The Gunnison County Metropolitan Recreation District was created in 197X with a simple mission — to provide over-the air broadcast television to the Gunnison Valley through a dedicated property tax. In 2XXX, voters approved expanding that scope to include support for other "recreation" activities in the community as well.

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Fast forward to 2018. Due to complicated ways in which Colorado tax laws work, the Met Rec budget had dwindled to the point of severely limiting operations. The law contains a loophole, allowing tax districts to opt out of those provisions, but only with voter approval. Simple enough. Except voters had said no before. Twice. Resoundingly.

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A new board at Met Rec was determined to try again. But, they knew they needed a new approach to achieve a different result.

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Enter Alan Wartes Media. The board hired us to, first, help them create a compelling story and then to help tell it effectively. We immediately saw the storytelling challenge: How do you inspire someone to raise their own taxes to support an organization with a vague and largely invisible mission? No one in the community even knew what Met Rec was, much less why they should say yes to a tax increase. 

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Then we caught on. The fact that no one knew what Met Rec is was the story — and a humorous one at that.

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Over the three months leading up to the election, we mounted a video and social media campaign asking random people a simple question: What is MetRec? Their answers were often hilarious — and set up the opportunity toward the end of the campaign for us to provide the real answer in more serious and informative videos.

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On election day, voters finally said yes — by a wide margin.

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