Black Hills/Badlands SD Tourism Association visits with the Murdo Area Chamber of Commerce

The Murdo Area Chamber of Commerce held a special meeting on Monday, September 23, to hear from guest speakers from the Black Hills and Badlands South Dakota Tourism Association. In addition to the chamber board members, there were Ashley Geigle of Murdo Area Economic Development, David Geisler and Vivian Sonder of the Pioneer Auto Museum, Krysti Barnes from the city, and Kip Kinsley.  The meeting was called to order at 6:03. Board members reviewed and approved the secretary report/minutes. The treasury report was reviewed. It was not a full report, since it is the middle of the month. The treasury report was approved.

Correspondence was next on the agenda. Barbara Hockenbary reported that the rodeo arena has been busy this month. A lot of people were stopping through, and a lot of horses were held there that were moved out of the danger of the Power Dam Road fire area. She has only gotten calls from people who want to use the arena.

Ashley Geigle reported that some Department of Tourism members will be visiting Murdo for a meeting on October 9 & 10. They will be visiting various local businesses in town, and Geigle asked the chamber if they could offset some the expenses of hosting them. The chamber decided on gifting them a $30 allowance each. “Make sure it’s purchased locally,” stated Hockenbary on their spending.

Hayli Hull, Vice President of Sales, and Alicia Villa, Regional Sales and Membership Director, of the Black Hills & Badlands SD Tourism Association visited with the chamber to review marketing packages with the board. Murdo was featured on the cover of a 2024-2025 Black Hills & Badlands SD Vacation Guide. Hull went over advertisement prices and all the different packages of advertising they offer. She said that 128,000 of the people that looked at the South Dakota vacation guide had ordered a hard copy, and stressed that print advertising is still the best option despite the rise of digital advertising. She said for Murdo specifically, print is valuable, but needs a strong mix of both print and digital advertising. A packet with all the package options was provided, and board members reviewed it at this time. Board members asked various questions and discussion was had. They also talked about what’s  automatically included in the yearly membership. Other details were discussed on the web banners and other features of the Black Hills/Badlands tourism website. Hull explained that if someone were to click an ad on the website, that person would start to see other South Dakota tourism ads on other websites and platforms. She would also be able to tell the chamber if someone actually visited Murdo after interacting with one of their ads. “The phone knows what you want and where you’re going...” The goal of the association is to get people to the community, and keep them there long enough to do some spending. Over 2 million people have already visited the website this year.

The chamber then discussed their plans for the ad they will be putting into the upcoming vacation guide. The chamber motioned to renew their membership with the tourism association and to purchase a full-page advertisement. They will revisit digital advertisement at a later date.

Next, the chamber board discussed old business. The SAM application is still being worked on. There are still open board positions for the chamber. The West Central Electric annual meeting will be on October 2, and six more chamber members were needed as volunteers for serving food and drinks. The board discussed who can volunteer. Hockenbary informed the members that Bridget Hatheway will be coming to the November 6 chamber meeting to discuss Scavenger Journey for 2025.

Last on the agenda was new business. There was brief discussion on possibly doing something new for the chamber Christmas Bucks drawing. No decision was made, and it will be discussed further at a later date. Hockenbary asked if they will be putting on the Christmas Lighting contest. The board agreed to do it again this year. Next, 1880 Town is doing a trick or treat event again this year, and Hockenbary asked if the chamber should participate again this year. The decision was tabled until the next meeting.

On October 17, there will be a ribbon cutting to celebrate the completed installation of the new swing set. Organizations that helped fund and install the swing set will be there. There was brief discussion on where the old swing set had come from and just how old it was. Nobody at the meeting knew. As there was no other business, the meeting ended at this time.