TMAC Board Minutes – April 2, 2019 (for March 26, 2019)

TMAC Board Present: Grant Fraser (president), John Geary, Yashy Murphy Tracy Ford, Dale Dunlop, Guy Thériault, Melody Wren and Suzie Loiselle

Regrets: Mary Tulle                                          

ED: Elizabeth Kerr

1. Call to Order
GF called the meeting to order at 11:35 a.m. EST and welcomed all in attendance.

Approval of January 29, 2019 minutes – GT, Seconded – MW

2. Financial Report as at end of December 31

EK provided report for MT (who made several attempts to connect).  There haven’t been any big issues based on the first two months of the year.  Membership dues are up over last year – media.  Invoices have been sent ahead of the membership drive.

3. Executive Director Update

EK provided a spreadsheet showing membership status by chapter.  There are 315 members.  There are 17 member cancellations and 52 are expired, which means we are down by 69 members. The potential membership is 377.  We need to check the expired list and everyone needs to help bring back – 39 media and two industry members.  They’ve been sent link to online membership, including two reminders. GF indicated that there was an Ontario Chapter outreach.  GT hopes we can turn around these 41.  We expected a downward trend due to the past issues, but over time, we can expect the numbers to increase. There is a decline in industry membership therefore we need to do an outreach to convert the numbers, but planning another outreach at end of April.

4. Chapters

Helen Earley sent EK an email following their winter Atlantic Chapter meeting on March 1-3. She was asking about requal points from volunteer duties.  EK to review.  She also had questions about the increase from $10 to $20 for award submissions.  Tracy to send EK response – no increase in many years, needed to generate revenue for better judges and award recipients.  Compared to SATW – charges $50 per entry and no freebies.

DD brought up the issue about media members profiled on website.  Industry pays for exclusive access to media information.  It was agreed that we should send out a survey to industry members – one question.  EK will pull together.

5. Committees

Awards

Tracy reported that we had a conference call with the judges on March 20 to discuss the judging process and provide them with their list of submissions and score sheets.  The judging process will run from March 25 to May 3.  Committee vetting will take place between May 6-10 and the top five finalists in each category will be announced on May 13.

Social Media

Yashy reported that she and Elizabeth have been working together and came up with some goals (see attachment in board package).  Hashtag is #TMACTravels.  A plan needs to be built, so Yashy and Elizabeth will recruit help.  A content calendar development

Nominations

Tracy has indicated that she will run for VP.  At this time, there isn’t anyone else in the running.  Goal is to create a balance between the chapters.  There are five members running for three Director at Large positions; Jerry Grymek, Paul Knowles, Marc Smith, Melody Wren and Monica NcNeil (new member from Atlantic Canada, nominated by Sandra Phinney).

Conference

Suzie and Guy reported that there are 49 industry and 46 media registered. While we are tracking a bit slower over last year, the board will be encouraged to reach out.  They just had a conference call on March 20.  Pre tour early bird selection timing was extended.  The next step is the marketplace portal.  Next meeting is April 10th. Keynote speaker is Deirdre Tartan of BB Tartan – she will speak about travel trends, tourism in general, women in travel and indigenous travel.  She has waived the speaker fee but travel and accommodation costs will be covered by TMAC.  Melody reported that she has been working with Suzie to push the green message at the conference.  There will be a mini schedule printed for each delegate to include in their name tags.  Reduced swag and paper will be encouraged.  Elizabeth reported that there will be a discount code for Air Canada and Porter.

A board meeting will be organized for late Wednesday (June 19) afternoon – details TBD.  The NEW board will meet Sunday (June 23) in the morning.

Sponsorship – Elizabeth reported that we have five awards sponsored and seven potential sponsors.

Future hosts – Mary will let us know about PEI.  Elizabeth confirmed that Thunder Bay and Saguenay are interested.  Packages have been sent to Saskatoon, Sherbrooke, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Buffalo and St. John’s. See attachment in board package. We need to ensure that the package is going to the decision maker and not the TMAC member. A decision will be made at the next board meeting on April 30th.  Proposals will be shared.

7. Other Business

Facebook Live – April 10th

8. Conclusion
Meeting adjourned at 12:48 pm.  Seconded by Melody Wren.