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HomeMy WebLinkAboutARC.min.04012008ASPENRECREATION CENTER ARC ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes 4/1/08 In Attendance: Board Members: Debbie Wear, Sue Smedstad, and Rick Newton. Staff Member(s): Tim Anderson, Jonathan Godes, Nancy Lesley, Shelley Sanzo, Jojo Smith Guests: Toni ICronberg, John w/ ASC I. Call to Order -Sue called the meeting to order. Committee Comments: Elevator inspection expired 12/31/07 Staff Comments: Erin Hutchings is now the Aquatics Supervisor. Guest Comments: Toni asked if there will be public comment taken during the outdoor pool discussion. Sue said that there would not be, that this is just an update. II. Approval of Past Minutes: III. Discussion Items: 1. Ski Co/ARCjoint marketing: Tim asked how we can enhance skier visits through the ARC with the Ski. Co and for ideas to further this partnership. Sue asked if comments go into a file from past meetings. Nancy said no and Sue recommended looking back to past minutes for those comments. Nancy explained the current marketing for the ARC, cups on the mountain, coupons at the gondola plaza, kiosks in town, employee flyer and discounts to Ski Co. employees, briefings w/ Ambassadors. John recommended that we send out another mailing as they aze still close to maximum employment. Tim asked who we would contact to know what % of skiers are families so that we can think of packages to create for them. Rick said that we would be willing to give Ski. Co. a kickback. John didn't think that would be necessary, since Ski. Co. is a private company they don't release their stats, but that he could help us with some information. He asked how we are currently offering discounts. Nancy said that we try not to discount. Sue said that some visitors can go the whole week with out knowing about the ARC unless someone tells them about it or they stumble upon it. John asked if there are any initiatives to presale the ARC. Nancy said that we have tried but it hasn't worked. John mentioned how Ski. Co. has the highest return visitors in the industry and that their summer numbers are consistent and they are using a coupon based system this summer. He asked if having a redemption coupon would be an open channel and recommended tag on pizza boxes. He also recommended that we talk to group leaders as they arrive at their welcome party, groups range anywhere from 20-1200, and that next year they were having some big ski councils coming. Nancy said that she would love to talk with them. Sue asked how we make this a healthy option to the younger workers. John said to make the message in all languages. Sue mentioned that a lot of them do not have money when they get here. John said that we should look at a streamline payment plan for them. He said we should partner with Big Air Fridays and we can promote there for helping with their events, and do admissions give always. Tim liked all of the tangible ideas and would like to run with them. Tim mentioned how Gay Ski week loves using the ARC for their end of the week party and that he would like to offer the facility to other groups. John mentioned having their pre- seasonparty at the ARC and that ESPN for the X Games and the World Cup may also like to use the facility. Sue mentioned that we are here first and foremost for the tax payers and that we have to be sure we don't shut down for too many events. Rick mentioned that we wouldn't have to shut down the entire facility and that it could be shared. John said that Ski. Co. has seen huge international growth and it's the highest of any major ski resort. 2. Outdoor Pools: Tim said that the team is together and timeline wise everyone is sprinting. Bid Packets are to go out by mid June and are to be back in by mid July so that the can start to mobilize by Septemberl st. Approved contracts will go through council by mid August. They will be meeting with Parks tomorrow to go over the design work, working with DHM. There have been some minor changes to the pool design; pool will be shallower by the steps. They will be getting the mechanical information to all of the contractors so that we can have more consistency with replacement parts. Brad is looking into stacking the filters to be more efficient with space which is an issue. Pazking will probably be an entrance/exit on each side. Parks will need the cure to stage equipment. Pools will hopefully be in operation by June 15, 2009. A mechanical contractor is working on the solar energy and that we can go ahead with that now, but it may behoove us to look at that a little further. Rick mentioned that Parks is going to have to think about issues with parking and user groups/vendors as the lot was not designed for 2 way traffic. Debbie was concerned about the kids coming across the bridge after school. Toni asked how long and wide the platform and grotto azeas are. Tim said the lap lane is 25 yards and the grotto is 16-20 feet. Toni asked if this design was shown to council. Tim said that this design was approve by council. Toni wasn't under the realization that council had approved a design yet. Asked when was the design team meeting and if it was publically advertises. Tim said no and that is wasn't that kind of meeting. Toni said that she was under the impression and understanding that council wanted more public input and a city land use code. She asked about having waterfalls to attract people. She said that eventually the valley will have a flow rider and we should have asked John what will attack skiers here. Rick said that the out door pool wont' be open in the winter. Toni said that that will not be supported by the community. Rick said that if she has a suggestion that we will take that suggestion and give it to council. Toni said she wants the outdoor pools to be open all year and that programming will support the revenues. She asked why the lap lane is going through the middle of the pool. Tim said it will be for use in the morning and at specific times and mentioned that the pool is designed and it will not change. Toni asked why there wasn't an entrance from the outside and said we should look at TOSV and see what revenues they are brining in. Tim mentioned that Scott Hunsikner, who was recommended by Toni, was in on this process. Toni mentioned that she will be putting together a report that council asked her to do to see what will bring people here. 3. Financial Reports: We have seen growth in daily admissions and adult programming. Sue recommended that we do a promo on pass sales. Tim mentioned that we should do a survey and that the hospital called and asked about having an employee night at the ARC and that they were not aware that we offer a 15% discount of employee passes. Debbie asked if people are buying 6 month passes instead of yearly passes because of the economy. Tim said some aze buying punch passes because it works better for them. 4. Ice User Meeting: Jojo put together an agenda for the meeting to discuss locker room policy, locker renewals and communication. The locker rental policy will put more responsibility on the renter. She did some research of other facilities and most charge a deposit fee and 3 month rental fee. Rick asked for Jojo to come up with a policy and send it out ahead of time to all the users and that this did not need to be an agenda item. Jojo said she has been getting a lot of questions and would like to clarify some of these points with the locker room changes and that we have a large area in the building that is unsupervised and that the safety of the children should come first. She said we will be posting hours for the locker room and that it will be locked when not open. Tim mentioned how we have had problems with kids fighting and that we need to have some form of controls. Debbie was concerned that this would add 1 more layer to the opening of the building for early moming games. Rick mentioned that what ever is sent out to the user groups that they will think this is the new policy and we should just send a simple note in the next couple of days saying we are looking at some changes and policies and to please send your comments and concerns. Tim said that we need to have communication with key people for each user group to communicate back to their groups. Sue recommended that we send an e-mail that people will have to confirm that they want to be on the a-mail list and that if they do not confirm they will be deleted from the list. Tim said that he has been contacted by Jane Hill and she is starting new hockey organization and is looking for ice time. He said that ice user priorities are: local youth, adults, outside rentals, existing youth still get priority over new youth groups. Sue was struggling with bumping the men's league that has had strong numbers for figure skating that only has a handful of skater. Tim said we need advisory board representation at the meeting as this is likely to become political. Jojo said that we need to look at the bigger picture and go back 5 years when we only had 1 sheet and it was used from 5:30am to l Opm. Tim said we need a policy and to stand behind it. Rick mentioned that what we need to find out is what ice each user group wants. There is a huge expanding Rec league that is not represented as a user group because it's run by the city. New user groups need to let you know what there program is and how many participants there will be. Shelley mentioned that to have a truly fair system, ice time should be based on a lottery system. Sue said that was a good idea but we still had to deal with small town politics. Jojo said she would gather the information through surveys. Rick asked when the last time the shower head was replaces in the Ice Garden and that the ice is wet and groups have to wait 10 minutes to skate. Sue said that the representatives of the user groups need to be responsible and provide us with their input. 5. Cost benef t analysis: 6. Business Calendar Sue: We are out of time and motions to skip these items. IV. Updates: Ice Garden remodel has had no bid submissions and we should have a proposal this week from Mechanical Systems. We will have user group meeting probably in 2 months about the shut down. Rick said that Al Byer will be interested in brainstorming with him and Tim about the use and architecture of the facility. V. Action Item(s): None VI. Other Business: None The committee was adjourned and will meet again on May 6th, 2008.