities. And it should be noted, before I kinda get into this that the it it will be in there as part of one of the things was to create a tourism implementation task force. And the last time they did report to council on the status was 2022. And then in 2024 last year, I think a little bit before this time of year, it was absorbed back into the regular lodgers tax advisory board. And that was just due to the nature of the task force wasn't wasn't ever planned to live on forever.

And so they kind of got through the bulk of what they were tasked with, and then it went back into the board here. So these one point ones, I'm just going to read over the high level before we get into this because I think it might help with perspective. And I didn't include in my table all of these different sections of the action item, the responsible party, the cost, the funding source, the timing, strategic priorities. I sent this plan to you guys, I think, over a month ago in hopes that you would have some time to really digest it and get into it. So all of the ones that are 1.1, the goal was to focus on our marketing efforts to reflect our community to target visitors.

And then 1.2 was to enhance the opportunity to make a good first impression by providing an easy to navigate and welcoming setting. Bear with me because now I've gotta scroll through the rest of the report to get to the status of those. Here we go. Oh, no. Jumped too far.

Amy? Here we go. Oh, okay. So all of these, have at least, like, a a whole paragraph of, like, where the status of all of these currently sit. And we did kinda come down to less than 10 ways to describe what that true status is for each of these different action items.

So when you look at it from the whole for one point one and one point two together, provided I did my math correctly, there are six that are totally completed. 15 of these action items are considered continuous, so they're always on going. Completed and continuous, there's one that sits that way, one that's pending, seven that are in progress, and three that are considered inactive. Altogether, that's 33 items, again, provided I did my math correctly, for one point one and one point two. So to kinda look at these from the high level, meet with superintendents for the National Park Service and kinda coordinate our strategies.

That's continuous effort that we have with them. Completed funding and implementing the Los Alamos brand action plan. We're currently on version seven, last updated pre pandemic. Showcasing the creation of a promotional video to showcase where discoveries are made. There was quite a few different efforts that were included with that, as Joni mentioned.

2019 was the last time we did a video campaign with New Mexico True that was a part of this effort. There's 15 different videos that are promotional that are kind of related to this and both of those URLs for the YouTube channels can be found in in that reasoning section of that third one. As she said, as a part of 2025, we are planning to create a new video, and all of that will come out. In addition, create a targeted marketing plan for attracting science enthusiasts to Los Alamos. We can see that as completed.

That was the science is our culture campaign that was summoned in some of the promotional videos. So that obviously highlighted things like the Bradbury, the Baye Caldera, the Nature Center. And in addition, the Oppenheimer movie really helped put us more on the map and reminded people that science began here in a way and some of the discoveries that happened. In addition, implement or contract work to improve the function of the website. The redesign went live a little over a year ago.

We're continuously seeing an increase in an influx of visitation on those sites. Those are in the county manager reports that come out once a month. In addition, let's see, improve the presence with New Mexico. True. As Joni stated, we've been working with them for years, and that includes being a part of their grant packaging and then also ensuring any stories that they have are updated based upon you know, if they're quoting someone that hasn't been in a position for a few years, we went through that this spring and kind of updated all the materials.

During the pandemic, they really kind of hunkered down on creating more content marketing. So that's articles that tell you, here's why it's great to visit x place. And we are able to update those and get them, you know, more correct in terms of what's actually accurate now for what we offer in Los Alamos. I'm trying to keep myself in in the correct order here. I think I cut this one off a little bit, but this is related to opportunities in developing content to provide NM Department of Tourism.

So, again, that goes back to the New Mexico true partnership. And all of these are in order the same way that they are on that the action pages actually in the strategic plan. So if you can't see the full wording, that's how you can kind of match them together. The Atomic Trail designation, that's considered inactive at this point. It was notated that NMTD, which is the tourism department, developed a New Mexico science and technology trail, which included museums and other experiences throughout the state with Los Alamos.

So they consider that effort between that and the Atomic City spy tour that was created and then sunsetted due to materials not being in they were considered to be out of date, not maintained, and they were no longer available by LACDC. So it was kind of updated to be just a resource brochure around the Oppenheimer movie release. And for a while there, the history museum had their espionage tour too. So all those different things together, it's considered that we went through the process. We're still a part of the science and technology trail.

And we did put forth other efforts. So that's why it's considered inactive. And then participation with Northern New Mexico Air Alliance, we were a part of that. It was for a few years, and then it was determined that the the deliverables no longer made the partnership viable because for the price we were putting in, they couldn't really give us exactly what that money was going toward. And that's why we we kind of stopped working on that one, so it's considered inactive.

Continuous effort is contacting regional and national tour operators and travel agencies to coordinate services to Los Alamos. There's always a continuous effort of myself, and I know Mel in the audience here, working to connect with those different entities, whether they're in the area and they contact us. And we are working to create a web page when I get five seconds of my free time to have a page where if you're looking to visit and and wanna be a part of a tour group, it it will help provide, here's what services we have in terms of if you're looking at what are my options to feed these people while they're here, that sort of thing. In addition, ongoing contact with Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and other regional hotel concierge is that's continuous. If I recall correctly, it was La Fonda, right, that Mel said in this last week.

They want our materials again, which is great news because for a while there, they weren't really taking material from a whole lot of places. The other one along with that is contacting Heritage Hotels Resorts and similar boutique hotel family partnerships. So that was kind of some discussions that were had about creating specific tours related to Atomic City history for a day trip, but but it never fully came to to and the barriers for that are unknown. In addition, encouraging people to participate in the brand action plan visitor journey. It was called a two d.

It was the company we were using. At the time that this plan was created, we no longer use the a to d program, but we do have the Discover Los Alamos ambassador program that continues to support those efforts. And they've gone out to different locations like Bandelier and helped even train some of their staff. I think I understand that Bradbury, I believe, has also gotten that training along with some other locations in town aside from, you know, I the training session, Shannon and I went to, I think there was people from the Arts Council, the Friends of Caldera, and a few other entities here in town with the history museum, that sort of thing. So that effort continues.

In addition, developing multi day themed packages for visitors, There was a history and science brochure that was created and distributed. That stopped in 2022, and it was determined that the brochure was unpopular, so it stopped being published. The Homestead brochure was created in 2020 and pulled from distribution in 2024 due to being unpopular. And we are currently working to update the interpretive signage for the homesteaders as the current signage around town was taken down due to aging. So in the next year, hopefully, those efforts will continue.

And then, I think the plan right now is that it will likely also be its own web page to highlight that part of the history in Los Alamos. In addition, the Oppenheimer film tour was released as a part of Project Oppenheimer, and it continues to be one of the most popular brochures that we have. Also, the focus of marketing material creation from print to online. So doing continuous inventory of marketing and promotional collateral to make sure everything looks consistent along with the messaging. So the entire suite was updated back in 2020.

Obviously, that made it really, really hard because COVID hit right in the midst of that entire process. In 2023, the entire suite was a finalist for a New Mexico Top Hat Award, which is a part of the New Mexico Hospitality Association. We now have over 22 kiosks in the county and distribute our adventure guides across the state and region. So in 2025, we recently did a review, and we've been working with Mel because Mel's the one out there filling all those kiosks every time they're emptied and determining, okay, which brochures are we ordering the most and which ones aren't getting picked up as much? And maybe it's time to consider, do we continue with those efforts or do we set them aside and see if anyone, you know, says anything about it in a way?

In addition, coordinating with attractions and shuttle buses to show Los Alamos promotional videos. So that started in 2017 on the Bandolier buses in the downtown circular until about 2020. Of course, COVID was happening, and the software and hardware required to run the videos became old. Right now, we're pursuing updated hardware and software to see how this might work and adding four buses because now that the Bandelier shuttle, especially this season, we know that they're not stopping at the visitor center, so they're missing that interaction to find out what else there is to do. Even for that, you know, three to ten minute bus ride on Bandelier's campus, they're able to hear about some of the other things that we offer via our signage.

In addition, marketing a hotel packet provided to hotels that includes printed brochures, maps of Los Alamos, that's continuous. So part of that is the kiosks that I mentioned earlier. And then for smaller bed and breakfasts, we work with them to determine what items do you see your people picking up, what would you like to have, and we provide them with those materials. And I can say in the last month and a half, myself and some other staff members at the county have met with all of the hotels and then the Pueblo Canyon Inn as well. And those are kind of considered our our main five if you don't count, you know, all the Airbnbs and those sort of things around here.

I'm gonna try to keep moving through this as fast as I can. Determining a better location for the visitor center, obviously, they did move once, and that was back in 2019. As far as a more permanent location, that's on hold for now until the Manhattan Project era dormitory renovation and relocation of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park Los Alamos Visitor Center is complete. And part of that is just due to not having too many projects going on at once. We want to finish one before we get started on the next one.

So that's considered in progress. The next one is almost the exact verbatim response, all related to the visitor center. As far as modernizing the White Rock Visitor Center, a refresh was done in 2024. And then as far as providing additional restrooms and vendor space, we consider that to be in progress. So phase one was completed in 2025.

Phase two with the food truck pads is anticipated to begin in 2026. The county has not added an outdoor play facility or started selling items at this time. And then gets us into implementation of a Fuller Lodge interpretation plan to enhance the visitor experience. So that was a combined effort with the historical society with added interpretation. And that's a continuous effort because the plan is under review, just like this one, to determine if there's any outstanding tasks that exist.

As far as expanding hours at Fuller Lodge, staff are on-site and available during open hours and during weekends. The hours of staff members are limited, but they are open seven days a week now. So that's considered complete. Creating an agreement to include the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory National Historic Landmark District into the official boundaries of Manhattan Project National Historical Park. That's considered continuous because it's a partnership park, so there are many discussions that need to happen, and that will likely be reassessed with the update of the dormitory.

As far as sharing transit information with visitors and coordinating transfer at the White Rock Visitor Center from the Bandelier shuttle to the other bus stops. A pilot project was supposed to start for weekends between the White Rock Visitor Center and downtown Los Alamos, but, of course, COVID happened. Changes had to be made. And due to the capacity restraints, it was no no longer done. So they never were able to get that project off the ground.

And it was too late in the season to hire and train employees. Kinda I'm trying to do the short version of this very long paragraph for y'all, and you can read it on your own time. But it really goes back to due to staffing, we just haven't had a chance to get that off the ground yet. And changes, obviously, with the agreement make that different too, being that the agreement this year is on Bandelier proper and not through the visitor center. But it should be noted that there is a shuttle that is near Fire Station 3 right down the street.

I'll try to hold it up for you. Exploring the feasibility and opportunities for Atomic City Transit expansion to provide the weekend service again along those same lines. Still hasn't quite gotten off the ground, so those efforts are considered continuous. Improving bus connectivity and extending the trips from the three parks to Los Alamos and White Rock in nearby areas, that's a study that's still in progress. Funding and implementing of the wayfinding plan, phase 1a.

And then the next one is phase phase one b. If you're someone who gets off the hill and you come back up the hill, you might have noticed on the right by Main Gate Park, there is a new sign. That is a part of the project. They are currently working. Our traffic and streets team is working to put all those up.

And hopefully, by the end of summer, they should all be installed by our public works. As far as the next phase of it, which includes kiosks downtown. We're working on determining what that new design might be being that the actual wayfinding project, I I believe it's at least ten years old, Shanna. Is that right? And so we're assessing the fact that, you know, when we were looking at this ten years ago, they weren't really thinking about, well, maybe digital signage is a better option to keep those updated and up to date.

And so we're kind of exploring that and kind of taking it off as its own side project from that original plan being that it has been so long since the plan was created. And let's see. The walking tour app, that's still considered in progress. We're still trying to determine if there's a audio component that's going to be added to the history museum for ADA compliance because that might be a multipurpose effort. And then under completed and continuous is improving the visitor maps to highlight trails that best serve visitors.

So hiking, biking, and historically significant family friendly trails. I can tell you the vestibule still has some of those maps and brochures. They were created in 2018 and 2019. And they've been updated over the years, but they are planning to hopefully explore those in the next year to just make sure they're all still current and up to date. And in 2023, large trailhead maps were completed and hung at all the trailheads.

And then the last one under 1.2 is providing a letter to NMDOT encourage encouraging the paving completion of Mexico Highway 126 as part of the Jimenez Mountain Trail Scenic Byway. I want to note that this part, if you're looking on a map, is actually not in Los Alamos County. And so it would be us kind of providing a letter of support for the other counties in hopes that they can get that completed. It's currently considered pending because it hasn't been responded due to prioritization of projects that are actually within Los Alamos County. And with that, I know, Kevin, you sent some really great questions earlier today.

It's gonna take me a little bit of time to be able to respond to all of those, but I do hopefully plan to do that here.

So you'd so you'd rather do that? That and that's fine with me. You're gonna take time, and and that's good. The I would like that to become part of the record like we were talking earlier, though, that that that what I sent to everybody. So and part of the minutes.

Mhmm. Yeah. So this is just one point one and one point two. So there are additional parts that we'll continue to work through. So your 1.3 and your bear with me. Let me pull up my notes. So there's a total of I I use too many notes on my phone. I apologize. So there's a total so we just went through 33 items. Section two has 11 items. Section three has six. And section four has 17. So this will continue to come up. I didn't want to throw all 60 plus of these items at you in one setting. I really think taking the time to digest them and, you know, sending great questions like you did is a great way to do that so that way we can come back and say, okay.

Here's the rest of the picture for any other questions. And I encourage, you know, there are members that aren't here today, but the two that are here, if you have any additional questions, just send those to me directly and I can compile them into one document and then respond as a whole with with those.

As the Yeah. Much maligned attorney in the room, I'll just on the tail end of that, just, again, encouraging as is my obligation under the Open Meetings Act that certainly if you have recommended visual aids questions, things that you would like to see incorporated into the agenda for the next meeting, or just thoughts that you would like Ellen to perhaps translate into some part of the agenda packet. When you send those, even though we kind of live in a CC, BCC, all kind of society, please make sure that you just send them to the chair and Ellen so we can just prevent any kind of rolling quorum issues. Because even if other members of the board or commission may not be specifically asked to weigh in or provide feedback based on that, If it could be asserted that if something that you are sending is conveying some kind of a message or proposed course of action, you kinda start to get on the line of board business that has not been properly noticed under the open meetings act. So certainly nothing wrong with, you know, especially since, as I know of late, our our meeting schedule has perhaps not been as frequent as as we would like.

But Ellen is certainly the appropriate person to include in that and of course the chair, but really any more than that and we start to get into rolling forum issues. And we certainly don't want any of these things to be subject to challenge because they're all very good ideas that I think we want to see properly vetted. So that's just my little PSA.

I'll just Is there any action that you're anticipating relative to this? I mean, what action are we talking about that there would need that there's any quorum issue with? This is informational, or what if where do you where do you expect Ellen to go with? The I mean, you're kinda giving this to us as information, or is there a action that you're going to be requesting at some point?

So, eventually, there will be an action because part of what your work plan says is that you're going to review the plan, its status, and then provide suggestions to counsel. So there will be time for that discussion. And I think that might be what Larissa is kind of alluding to here is that there will be a time where we have a discussion about based upon this and based on what we know, what items do we feel are most important to bring forward to counsel and say, think you should work on x, y, and z specifically, and here's how we feel you might be able to complete the plan. Mhmm.

You know, I think a communication that says, I think we should do this. I could understand what you're saying. But to but to share something for discussion, you know, and I and it sounds like it's helpfully expediting things because what's been happening is we get a presentation, and then it's like we the we there's it's hard to actually have any discussion around it because nobody has anything they're looking at in common. So I think we I think it's important that people that we're able to not communicate in terms of, hey. Here's what I think we should do, or I'm trying to convince you to do something. But that to to ask a question and get have everybody on the board benefit from the answer to that question

My

I think is important. Sorry.

I I apologize for for interrupting, mister Holzapple. I we sort of have to look at under when we're using we're scrutinizing something under the Open Meetings Act, we have to remember that it's not just for the benefit of the board. It's also for the benefit of the public. That when we have those kind of conversations or even if we exchange material or ideas or proposals through email, essentially what we're doing is we're depriving the public of the opportunity to benefit from that discussion. Not necessarily participate, but to the extent that if they were present, they might be permitted to hear some helpful development of ideas or hear other members chime in.

That's also the part of the Open Meetings Act that is not, I think, is often flouted as much as their right to weigh in and be part of and weigh in on any business we conduct. It's also so that they can be involved in what you all are doing as you discuss these ideas and develop them. So we want as much of the commission's interactions and discussions related to these ideas. And maybe things that aren't action items yet, but could become a priority, could be something that you want to discuss at a future meeting. We want as much of that to be available to the public, because you might address something that somebody has been thinking that hasn't really been able to request or something the public really wants and would like to see brought up in a meeting.

And if it's only an email, they don't know that that's been addressed. So it's mostly just so that everybody benefits from the work and the discussions and the ideas that this group has and shares with each other, and not so much just to sort of, like, make sure that we're cracking down on you all being able to optimize the time that I know we have together so short.

I totally get and agree with what you're saying in terms of the goal of all this. But that's exactly why to share it. Because earlier, we said we can't put something in the minutes because we didn't share it. Mhmm. You know? So it's kind of like it's a bit it's a bit of a catch 22. So So in that can share it. Things that are that are I'm all for sharing it, and that's exactly why I share it. You know?

And that's fine. And I just want to clarify that what I'm saying is, if you share a list of questions or something, you prepare some kind of a document that you think would aid in the discussion at an upcoming meeting, then absolute I mean, you share it with the I'm just saying you share it with the chair and Ellen. And then it is shared to other members once it is included in the packet. And Ellen preparing the packet, if that's something that's going to be used in an upcoming meeting, she can make sure it's in the agenda packet. And then, of course, at that time, it's shared with your other commissioners and with the public as well.

But for that initial disclosure and this is just sort of the technicalities of the Open Meetings Act, you have to only share it with her and the chair. Otherwise, it potentially creates rolling forum issues if everyone else is involved. She'll make sure it gets to the right people. But you cannot share it with your other board members without sort of creating a rolling forum as it's defined under the Open Meetings Act.

Well, maybe we could talk about this more offline bit.

We need to put a we pin in it because we have have fifteen minutes, Kevin, and we have people online who are on a time crunch. So I think it would be great for us to maybe have a full training on this at some point, just to get some clarity. But this meeting is probably not not the one

So to have it. So to be clear, this is something that we're talking about right now in the meeting. And that's how we're shared that's how we're trying to share it with the public. So so, I mean, that's and so I I'm glad it will be included in the minutes, and and I'm glad for Ellen's suggestion of the approach to responding.

Who's doing our sunny five zero five report?

Is it Jody?

I am. Yes.

Great.

Alright. And I will be very quick.

Thank you.

There we go. Okay. So this is an overview. This is as of July 2 because we send it in earlier. The Facebook page audience has grown to 15,551 followers. Content posted in the last month, reached 54,346 followers and garnered 1,218 engagements. That's people who like it or comment on it. Since the last report, Instagram has grown to fourteen eighty two. That content reached 16,332 users and garnered 335 engagements. For June, July, the top content was fourth of July, Science Fest, not a surprise, and the summer concert series, which we also love.

And then on the PR front, we distributed a news release promoting Science Fest, which received coverage in the Roswell Daily Record and locally in the Los Alamos reporter and the Daily Post. We also distributed the news release promoting Oppenheimer and history related events, including the Opie Fest. Pitches are ongoing, and then we finalized the twenty twenty six New Mexico True cooperative advertising grant, which we already went over. And Ellen and I are busy planning out '26. And then this is the PR report that shows all the mentions of Los Alamos in the media. Some were generated by us. Some are not. And then we probably need to make that smaller. Okay. There we go.

So this is the Datify report that I pulled. There are so this is as of June 14. That's as far they're they have about a three week delay of when you can pull things. So looking at the fiscal year to date. So the and this is weird because my contract date actually was October 1, but I'm doing the county's fiscal year of July 1 through June 14.

So the next meeting, I'll have the full fiscal year. There were 420,148 trips, a total amount of, what a little over a million visitor days, and the average length of stay is two point four days. And then everybody can view this at your leisure, but it looks we're comparing all the way back to 2018. So you can kinda see the bumps and graphs. You'll see '21, '22. I call that the opi bump. You know? So when the op Oppenheimer movie came out, when it won the Academy Awards, we definitely saw some bumps there. Our top markets, not surprising it. And, also, this doesn't just measure heads and beds.

This measures day trippers. Does not surprise me that Albuquerque, Santa Fe is number one, and that's one market for advertising. It's just the way it is. And then Denver's number two, followed by El Paso, Las Cruces, Dallas, Fort Worth, etcetera. So everybody can kinda see where people are coming from. And these reports also exclude the lab, which I think is important. So, we don't count lab visitors as our visitors because they're coming because of the lab. They're not coming because of us and anything that we do. And just pause for a second. I wanna just go up a bit.

So the cities are Los Alamos and White Rock. So 91.7% of the visitors are there. 40.5 in downtown. 11% are the attractions. So those all are the various attractions from peak to the history museum to the the, three national parks, etcetera, and then 6.37 in hotels.

And here you can see demographics, income, education levels, ethnicity, and that's it on that. Do we wanna open up for questions? Okay. Move on. Pass the baton to Melanie.

So while Mel is walking up here, I'm gonna say we did put into record the March and April visitation information since it's been a minute since we've had a meeting and there is a delay in when these come in.

Alright, everyone. So in your report, you have March, April reports. I figured in lieu of time, let's just jump to May. For some reason in April, not sure what was going on, but all our attractions had a huge dip in visitation. So May, we're kind of making our way back up.

Of course, visitor centers show a huge dip because we don't have the Bandolier shuttles running out of White Rock this year. I haven't compared it to numbers of last year, but you can see we're we're seeing a huge decline in visitation, and that's mostly due to the White Rock Visitor Center. And these are just all the attractions numbers. History museum, I gotta check Todd's numbers. His numbers are really low.

Not sure why, so I'll make sure those are correct. Bradbury dip in April, and we're making our way back up. Adventure guides. We got in a 10,000 copies of the new adventure guide.

Yes.

And so those currently are being mailed out to all the state tourism visitor centers and all the attractions that have contacted me previously that liked our materials. So I wanna say about 2,000, 3,000 copies have gone out by me myself, and then Santa Fe did brochure distribution picked up 20 boxes. Each box has a 125 copies in it. So those will be going out through Santa Fe as well. But you can see, where the red line for twenty twenty five, we were you'll see that dip in April, but we since 2020 is on this graph, we're above all years, and so I think that's fantastic.

And that's just all the attractions through calendar 2017. And I think in my summary, I just go over oh, this one doesn't talk about it, but the next one, we'll talk about how Jason picked up brochures for Santa Fe. Let's see. I will say on a personal level that I have lost two volunteers from the White Rock Visitor Center due to the they like to be busy, and they're just not busy right now, their being open ten hours a day from eight to six. White Rock Visitor Center is averaging 30 to 40 people a day, where Los Alamos is about a 100 people a day.

So, not having those shuttles, is definitely impacting tourism down there. And then these are just the from the kiosk data for some reason, Ellen, I didn't get a lot of Los Alamos visitor center. I was missing ZIP codes, things

like that.

So Yeah. Some of the information is missing from there. But I'll say in general, visitation in Los Alamos is great, and, White Rock is in in a challenge right now. Does anyone have questions? Okay. Thank you. I'm here if you need me.

Alright. Next, Ellen, you have on here the approved twenty twenty five Lodgers tax advisory board work plan. Do you have comments on that?

That's just for reference. As mister noted, he would like to have that on the record. And so this is just for reference and on the record so every anyone can view it. As noted earlier, I can make sure that that gets on the lodgers tax advisory board web page as well.

Awesome. Yeah. I clicked into it the other day, and I was like, who are these members? I don't know their names. So thank you. That'd be great. Any comments on the board work plan before we move to Jen's report? Okay. Jennifer and I met with chair Cole last week about the creation of a working group. She helped us create kind of what our task will be for the working group.

So we've come up with with an information finding mission. The group will meet over the course of five months to explore other tourism plans that areas in a similar size or demographic to Los Alamos County are utilizing. So there's a little bit more detail here that Ellen's displaying for us. We're expecting the working group to meet monthly and report back to LTAP with an update each month. Any public solicitation of feedback or data needs to be approved by the chair.

We don't want anyone speaking on behalf of the, board without approval. And the working group will provide a final report to LTAB by early December so that we can use those findings to determine the work plan for 2026, and we can better understand how tourism is impacting communities like ours after post pandemic life. Yes. Oh my gosh. I'm so glad you asked.

She got a paper in front of her for that.

While we met last week, we identified some people who would be interested and have time to take this on. So, Kevin, if you're willing, we'd be happy to have you serve.

I wanna talk about the charter a little bit, but I would serve if we have a char a I think there would need to be a useful charter, but I think we should discuss that.

Okay. David Hampton was another. Georgia Strickfaden and Jennifer Armstrong were other members who were identified.

And they have all confirmed that they will serve as a part of this working group. Are there any

other LTAP members here, Sonia, who have time? Understandable. I've done hotel life. It's busy. Any other suggestions for additional members we'll need to take back to Jennifer? But if you have anybody in mind, please feel free to bring them up. We'd be happy to consider them.

One thing in general, I think we really need some business people. If if it's if we have a working group and they're in the charter of that working group is compelling to business people, it'd be great to get business people involved in it. So these are kinda some usual suspects. They're good, but they're kinda some usual suspects rather than, trying to really get something that would bring some maybe some new ideas into things.

Yep. I can take that back to Jennifer. But as it stands now, this is who we've got. As far as the charter goes, I think that five we have five months to get something done, so I don't want to delay further. I'm not sure what else would be

I sent to everybody a what I had actually, I've had discussions over quite some times with Jen with this, and she's never brought back any concern. I can tell you about those discussions. But I did distribute to everyone, including Ellen, so she has this electronically. And let me just actually hand you guys a few copies down here.

When did you send this? I'm so sorry.

Earlier this morning Oh, okay. Once I saw this was on the agenda. This was just see, that's one of these things of, well, if the agenda gets sent out on Friday and you have and you want to discuss something about it, then there's no way to get into the agenda packet what you want to discuss about it. So so, anyway, the the bottom part really comes out of of of, exchanges I've had with Jen on this. And there's what I'd like to to propose is substituting a charter, and you see it in bold on this page.

But I think what we really need help with as a lodgers tax board is how you know, ideas for how we accomplish our work plan. How do we pursue our work plan? And having, I you know, this idea of identifying other places is part of certainly could be part of doing that, But what we just don't have time for is actually creating ideas for things that might be useful that would help implement the the strategic plan. So, you know, in my seven months on this board, we have done nothing. We have we have made no consequential decision, no recommendation other than the work plan in in seven months.

So it's I'm I'm really would like to see us take on something where we could actually not it it it you know, the work group is a work group. It doesn't decide anything. It doesn't represent the county. It doesn't represent the lodgers tax board even. What it does is it does work to bring ideas to the lodgers tax board for the lodgers tax board to say, nah.

Don't like that. Yeah. Maybe like that. Like some part of it and and give bring some things to work with. And I don't think the charter that was in the agenda sent out in the agenda that really does much of anything of substance to move us forward in terms of of accomplishing our work plan.

Well, I would have to disagree with you there. We haven't had a fully staffed board in several years, so not much has been able to be done. So we're doing a lot of catch up right now. So having the work group, which is different from a task force, I'm learning. And what you're talking about sounds more like a task force definition.

Talking about a work group. Absolutely a work group. Okay. Task force. The words that you're saying,

though, to describe it are task force oriented.

Right out of the the board handbook.

All that to say, we're doing a lot of catch up from the last several years for this board. So having a work group that will do the research needed to propel us forward, which is what was in mind when we were writing this blurb, will be beneficial moving forward. We just have to catch up to what our actual tasks are.

Who decided that what's useful is identifying other communities or something? Where does that where did that come from?

When we spoke with chair call, that was a suggestion that came from

But she's going decide that? What's useful to us?

I think it's up ultimately up to the chair.

Yes. That's correct. It is up to the chair. The chair can, decide and create a working group without any discussion around it and just put people on the task to go do so.

That's true. Yeah. And that's something I pointed out to Jen. It's that is Yeah. I'm sorry. It's a confused

after about we met with

the chair. Discussing it. But it sounds like we're creating a work group that really wouldn't bring, as far as I can see, anything of that's very helpful or consequential in terms of what's what the scope of that work group is in the statement that was provided in the agenda. And so that's my my concern about it. And I I really wouldn't spend more time on doing on something like that limited of, of scope. That looks to me like it's designed to make it something that doesn't do much.

Okay. That's wasn't the intention, but I can pass that on. So are you if this is the final scope, are you not interested in assisting with it?

I'm I'm glad to help them every way I can, but I I wouldn't, like, necessarily say that, yeah, I've I've really bought in that this makes a lot of sense to do. Okay. Like, if if I can help by offering, information or or ideas or whatever, I would be glad to do that. But it's not something that I see really helping us with the future work plan, to tell you the truth.

Okay.

Yeah. I don't really have a whole lot to add. I think Connor kind of covered it in the the conversation that they had with Charicol. It was very much around what is something that is attainable within five months, and how can it help move the group forward. And being that you're reviewing our strategic plan is one of your current work plan items, looking at other ones and considering what might be ways that they are creating momentum and moving forward in their communities, how can we take that and bring it back? And so that was the concept that I understood to be in mind when the chair was creating this.

Yeah. And I think that's right, and it's important. But it but it it's not like we're gonna lift some idea off some other community. What we really need to do is be looking at the, the strategic plan and saying, how can we get some things done, that are really asked for by that strategic plan? And in that and in concert with the goals in it.

And by itself, identifying other communities and what they're doing, I you know, isn't far it really doesn't go far enough. So I could say, also for myself, I'll continue in the time I have available to put into this to try to bring forward ideas of things that of substance that could be consequential. And I'll be glad to help this group. I'm not opposed to somebody looking into some sounds like staff work to me, but I'm not opposed to trying trying to help a group like this do some things.

There's only one staff. That's the problem. She's very busy.

Yeah. Well, and I think there's more here to help her. There there you know, there's more that's why we as a board need to to really kind of take on what can we make recommendations on that would actually move our community forward. That's and so I'll I'll certainly continue to be doing trying to do that work group or no group work group. So Alright.

Great. Moving ever forward. Other announcements? Oh, just scroll up a 195 pages.

I'm working on it. Okay.

Work plan approved by Kent.

This is an old Am I on the right one?

No. You're on page five. You need to go to page one.

Help me out. No. I am in the minutes.

Other announcements, I think, is where we're at, which aligns with what I've said earlier. I think we have a full staff, a full board finally for the first time in who knows how long. And so it's been suggested that we have our one of our next meetings be a training session on boards and commissions. Thank you in advance, Larissa. Happy to be here.

So that we can better understand transparency and doing what we can with this board for the community. So, we'll be doing that here soon. And if there's anything you would like to see on future agendas, email Jen Olsen separately about the items at least two weeks prior to the meeting so that it can be reviewed for possible agenda addition. That is all she's given me to hand out. I am just a messenger here. The next meeting is scheduled for August 19.

Still another announcement? Yes. Yeah. I I have a report that I would like to make as part of that. Because I think we we actually talked about retitling that from other announcements to to board communications as well. And so this is a time in each meeting where we can communicate with each other, and I believe we decided that a few months ago. We've kind of slept since then. I have a report that I'd like to make in terms of of activities that I've had. I'll hand out a copy to folks, and I'm glad to send on a an electronic copy of this to Ellen if she would. But, basically, there and Ellen is aware of this.

I think she probably has a copy of most of this. I've still been working on just trying to get some basic info that would be helpful to take on this task of really looking at the strategic plan and understanding what's going on and trying to provide some ideas and advice for how we might do better with things. So this report, I won't go over it in detail. A lot of this, you've seen before because I've been trying for months, really, to try to obtain some basic info. Like the first one, the the the Sunny five zero five contract has a number of deliverables that I think would be extremely helpful to us to have access to in, looking at the strategic plan and looking at moving forward.

And I believe I got a response that Ellen's was going to, respond to these kind of things. But these are all that first thing, all those bullets are specific deliverables in this in the Sunny five $0.05 contract that I think could be very helpful to know what they say and to know what those plans and other other things are.

Is this not what Joni just went over earlier?

No. You can you read it for yourself? Did Joni

Outline goals, objectives, performance measures. I feel like she just gave us

the 05/2005 marketing plan that's a deliverable under the contract. It's not the report. The report at lodgers tax meetings is also a deliverable. But, you know, these but there are several of these. I don't know that it's a Joni question. Presumably, the county has these I don't know why they wouldn't be readily available because, I mean, they're things that would have been delivered under the contract.

Well, let's let Joni answer because she's trying

to speak. Joan Joni's here, and and I also would like to speak too. But I can

It's all been sent. So Ellen has everything.

Mhmm. I'm currently working to try to put all these different questions in one response for you so you don't have a bunch of different threads to follow, and it's just one full complete response. But as Connor mentioned, I am one staff member who has many different activities, and this is just one part of my job.

1% of it, I'm sure. Okay. Onward, Kevin.

The sec the second bullet really refers to the very matrix that we were talking about earlier that, again, now that Ellen does have and hopefully could be be somehow acknowledged. The the third one was satisfied by what came up on the agenda today. Joni did a nice report on last year's and this year's. Although one of the things I note is it seems to me the lodgers tax board should be involved in the in the process of establishing the goals and objectives for the NMDOT plan, and it sounds like it's a matter of working ahead. So starting sometime late in the year on providing input into those things so that that input is known by the time that the state's process kicks up and there and those things have to be turned in.

And then finally, going right to the very point of, oh, yeah. There's we're we're slim slim staff, all these things. Getting an understanding of the resources that there are to work with for implementing the tourism plan, I think, is very important. So that's what my last point and questions have to do with. So, unless there's any questions, I think, that I wanna get that on the record and, as my report.

So I just wanna confirm because, we kinda went in-depth earlier with this Larissa. So, he's requesting that this be a part of it. What does he need to do in order because it's my understanding you wanna put this as part of the minutes. Is that correct, Kevin?

Or else just describe what we just discussed in the minutes under other announcements. This this is an agenda item, right, of me making a report under item five on the agenda.

As I understand how this was offered, you brought this in as under sort of the previous I I and I'll have to take your word for it that that other announcements also will include board communications provided that they are otherwise permitted under the open meetings act. This can't be an opportunity to sort of shoehorn in things that aren't on the agenda. However, I think in this circumstance, this could be admitted into the record as a report that was tendered, by, mister Holsapple, during which, you know, you you address a couple of of points related to things you'd like to see or things that you think are important. However, it is important that there not be discussion or really any sort of board wide involvement in this report at this time because it is not an agenda item. We have not put this specific item up into the agenda packet letting any public members know that this is going to be discussed.

So at this point, it it can be received though as a report that you have provided, and, you know, that no discussion entailed. And that if at any point any of the members would like to see this added to the agenda, that can certainly be brought to the chair. But this was a board communication that you have provided for us here today, and as such could be included in the minutes under this section.

Thank you.

Any

other announcements, board communications? Sonia? Alright. Our next meeting is scheduled for August 19. It will be in this very room, in these very seats. At the same time, I believe, twelve to 01:30. Mhmm. And any future agenda items like Jen mentioned, please email them to Jen separately and Ellen. And I think that that is it. Meeting adjourned, 01:43.