Meeting Minutes - March 19th

1) Southwest Travel Region Update:
Discussed the meeting and in particular the historical database. We are in need of a champion that will recruit the volunteers necessary to get Ouray's assets into this database.

Karen to send out login info and .pdf copy of pages and latest Quality Standards to group so that we know what is required for each page. We also need to get into contact with Historical Preservation Committee for City.

Will provide Tom Hillhouse, Jim Opdahl and Ralph Huesing to the SW Travel Region so that they can contact them about the 18K in grant money.

SWCTR is coming to Ouray for next get together. Will contact Mel and try to get meeting at Wright Opera House.

Scenic Byway: Must contact Ken Francis to see if he would pay for some signage. We want a Scenic Byway sign AND America Byway signs on both sides of town (North = at the Welcome to Ouray sign and South= at or near the SOA sign). ---- Followup -- I talked with Charlie Berger (Beautification) and he is going to talk to CDOT at meeting on March 28th about getting those signs posted. The signage is free according to Charlie. He thinks there are existing poles where they could be placed...

2) Ralph and Joyce gave a Retail Report.
6 Galleries
4 Jewelery Stores
5 working artisans

He commented about wanting the VG in 2009 to make shopping, ARts & Culture more prominent. All his comments were well received and Ralph will be a member of the VC Committee next year.

3) Feast Update
148 paid admissions, 8 students. 40 people came from out of town. They are coming again next march.

4) VFRs-- Joyce introduced the "Ouray Hosts" program Idea. Discussion around feasibility and implementations... Need more time to discuss / hash out.

Events - We do not do enough to recognize any events. We are going to get someone to work with / contact event organizers. We want the imogenerun.com to link back to ouraycolorado.com, we want banners welcoming runners.

Discussed Bicycle Tour of Colorado logistics. Rick to send out all he knows on topic to group. We will have to make sure that Restaurants know how many people and times to be ready. The Chamber ED might be able to assist in some of this coordination.

Karen to get with Beautification to see where we stand on getting banners across the roads-- they do not have poles going in right now but Charlie will talk to CDOT when they meet in March (3/28) about what it takes. Charlie also offered that they used to have poles and banners but they don't exist now. Mike Kern might be a good person to talk to as there were some issues with banners tearing when Semis went through town and the back draft rustled them.

Plastic Bags - we need to figure out how to get free stuff to put in them & we need to stuff them.

Proposed Packages for Coloradoinfo.com:

Family, Romantic, Adventure, Fall Foliage --> Joyce showed the details of each package and then we agreed that we were going to offer less and do two emails... one in September and one in mid-April.

Ouray Open House: --> Increase awareness in immediate region about shops, restaurants, and lodging, organizations and volunteer opportunities... Didn't discuss much.


Calendar discussion

Categories were agreed upon: Classes & Clinics
Music, Arts & Culture
Community
Social Events
Pool Closings
US Holidays

People that will have access to update events are Weehawken, OCPEG, Elks, Rick & Chambers. Others will funnel items through the Chamber.

Barb to start to meet with others to ensure proper training.