Monthly report:

Visitors: 324 in August, compared with 656 in July and 698 in August last year.

Phone calls: 144 in August, compared with 152 in July and 128 last August.

Emails: 565 in August, 433 in July, 378 last August.

Queries: 3 in August, 6 in July, 4 last August.

Visitor packets: 2 in August, 90 in July, 55 last August.

Volunteer hours, 90 in August, 57 in July and 158 last August.

Membership activity:

We currently have 144 members.

17 were inactive at the end of August.

Google Analytics update:

Visitors to our site have definitely dropped from 763 in July to 560 in August.

Visitors typically visit 3 to 4 pages and spend a 2.5 minutes per page, which is about a minute longer compared with visits in July.

95.5 percent of our visitors are from the United States, while the other 4 percent are international. Viewers from Canada and Germany visit our site more frequently than most other foreign visitors.

The bounce rate (people who look and leave) has decreased from 51 percent to 45 percent.

Administrator activity:

Last month, the board approved $125 for Katrina Roberts to attend Leadership Montezuma. I wrote a check for $75 because KSJD put some money in for her.

I sent out only two visitor packets this month. This was through direct request.

Betsy and I worked on getting approval to put a directional sign on the east end of the ball field. It was approved. The permit cost $65.

Through my outreach to Aztec and Farmington, I received requests from their towns for our rack cards. When I looked into mailing them, I learned that it would cost over $5 for one mailing. I decided against that idea. However, I had a couple women come to the visitor center from Aztec. They make regular trips to Mancos because they like to cruise the galleries and have lunch at the bakery. They happily took the rack cards and delivered them to the Aztec visitor center along with information about the Balloon and Art Fest. I delivered rack cards to Farmington when Dian Law and I collaborated on a trip to Farmington for the Balloon and Art Fest. I am receiving very positive feedback from the visitor centers in New Mexico about my efforts to do some outreach.

I filed the periodic report with the State of Colorado and paid the $10 fee.

The new map for the RV Resort has been published.

The new ad page for TRAVELHOST Magazine has been published. There was a fair amount of work to reconnect with all the past advertisers and get their commitment for another addition. One dropped out, the Mesa Verde RV Resort. It decided not to be open this winter and felt it wasn't a good idea advertise under those circumstances. However, the Columbine Bar committed to some ad space. I added a sentence to the text from the previous addition to inform people about the Balloon and Art Fest the end of September. I also changed out two pictures to include a fall photo by Lynne Lewis and a balloon photo by Patricia Burk.

Marianne Griffin is executive director of the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center, 101 E. Bauer Ave., www.mancosvalley.com. Contact her at 533-7434 or chamber@mancosvalley.com.