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.