Annual Report
Dear Industry Colleagues,
Your Board of Directors and team at the Oregon Wine Board/Oregon Wine Growers Association experienced a great deal of change in fiscal year 2010-11. With this change came a renewed commitment to both organizations key objectives: marketing, education, and research for Oregon Wine Board and advancement of the wine community’s legislative priorities for Oregon Wine Growers Association.
The intent of this Annual Report is to provide a summary of the activities and budgets for the fiscal year that began July 1, 2010 and ended June 30, 2011. However, since the fiscal year ended both organizations have made great strides. We will publish a more comprehensive annual report at the end of 2011-2012.
Your team worked to spread the word about Oregon wines across both international and domestic markets. The Oregon Wine Board’s international efforts focused on Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. On the domestic front, the industry participated in the Aspen Food & Wine Festival featuring our sustainability program, Oregon Certified Sustainable Wine.
On the education front, the Symposium was a huge success, boasting its highest sponsorship revenues yet. Due to an ever-expanding wait list for the trade show, and with the support of 67% of the attendees surveyed, the Oregon Wine Industry announced that it will be moving to the Oregon Convention Center for the 2012 event.
Research continues to be a key focus with a $240,000 investment in studies that will help winemakers and growers across the state.
Our legislative agenda kept the Oregon Winegrowers Association (OWA) busy. The major emphasis of OWA was a land use bill allowing wineries to host events on site. In addition, OWA focused on custom crush regulations and a new Oregon wine country license plate.
2010-2011 saw several staff changes. Following the departure of our Executive Director, industry veterans Steve Burns and Stacie Jacob served as interim directors to work with the Board and staff. The transition included listening to constituents and members to identify priorities and creating the framework for a long term strategic plan.
During the year, we restored staff capabilities in several key areas and added new competencies in critical disciplines, such as social media marketing. Most importantly, we recruited a wine industry veteran and longtime Oregonian as Executive Director in late 2011. Tom Danowski brings extensive consumer marketing and strategic brand management experience to OWB/OWA.
The following pages detail the investment of your dollars supporting the Oregon Wine Board, Oregon Winegrowers Association and TOWER in advancing Oregon wine. We appreciate hearing from the industry as we work towards industry initiatives to maximize your success and keep Oregon wines positioned among the global wine industry.
Regards,
Your Board of Directors and Staff