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HomeMy Public PortalAbout03-07-2016 Minutes Tourism Board Regular MeetingPage 1 of 7 TOURISM BOARD March 7, 2016 Town Barn 6:30pm MINUTES Present: Chair Erik Myers, Vice Chair Mary Catherine McKee, Sean Garrett, Kate Carroll, Kathleen Ferguson, Libbie Hough, Carolyn Twesten, Kim Tesoro, Steven Burke Staff: Shannan Campbell (Town of Hillsborough), Sarah DeGennaro (Alliance for Historic Hillsborough) Other: Mayor Tom Stevens (Town Board), Bill Crowther (Alliance) I. Call Meeting to Order Chair Myers called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. II. Agenda Adoption Member Hough made a request to add an item under New Business in consideration of a partnership/sponsorship with the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitor North America Travel Journalists Association Conference. Ms. Campbell asked the board if item f, for which Mayor Tom Stevens was present, could be moved up to item a. with the North American Travel Journalists Item as item b. Motion: Vice Chair Hough moved to adopt the agenda as amended. Second: Member Ferguson seconded. Vote: Unanimous. III. Consideration of Minutes of February 1, 2016 Regular Meeting (Tabled to April- revisions indicated by Member Burke were noted by Ms. Campbell) Motion: Member Hough moved to table the minutes until revisions could be made. Second: Member Ferguson seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Consideration of Minutes of February 23, 2016 Work Session Meeting (Tabled to April- revisions indicated by Member Burke were noted by Ms. Campbell) Motion: Member Hough moved to table the minutes until revisions could be made. Second: Member Burke seconded. Vote: Unanimous. IV. General Public Comment There were no public comments. V. Monthly Reports Page 2 of 7 a. Alliance Director’s Report and Visitor’s Center Communications Report Sarah DeGennaro asked for questions. Member Burke pointed out a typo on page 2 where the person was changed from first to third. Ms. DeGennaro explained that her employee Michael had attended the conference. She also reported that 819 people were counted overall at the Visitor’s Center for February. She attributed some of the increase to great attendance at the Revolutionary War Living History Day. She said that people who went on the free tours made donations. There was good weather and the day was successful. Member Burke asked whether it’s possible to have a marketing theme for each month. Ms. DeGennaro said it’s more general than that at times. She explained that the marketing done recently has focused on ‘spring’ with Ads that focus on the weather warming up and things to do in Hillsborough now that it’s nice outside. Ms. Campbell and Ms. DeGennaro briefly described how they are working as a marketing team and plan marketing initiatives about 6 months out depending on the upcoming special events and identified needs for tourism marketing. Ms. Campbell explained that the Visitor’s Center Staff and herself have a monthly meeting on the Thursday following the Tourism Board meeting to coordinate marketing, financials/budget, newsletters, special projects and events, and address any other coordination issues with regard to the management of the Visitor’s Center and visitor’s services. b. Visitor’s Center Communications Report There were no separate questions about this report. c. Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Update Ms. Campbell reported that the Visitors Bureau met in the conference room at the new UNC hospital located in Hillsborough. There was some broad discussion about the Visitors Bureau putting together an economic impact calculator or tool for events to try to gauge return on investment for events and festivals. The Visitors Bureau is considering investing in agro-tourism app development. She said the estimated cost of that was about $20K. There was brief discussion that the app could be leveraged for farm to table events and the Piedmont Farm Tour. She said that the Visitors Bureau had challenged Hillsborough to brainstorm on ways that they could work together with us on any special projects or initiatives in 2016. She said that she had discussed this with the Visitor Center staff and hopes to set up a meeting with the Visitor’s Bureau soon to discuss their partnership ideas. II. New Business Items Page 3 of 7 a. Mission Statement Update & Vision Statement Development - Town Resources/Guides: Town Strategy Map (Mayor Tom Stevens) and Town Vision 2030 Goals Mayor Stevens explained that as an organizational development consultant he has some expertise in strategy maps and balance score cards. He said that the Town Board works with town staff to create measurable objectives. These tools are especially helpful in connecting a vision with outcomes that you want. The five key words are: character, community, vibrancy, prosperity, and heritage. He reviewed the four categories: serve the community, operations, manage the money, and develop internal capacity to make all these things happen. He reviewed the five outcomes the town wants to see: people are engaged, our neighborhoods are safe, we have protected our cultural and natural resources, that we have economic vibrancy, and we have advanced connectivity and walkability. Mayor Stevens explained the town has worked diligently to involve the community by staffing advisory boards, ensuring minutes are available to the public, and staffing public relations positions. There is a press release from the town nearly every day. He explained that the key part the Tourism Board is involved in is economic vibrancy. Almost everything we do for tourism is similar to what we do for our citizens, Mayor Stevens said. Mayor Stevens acknowledged that the values are intended to permeate everything every day. Ms. Campbell reviewed the Vision 2030 plan as an overview and explained that the goals and strategies structure were similar to that of any strategic plan where there are general goals, sub-goals, and then implementation projects under those sub-goals to ensure the broad goal is reached within a specified amount of time. She briefly reviewed this plan. Member Hough shared that the Alliance used this at its strategic planning meeting as a sort of ‘guiding’ document. - Mission & Vision Statement to guide Tourism Plan development (goals, implementation projects, etc.) The board discussed digesting the Strategy Map and Vision 2030 goals to discuss at a future meeting. There was acknowledgement that it’s difficult to choose a logo without first crafting a mission and vision statement. Page 4 of 7 Ms. Campbell advised that the Tourism Board needs to choose a concept for the logo in order for the website to move forward. She indicated that the graphic designer has created nine concepts to choose from and it would likely cost more money if she were asked to create more at this point. She said that regardless of the language that is developed for the Mission/Vision statement that the logos capture tourism elements for the town such as food/beverage, outdoor recreation, historic sites, and the historic downtown architecture. Member Ferguson said that she would like this board to create a strategy map for their work. Motion: Member Hough motioned to move item c. Alliance/Visitor Service Budget to item b. so that Bill Crowther could present and then come back to item a. and tackle vision/mission statement. Second: Chair Myers seconded. Vote: Unanimous. b. Alliance- Visitor Services/Visitor Center FY 2017 Budget Presentation for Visitor Services Vendor Contract (Sarah DeGennaro & Bill Crowther) - Questions or discussion Ms. DeGennaro reviewed the program narrative that she had drafted, following the contract that the Alliance has with the town. She explained that maintenance for the Alexander Dickson House, such as power washing and painting, was needed in FY 2017. Mr. Crowther asked whether there were questions, further direction. Ms. Campbell indicated that the staff estimate for prepared food & beverage tax revenue for next year is significantly more conservative than the Alliance’s. She explained that the projection is for $312,000 total food & beverage tax revenues for FY 2017. Under that assumption, the total for the Alliance Visitor Center/Visitor Services Contract would be $187,200 with an assumed $15,600 average per month going to the Alliance (60%) and $10,400 (40%) going to the Tourism Board for expenditure. She explained that the Alliance is currently budgeting a contract amount at $192,000 which would mean they are projecting approximately $320,000 total food & beverage tax revenues for FY 2017. She expressed concern that this projection was too high, despite totals for the tax coming in around $318,000 for FY 2015. This board discussed the budget and indicated that they prefer the Alliance to use the more conservative estimates. Member Hough said the Alliance is discussing at the executive level how money is put to best use when the revenues comes in higher than the estimations. Page 5 of 7 Member Ferguson had to excuse herself to attend another meeting. Ms. Campbell confirmed there was still a quorum present. a. Mission Statement Update & Vision Statement Development - Town Resources/Guides: Town Strategy Map (Mayor Tom Stevens) and Town Vision 2030 Goals After item b. Alliance Visitor Service Budget, Member Hough suggested a revised mission and vision statement and invited the board to edit/change them. The board discussed their work, their funding structure, and the purpose of having a Tourism Board and what the meant to the greater community at length. The board worked collaboratively to frame both a vision and mission statement. Motion: Member Burke motioned to approve the final stated vision as follows, “The Vision of the Hillsborough Tourism Board is to enrich Hillsborough's attractions, culture, diversity, and economic development, for visitors and residents alike. Vision: Enriching attractions, culture, diversity, and economic development, for visitors and residents alike. Second: Member Hough seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Member Garrett left. Ms. Campbell confirmed a quorum was still present. Motion: Member Hough motioned to approve the final stated mission as follows, “The Mission of the Hillsborough Tourism Board is to drive economic development through tourism. Mission: Driving economic development through tourism. Second: Member Twetson seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Member Tesoro left. Ms. Campbell confirmed there was still a quorum present. c. Orange County Visitors Bureau responding to an RFP from the North American Travel Journalists Association in spring 2017 ( http://www.natja.org/) Member Hough explained that there was an open RFP for cities to host this event. She explained that the host destination pays for the conference. The Orange County/ Chapel Hill Visitors Bureau will pay $25,000 of the estimated $55,000 total. Hillsborough will be represented. There will be a daytime event hosting in Hillsborough as well as Hillsborough vendor representation at the host hotel in Chapel Hill. The Visitors Bureau is looking for help in covering the cost of this event. Member Hough is proposing that Tourism Board and/or the Tourism Development Authority pledge $5,000 towards this project as a special project/partnership funding opportunity. The cost may also be shared with the Carrboro TDA, Chapel Hill Chamber of Commerce, UNC-Chapel Hill, several of the restaurants, and the Downtown Partnership in Chapel Hill. Member Hough said Page 6 of 7 that she is certain that the travel journalists would still come to Hillsborough because of the set tours. Motion: Member Hough moved to write into the budget $5,000 for the Travel Journalists Association. She said that she would ask the Tourism Development Authority to share this cost if possible. Second: Member Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous. d. Tourism logo/purpose presentation - Review and comment on draft logo designs - Finalize it down to ONE favorite concept - Comment on any suggestions/changes to finalized ONE favorite Motion: Chair Myers motioned to table items d, e, f and g until the April meeting. He expressed concern that the organizations being offered RFP’s would have to wait another month to receive them. He asked Ms. Campbell if the RFP organizations were notified that they would get RFP’s so that they would not be applying for grants for the planned to be offered RFP projects. Ms. Campbell said that she had spoken with the three preliminarily but that she would send out a formal email to each organization’s head explaining that they had been chosen for an RFP and for what project/program/etc. Chair Myers said that he’d like to add to his motion that any financial items such as f and g be placed at the beginning of the next agenda. Second: Member Burke seconded the motion. Vote: Unanimous. e. Website Wireframe Page Examples f. Review/Approve RFP’s to organizations - Overview of ‘What is an RFP?’ - Review of actual documents and deadlines g. Funding Re-Structuring Communication Plan - Grant Cycle Opening/Closing Date Notifications o Press Releases o Town and Visit Hillsborough Website Notifications o Visit Hillsborough Newsletter o Email Blasts - RFP release and return deadline notification - Funding types brochure and handout development Page 7 of 7 III. Old Business Items a. Adopted Tourism Board Stance on Colonial Inn- formal statement VI. Staff/Board Comments and Discussion Items None. VII. Adjourn Motion: Member Hough moved to adjourn at 8:31 p.m. Second: Member Twetson seconded. Vote: Unanimous.