Tourism Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

All right, I would like to call the tournament advisory committee meeting to order at 3:00 today on February the 18th. Welcome everybody. Uh, please state your name for Oh, actually, do you need that hand or are you conf. Okay. All right. Starting here. Christy F, Sat Morsy, Keith Chandler, Linda Whis,

and Satie Mercer. Uh, let's go to financial as our review of the minutes. We had an opportunity to view them. Any recommendations for revisions, additions? If not, uh, a motion. I'll move to approve the minutes of January 21st. A second. Motion by Keith and second signed by Linda. All in favor? I. All opposed. Thank you very much. Financials.

There really isn't much for financials because we typically get our financial information from city council as they approve the bills. Well, they've moved to a a new system now where they only approve bills on the second council meeting. So, from the time we last met, there hasn't been any bills to approve. So, I don't have any financials. I have updated the expenditures report. There's nothing really to point out there unless you have any questions. They're tracking well. Uh, it looks like SDA SDA and the chamber vote don't need their business license. Mr. Beef, does that sound right?

So, I I sent a bill in January So I haven't seen or I sent an invoice. Sorry. I sent an invoice in January and I haven't seen any payment at all. I haven't seen it reflected. Yeah. From the back end either. So follow typically it doesn't come out until later for us, but I asked Zach about it. Um and he said it come out as early as technically as early as January, but January is when all the business license fees come in. So he asked me to wait until February. So, it's still February. So, it is still February. Yeah.

I notic that there's also money that haven't come out of contributions and donations, too, which I'm curious about. Like, it's not anything that we control, but it's just something to note, but that pulls down our overall percentage because we don't have downtown development, we don't have the chamber business license, and we don't have the contributions and donations, which I think is the museum. Oh, it's still just not sure. Not really art, but it's reflected in our budget. So, that's always been linked. Always been

I don't have any other to share on financials. Um, I don't know that we have the proof financials. Mr. Ver, uh, staff, please. Uh, yeah, it was really cool to see a design that Greg, our marketing coordinator, is currently looking on um for this year's t-shirt design. It looks really neat. I'm not going to say anything, but it's very cool. Does it have peanut in it? It does not have peanut in it. It features the prom things that you know. Oh, nice. Very cool. I want him to get a robot.

And Greg is uh really doing some fun stuff on our social media and uh our part-timer Jim Easley has stepped that up as well. Um they work really well together and I I mean our social media is better than ever, right? Yeah. Pretty crazy. Um what I'm going to share is upcoming here March 8th through the 11th I'll be attending the uh Governor's Conference on Tourism in Portland. We get to go to a Blazers game, watch the Hornets Blazers. Uh but what I want to share is we're going to be doing is a little different this year. Instead of breakouts and going to sessions like we usually do, um each of the welcome center staff that's available there, there's usually about two of us from each center. Um there's eight total. Um we're going to set up a little booth. It's going to be like a welcome center booth. And instead of having just everything we have or guides particular to our areas because everybody knows those, we're going to do kind of the specialty items. So, the North Coast Food Trails, there's about nine of those throughout the state. Um, these outdoor recreation maps are pretty popular.

Food trails, different food trails. North Coast. No, no, no. It's the whole state or state welcome center. The North Coast one did start it though.

Yeah, we were the first, but then uh these came out and they still don't have a North Coast outdoor recreation map. Don't know why. Um, they just kind of made a few and then they made a few more and then they've made a few more. But these and then things like our tear offs. These are things a lot of people in the industry don't get to see. So we'll have that kind of stuff around. Um basically uh I said I'll work that booth 247. I like talking to people so that'll be fun. Uh but I'm looking forward to that. Um and make and have a little bit different experience uh at the conference this year. So I'll do my best to represent CE. How many will come through? You know it's over 300.

Yeah. That's why they have to have it in Portland every year now. Um, nowhere else can hold those numbers. So, it's pretty much stuck there for a while unless they decide to reduce the numbers, but 300. It's like 340 convention center. Not the way it needs to be. I brought it up. 300 different booths. No, it's 300 people and they all eat at once several times a day services. I've talked. We've talked we've tried it. It would be great, but it's Well, they tried it in Salem a few years back and it was too big. It was too big for the Salem Convention Center. I thought it was, but yeah.

But yeah, that's if they're all doing sit down, so that's a lot. I mean, I mean, there's there's usually about five breakout rooms and then you have, you know, the number of people go to those. Um, and then everybody's back in the main hall. The problem here is to have the main hall fit everybody. You get they lose uh meeting space. So, that's one of the things, but there were many others, too. Believe me, I'd love it to be here. That'd be great. Okay. Okay. Monthly stats.

All right. So if you the numbers 50% of traffic was way down in January, last January down almost 30% and it felt like it. It was very slow January in the welcome center. Phone volume was up a little bit. Lead volume was about equal last year. Our total distribution for January was down 36% but that's only because certified didn't their distribution for all the regional stuff until February 3rd. So that'll show up on access. Yeah. I'm sorry, Josh. How many did we get of the guides? 100,000. Yeah.

So, we're we're about on par with last year. You just have to look at it over more of like a quarterly than the monthly. Web sessions were up. Active web users were up. Um last year was our highest. They had almost half a million individual active users on that site. So, it's good to be trending up still in 2026. Email signups were good in January. Our organic visitor guide quests were down a little bit. We did get our guide a little later this year. These proactive user continue to be up while our engagement time continues to be down. Um much more to say about that. December stats for the county class county occupancy was down 2% but the red part was up 1.5 and the room revenue was up 1.4. I do have quarter two of 2020. Oh, I have the wrong dates here. Quarter two 2020. That's quarter. No, I don't even understand my that's got to be the last that's the last quarter of see I get confused because the city's on a on a fiscal year and and the year the years don't follow it. So confusing, but so the last quarter, October, November, December 2025, bed tax came in at down 0.2%. That's not final though. There's still properties that haven't turned off. So um kind of on par if you look at the county uh stats to the left there, you know, that's the quarter right there. October was up 2.8 on revenue. Uh, November was up two and December was up 1.4. Now, Seaside isn't 100% represented there. That's the whole county, but I

think it's going to pop up a little bit. Vacation rental was down 3%. Like I said, that's not final. That number will continue to change and I will continue to update it. Well, you said that's the county, right? On the on the left, it's the county, right? But that's not just us. It's not just us. There's like a couple seaside properties on that. Yeah, it's not right here. For this kind of general.

Yeah, this is showing. This is showing January. And so now we're and then you have to close that. It's kind of surprising considering how like the decent weather that we had in December that we're still down. Um well, this is only down to date. I think it most likely it's going to be about on par as because there's still a few properties that have to come have to come in. Gotcha. So cash basis. Yeah. This is just based on the payments that have been made.

Gotcha. And just as a reminder, and you weren't here for this, but we had many years of data, but it turned out that when I would go back and check to see how we're doing now compared to how we were doing in the past as far as collection of TLT totals, my records didn't match the records that the city had. And it turned out that what was happening is we were getting a report of what the initial report was, but then things were getting moved around because sometimes people pay on a monthly basis, some people pay on a quarterly basis, some people don't pay on time and then have to have penalties and pay later. And so all this stuff gets reconciled in the audit process. And so we've set up a new audit that we or a new system that we can actually kind of trust the numbers. And anytime these are changed, they notify me that they've been changed and then I update the year. So, at least these are these are more um reliable numbers. And there's two columns. One for the hotel tax and one for the VRD tax. Just to be clear, the VRD tax goes into general fund. We don't touch it. It's just we're just keeping track of it as a barometer of tourism.

Oh, okay. None of the doesn't go into that. None of it for tourism promotion. Not that it's okay. And part of that goes to the county and part of it goes to the city. This all this is list the city. So VRD doesn't go to the tourism. Is that legal? Yep. Because it predates the law. It's before vacation rentals were a thing. Yeah. So when they made that law, the vacation rentals were very small amount of money, right? But last year it was $2.2 million. Yeah. Really changed.

Yeah. Okay. Any questions on the stats? Do you mind putting up the record? I'm not going to read this all through because this this body was the one that pushed for the KGW camera, but I will say that under our new agreement that we have signed now, the weather camera with KGW will be featured at least 50 times per month on air weather news statements, including the visit seaside logo and verbal recognition. Camera feed will also stream 247 on kgw.com. Unlike the other fans, this is just part of a carousel camera. You can't just use the seaside one like you can with coin which which is not afraid but it is what it is. The KGW mobile weather app will also have it as well as KGW plus which is like a OT like streaming thing via Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire. Seaside will receive 100,000 banner ad impressions on KGW.com or 15 commercials ongoing every month. I say depending on inventory, but what's really going on there is um political months. There's no inventory for commercials. And so in those months, we'll be running banner. And then I wanted to show you this clip. The camera actually made its own air debut a little early because the newsroom got really excited about a fun clip that they got.

They were they were like full week early, I think. And they they're excited about it. Yeah, it's I tried to I there's a screenshot here in the in the report, but the screenshot does not do it justice at all. Like the actual videos might have to watch, man.

Oh man, that is so cool. And you put that in yourself. This was a This was a drone show. Yeah. dunes filter of lights in the skies overnight was something that was pretty exciting for a lot of people. If you missed seeing the colors of the northern lights, you may have another chance tonight. Libya has some of the amazing video and photos that came into our newsroom and some tips for capturing your own photos. A powerful aurora exploding with color overnight Monday into Tuesday, visible from the Oregon coast to Mount Hood to central Oregon.

We wanted to share someone's awesome video that we captured around 4:30 this morning. If you go out now in the next little bit and you look into the onto the northern sky, you will see this. We've seen numerous reports of northern lights. A blast of red from our Chinook winds casino camera in Lincoln City. A whole array of colors in Seaside and plenty of vivid viewer snaps. OMC's director of space science, Jim Todd, calling it almost look best in Seaside. It did. I agree. No, no bias there. Yeah, bias. It did. I appreciate the angle of the camera, too. That's a good angle right there. If you can keep that. Yeah.

Did they rainbow this morning? The first few days they were all on the surfers. They were excited to see the surface out that early in the morning from the lot. You just see it right there at head level. They had it zoomed in on that Gearhart Resort place and it was like the camera was literally right there. It was unbelievable how clear the zoom was. Like he's like, "Wait a minute. This isn't seaside. It comes camera." It's like, "Yeah, they zoom." It's amazing how good the picture is. Even the one on Seashore when they've done it, they can zoom in pretty far across the cove and it's like you're right there. It's just pretty neat. So pretty amazing.

So I basically have to tell them now like don't focus on Gearhart. Don't focus on the point. The Northern Lives are okay. Yeah.

Josh, can you talk a little bit about Little Bird and their success for getting us on various things? Um yeah, you so at the last council meeting um was doing my annual report and one of the main categories that we had a lot of success in in the last year was public relations and a huge huge part of that is our partnership with Little Bird and um it was as I was putting it together I had screenshots from different media monitoring reports we get and stuff and I was like oh that's cool that's cool that's pre-shoot scene had like you know like a deck of stuff. We had the aquarium on multiple times. We had uh ghost conference, jazz festival, beach folks, sand castles, like just oh we had the fire department on talking about beach safety and getting a call for lifeguards, you know, and it so it was a it was really struck me looking at it from that perspective what a blessing our collaboration with that group has been. And then um they just it it didn't fit for my 2025 annual report, but they just had the chamber on talking about the track program on two different stations. Um

three three well two different stations, sorry, three different programs. Yeah. So anyway, it just continues to be just an amazing collaboration has really I think satisfied what we set out to do in the RFP for the PR when we first set that up. Little Bird's a PR company we hired. Portland. Okay. I was wondering. Yeah, they're doing a really good job. We've had other ones that haven't done as well. Okay. And they're they're

and meeting Julie was last week was really interesting. Um because she's so passionate about it and like she really like pun intended, but she's really like taken seaside under her wing and just like, "Okay, this is my project." like she seems to really own it and uh and she's really proud of all of her projects, but you know, she she really talked highly about that relationship anyway. So, it was really nice to get to talk to her. Yeah, it was great to hear you give report on on how you felt kind of shephered through that. It was great. She was great. You guys did a great job on here, too. Exactly. Watch yourself on TV.

When were they hiring? since they started in uh 2025. So spring of 2025 almost a year. Okay. Was it a one-year plan? Um it was through the end of the fiscal year I think and then we haven't it's an ongoing plan.

And it's funny. Little bird was actually um who originally got us involved in the uh Rose Festival Junior Parade. So they were event activation kind of group. That's how we first got involved in them. So when they bid on our PR stuff, you know, at first we weren't sure what to if if that was going to be a good fit, but they really proved to be the best. Do you have coffee? It smells so good. You have coffee? I stole some. And Julie seems really hungry. Like

she's like any other projects, anything that I can promote, you know, just let me know. we'll get it on, you know. So, I mean, she's like so enthusiastic about everything like any little ideas she's always up for. And anyway, it was just yeah, really fun talking to her because she's like, so much energy. So good at managing relationships like and you know that when you talk to her because she's always trying she's always threading the stuff you're working on with her other clients, which is I think a good a good indicator of somebody who's working PR stuff, right? Like, you know, she also represents Oregon Dungeonous Crabs. Okay. Um and then different organizations and stuff and she actually is a writer for 1859 maybe

and uh lastly Ken already talked about the governor's conference which will be colllocated with the spring welcomes dinner but I'll be at the one west formerly DMA West conference March 2 through 4 in Oceanside. So hopefully it'll be a nice. All right, tourism grants. Again, I haven't heard any updates from the mural people. So I guess I'm going to reach out to them and ask them if they see any feasible path forward on the feedback that TAC gave them about the grant proposal or if they've sort of abandoned it. I know that this is the mural on the river.

The mural on the river. Yeah. And well, mural on the Gilbert building. Yeah. The watershed council. Yes. But it was on the holiday side, right? Right. It was connecting with the river. Yeah. Yeah. I haven't heard it on the river. Just just to catch you up. Yeah. Uh there were grants that there's two different grants that we that we manage and that's not manage, but we helped decide for the folks who were getting the grants. And so one is um arts and vitality and the other one is for events. Okay.

And so that that was the arts and vitality. This was the first time that we ran through that grant. And there were three applicants. The chamber sda for the um alleyway in between time between freedom and then uh and then a mural that was on holiday on the Gilbert building. And what we decided was that we we would grant them that, but it had to be um uh grandfathered in to a sale if if they sold. They needed to be there for 5 years. Yeah. Yeah. Um and so that's where we're at. We haven't heard back whether the property owner has agreed to that or not. So we haven't granted them once yet. Okay. What's the plan for that mural? What's that? What's the plan for the mural on the building?

They don't have they don't have it just yet. Is it going on the holiday? It's on the holiday in book on the holiday side little bird little cottage. I think it's premature to say it's going in because they haven't been able to get permission to have that clause that was requested in the contract and I think the building's been sold, isn't it? Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So, it was it was an idea we needed more secure, but they did finally sell it there. So, interesting. Okay,

if you recall, their uh grand submission was like very inspirational and thematic around how the river intertwines with everything and protecting the watershed, but there wasn't an actual image that they had already, right? They don't have a rendering. They did not have a render. And uh the SD was also kind of conceptual too, like there isn't just a plan yet, but um $11,000. 11,000. Yeah. 10. Was it 10? No, for SDA. I thought it was 11. 10. Okay, I lo anyway. That was on the budget this morning. That was 10. Yeah, but it wasn't that wasn't for that. But anyway,

well, whatever it was, I guess we could look back at the uh Yeah. Anyway. Anyway, so for that so we had grant the last the last meeting we had granted those but yeah there was a contingency for the one for Gilbert because we didn't want them to put it up and then the new owner take it down so yeah we have to give that to you. So okay is that for tourism grants? Yep. Um, and it is the use or lose it. That doesn't roll over, right? It's 25 and 25. 25,000 25,000 for each. Yeah. We don't get the carried over. And so what is unused just goes unused. Okay.

But it's rolling for the Is it rolling for It's not rolling for both. It's rolling for both. They're both passed by now. No, I know. But next year they'll be both rolling. Okay. Starting in July. Well, the money will be available in July, but it'll probably open the application. So if it doesn't all get distributed, it goes into the general fund. Doesn't get distributed. It just goes into our marketing budget. Okay. So that it stays in your budget. Y and this year the event grant the 25,000 was fully spent. Um but not all of the arts grants spent.

Okay. Business meeting time.

Meeting time. So you might might remember last month and other months folks seem to start popping in here during during our time here and well that's because this room is a hot commodity because we have this set up here and every committee needs to be live streaming and everything. So it's become much harder to find places to meet and run these things. So the city tree lord meets at 4:00 every other month typically and for a while it was working out but it's no longer working out. And so what this what the proposal is would it work for everyone else if we switched our meeting to uh 2:00 instead of 3:00 and start an hour earlier? Would people be available for that? Or if not, would there be another time that we could switch to so that we don't run into this log jam every single month?

Well, for me, we get an audience then a very angry audience. For me, the move would actually be better. This three to four is pretty tight in place. So, I know some of you are very busy on this day. I know, right? Yeah. Uh, normally it' be fine. Today was an exception. Yeah. Two o'clock is great for me. Two week for me. Two is great for me. Just depends on the ser. We know the commitment there. It's fine. You could do seven in the morning for some of you in the morning. Seven. Oh, come on.

Seven. Two. I can't um I can't guarantee that I'll fix it in all the places that I'll try my best. And then do you need me to lead this discussion or you got it? Um well, first well okay well first of all thanks for the meeting time. Thanks for the committee rule review. Who read who received and read the email from Spencer? Yeah. Yep. including I received it. There was one today about inviting you. Yes. It seemed like he wanted this done by then. Yeah. No. No. No.

Oh, really? No. It was more of a I think he wanted to help guide you with filling out the points. Not that some of us would need that. It's a city city council work stream and so I think it's to better explain examples of what's in here.

Yeah. And so I would say I would I would I'm gonna I'm gonna attend that work session and if you're available attend or watch it on YouTube because um I think it'll be really helpful to see specific examples about stuff that's going on here because there isn't a whole lot of guidance I can bring to this because it's a new process. It's a new council directive and separately from that, this isn't my process. This is your process.

So, can can we take just like three or four minutes to have to have Keith and Ruth explain how this committee started, what it was, just so Christy is up to speed, and also well, I can explain kind of what we're why we're having to go through this right now, but can you guys talk about the building of this committee? Sure. Keith can he sit on there longer in the beginning there there was a a a committee called a tourism. No, it's called promotions. Casside promotion. We didn't have tourism. So we didn't have

Yeah. There the the position didn't exist. So a committee met to decide what to do with all the advertising dollars. that the city's had. And we we made all those decisions on where to put in print, whether to use TV, all the stuff that committee did all that. And it was uh you know, the visitors guide, all that. Everything that Josh does, that committee did. So the visitor bureau didn't exist at this point either then. Pre97 97, right? Like this, the visitors bureau existed, but there was no director of the visitors. There was no director and we weren't classified as a 2.5. They had volunteers there. I don't know who

uh well Jenny was there. Was it was it visitor services only? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was visitor services like was there promotion committee made all the decisions on where the advertising and out of that after several years meetings would be four or five hours long. a lot of a lot of discussion, lengthy discussion.

So, so out of that came the the idea to hire a tourism director and so we did um the first one didn't work out very well. The second one worked really well. Then when he left the third one works out really well. So the second one was John Rail. So um and it's taken all all of that in into someone who's more more capable than that committee was, you know, a lot lot more background in tourism,

you know. So it's it's been wonderful and the meetings are much nicer. Much more pleasant. soon they're going to be starting at 3 p.m. And then what do you remember when it like was it always a city department? Um like when you when that committee decided to hire a director was that hiring a director for the city department of the

Yes. Okay. Yes. They they weren't actually I think the first one was a department head ad and that didn't work out very well. Um mostly because of the person that was the second one wasn't a department head. Believe John wasn't No, he was. But now the third one they they've learned a lot and you are a department head and it works out. It's working. Would have worked out first if they would had wouldn't have had the wrong works. But it was the committee was a city committee initially. It was a city it was a city committee. Um trying to think if there were any city staff that that attended it. I don't think there was a lot of

and so but it was put into place that like chamber SDA I mean the five positions were kind of stated in the beginning. Oh yeah. No, there weren't there weren't stated positions like like when when we formed the the new committee then those positions with the representative was from each of those things that wasn't before whoever was serving on it once we got I think there were a lot of people

yeah but it was kind of once we got a director or you know then we realized we didn't need that many people and that it actually worked better in certain situations because it was really hard to make some decisions and that was also when we decided chamber SDDDA restaurant. That was when it kind of came down to who was actually going to be identify. Yeah. And so the ultimately the initial goal was to figure out the avenue for promotions. Yeah. Use those dollars those dollars to promote seaside and the best way to use them. Um

was that advertising and other objectives like beautifification that kind of thing? Just advertising. It's just advertising. Whether it was you know the visitors guide was a big part, print media and TV. Uh we did some radio but not a lot. Okay. So like the first kind of object objectives like that was when we did the signs or did you guys have another objective? Signs on the highway. Yeah. Like the actual physical I think I think that happened when um I mean before that John was here. He was I don't remember anything. Oh yeah, that was like in 20. Yeah, I think I think John John was here for those.

So I know he was I forget what was there before. I don't know. little I don't know sign they were different locations though right the Kowanas had that one by the property by the old high school that was still there yeah I think they were in the same spot they were just they didn't have the um lights and then they yeah I think I think those old signs and they were kind of themed along with the vegetation that was that came in city council I believe and it was a project of the high high school. Yeah, it was relating to that vegetation. He asked me to do this an old guy that's memories going bad.

I don't remember other than just the advertising of any bills like that until it came along for those signs. I don't remember us doing anything other than other than advertising. Okay. So, that objective and then the chair. Yeah. The chair. The chair came out of district. Yeah. And that was still when John was here. Yeah. Yep. Because yeah because yeah yeah Marcy that was Marcy's Marcy's Marcy's baby. So the reason I asked was trying to figure out

stop stirring the pot. Stop stiring the pot. Where's Russ?

Yeah, exactly. Me and Russ were partners in that. We wanted an arch. The reason that I I ask is kind of like sorting out what this committee should be doing to Josh and I had this conversation um you know we went through this process be when they first asked us to define the roles of what we thought this committee should be doing. Um but then as we look at this um some of these things I we can't I can't really have a good answer for that like what exactly are we serving the city council in doing you know as we are this committee we review sorry I also just got back from the paper conference which kind of opened my eyes to a couple things. So the financial reviews with the financial reviews at this meeting, do we need to do that? If the money's already been spent, it's not approved by us. It's approved by the city, they've already seen it, is there any reason for us to see it? So before you know we had a budget we worked with and we submitted all that and it was like those were no one ever went against any participants but it was city manager who had the final approval. So, so I don't know if it was the council. I think it was the city manager.

Right. So, but this that was wasn't an advisory committee. This is an advisory committee. And from my perspective, it's our job to advise Josh. Before a purchase is made, not after. Well, yeah. I mean, when he wants advice. Yeah. I mean, we could advise him anything we wanted. If he didn't want to do it, he he could.

He has to. Sure. I guess the question is is do we feel like we need to continue to to review financials? Is there a reason for us to continue to do like to see where we're at? I mean, is there a reason Josh makes all the decisions with our advice? I just Yeah. Any other any other thoughts? I mean, so the the reason I ask is like what in my in my mind what this committee could be is an idea board, right? We're like, how do we how do we how do we get an arch? Do I want that? No,

be the arch board.

Don't tempt me. I'll I might do it. Uh, no, but you know, thinking of the objectives that are actually tangible because again, we're not going out and telling Josh to go and talk to the radio stations or TV stations or whatever. If we can be the ones that drive the tangible, like the signs, like the chair, those kinds of objectives that drive tourism or improve the tourism experience, that is something that this committee could do and affect and it can be tangible. We wouldn't just be meeting to meet, we would be meeting to bring ideas to the table for that. But as far as advising on the promotion of Seaside in that classic sense of talking to the radio stations or hiring this PR firm or whatever um expert noviceses and maybe we're experts at other things. Um, a second piece is like I I was talking to Josh that I take this information and I talk to people about it. Like I I get excited about especially the the u stats like I love the stats and and I will talk about that stat those stats to other folks and I think that that's a real benefit of having each having people from different sectors on this board because we talk to different sectors of the community and let them know the information that we have. we get excited about the grants that we've granted and all of that, right? So, that's a definite huge benefit, but is like is the financial review required for that? Do we need to do that? It's okay if you want to and we can talk about that, but is that something that we should be doing? Is that a role of ours to review the financials and will it be defensible through this process? If you look at it through this, sometimes you can become a little bit uncomfortable,

right? You might not have marketing expertise, but you have specific expertise in your industry,

right? And that's what I feel and that was the reason for the request to expand was to get you know other other things that are not in this group because again you may not know marketing but you may be one of the experts in the field that you do have but I think all of us at one time or another has had to deal with marketing. Um I think um going back to this when it was a promotions um it was about that how do we promote seaside and part of that is having um an involvement of all of these different areas whether it's hospitality SBDA um you know restaurants you know activities it all it all came together that we all need to work together that way to promote seaside and I feel like that's one of the things that it brings to the council because not everybody that sits on council has that background

or has the longevity of some of it being why you got to say that I know but I'm just saying some of them have not lived here as long as some of us and do not know their what has happened and what has changed you know um it's easy to say you know you're marketing apples to apples and oranges or that's not necessarily true for seaside She said it's very different than Lincoln City and you know and again very different from Mount Hood you know so the marketing is going to be different and what we desire you know what we're trying to promote and see will be different

I guess one of my one of my favorite things when we have met has been those moments where like when Marcy brought us the chair Yep. and she pulled over open up up her phone and she's like, "We should do this." And she was stoked about it, you know, like how can we how can we do we should do this on Zside and then, oh, we should collaborate with high school and then, you know, like that kind of enthusiasm for that. And with the idea, we kind of all knew that it was for the same purpose, right? This is a draw. This is a u an activity that people can do and something that when people drive through, they'll see it. They'll stop. They'll go to the visitor center. you know, she was really stoked about that. And so those those moments, it would be nice to see more of that in this committee. Um, in my mind, uh, that seems like a good use of our time in searching for projects like that. Um, again, I like hearing the stats and that's great. I don't know that I'm doing you much good um, otherwise with the exception of like bringing hair braid ideas. like I can certainly do that, you know. Um, you laugh like you know. Um, so so um I I guess I would just like to as we're as we're looking this over, let's try to think number one, maybe we should make ourselves a purpose. Maybe we should write ourselves a purpose as a committee that is very short and very concise and tells exactly what we want to get out of this committee. While you're still sitting here, what what do you want to see out of this committee?

I like the fact that we're bringing ideas to Josh and and be friends with them. Yeah. Um just has to decide where the money has to be spent. You know, video of clamming. Little things like they're great. any activity people could do. Cues second idea I think well we may not need to spend a lot of time on the financials but I think we should be aware of what at least the budget is

how that money is being spent. Yeah. And what money we would have access to for our crazy hairrained ideas, you know, that kind of thing. But or if we need more money, we hairrain.

I know. But from my perspective, not no longer being active in the business world, but again being active in, you know, different um local organizations with people who do live here full-time for the most part that um you know, I feel like I am a liazison because like the majority of um residents here, they don't attend C city council meetings or they're not fully aware of what's going on downtown and they still have some preconceived notions of, you know, some of the larger events we have here and things like that. And I I feel like you said, you know, you I talk to people about it. I say this is what we're doing and why we're doing it and how we can do it, you know, and financially and things like that so that they understand better um what is what's happening in their own town and why. Uh would you think would you say it's fair that we're ambassadors for tourism?

Yes. I agree with Linda that that's the thing and not just for the local residents here but the visitor who goes why am I paying 14.5% tax or 16 if we're going that way very soon over why I can stay somewhere else where it's eight.

You know what what brings you to seaside? what gets why would you be willing to make that difference and and I think that's a battle that a lot of tourism spots are starting to see you know there's a lot of a lot of places to go now a lot of ways to get there and a lot faster ways to get there so when you start thinking about that you know we have to be that leaison not only to the people who live here but to the people who spend their dollars here why would they want to come back you know is it a beautiful city is it the chair is it you know is it that that the downtown looks beautiful. Is it that I that beach is clean? I mean, I've got lots of visitors saying, "I can't believe how clean that beach is compared to where anywhere else they would go to the ocean."

So, as long as it's not the 5th of July. Yes. As long as it's not the 5th of July. Actually, the sixth, it's usually pretty cool. Yeah. Unless you want to collect some of your own stuff there. Whatever. We need to say we just say boring. thoughts on uh on what you think this forge should be?

Well, new and for the expenditures and budget and stuff seems pretty quick to just do a real quick five minute overview on it. It's kind of nice to see. I don't think we have any input on any of that, but it is nice to see. And I think that we should I mean I feel like my job is just to represent what Seatide is. It's not Lincoln City. I'm not stay I spent a lot of time in Lincoln City and I do vacation rentals down there and I am not advocating for a casino here. I'm advocating for families here. There's a whole different beach and I think really geared toward the families and that's what Sean is. That's why people come here with kids. There's so many kids coming around.

Yeah. They want to go feed the seals, you know. They want to they want to ride the carousel. Ride the carousel. Yeah. They want to build a sand castle. They want to sand castle. Yeah, that is our that's our target, right? Yeah. Big kids too. They all the big kids do some of the big kids. They like those big city, you know, and it's a whole different piece coming. Yeah. A whole different clientele. Well, according to Spencer, I I can't I'll say I I agree that overviewing the financials quickly especially is probably important, but I don't really see your guys' role as overseeing Josh, right?

Because you guys could all say we don't want Josh. He's out and you have no authority to do 100% for Spencer or the council above Spencer. So I think having the complete picture of the financials makes sense just you guys have information but you're not really overseeing him specifically. So I like the idea of it being more of like an idea generation. I think that makes sense. I think it provides community buyin too, right? You know if you don't have this going and you're just making all the decisions without us hearing the feedback and us talking to the other community members and it could cause some rifts. I would imagine, you know, what is the city doing without any input? I would I would think it's good to be transparent.

Oh, sorry. Yeah. I will say one other thing that the council is extremely busy as you guys know and they really have no time or interest to look at a tourism current. So, they don't really provide any like all the little projects you guys are talking about, none of that would happen, right? Because the council's just like overwhelmed with not saying bigger issues, but just other issues. Yeah. Other issues. And so, um, yeah, I don't know where those ideas would originate aside from this committee or Josh. I don't think there's anyone else really looking out for that. So,

I think we're all kind of here because we we we understand the assignment essentially, you know, we we know that our bread is buttered with tourism and that has to be protected because we know that that's I mean, if we don't focus on that, providing the hand that feeds us. So we're kind of it seems like we're kind of all in this room because of that thought and like there's not another entity that is focused on tourism like this group. We we are all kind of in that mind. So I guess in my thought we're ambassadors for tourism. We're an idea board for tourism draw and experience and uh budget formation um for annual just bringing ideas to uh include in your budget

and grants you know missing grants yeah that's

so if you if you were going to ask me and I was going to give an opinion about the value that I get from this committee why do we do things the way we do it it's because this is the way it's always been done and so it has to be done that way however I get tons of value out of meeting this with this committee because it is like you said an ambassadorship to your end but it's also an ambassadorship towards my end. Seaside's marketing is a reflection of everybody in this room and all the businesses and the people even the people that live here and the only way you can like have that is if it's a two-way street you know and so I get a lot out of that forum. Now forum is called out in this role a few times but there is a call for specificity and all this kind of stuff that's going to be I don't quite know how to make that fit in here but that is a huge value for me is the forum I don't necessarily think that has to happen monthly costly or something I don't know or there could be other ways to have a forum but a forum like this is super valuable to me the other thing is the grants I do not want the city to be making grant decisions based on staff member there should be a committee making that decision And that should be offended in this document I think for sure.

Yeah. Um there was one other bit. Um it's the ideas. Yeah. It's the ideas because I'm I'm so busy with the day-to-day stuff of running these marketing programs and getting um together. Even in the in I mean even in the summer I'm working on the next year's stuff and trying to put contracts in place. So, I don't honestly spend a lot of time thinking of all these great new ideas. That comes from this group a lot of times. And so, that's actually valuable, too. Like the chair, redoing the um

highway signs, you know, that never would have been a priority for me. I just I don't I don't even notice it driving by, you know. In my mind, there's still those new signs. You guys are like, man, they get pretty dirty, you know. You should probably update them, you know. and uh the idea this last budget request to add accessibility to the signs and enrich what we already have invested in those are great ideas and I think I think it's good that we have a forum to surface those annually for budget requests but that's it's good to also understand how the city works you know we have a budget we can get more TLT money annually through the budgeting process but we have to go through that process and that process has changed with new people over at city hall. So that process is starting now for the next fiscal year. Um

so if there was a bigger project you need to know now January beginning end of fe end of December I think we started in December December. Yeah. So it feels like we need to like our scope of work needs to slightly like expand for working on things for the following year in that first well in the first six months of the year maybe first eight months of the year to get it by December right like if we're going to pick a project or three then we need to start that's what we should work on.

Yeah. Well, we try to and we want to have an idea and supporting documentation because having an idea isn't enough. That has to be approved by the city manager and finance and then it has to be the budget committee and the council. They're ultimately the ones that decide everything. And so then once it gets to that point, you wait for the fiscal year starting in July and you can start working on it. That's where the actual like putting, you know, hiring people and getting your stuff together starts, but the process starts much earlier than that. But it's only once a year.

So I think you're, you know, you're reporting on things, the the efficacy of your efforts. We can't really, I mean, I don't know. I I don't know that I could make anything to say, oh, I think you should spend another $20,000 in this direction or that direction or whatever. Like I because I don't see those number. You're very diligent about those numbers and and I just don't it doesn't equate for me because that's not my everyday. So, you know, like it seems like our job is to advise on those extra projects, not not the standard promotional, you know, how many visitors guides do we need and all that like you already have those numbers. You don't really need our input on that stuff. It's more like special projects

and and just following along with the reports and giving like how does that strike you? What's your feedback on like the reports and stuff like in an advisory nature? That kind of what you mean? Yeah. I mean I I guess like for for budgeting. So if we're talking about the budgeting process, you know, we're not we're not the ones writing the budget. We're not correcting, you know, you give us a report and we look at it and ultimately just put a stamp on saying, "Yeah, we saw good job or whatever, but we're not advising you. I don't know that there's ever been a time where we've said, "I don't think you're spending enough. I think you should ask for another $100,000 or something like that just for advertising, right? But but we do ask for money for projects.

So, should we go line by line? We have another five minutes. If we if we I got a question. What do you know what the council is looking for out of this? You said they're really busy. Do they want to be more involved with what our decisions are? Do they care? I would say certain council members want to be more involved in everything. other council members are completely overwhelmed and we have too much going on. I'd say most of this is being driven by Spencer really looking at the roles of the council and everything differently than we ever have.

The difference is instead of the city manager making a lot of the decisions, it's shifting to the council making a decision. So, is it important for this committee to maybe let the council know how important tourism is to seaside or do they not? Um, do you think they understand it or they need help? I think they probably need help, but that probably should come from someone else. I mean, I think it's fine for you guys to say that. Absolutely. But Oh, I thought you were joking.

No, the voters the voters should definitely, you know, let them know how important tourism is if there is a port to them. But I think that makes sense for you guys to say how important it is. Well, Well, it's worth pointing out this governance framework that it says explicitly committees advise the city council. Staff report to city manager. Committees do not supervise or direct staff. Committees may bring expertise, experience, or stakeholder perspective. That's the forum they're kind of talking about. In limited in limited cases, the council may formally delegate a limited defined authority to a committee. That would be the grants. I think that it's very clear that that should happen. But I struggle too with what that means. The committee is advising the council because the council doesn't currently ask this committee for anything. So I wonder what it's going to look like going forward.

Yeah. This has been one of the I've mentioned this multiple times. This has been one of the few places we have no input on as a council. We rarely gets brought up any of the tourism decisions. It's just because we're dealing with so much stuff. This is kind of on the back burner and I don't I don't know that the council really has the bandwidth to take it on. But that's kind of the direction that we're moving. Well, if we were seeing if we were seeing push back on the financial efforts towards tourism, maybe it would be a bigger problem, but we're not seeing that push back from them, right? Like we're not they're not not approving your budget or they're not majorly adjusting it.

I would say that's the reason that it probably doesn't get a lot of attention is it's not really visible. So most of the advertising isn't hitting us here. It's hitting all over the state and so we don't see any of this. Like we see the streets, right? and we get people tell us all about them but they don't really tell us about them for them. So I think it's just kind of you know outside of mind but ultimately the council does have control over all this if you look at the way Spencer is interpreting just last week I gave gave the annual report they no real feedback other than you said nice things about this committee.

Yeah. So, so can the um similar to the grants can the um special how does that how does that read? Sorry, the special limited in limited cases the council may formally delegate a limited defined authority to a committee. Any such delegation must be explicit and clearly scoped. Okay. So, uh limited defined authority on uh tourism draw and experience projects.

I honestly I I don't know if you're going to need authority for the idea ideiation portion or not. You're certainly going to need it for the grants, but I don't know about that part just because they're already requesting your input through the annual budget process. Yeah, that was in fact our submissions this year are mostly your ideas. So I don't know that you need it because they're already asking for it. So obviously it's there but like but they're not asking us to or do you did you go and present like this is what the tourism advisory committee has asked for just the budget. It's only happened since Spencer got here. We do present. Okay.

Sadi, I would recommend you guys put forward whatever you feel this committee is and then let the chips fall where they may. Yeah. And we went through that process, right? And so, but then we got the sheet and I would like put forward whatever you guys think. And then, did this sheet go to every committee? I got the same email. You guys did it. Okay. Do you guys have another 15 minutes that we can go line by line, scratch the ones that we do not think apply and or add things that we do. Is there a tree board coming in on us? I'm going to barricade the door. business to do. I gotta go back to work, but I'm watch.

Okay, very good everybody. Okay. Uh, provide input recommendations regarding the marketing and promotions of the city, the seaside as a visitor's destination. Provide input recommendations regarding the marketing. Did we do that? We did when we reviewed all the different uh marketing companies that um were being considered to represent that RFP. Yeah, we we hired Little Bird. In that case, you kind of were tired Little Bird the second time.

You kind of were the RFP committee because every time we have an RF we have an RFP, we have to have a committee to review it. In that case, you became the RFP committee. So when we hired the uh Moxy SOA to redo our website for instance, that wasn't you. That was a separate committee of people that we sent. Okay. But that was more than that was the city website though, right? Not just our website visitor. It was a visitor website. But that is a city website.

Okay. So taking that out of the equation, doing the RFPs, do we have input and recommend? Do we make input and recommendations or do we hear from the director their input? So, are we doing any advising on that or are we passive observers? I don't know how else you would put it. Well, I think we have little bits of it. like you know when just like when you guys went to do the track thing um we've recommended you know going to the aquarium and doing that shot or going or having the doc you know having the docies go you know I think we do a little you know just a touch on this but not like it's not the a priority or anything that we really handle we make suggestions on who should go on TV that's what we're looking for Josh your thoughts about notice is working.

What? I think you're doing a great job. No, I think you're I'm just trying to bite my tongue because I feel like some of these are duplicative. Yeah. Okay. Well, just for the first line, I guess I'm going to lend my opinion and say I don't actually think that we do provide input regarding the marketing and the promotion. I think that we have other aspects of of promotion but I don't know that we actually provide input and recommendations on the marketing promotion personally but I'm willing to hear other well you know I I think we do I mean

you know what I I came to was it got on for the year old of the building I brought to him and it Josh did it you know little bird so I don't know if you have an idea we give it to him so we're pro providing input on different ways to market side is that specific to this committee or could you go to his doorstep and say the same thing I probably could Does he require the input from this committee to move forward on any of those projects u does it require it no but I think he appreciates But it's I think it's better if we have input. Okay. So, we'll keep that.

Well, I think we can narrow it down to this providing input, not and and if and if he did something that was totally out of left field, I think this committee would have input, too. If he wanted to put all his money into marketing in New Jersey, there's a seaside over there. There is. That would confuse them. We get calls all the time. Satie, yeah,

I'm sorry if I'm stepping over the boundary. I should be, but in my mind, when I read through these all, the one third from the bottom served as a forum for input from the local tourism and business community regarding tourism related issues, I feel like captures a lot of what the other ones are hinting at in a more meaningful way that could be defended. Okay, awesome. Let's put a star at that one. Yes. Okay. review and provide input on proposed annual tourism budget prior to the submission to the city budget committee. We do that. Anybody else have different opinion? We do that if we have a special project. We don't we don't do it just on the annual budget.

We don't do we get what we do what they give us. We we never ask if there's anything more unless we have something specific we're asking for. So we could just say we could just rem remove the provide input on so review provide annual tour we could provide input if we had something more that we wanted. Oh yeah. So just on the regular budget we really don't have input. We see what we get and we see how it's spent. So like if we wanted to do a special project really we're petitioning more than Yeah.

Yeah. We we'd probably have to come up with a proposal and some kind of budget for him to present to the budget committee to get that project. So you're talking about like highway science, highway science chair, you know, those those are all above the normal budget. So we we have input on those things, but we really don't have input on the normal budget. Okay. So we can remove that. I would think so. Yeah. Develop and recommend citywide tourism marketing plan and overall tourism strategies. I don't even need to finish that. I don't think that we do that.

I got some old I mean that Josh does that, right? Any other feedback? Can I cross it off? Sorry, I would crossed it off. I wouldn't have crossed it off. Review and provide feedback on tourism programs and initiatives. Would be the grants, wouldn't it? separate that's on the second page. That's still feedback. That's the ideas and that's feedback. It's not saying that we're but but like Josh said is that is educative to the first one

or the I think it's more to the fourth one. We're right behind it though. I think it's the same thing. Okay. Remove. Yep. And review. I'm going to skip that third one. Review proposed tourism related initiatives, campaigns, partnerships, and provide recommendations. Same. Same. Remove just Yeah. Saying it provide input regarding the long-term tourism strategy and Okay. And destination development goals. See, in my mind, I feel like that's the budget request again. Yeah. You guys are worried very well. They'll remove and just keep the two on this page.

Yeah, correct. Which two do you have? So provide input and recommendations regarding the marketing and promotion of the uh city. You got one, one and four. One and five. One, two, three, four, five. One. Serve as a forum for input from local tourism and business community regarding tourism issues. Where is your um budget request? Like where does that fit? I think we need to word it differently. I think again we go to the bottom one differently. Let's finish this last one and then we'll rewrite. I think you can last

and then award grants and track grant program with council approved budget and criteria. So yes.

Yes. Okay. input input. Okay, I think that we should write in an ambassador piece thoughts uh act as the city's ambassador for tourism and tourism promotion. Great. I write slow folks. And you have anything to

land doing a great job. Okay. Well, know that we care. Okay. act as the ambassador for tourism and tourism promotion. Uh do I need to be more specific? I don't know. That may come out as you move down the line. Act ambassadors for tourism with tourism promotion. Um do we need to say like to our um

business and citizens, business community and citizens? And it also seems like we act as a leazison between the city and the and the the businesses that are on the front line doing tours. You guys want to change the name from le from ambassador to leazison? No.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. recommendations for serving. I'm just recapping serving as a forum act as the ambassadors. Yeah. Connect formation. Um, so maybe something like make recommendations uh or act as an idea board for um tourism draw and experience objectives projects. thoughts on that being lined up.

Yeah. This is the piece where we're identifying things to do. Yeah. And that's often called destination development. Destination development. That that includes signage and and activities. Signage activities. Destination development. Thank you. That's in that last. That's fine. regarding tourism strategic plan for destination development. You're not planning.

Is that something that we feel like we need to do? But I mean, you could take out the word long term. That's what I was thinking. Provide input regarding tourism strategy or you could just suggesting development if you want to be specific about it. Right. Tourism development like we're going to promote this as a a familyfriendly place or a uh 21 and older gambling venue like that kind of strategy. I don't know. Okay.

Well, destination development is so broad, but it's also kind of specific to what you're kind of hinting at with all this stuff. It is signage, wayfinding, it is um you know, even if you could really dream big and do uh beautifification of the south entrance to town, that's just that's all destination development projects. And we changed the word from goals to objectives.

Okay. Can it read provide input regarding destination development objectives? I don't see why you couldn't change it to that. I think just goals goals doesn't goals sounds like well I have I have this thought that maybe we should instead of like we should I don't know an objective is more actionable and I think it'll be too broad again you'll be back I I don't mind the term long-term no strategy do you think we should start working on long-term strategic

if you develop something that works tomorrow and it works and you keep it going for 20 years. That's long term, you know. I would I wouldn't long term I wouldn't think, well, we're going to try to make this a family resort for five years. It doesn't work. We're going to switch. I think it's long term to keep your goals should always be longterm. So, I guess whether it's in there or not, I just I was thinking about it differently. I mean, I I see what you're saying that the whatever objective we do should be a long-term objective. Exactly. Right. you should be thinking it's not something that we're going to do for 6 months and then it's just a six-month project. This is something for the longevity.

I guess in my mind when they're saying long-term goal that's like in 10 years this is what you know it's like the the 30-year plan for seaside and I'm like are we doing that in this committee? Are we working on a 30-year plan for tourism in this committee? Should we be like I feel like we I feel like we have kind of a consensus of how I could never tell when you're asking like hypothetical question. Like I'm like always like she want to answer.

I'm I'm all up for an answer. It just didn't seem like anybody was jumping at the table for that one. Well, I just think that it's probably indicative that the city's comprehensive 2050 plan was just developed and tourism was a piece of it, but only a piece. It certainly didn't come out of this committee. Yeah. You know, so I guess it would have to be very specific to tourism. Yeah. I don't even know what that would look like. And the reason I'm asking is I don't even know what that would look like. Right. And the sess point theoretically it's the council that makes decisions. So would they want to delegate that authority? I don't know. It might not be wise to put that in their in their laps.

I guess I guess in my mind I know this sounds really silly but kind of because we have a sample from all of these sectors of business too. It isn't just the city's plan. Yeah. Like it it's it's how the businesses move forward. It isn't just city. Yeah. It's not just the promotion of the city through the city's finances.

This is like how are we as a collective group going to move forward in promoting our town? Because every day Ruth talks to people coming into town. I talk to people coming into town. Christy talks to people coming in. He, you know, we all talk to people and are promoting our town in our own ways, but I feel like we have a consensus of how to go about doing that. Yeah. But is it stated? Is that something that we need to state? Do we need to have that long-term plan? And should we be the writers of that?

And and obviously any plan worth its weight would reflect public sentiment and not politicians or something like obviously that would be the case. But I think that um well public sentiment if they were for promoting seaside, right? Depends what the objectives of the whole project.

Yeah. Yeah. So we're going to circle back. I know I said 15 minutes. We're at 16 minutes, but give me another couple if you could. So how are we feeling about long term? Say we're talking 10 years. 10 years is not long term. The older you get, it's less less longterm. That long term creeps up on us. 10 years will like that. We all know that it does, right? U so if we're if we're pretending that 10 years is a long-term plan, are we going to start looking 10 years out from now and making that?

Yeah, I'm I'm always looking far ahead when I make any decision. What What will it be in the future? So, good on you. I can't even think about what I'm doing next week. I don't know what I'm doing. I hope I'll be doing in 10 years. Okay, so put back long term. So, provide input regarding long-term destination development objectives. Yeah.

Okay. budget formation. Do we need to have like we just we just talked about that we're not having anything to do with the actual formation of the budget with the exception of making recommendations based on those objectives. Yeah. So, we don't need to add another piece in there to like review the budget or make recommendations because Well, you can add whatever you like. I don't think that was what I don't think that was the standing.

All right. Thoughts, folks? Do we need to have a budget piece in here? I think we've got to decide on the budget before. I mean only if to be added to what budget they need. So that is budget formation. Say we want $100,000 for a project budget that you have to submit to the budget for next year's budget. So, um,

unless unless you know, I'm assuming that the budget you get annually is keeping up with cost of laying on expenses and then we have a lot more money sitting there. Do we think we need to spend more of that? The last word on the street was $4.7 billion set aside by the city. Um well I mean so you know we we've talked about diminishing returns right I mean even if you spent another 300k is it going to get us 300k's worth of business in a town but but will it get to the point where we need more that's

to answer your question our budget our materials and services budget has gone up but it's been about even the last three years does it go up three generally goes up no doesn't go up 3% annually but it goes It's gone up much more much. That is probably going down. It's gone up much more than that over a 5year window. Okay. But they haven't adjusted what you asked for, right? What do you mean? They they haven't adjusted your budget. You give them the budget and they haven't adjusted down. I've never been asked to revise it down.

Okay. So, the change is just because we haven't chosen to ask for more or not that we couldn't and that they wouldn't approve it. It's awesome. Is it our job to talk to Josh before he submits a budget to say, "Hey, maybe you should ask for more." Is that is that budget formation? Is that what we're talking? But we wouldn't do that unless we know what we wanted to spend the money on. Well, just cost of living, you know, the expenses have gone up. Have our expenses gone up. Our personnel services cost of living have gone up and we'll continue to, but the other expenses are also going up the same amount.

That's what I mean. like we've been even the last 3 years, but if you look at 5year window, it's gone up much more than the cost of living. Our our advertising budget has gone up, but it has plateaued the last couple years. But it's also the the different things that you choose to spend it on, the efficacy of that, right? Like if you felt like visitor guide uh requests tanked and there has to be something done about that next year, right? Then you can make those adjustments to try to use that in a different way. Yes. Within Yes. Within the materials and services budget, there's a lot of leeway. Yes. Yes. Yes.

But the overall number comes from finance department. They give us an operating budget, personnel, materials and services. That's where advertising will comes from. They give you that number. Yeah. You don't request. If you if you requested more, would they increase that number? I I think if I I feel pretty confident that should I ask for more money, they would give us more money if we could justify it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Because I'm sure that all the other things are costing more. If if our labor's gone up, everyone else's labor gone up and all the other costs are

just based on, you know, there has been times where I've said, you know, we have this big project we want to do coming up. You know, can we just get a little bump in it? It's gone up. When Mark was here, it was just completely arbitrary, but it still went up. So, so that's something you've never had this committee's input on before. I haven't. I don't know. So, is that something we want to give him input on or just take what the what the I guess that's the question going forward. Do we want to be able to one time say, "Oh, this is going up and this is going up. we feel like you should give us more money or do we just want to hope right and

is because we're writing these in the rules does that mean we can't do that so I'm just saying is that one of the things we want to be available to us at one time that's a good question if you don't identify as something we're doing maybe we can't do it on our own yeah that would be I've never been afraid to ask for money I don't think any of us at this table have been to ask for more money I'm just saying would be a where you could request through the budget process like hey we think there's you're not doing enough broadcast work or you're not doing this next year I want you to have an extra 150k in broadcast or something and you could do it through the annual budget I guess that would be the question would there if you saw that if you saw that if there if in case somewhere down the road it came

understand so like so review and provide input what I'm saying is I think you already have it covered right because if you are already talking about how you're doing special projects and special budget requests as a destination and development thing through that existing process. To Keith's point about if we don't write it in now, you won't have the power. I think you already will have that power through the annual budget process because one of your special budget requests could be extra money for bud for broadcast. Yeah. Oh, one of the destinations could be got you. Okay. So, we don't need to specifically have the budget item in here because it's already covered by the destination, right? development.

Correct.

Okay. Okay. So, now we have two, five. We have five, right? So, just to review and then wrap up if that's fine with you guys. But, so we're going to keep provide input and recommendations regarding the marketing and promotions of the sea city of Seaside as a visitor destination. We have serve as a forum for input the uh from the local tourism and business community regarding tourism related issues. Provide input regarding long-term destination development objectives and act as ambassadors for tourism and tourism promotion uh and fifth sorry fifth award grants under TAP grant program is council approved legal criteria. Yeah.

So those are not functions. Now, do we need to go go through the rest of this graph and explain why they're important or is that We do, but I don't know that we need to sit here in the committee and do that. If you guys feel like you have input on any of those, I just I don't want to have another five hour meeting. Right. Right. Unless you're up for it. No, I'm fine. Just because because why? Because I said Yeah. Well, I mean a little bit like what if we leave these blank? Great. Like are they expecting 100% of these to be filled out because we might be disappointed.

Um I referring back for the workshop that we all got invited to. I believe that's going to be the stress to make sure that all of these get filled. So I have the weekend. I have the weekend. But I mean I think they're going to require require the answer right now. But I think eventually that's what they're going to want is if you read I I was reading this email very closely because you know I sent out the T packet last week and then Friday evening I get this email. I'm like it's not even on the budget. So quick and then this morning we get the invite. Yeah. I said I think that the invite is just if we're uncomfortable with the fell out that's

one thing I noticed in the next step it says please review and discuss this material at your next meeting and determine a timeline for completing the workshop right that's our ask so

yeah I don't think it's supposed to be completed at that one but I think you attend the next one so you know the direction that they wanted to go in okay does anybody want to take a crack at these between now and next meeting. Well, I almost got it. How many X's can you put in? Do we have a bingo? Um, so let's see. Our next meeting is uh on the 18th of March

of March. So, should we set that as our timeline? I think so. I think you and I you and others can probably reach out before then. Yeah. I'd rather knock it out. Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. And usually we give all this to the newest member. That's right. It's fun. Listen, she hasn't missed a meeting yet. When you miss a meeting, that's voting. Yeah, that's my kiss right there. Don't miss a meeting. That is funny. I was just I was like, I don't think I have any input on this stuff because it's too new.

We'll get you caught up on you. Um, okay. Uh, public comment. Nope. Committee comment. Nope. Nope. We the only thing that I'm going to say, it was brought up at our u at our board meeting that we are potentially considering um uh using some of our finances to uh potentially do a visitors kiosk downtown. Uh it was just an initial conversation, but uh for the summer months, we feel like it would be valuable to promote our businesses um downtown. So, like a kiosk like you had in welcome center intro for a while. Uh, sorry, a man kiosk. Oh, man.

Yeah. Uh, we're thinking about a a trailer that uh or a semi-permanent, not not permanent, but a temporary uh thing that is manned downtown uh for information that people can uh come up to, get a visitor's guide, get a walking map, and uh get pointed in the right direction if they need to. So again, it was just an initial conversation, but I wanted to bring it to you guys. An idea for a location. It'd be really nice to have it in uh on Franklin or at the where the tree is where the Christmas tree is usually planted. Down that used to be down.

I take that kind of still according to the city is still the street. So anyway, it's not we're not moving on it tomorrow, but it was brought up that um I think we ventured about that even when we were in here before. We talked about it. Yeah. Having a man in there down there. That was before the woman's the true person a person's kiosk. So anyway, so that was all. Do you see any like potential confusion regarding like visitor input and all that kind of stuff? like as far as being like a chamber ambassador I guess for lack of a better word rather than a visitor services person

uh just as far as like having a kiosk there somebody's asking they might think they're talking to a welcome center or something or it's just it's like a chamber and so that they would get chamber members it wouldn't be

something it wouldn't be yeah no it would be it would be all it would be again the chamber is supposed to be the tide that rises all boats membership is kind of a different thing um you know they get they get other benefits from membership, but this would be a all seaside thing. You know, it's just I mean I know that you guys can't man a kiosk. We've talked about it before. So, um and if that's changed that like, like I say, we're just thinking about the idea. Uh I don't want to step on anybody's toes. Um it wouldn't be that. It would just be trying to um give the visitor an experience uh while they're here that is helpful.

And you know, We've often talked about how the declining foot traffic in the welcome center due to you have to literally want to go to that welcome center on the highway. Some of our space. Yeah. And so and most of our visitors are downtown or on the beach and so we've had that conversation before, you know. So yeah, I mean I I don't think it's a bad idea. I just wonder like maybe we should collaborate on it or figure out a way to do that. I don't know.

Yeah. I mean, I I think we'd be all for it. I think that if we um you know, if we have the funds to put together a rolling information cart and do that, I mean, if there's tacos involved. Yeah. But there's going to be like a special doc. It's going to be like a speak easy. A taco speak easy. Uh three knocks. Yeah. Yeah. Or if you went. Yeah. No, I I think it would be collaborative with SBDA too. I mean, you know, the rule would be to

side is so unique. I mean, we have that going on with the welcome center now. People walk in and I don't know what last time you've been in the welcome center, but people walk in that front door and half of them are there to see the chamber. And so, we direct them like, "Oh, it's a if it's like a I need to get my house painted or something question, we send them to the chamber." Yeah, it's a where do I go to see low tide or something? Then we take it, you know, but we all answer like you take questions about tourism too when you get phone calls and stuff. So that was kind of why we deliberately chose to call it when we put the new signage in welcome center because visitors don't care. They just want information. Yeah. You know what I mean? The way you gather information has changed a lot too. Yes.

So probably count is you know people go on their phones and find all your information. Yeah. We're reaching people more and more online. You see people wandering downtown now and they they they're look lose, right? Like I just rubber family yesterday. They were trying to have lunch with their little kids at Brute. What is that? The beach. Oh. Yeah. They're like, "Oh, kids can't go in here." I was going to I'm like, "Oh, no. You're one buck off. Get over there." You know? Yeah.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it would be it would be 100% if somebody came up and said, "Hey, we're looking for burgers. Where can we go with our kids?" Well, let me tell you the 20 places that you can go get a burger. You know, it's not like, oh, well, my favorite place is like, that's not what that should be. It should be like, let me point you in the exact direction so you can walk, you know, walk one way or the other. Yeah, totally. I mean, it is, but on my island, is that something that that could be downtown? That's right. That'd be good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, like I say, it's it's not to step on toes at all. Um, if we want to work on a project like but ultimately the chamber's goal is the same as SBA and the same as the mystery bureau, right? Is just to give the best experience that we can and be helpful to our visitors to have them go into the businesses and have the experience. So, that's it. Okay. Well, I've kept you extra 33 minutes. So, thank you. Welcome, Christie. Yes. Welcome. Okay. I am adjouring.