TOWN OF PROVINCETOWN – VISITOR SERVICES BOARD
May 9, 2005
Judge Welsh Room
Chairman Lynne Davies convened the meeting at 10:20 AM.
VSB members present: Lynne Davies, Chairman; Steve
Melamed; Mick Rudd; Barbara Rushmore
VSB member absent
(excused): Peter Bez;
Ellen Freeman; Laurel Guadazno
Other attendees: Patricia Fitzpatrick, Tourism
Director; Tim McCarthy; Brian Carlson; Katherine Fitzgerald; Win Smith,
Planning Board; Chris Hamilton; Pru Sowers; Candace Collins-Boden, Executive
Director, Provincetown Chamber of Commerce
Recorder: Cynthia Curran
The following are meeting
minutes, in brief,
MINUTES
Questions arose about one
of the votes taken. Since two members who had been at the last meeting were
absent, it was moved to table the approval of the minutes until the full board
was present.
MOTION: Move to table the approval
of the minutes of the April 26, 2005 VSB until the next meeting.
Motion by: ..Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Steve Melamed
Yea 4 Nay 0
Chairman Lynne Davies
brought up the question of the meeting schedule for the VSB. She suggested
scheduling two meetings a month. If there was no need for the second meeting,
it would not be held.
MOTION: Move to schedule meetings on
the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month.
Motion by: ..Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Steve Melamed
Yea 4 Nay 0
The next meeting will be
May 24th at 10:00 a.m.
OLD BUSINESS
The Agenda item, Budget
Matters, was tabled because there were not enough members present,
The Chairman took a moment
to thank everyone for the vote of confidence in electing her chairman. Ms.
Davies invited anyone who thinks she is heading off-track at anytime to speak
to speak up as she said that she considers it a team effort.
Next Ms. Davies brought up
the matter of bill paying. She had signed a bill for an event that has not
taken place as yet and wondered if that was the correct thing to do. She felt
there was some ambiguity in the grant guidelines. Patricia Fitzpatrick said
that bills could be paid before the event and that all bills must be submitted,
with a total reckoning, within 90 days after the event took place in order to
get paid. She said that if the money left in the grant was low, the bills would
not be paid until the event had happened and a reckoning had been received.
Lynne Davies said that she would like to review the grant procedures in the
future. She is meeting with the Grant Administrator tomorrow in order to learn
more about them. Ms. Davies said that she would like to see clear guidelines.
Mick Rudd suggested that after she had met with the Grant Administrator, the
grant guidelines should be discussed and the Board should vote on a fresh
policy. Barbara Rushmore added that some bills, such as for advertising, need
to be paid in advance.
Follow-up report by the
Tourism Director on the VSB requests:
There had been previous
discussion about the Board’s concern that the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce was
referring travel writers exclusively to one inn. The Board felt that this was
not fair to other inns in town.
Patricia Fitzpatrick said
that, in the past, when she gets a request from a writer, she sends emails to
the inns requesting free accommodations. She said that Michael Patrick
Communications had a contract with the Crowne Pointe Inn to send writers there.
Ms. Fitzpatrick said that Michael Patrick Communications has a contract with
the Cape Cod Chamber and has set up contracts on their own and she can’t get in
the middle. Mick Rudd suggested that the Chamber contact Michael Patrick
Communications and investigate using other inns. He agreed to investigate more
and report back to the VSB.
Lynne Davies said that the
Board should talk with the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce to express our concerns
and work with them to see if a more equitable solution could be reach. She also wanted the Tourism Director to make
sure that she had an updated email list for the inns since many inns had
indicated they had never been contacted. Ms. Davies suggested that the Tourism
Director and the director of the Chamber of Commerce and the PBG compare lists
to make sure they are up-to-date.
The next discussion
concerned tourist information, In reference to the available free information,
Ms. Fitzpatrick said that she has been ill and has not been able to gather all
the information. Ms. Davies suggested that Bill Schneider might be able to work
on gathering this information. Barbara
Rushmore wanted to say something else about gathering tourist information. She
thought that information could be gotten from the Department of Revenue about
where taxes were paid from. Ms. Davies said that there was no way to get
information on a monthly basis, because a request must be made each time. She
will look into it further.
Information on bus tour
visitors. Lynne
Davies asked about the status of getting information from the Red Barn
regarding bus tour passengers as the Tourism Director had suggested last
summer. The Tourism Director said it
would not work. Lynne Davies asked
about the plan as suggested by the VSB and Tourism Director last summer, to
have the bus drivers that arrive in town fill out a brief survey of the
passenger statistics and return to the parking attendant for a parking
permission placard. Patricia
Fitzpatrick said that the parking staff had been against this idea. Lynne Davies said that there is a new Parking
Administrator who seems to be more open to the possibility. Steve Melamed said that if the Board had
more information about the buses, they would know who to target at trade shows.
Mick Rudd thought that there should be a meeting with the Parking Administrator
and that an outline of what the Board is thinking about should be sent to him
prior to the meeting. Ms. Davies thought that he should come to the meeting
after next. Barbara Rushmore thought that you might have to pay people to
complete a survey. It was also suggested that instead of trying to survey every
bus, one could survey all the busses on Monday one week, Tuesday the next,
Wednesday the next, etc.. Lynne Davies said that Patricia Fitzpatrick has a lot
of expertise in this area and she would like to know her ideas on possible ways
to get information. Ms. Fitzpatrick said that license plates don’t give
information and drivers often don’t know much. The people who book the tours
may be the best sources of information, Mick Rudd said that the drivers could
be given a welcome packet with information and a survey to be completed in
order for them to park. Ms. Davies will talk to the Parking Administrator about
coming to the meeting on the second Tuesday in June. She asked Patricia
Fitzpatrick to think of realistic possible ways to gather information about the
tour buses and report to the board at the next meeting. It was felt that tour
buses are an increasingly important part of the tourist business in
Provincetown and must be focused on by the Board.
Lynne Davies then brought
up the matter of the FY2005 marketing budget. She thought that there might be
things she doesn’t know about coming up, such as promised co-op ads. Ms.
Fitzpatrick said that the amount that has been promised will not change and that
there are no additions to be made to the budget spread sheet regarding spending
commitments, but who the money goes to may change. She said that she signed the
contracts and nothing new has been signed.
The fourth heading on the
agenda was Marketing FY2006. Patricia Fitzpatrick said that the presented
budget contained rounded-off figures. Once the budget is approved she will do
further research into when exactly the ad will be placed, what size and other
details. Lynne Davies said that she would like a picture of where the money is
going and how many inserts as requested in the past by the VSB. She at the Tourism Director if she had met
with the P.B.G. and the Chamber of Commerce to coordinate the marketing ads to
reach the broadest market as agreed at the joint marketing meeting. This was addressed. Ms. Fitzpatrick said
that in the past there hasn’t been advertising in Lesbian and Gay publications
because the PBG has done it.
Ms. Davies thought that the
list presented was good. Steve Melamed asked about a conference which Ms.
Fitzpatrick had gone to last year. Ms. Fitzpatrick said that it was the IACVB
conference and she felt that it was very worthwhile. She said that last year it
had been held in Boston, but will be in San Diego this year.
Ms. Davies said that she
would still like to see an overall calendar of the ads, but realizes that Ms.
Fitzpatrick needs to go forward with the ads as soon as possible. Ms.
Fitzpatrick said that the exact time of placement will be decided after she has
the Boards approval of the budget. She works with the magazines to determine
the best issues, such as ones focusing on New England. Mr. Melamed said that he
would like to know what the probable content of the issues of the magazines
would be. Ms. Fitzpatrick said that she can’t always know this in advance, but
takes that into consideration as she goes along. Ms. Davies said that she felt
that the Board needed to rely on Ms. Fitzpatrick’s expertise to place the ads
at the appropriate time and she was concerned about missing deadlines if the
media budget wasn’t approved now. She was still interested in cooperative ads.
Mick Rudd suggested meeting monthly with the PBG to discuss ads, instead of
having just one person deal with them.
MOTION: Move to approve the
Marketing Budget FY2006 as presented by the Tourism Director on May 9th,
2005 from the section entitled “Travel and Trade Shows” through the section
entitled “Media” up to the line “Co-op PBG Advocate Ads.”
Motion by: ..Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Mick Rudd
Yea 4 Nay 0
MOTION: Move that the Tourism
Director begin the contract negotiations with the media buys to be presented to
the VSB as they come in.
Motion by: ..Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Mick Rudd
Yea 4 Nay 0
Patricia Fitzpatrick said
that there were postcards to be sent out for which they had previously decided
to use a rubber stamp. She realized that since there were 1000 postcards,
labels would be easier. That way the Board could help put them on the postcards
during a meeting. She distributed samples of the labels. There was some
discussion on the content of the labels.
MOTION: Move to approve the labels
with the changes discussed.
Motion by: ..Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Mick Rudd
Yea 4 Nay 0
The Chairman presented some
ideas about the website and said she will send out copies of the initial plan
to all the Board members. She said that the site will be simple and will have
many links to other sites. She hopes to have it up before Memorial Day.
The next issue was the
printing of the Calendar of Events cards.
MOTION: Move to authorize the
Tourism Director to proceed with the printing of 10,000 of the 2005 Calendar of
Events rack cards, to be contracted with Chuck Anzalone, with the noted
corrections to some of the events (dates of the Great Schooner race and the Men‘s
Weekend).
Motion by: Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Steve Melamed
Yea 4 Nay 0
Patricia Fitzpatrick said
that as of this morning she will be leaving her post as Tourism Director on
June 30th. She said that it was her decision to leave and that not
being able to spend more than $400.00 without coming back to the VSB for
approval, was a factor in her decision. Chairman Lynne Davies said that the
Board will miss her and her expertise. She thanked her for all her work. Other
NEW BUSINESS
Brian Carlson, the Program
Director of the Men’s Health Project of the A.S,G.C.C. and Tim McCarthy then
spoke briefly about their proposed project. They are developing a brochure for
tourists to promote safe sex while visiting Provincetown, a contest survey and
a related web page. For $3500.00 the VSB would have an ad on the back page of
the brochure. Steve Melamed said that he would like to see something that
didn’t just target gay men. Lynne Davies said that she would feel more
comfortable if the whole board were present. Patricia Fitzpatrick said that it
should perhaps be a grant proposal rather than an ad request. Brian Carlson
wanted to respond to Mr. Melamed’s concerns. He said they had focused on gay
men because they are a high risk group, but that the project could possibly
have a broader scope. Tim McCarthy said that they were open to making changes.
The Chairman felt that the discussion should be with the full board.
MOTION: Move to table the discussion
until May 24th.
Motion by: Mick Rudd Seconded by: Barbara
Rushmore
Yea 4 Nay 0
The last item discussed was
presented by Chris Hamilton. He is developing a “Whale Week” from July 12th
to the 17th. He was not asking for funding, but would like to be
included on the Calendar of Events.
MOTION: Move to include “Whale Week
in Provincetown” in the Calendar of Events.
Motion by: Mick Rudd Seconded by: Barbara
Rushmore
Yea 4 Nay 0
Mr. Hamilton was asked to
return on May 24th to discuss his plans further.
MOTION: Move to adjourn the meeting
at 12:10 p.m.
Motion by: ..Lynne Davies Seconded by:
Mick Rudd
Yea 4 Nay 0
NEXT MEETING: May 24th,
10:00 a.m.