TMAC Board Minutes – November 27, 2019

TMAC Board Present: Dale Dunlop (president), Tracy Ford, Jerry Grymek, Paul Knowles, Suzie Loiselle, Monica MacNeil, Yashy Murphy, Marc Smith, Guy Thériault

ED: Elizabeth Kerr

Minutes taken by Paul Knowles, secretary

Call to order: Dale Dunlop, 12:04 p.m.

Approval of agenda – DD approved agenda.

Minutes: Board meeting October 30, 2019; moved by MS, seconded by TF, carried

Financial report – EK – everything in good shape

EK – draft budget for discussion; will get final draft back for Dec. 11, 12 noon EDT conference call.

DD – re. budget – There was discussion about growth projections; EK noted that we have nine new members in the last month. General concensus – growth estimates are attainable.

EK: Can we aspire to have projected conference attendance of 150? General feeling yes.  Note: goal is to be sure there are 24 meetings for each attendee.

MS: Have we budgeted for four national PD sessions? May need sponsors to help defray the costs.

GT: Need to encourage all chapter members to attend the conference; encourages Ontario chapter members to promote at our Ontario M&M.

 

ED report:

Membership stats: EK – 9-10 applications, more in the queue.

YM: She and Marc both interacted with Toronto bloggers’ collective; several applying.

MS: weekly update to new members on FB is demonstrating that we are growing.

EK: Requal: 25 out of 70 completed. Two are not requalifying.

Editorial directory – now have 100 on line entries. Will be announced in TMAC Travels. Thanks to Laura Paquette.

Membership directory – EK – want to make sure information used on line is updated. Everyone can go into their online directory and update it. Eventually, we will do a PDF that will be a full member directory.

 

National PD: MS – survey has gone out to industry and media. Stats are being pulled together. Decent response – about 56 media, 26 industry. Goal, to get 50% response rate.

Social media: YM: Have received two applications for social media coordinator. Will interview within the next week, have SM person on board soon; start within the next weeks or first of year.

National Conference committee: SL: Have had two calls with Sudbury. Have six persons on the committee. First conference call will be Dec. 11, 11 a.m. EDT.

GT: Calls with host destination have been very productive. Commends Sudbury delegation.

GT: Will draft a promo piece for all chapter Dec. M&Ms. MS: Then publish it on FB as well.

SL: PD still to be confirmed.

GT: Subcommittees will be working on transportation, especially ground transportation from Toronto.

TF: Awards – have had another conference call. Have removed one category from written (best lifestyle feature); replaced it with new category, best illustrated feature; the best of both worlds, writing and photography by the same person. Inviting four of the six judges from last year to return; planning to add two, including a new bilingual judge. Scoring matrix for written and photo is being changed; a work in progress.

Sponsorship: JG – have revised 2020 sponsorship kit; currently on the site. Some sponsors have signed on.

Future hosts: JG: expect pitches for 2021 and following years. EK will deploy a future hosts blast on Monday to membership at large.

PR Directory: MS – would be good to have a destination directory i.e. agencies of record; who reps which area? Would be a good member benefit; could hire an intern or student to create it. DD: agrees – very frustrating to try to find the right person to talk to. EK – starting place is to get our own members to update the destinations they represent.  DD – we should do an email blast to all industry members to be sure they list all the destinations they represent in their on-line profile. EK: if we are going to create an exhaustive directory, it will require a budget line; both cost and revenue from non-TMAC members.

PK – noted that Forever Young will no longer have a travel element in its new format.

Next meeting: Dec. 11, 12 noon EDT, to discuss budget.

Adjournment: DD declared adjournment 1:09 p.m.