Tourism Mount Washington members are looking more toward a community development model for their organization.
“Membership in the organization will no longer be linked to a rent charge of $250 per freehold land title,” says Tourism Mount Washington Manager Rod Raycroft.
“The freehold charge was considered their membership in the Association,” he said. At the Oct. 7, 2016 Annual General Meeting the Membership voted to allow members to remove their rent charge if they wished to.
Property owners have to fill out forms from the Land Titles and Survey Authority, available online and through the mail, before Feb. 28, which is when the invoices will go out for the $250 charge for 2017.
“As a result (of the vote), the Board has to go through a bit of soul-searching on how it will move forward in the future,” Raycroft said. The Board has discussed open membership at a basic level, but what that will look like remains to be seen.
“The sense is to get a community development going so people feel empowered by it rather than forced into it.”
“In the past the membership money was used for destination marketing. However, there has been discussion over the past year to create more of a community focused group,” he explained.
“The Board, not only this year but in 2015 talked about the need to start doing more community development rather than destination marketing.”
Under the new organization Tourism Mount Washington will get a Regional District MRDT tax similar to a room tax from renters. “That gives us $20,000 to $30,000 to go toward marketing… and help generate overnight stays.”
Tourism Mount Washington has a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) with the new ownership group at Mount Washington to pool resources to help market people’s properties.
They also have an MOU with the Marmot and Mile High Accommodations. “These are two entities that provide real value to the people who have properties up there and rent them out,” Raycroft said.
Raycroft joined Tourism Mount Washington less than a year ago as Manager, and after helping guide property owners through a brief transition period, was due to wrap up his role with the organization on December 9.
Prior to his end date, he focused on setting up Tourism Mount Washington “so it can be seamlessly cost effective and efficient moving forward, and relevant to those people who are renting out properties,” he said.
“There’s no one solution that fits all. What we can do is set up the best plan so the Association helps those people get exposure in local markets on the Island and Vancouver, and possibly Edmonton and Calgary.”
Someone from the Board of Directors will be designated to answer questions after Raycroft leaves.
For more information on changes and the new fee structure, e-mail manager@tourismmountwashington.com.