It's relevant to or within the authority of this public body.

Public comment will be taken at the beginning of the meeting before any action is taken, and again at the end before adjournment.

No action may be taken on a matter raised under public comment unless the item has been specifically included in the agenda upon which action may be taken.

And I will also take comment on each action item on today's agenda.

Is there anyone that would like to give public comment here at the beginning of the meeting?

All right.

Seeing none, we will go ahead and move on to item number five, which is the approval of minutes of the June twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six meeting.

Hearing none, uh, we'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the minutes of the June twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six meeting.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Motion and a second.

Any final discussion on this item?

Hearing none.

All those in favor of approving the minutes, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passed unanimously.

Thank you.

Move on to item number six, which is for possible action, and that is discussion and possible action regarding the VNT commissions statement of accounts.

Treasurer Cruz, do you have anything to add to this item?

I do not.

Very good.

Questions, comments from the commission?

Hearing none, public comment.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Motion and a second.

Any final uh discussion on this item.

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

That's a discussion of possible action regarding the adjusted VNT commission's fiscal year 2025-2026 budget reports.

Okay.

Uh Sherry, anything you'd like to add?

Good morning.

No, only that just Commissioner Peterson did ask for the June 24 budget.

That's there as a as a draft only.

Very good.

Thank you.

June 20, June 26th.

26.

Thank you kindly.

All right.

Any public comment on this item?

Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the budget report as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

Motion and a second.

Any last minute comments?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you.

All right, let's move on to item number eight, which is for discussion of possible action regarding a determination of award to storytime photography.

Um, the contract of the Polar Express Santa Photo Services for an amount equal to 65% of the gross revenue obtained from the project, with the remaining 35% returned to the commission.

And secondly, to authorize the commission chair to execute the appropriate contract documents with story time.

Sherry, do you have uh any um context you'd like to give us for this item?

Um only that we had some two very good um RFPs submitted and um Commissioner Hicks and Cruz had a tough decision.

Very good.

A comment or discussion from the commission.

I would just like to thank um both parties for submitting their their proposals in.

I agree with Sherry, it was a tough decision.

I um I think that what um made it difference for me is the fact that we have a good long-standing relationship with storytime photography.

We've seen great uh increases in our revenue over the term that we've been working together.

Um, and I also um I also feel the price point is great for our um our patrons and our customers.

So those were some reasons.

Very good, thank you.

Ditto.

All right.

Very good.

Any public public comment on this item?

All right, hearing none, uh, I'll entertain a motion.

I move to approve the contract at presented and authorize the chair to execute the appropriate contract documents.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

Hold second.

Motion and a second.

Uh, any final discussion before we take it to a vote.

Hearing none, all those in favor of approving uh item number eight in this motion.

Please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Should we take a recess because we're going too fast?

Feel like we're not really doing our work or just kidding.

We'll move on to item number item number nine, which is discussion and possible action regarding approval of the final project presentation for the Eastgate Depot exterior exterior mural.

Man, say that one a few times fast.

Um Sherry, do you want to start us out or should we invite Mr.

Brooks up?

Um, let's ask Mr.

Brooks up while I pull up his PowerPoint.

There we are.

Let's see.

Good morning.

I apologize.

I'm having technical difficulties here and I can't get this to full screen.

Eric Brooks for the record.

In the absence of David Peterson, he did want me to keep this no longer than 45 minutes.

Oh keeping in character with his uh past performance.

Well, this was an exciting project.

It came together at the last minute, as we talked about last month.

Some funds opened up through Travel Nevada.

So we had about 10 days to go from start to finish.

So Joe C.

Rock, uh, who we worked with a lot, areno-based.

He put together the design for where your journey begins.

And this photo, by the way, was taken just down when I was driving out of the depot.

One day.

Next slide, please.

So very site-specific.

This is Joe C.

Rock.

That was uh a mural, a couple murals he had done at the Marino City Hall.

So Carson City is continuing to expand as both a cultural anchor in northern Nevada and an arts destination.

Every year we've been able to make significant additions.

And this year, a place-making site-specific mural welcomes guests much more than it than as a decoration.

This large-scale site-specific mural has transformed, beginning the full transformation uh into an immersive cultural experience at Eastgate Depot.

It's very accessible, it's very inviting.

It generates photo opportunities, tourism exposure, and organic digital marketing.

Now Eastgate Depot is more than a departure point.

It's a cultural landmark.

There we have next slide, please.

An image.

Talk real briefly about the iconography there.

So Eastgate Depot, where your journey begins, very classic.

Everyone's going to want to take a picture of that.

There was a comment that the Eastgate Depot could pop a little bit more.

And I spoke with the artist, and he is, he may have already done it.

I didn't get a chance to get back up there.

But he is going to do some outlining.

We'll shall make that come out.

His intention was to have it be more subdued originally.

So that wasn't an accident.

It was his but he's happy to make those changes.

And then the Transcontinental Railroad connecting in 1869, we have the three different railroad spikes the gold, the silver that came out of Carson City, and then the iron one.

Using historical photography, the Chinese worker on the railroad, that was an actual photograph.

The Porter uh was imagined.

But of course, the African American contributions to the VNT and to the railroad industry all overall is huge.

And there was a tie that didn't exactly come in, but an African American who was working for Abraham Lincoln and was in the theater when he was assassinated, ended up moving to Carson City and worked here for the rest of his life.

And we have the outline of the United States.

And if you're up there, you can see the trail of the Transcontinental Railroad connecting America.

Then of course the sagebrush and the desert imagery and the 18 train 18, which has a great history and is still here in the area.

So I think he really knocked it out of the park.

Great color combinations and touching a little bit of everything in that piece.

So I think we went through that.

We can go two slides forward.

And of course, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

So that's the beginning.

We have some exciting stuff happening.

The final murals and music festival will be happening September 14th through the 19th.

We have some exciting artists coming from Spain, two best artists from Spain.

There'll be three panels all based on the novel, Roughing It.

You're invited tomorrow afternoon to the unveiling of the Mark Twain Life Size Sculpture Bench, which will be in McFadden Plaza with the backdrop of the St.

Charles Hotel.

That'll be tomorrow, 5 30 to 6 30 with the rubbing ribbon cutting at 6.

Very happy to have that coming in.

So the whole Mark Twain theme, along with the railroad being two of the main initiatives that the tourism authority is working on right now for the arts and culture tourism.

So we're going to continue up at Eastgate Depot.

You see these three buildings.

The second one's tucked away a little bit with the tan wall in between the two mustard colored.

Joe C is going to continue his mural process up there and will work along this front side, the tan building.

And then he's going to do both sides of that other building.

Originally it was going to be the one, but he just wants to wrap it around.

And it's going to be a great addition.

People are going to have another reason to come early, get lots of photos done, and it will incorporate that.

And then, of course, we're doing the 12-foot spike sculpture right in the middle of that.

Well, not quite in the middle, but in that gravel area.

So now you've got all of this amazing complimentary pieces that people can enjoy while being up there.

And special thanks to the artist for nearly $7,000 of in-kind donation.

This project, even at the 15,000 that he had given us the quote for, really would have been closer to a 20,000 wall in my mind.

And he was happy to work within the budget that we had with Travel Nevada and donate the rest of that time to us.

So here we are.

Things are happening.

The future is here, future is now.

And we are excited and very thankful for the collaboration of the VNT Commission with the CTA to be able to start this process and to continue on in the calendar year.

And again, happy to answer any questions you have.

Very good.

Thank you.

Questions or comments from the commission.

I just have a comment.

I just wanted to say thank you for all your efforts on this.

And I know that there's been some oversight with Clay's assistance as well.

And wow.

I mean, it's it really is going to have, I believe, a huge impact because not only is Eastgate a destination for the rail, but now people are going to have another reason to come out there.

And that will just help us flourish.

It will also help our marketing.

I I think it's fabulous.

Thank you.

I I just want to say I love it, like what he's done so far.

So I've I've been a fan of everything that he has done, but I think this one is you can let them know.

I'm love it.

Very good.

Thank you.

Yeah, I'll just I'll just add that I uh appreciate all of the work on this and glad that we're we're able to host this uh artistic installation.

It's fantastic.

Um public comment.

All right, hearing none, I'll take a motion to uh approve.

Uh I move to approve the concept and location of the mural as presented.

Very good.

We have a motion to have a second.

I second.

Motion and a second.

Any final comments?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Eric.

All right.

Uh we'll move on to item number 10, which is for discussion of possible action regarding a proposed second amendment to contract number FY24-C007 with Lumont Media LLC for an additional amount not to exceed 14,200 to be used for onboarding and utilizing a meta meta ad specialist through Lumont, resulting in new total not to exceed contract amount of 81,700.

Um Sherry, do you want to introduce this or uh should I?

What do you think?

Oh we do have Regina online.

Very good for questions.

Very good.

Good morning, Regina.

Thanks for being with us.

Um yeah, I'm I'm happy to just kind of introduce uh introduce the uh the item, the topic for discussion.

Um so into in discussion over the last month uh and in looking at you know our fairly positive ridership numbers, but still not um in most cases not not selling out.

Um the opportunity arose for us to expand the way that Lumon is helping us market our regular season, uh, particularly because that's that's really where we have an opportunity for growth.

Um and that there are kind of two elements to that.

And one is bringing on a specialist to work for us or with us um to uh uh to guide the paid advertising on through social media.

And the second piece is the um is the budget itself that would be that would be allocated towards that advertising.

And so um given given that there's some lead time in getting set up and running and that we're well into our season already um with some consultation with staff, I went ahead and and asked Lumont to get the ball rolling on getting that set up and going, but I wanted to bring it to the commission for a ratification just to make sure that that decision is proper and uh and the direction that we want to go.

Um so maybe if I get Regina, if I can turn it over to you to just talk a little bit about the actual approach or services, and then we can come back to talking about kind of um uh fiscal impact and what kind of how we envisioned using this through the rest of the season.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much, Clay.

This is Regina Flores for the record.

Um actually I prepared a presentation going over all of the specifics so that I can help answer any questions before the it is approved.

Um would somebody be able to share the presentation that I sent over this morning so I can um kind of explain our approach and just as an introductory overview of it.

So as Clay mentioned, we've been running ads for as long as I've been working with the VNT, which is uh coming up on three years to the summer, I believe.

And we have had a limited budget because we don't have an in-house ads specialist with Lumont.

And I brought one on for some other clients.

She delivered really great results, so it kind of ignited the idea for me to bring her on for the VNT and manage the ads at us at a larger scale so that we have room to test the creative, to test the hooks, test the copywriting, and be able to do a full funnel paid ad strategy with uh with a little bit of a higher budget so that we can do that testing and we can expand the audience that we're trying to reach, not just locals, but also people from around the region.

And um my ad specialist, her name is Jennifer.

Jennifer Lopez and her assistant Steve.

Yes, Jennifer Lopez.

So she'll be the one overseeing the strategy, and Steve is helping her execute it.

So we've been working with Kevin and Ryan on implementing the pixel on the website to test different what are called meta events.

So the one that we had in place before is initiating checkout, and that's all I've been able to track with the with the limited bandwidth that we had.

But with Jennifer and Steve coming on board, they can test when where people click on the website, if they abandon their cart, if they clicked through and didn't quite get to the final checkout and retarget those people based specifically on the action that they took.

So Sherry, do you happen to have that presentation I sent over?

Yes, I'm pulling it up right now for name.

And uh Regina, if we can just hold for a second, I just want to make sure we're uh Lucas.

We um typically when we have information like this, we can just add it, uh add it after the fact to make sure it's available to the public.

That's correct, it'll just need to be uploaded uh later to where everything was posted as late material.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Let's see.

That's what we're looking for.

Very good.

All right, uh Regina, it's up, it's up for us here in the room.

Okay.

Thank you.

So yeah, so we are increasing the ad spend to $1,500 per month.

And for context, we were spending anywhere from 400 to 800 before.

So with this added increase, like I mentioned, we are able to test more and do just a lot more in Meta.

Um, as you might know, meta ads have gotten more and more expensive as more people use them.

So this will give us a competitive advantage that we just didn't have before.

So it's just a more structured version of what we had already been working on.

And Steve and Jennifer now have have a foundation to go off of because Hammaria and I have been testing different ads, different creatives, and now we will have it just at a mark much larger scale, which is I'm really excited about.

Um next slide, please.

Okay.

So at the lower spend levels, the account showed positive movement that that ate 400 to 800 from June, from April to June this year, the cost per click dropped and the click through rate increased.

So checkout starts increased significantly too, which meant that we were able to track when people started to check out, and that increased from April to June, which tells us that the creative that we were using, which was mostly video short clips under 30 seconds, those were sticking with people.

And the hooks that we were using were also sticking with people.

I'm not sure if any of you saw the ads, but they were along the lines of it had a messaging that said something along the lines of most people visit Carson City and Virginia City and never realize that there's a train running through it.

And that hook really grabbed people's attention.

So that's what we're going off of into the remainder of the season.

And then the next step is to scale that carefully with better creative testing, um, more complete purchase tracking, and just putting more budget behind the same ads so that we can target more people.

Next slide, please.

So this is the recommended structure that Jennifer, Steve and I finalized.

So it has three parts.

First, $1,500 per month in ad spend goes directly toward the meta campaigns.

Secondly, the advanced ads management is $1,200 per month, which is what it costs to uh bring on Jennifer and Steve.

And under me to manage testing, optimization, reporting, and recommendations.

And then the third one is the one-time setup fee of a thousand dollars.

That is for the strategy build-out campaign setup, tracking.

That's what we have been working on with Kevin and Fair Harbor going back and forth on.

That one is already done.

So right now we are in the phase of almost implementing this and being ready to start running ads with Jennifer and Steve.

So the last piece here is testing out one last meta event, and that is what I was working on with Steve, and we're waiting on just final approval from the board.

And once we have that, we'll get rolling.

It is to test, I believe it's the actual full cycle checkout, so that we can track that action that people take.

And for that, we will, and I've emailed, I think I think I was in communication with Sherry for this one, but it is a 100% off code that we can use to test.

So once we have that, we can start with the full $1,500 per month ad spend.

Next slide, please.

Okay, so these are the next 90 days.

So the campaign will focus on the on the core Carson to Virginia City rectum while also dedicating some of the pushes to the wine and beer trains that are mapped out for the next couple of months.

The core route will act as the sort of always always on campaign backbone, and the specialty wine trains and beer train will get more timely promotion around the windows that they come on sale and upcoming dates.

So that is the plan for these next 90 days is the general season, always on Carson to Virginia City and one-way routes, and the wine and train experience, wine and beer experiences will be our secondary push.

And next slide, please.

And this is our audience strategy.

So it focuses on the people most likely to book, and that is local and regional families, visitors that are planning trips to Reno, Tahoe, Carson, Virginia City.

We're also targeting people interested in history and scenic experiences and feeder markets such as Sacramento and really all of Northern California.

So we'll start with the audiences that we know matter most, which are the regional ones.

Those are the ones that we've already tested and have taken action.

And then we'll allow Meta's tools.

They have what's called advantage creative that allows them to find more people with similar behavior and purchase intent.

So Meta has the ability to push ads to people in outside of Nevada and in the region that are likely to purchase experiences from ads.

So it thankfully has gotten very advanced in that sense, and that'll give us with the increased budget ability to test ads to those people.

And next slide, please.

So this is how the $1,500 per month budget will work.

So we are going to split the $1,500 with prospect audiences and retargeting.

So about 60% will go towards new audiences, and 40 will go towards people who have already shown interest.

That includes website visitors, people that have viewed the video ads, and people who have abandoned their checkout.

So the split is a starting point, and we will shift based on what is performing best.

And next slide, please.

So the creative testing plan.

So this is a part of the strategy structured to test out the different creatives that we have.

So the different short videos we have and photos, because we will also test retest photos.

So we'll test different hooks, different formats.

So carousels will be one that we incorporate in there and different offers to learn what drives bookings the most.

So video will remain the solid foundation.

That's what's been working.

And we'll test shorter versions of it.

We'll test stories versions of it, different angles, maybe zoomed in a bit, zoomed out a bit.

So with that, the goal is to keep the the creative fresh since the budget increased.

We have more room to test just different types of creative.

And next slide, please.

But the next step, as I mentioned in the previous slide, is to track the complete purchase and revenue revenue tracking through the whole booking flow.

So once that's connected, we can report on complete completed ticket purchases and also exclude those people from the ads so that they're not seeing something they've already booked.

And we'll be able to measure the return on ad spend.

So how much does it cost for a full cycle to be completed?

Whereas before we were only able to track how much it costs for somebody to just land on the page.

Now we'll be able to track how much does it cost to get one person to purchase a booking.

And the immediate next steps are so approval of that final piece, finalizing our ad copy into the remainder of the season.

We'll refresh the campaigns that we've already been working with this summer.

We'll continue tracking implementation, and we'll share the first performance report in September.

And I believe that's my final slide.

But uh so yeah, the main point is basically that the the current ads are showing promise.

So now with this updated structure, it gives us more tracking.

It gives us uh support from a specialist who does just ads, and we'll turn that into ticket sales and ROI and really being able to see how much does it cost to get one person to book a experience.

So I'm very excited to be working with Jennifer and Steve.

They are wonderful at this, and I'm just excited to see what this brings for the VNT.

And hopefully it is uh in the direction that we want it to go in, which I feel I feel confident about.

Very good.

Thank you.

Um if it's all right, I'll just add a little more context kind of from why I thought it was uh important for us to initiate this.

Um, you know, as as you saw in as we increase the push a little bit, um, even at kind of the basic level, we saw um we saw our cost per click was a third of what it was when we were when we had a smaller spend.

We were we were getting better penetration as far as people interacting and uh and significant increase in checkouts.

And um, and doing a little back of the napkin math.

If we if we clear about 50 bucks for each ticket that we sell, the additional spend that comes along with this would need about 40 additional sales a month or about 10.

Um if we run two weekends in a month, that's that's 10 10 per trip.

And um look looking at the the amount of bookings that we have as we approach each weekend, and then our our final ridership numbers um going into August, that's typically one of our slower months and uh seemed like a place to really put some efforts to make sure that we were most of our costs of operation are fixed.

And so when we have fewer passengers, uh we're not amortizing those costs over as many people.

And so even if the margins are very slim on those additional sales, it allows us to fill up the trains, which makes it a more compelling, exciting experience and helps uh helps amortize those costs a bit.

So the thought on structure was to implement uh this 90-day or through three kind of a three-month push through the end of the regular season, and then to kind of come back and reevaluate the proposal with the um with the additional not to exceed amount includes an amount if we decide to continue the beginning of next season, and so we don't have to do another amendment, but this would allow us to kind of roll this this additional marketing push into the next season.

So uh, but we make that decision, we kind of make that decision as we come to the end of this season.

So with that, I'll open up for questions or comments from the uh from the commission.

I have one question.

Um, first of all, I thanks for the presentation.

Um, you made it make sense, I think to everyone.

So I appreciate that.

Um, I guess my only question is do we have enough creative assets on hand, or is that something we're gonna have to?

I know we've talked about putting more money into for more photography, more video, things like that.

So is that gonna be another push, or do we have enough to get through this season?

Um does that make sense what I'm asking?

Yeah.

So it does.

Sherry.

So if I if I remember correctly, we we kind of earmarked a bit, we increased our marketing budget this year.

And I believe that a portion of that was intended to allow us.

But uh, I'll turn it over to um to Sherry and Regina to talk about kind of what their feelings are as far as what we have and if it's sufficient or if we'll need to do more.

You're correct, Clay.

We we did um budget for collateral.

And that's in the works to get to get rolling.

I whether or not we have enough for Regina in the immediate, I'm not sure.

Yes, we I would say we have enough for this season.

I would strongly recommend next season.

We think about a refresh so that those same ads that we're running now aren't repetitive next season and bring in new folks with with more um distinct creative that we've been using.

But for right now, what we do have is it'll get us through the season for sure.

Um we are testing different hooks in the same creatives, so we don't necessarily need new videos right now.

Would be awesome, of course, but we we will definitely make do with what we have for the time being.

Great, thank you.

I would just um we talk about creative a lot, like in the marketing world and all that, as everybody knows.

And it's one of the it's funny enough.

One of the things I feel like that gets pushed back more than anything else.

So I think as a board, we really need to make that a priority is to get new creative because it does get stale really quickly.

So I did um I did I did visit on what was it sometime in June and got some creative myself with a friend, and we've been using that for some of the ads, and it's actually been working pretty well.

So that's to say we don't meet a very high production videographer.

We can certainly work with iPhone camera quality content.

So I if I start running out, that's a quick fix that I can go out there and get some content.

Um yeah, I'm curious to see now that I've I have both more user-generated content that I took and the higher quality drone style video that we have been using.

Since I haven't used the video content long enough to be able to test them out fairly because we used the high quality video more.

I'm curious to see how those two differentiate in terms of which one works best, or if it's the hook that works best.

So that's something that we will test out with Jennifer, and we'll be able to tell if it's high quality drone footage is worth the investment, or if we're better off with that more personable kind of uh more relatable style video that we take ourselves.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Very good.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's a good call.

You know, we're in we're in the new fiscal now, so we have access to that budget, and I think uh important for us to make sure it gets used in a timely fashion.

All right.

Uh if there are no more comments or questions from the board, I'll open up for public comment on this item.

Any public comment?

All right.

Hearing none.

So the uh the proposed motion or recommended motion is um we we had to kind of uh come up with a plan of action, if you will, and and that was to uh authorize the or approve the expenditure.

And then the second part was after the expiration of this initial trial.

Um proposal was to authorize me to go ahead and look at the results and take it forward.

I'm happy to bring it back to the board for discussion if that's something you prefer more.

Um I think either way is fine.

The the thought was um just to make sure that we have a path to then go ahead and continue and get ready for the next season.

Um whichever way we decide to go.

So I'm happy to entertain a mo the motion that's here or a different one if you feel that's more appropriate.

Um excuse me.

I move to approve the amendment as presented and to authorize the chair to approve expenditure of funds after the expiration of the initial three-month trial period.

Very good.

We have a motion.

Do we have a second?

I second.

All right, motion and a second.

Any more uh conversation?

Hearing none, all those in favor, please indicate by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you very much, Regina.

Appreciate your work on this.

Thank you.

All right.

That takes us to item number 11, which is for discussion only, and that is um our monthly non-action items.

We'll start with a marketing update, Regina.

If you have additional that you'd like to share with us, you're certainly welcome to.

We do, yes.

And I sent that presentation over this morning as well.

If we are able to uh put that on screen, Maria and I will go over it quickly.

We will, it's a rather long one.

It recaps Q2, but we'll we'll summarize it.

Very good.

We're ready for you, I believe.

Okay.

And then Maria, would you like to kick us off?

Yeah.

Can you hear?

Sorry, can you hear me?

We can.

Thank you, Maria.

This is Maria for the record.

Uh overall, we obtain good versals in terms of engagement.

Uh, even through Facebook and Instagram, we have a similar audience.

We noticed that each platform responds different to content.

Let's just slide, please.

On Instagram, Reels continue to be our stronger performing format.

They consistently generate the highest engagement and help us connect with the with our audience.

Another thing we saw is that Instagram reels tend to perform better when they're posted about a week before an event, giving the content more time to allow us to gain momentum.

So that's something that we'll continue using when promoting special trains.

Especially if the reels have been have on screen information, like days, what guys can spec and highlighting.

Um that's the experience because they answered questions while people are watching.

So let's slide, please.

Um Facebook, um, we saw the historical post receive great engagement, but reels have been especially valuable for reaching new audiences.

Uh real we pose, sorry, can you go to the next slide, please?

Uh real we post in January continue to be the best content during the second quarter.

Uh also during this quarter, we received several direct messages from people who found us through our reels and want more information about a specific train rides, extra dolls, or tickets.

So we have seen that reels all happen driver warners and enthrass.

So we will continue with this type of content during this third quarter.

Um can we go to the next slide, please?

The next one.

Um, this is something that Regina recently talked about, the recent ads.

We saw that in general the reels uh work better than stack photos.

So can we go now to the next slide, please?

Uh we recently talked about the Mother Day's train ride and the Father Day train ride.

So we get um a lot of people interested in this kind of post.

And they're continue to ask about more details through messages.

Can we continue to the next slide, please?

On the email side, we have seen a stronger performance from campaigns that explain the full experience, included the dance, the department time, the route, and also what activities that people can do, uh, for example, in Virginia at Virginia City.

Also, uh, one excited highlighting from this week is that Catherine Foom, also known as Loving Breno and social media, feathered the toes of the canyon and a regular train ride in her latest Reno Summer Guide blog.

She also gave Dave a wonderful mention, calling him the most hilarious conductor, which is a great organic exposure for the VNT.

So those are the biggest uh insights we have, and we continue to use them to guide our content strategy for the next month.

Very good.

Um maybe we'll just take Regina's talking to us.

She's needed, she's muted.

Yeah.

We'll share with that blog post from Catherine that she published on her own blog with the with the wine experience, and we will follow up with all media today.

We sent out a press release last week, and um the eblast went out this week.

So we will do a final push.

I know we're a couple days out, so we're hoping for some of those last minute folks to take action.

We'll continue pushing on our organics, and uh personally reach out to all of the media folks that we originally reached out to remind them and hopefully get some last minute folks for this weekend's wine train.

Very good.

Uh Regina or Maria, could you um could you tell us one more time what Catherine's um username is or what what her account name is her account is Loving Brino.

Loving Reno.

Uh I'm going to yeah.

Um, send you the blog that she made today.

Yeah, she's got about 14,000 followers on Instagram.

She's become known for doing restaurant reviews, experience reviews.

Um and she's she's very well liked in the community.

So we were excited to see that she did a highlight on the experience.

And that was just yesterday, right, Maria, or two days ago.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah, we will share that via email.

Very good.

All right.

Thank you.

Questions?

Thank you very much, both of you for being here.

We appreciate the update.

Thank you.

And with that, we'll move on to uh track maintenance update.

Mr.

Chris Fredder.

Chris Fredder, Battleborne Rail.

Hello.

Everything's going good.

Um sam old stuff, ditches, signs.

Uh there's a little problem with uh developer crossing in Haywards, keeps getting blown over by water.

So we're gonna make a plan to pull a bunch of dirt apart, put a new culvert in, kind of divert away from the tracks.

But other than that, we'll be starting our ditches and stuff like that for their yearly maintenance.

All right.

Thank you.

Questions for Chris.

Not seeing any.

Thanks for the update.

No problem.

All right.

Operations train report.

Tom Gray, Candy Duncan.

Well, Tom Gray, Virginia Chucky Railroad.

Morning.

Hi.

Um Engine 18.

Um, we had some problems with the air compressor last year.

We put on a temporary air compressor, so that failed.

And so we uh put on the 18's old compressor.

We uh rebuilt the head on that.

So it's uh worked fine for the last two weeks.

Um we have um uh fuel oils getting pretty tough to get.

Actually, usually they uh try to sell it, but uh I finally got a load in last week and the price uh shot way up.

I'm just uh I remember before uh you know we've had um embargoes with fuel in the country, and uh, but we we we have enough storage for most of the season, so I I think we'll be okay, but I expect to get another load uh this week or the next week.

So that'll get us through the rest of the season with what we have on hand.

Um I do try to stockpile it at the end of the year.

We have the two tank cars, it's about 30,000 gallons.

So uh it helps out.

Um had a movie coming up, maybe they've uh tentatively plan on on November.

It's about the first train robbery in the country, happened at Verde, California.

So uh we gave the location scouts um uh uh trip down the hill, and they picked some nice locations, and then uh I think the Goldville area is is a big one.

Um they they wanted uh period correct equipment, so they want the Reno and uh one of the called the Johnny Depp car, but the wooden passenger cars for that era, so uh pretty pretty big name director on that um coming up.

So uh it's an independent film.

Um the depot.

Um we found out that the roof on the trailer is a rubber membrane is blowing apart, so we need to address that issue.

Um, and then also the depot uh the restrooms shingles are coming off.

So I want some direction on that if I want me to get a contractor to take a look at that and give us an estimate on that.

Um the concrete work.

Uh Sherry sent me a text about a picture about some concrete work in the back of the depot between the tracks where that asphalt area is.

Um if you want me to find a contractor for that, maybe um it might be good if it's all flat work, which is not the foundation structural work, it's a special type of concrete work, but um uh might be a good idea to pour an apron around the trailer building, at least part of it.

The rodents are there's some monster holes.

I've talked to Chris about that, about slowing some of this down.

Um, so we could do maybe some uh extend the uh loading platforms uh by the track side, uh kind of do it all at once, so it's efficient.

So that's coming up.

Um like some direction on that at some point.

Um, and then uh the electoral work we still have to do for the um inside where the Polar Express meets the additional circuits, so they don't they don't blow out.

You know, there's just a one circuit that runs a photo room, the ticketing and all that.

So I think that'll be the last electoral improvement to get done.

Um we did get we have a high rail crane, um uh big crane truck that goes down the tracks now.

We just got it operational, so that's a resource that Chris can use and we can use and um what else?

Oh, the rail bike thing.

Um sometime we need to that's that's starting to the they want me to move the rail bikes next week with the containers and stuff, so it's just gonna kind of proceed what I've talked to Dave about and make everything official.

Um we've tried them a couple times and we've adjusted the speeds and so far I feel so comfortable with those bikes as opposed to the ones we were trying to make the best.

Uh so uh and they look they look cute.

People like writing them uh when they see them.

So uh that's all coming together right now.

So we've we've built starting to build a website um called it rail zephyrs for the wind, you know.

So the washo Zephyr, we we had our original equipment called the Washo Zephyr up here, you know, to take it uh because we do get these wet zephyrs up here, and so it's a nice kind of a cute name, different name.

So we're doing that.

I got the Nevada business license.

I haven't got the Carson City business license yet.

Um, you know, all that kind of stuff behind the scenes, just kind of make it at work in the I've told David this, but my intention is to develop the Carson uh Carson Canyon River Run, you know, get that established first and and uh work the bugs out, and we have the hydraulic turntables in now.

We have to put them in place, but you know, we need to make the improvements for tripping hazards and seating and signage and all that kind of stuff.

And that's where that big high-rail boom truck, I think is gonna help because we can put those big concrete blocks that act as barriers and also seats and they're weatherproof.

You know, we did that for the North Pole Village, you know.

One time uh all the buildings were held up uh with dumpsters, you know, and so we got those uh big concrete blocks to brace the buildings from the winds and stuff, and uh you know, so that's just uh coming in place.

Uh um I imagine there's some questions.

I don't know.

Great, thank you.

Questions, comments.

Dang.

Yeah, not so much, but we'll uh yeah, we'll see.

We'll certainly uh we'll we'll we'll uh talk through some of the stuff that we need to be working on.

All right, thanks.

Thank you.

Candy.

Thank you, Candy Duncan.

Excuse me, Virginia Truckee Railroad.

Um, I just wanted to let you know that uh talking about Polar Express.

I have now a b uh uh Boca printer that goes with the programming on Fair Harbor to s assign seats and print tickets.

And Kevin Um Schmidt from Fair Harbor will be here next week.

He's gonna meet me out at the depot, help me install that printer, show me how it works.

I think it will really cut down excuse me on the time I spent putting everything together last year.

And I don't quite know the concept, but what from what I understand, it'll just make it so that like I can get to the depot about 2 30, 3 o'clock, batch print all the tickets for the night, have everything ready to go.

So when people start showing up, it's just a matter of putting a check by their name on the manifest and handing them their tickets, and there won't have to be all the rest of that that nonsense that went along with it last year.

Plus the um the golden tickets will no longer be handed out by me.

They'll be on the rail car.

Cars when passengers get on carless, people will ha have the tickets ready for them there, so I won't have to do that anymore.

I learned that when I went to Polar Express camp.

And um, so yeah, I'm looking forward to that being a more seamless process and make us look a little bit more professional than what we did last year.

And also um Carla and I are talking, we gotta talk to Tom too, about renaming the cars, taking away all the VIPs and the privates and that all of that confuses people.

And when they get ready on the train, all they know is they have something special and they can't remember where they're supposed to go.

So we're just gonna call the cars what they are.

The Ardelmay, the Jersey Lill, the Carson City, Gold Hills.

So hopefully that will get rid of a lot of that confusion, make that part easier.

And so yeah, we've been doing some planning already for Polar Express.

And then I sent you all a report this morning about this weekend, and just since I sent you the report, it's increased.

So now um instead I think it was a hundred and ten for Saturday round trip.

It's now 115.

And um, we still just have 33 for the wine train, but hopefully, you know, people make that last minute decision, which is what they've been doing all season.

And Sunday's up to 102 now, and it was below that when I sent you the report.

So that's what's happening.

And I'm sure more will come in today, more will come in tomorrow.

I'll wake up Saturday morning and there'll be 15 more.

So it'll it'll be all right.

I just have to convince myself of that.

Other than that, it's been a fun season and everything is going well out there.

And the mural is gorgeous.

I really like it.

I do hope they can outline Eastgate Depot a little bit better.

Um, but yeah, it's really nice.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the murals, and we're really starting to look like an official real place out there.

So it's good.

Very good.

Thank you.

Questions?

Comments?

All right, thank you kindly.

All right, moving on to our executive assistant update, Miss Sherry Bailey.

Good morning.

Um I've been working on the Toast of the Canyons.

Um this weekend, we're featuring the Nevada Sunset Winery out of Reno.

I'm very excited about that.

And we are, I have pretty much all of the plans in place for the Toast of the Canyon August 29th that coincides with our 250th America 250th barbecue.

Um I have some music planned and catering uh contests.

So it's coming together.

That's about it.

Other than my usual tasks.

Very good.

Questions?

Yeah, please.

I do too.

All right.

Sherry, on the America 250, is there is there some separate marketing or identification that that is the weekend that we're doing it?

Because I just hadn't seen anything, so wasn't sure.

Yeah.

Um Regina and Melissa both have um have the details on it.

Um Alissa's working on doing it doing some of the radio spots that we'll gear towards that.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, and I'll just add to that.

The um in a recent email that went out promoting the Toast of the Canyon trains, it was called out separately.

So the the other three were grouped, but then because it's at a different price point, but also has kind of something special going on, it was a separate message uh specifically talking about it.

So great.

That was my question too.

So efficiency.

All right.

Uh thank you very much.

Carla, did you want to say something?

You don't have to, but we're doing non-action updates, so I know, I know.

This is Carla Wilson production director for Polar Express.

Um with regards to um the social media, um I'm working on the audition notices to go out on social media using the templates provided by rail events.

So I will forward that on to Sherry.

Auditions will be the 24th, 25th, and 26th.

I've restructured how my staff is working so that I can have some better things in place for when I am not there.

Um the one thing I would like to ask the commission to consider with regards to storytime photography.

Um I noticed in their proposal that they did not include any input with regards to me, and not that that's critical, but there were a lot of things with regards to using the required uh templates from rail events that went awry last year.

And uh I just feel that I am part of the team and I should be included in that.

I may not have any decision power, and that's fine, but I just feel like I should be included in that because in a way some of the things that happen there also affect the cohesiveness of the production.

So that's just a request on my part.

Um other than that, um, I can't think of anything else that I have going on that I need to bring up.

If you have any questions, I'm just asking.

Questions.

All right.

Um, our up our upcoming meeting.

It looks like we are on track to have our next meeting on Wednesday, August twenty sixth at nine A.

M.

Does that pose any conflicts that anyone knows of?

All right, back up back on track.

With that, we'll move to item number twelve, which is Commissioner comments or announcements and requests for information.

No action will be taken.

No discussion among the members or staff will take place during this item of the agenda.

Do we have any commissioner comments, announcements, or requests for information?

I just want to remind everyone that um, not this coming weekend, but next weekend, hot August nights will be back up in Virginia City.

So we'll be C Street will be closed, and we'll have a lot of people up there.

Very good.

Thank you.

Is there any public comment at this time?

All right.

Hearing none, we'll move to our final item, which is item number 14.

That is to adjourn.

It is 1001 a.m.

and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you very much.