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HomeMy Public PortalAbout01-23-2017 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting_RescheduledPage 1 of 4  MINUTES TOURISM BOARD Monday, January 23, 2017 6:15 p.m., Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce         Present: Kim Tesoro, Vice Chair Mary Catherine McKee, Mark Bateman, Chair Erik Myers Staff: Shannan Campbell (Town of Hillsborough) I. Call Meeting to Order Vice Chair McKee called the meeting to order at 6:19 p.m. II. Agenda Adoption Motion: Member McKee motioned to approve. Second: Member Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous. III. Consideration of Minutes of November 7, 2016 Regular Meeting Motion: Member Tesoro motioned to approve. Second: Member Bateman seconded. Vote: Unanimous. IV. General Public Comment There were none. V. Monthly Reports a. Alliance Director’s Report b. Visitor’s Center Communications Report c. OC/CH Visitors Bureau Meeting Update Ms. Campbell went through the highlights of the Alliance report for Sarah DeGennaro as well as the highlights of the Visitors Center report. She told the board about how Stephanie Pace-Brown the Executive Director of the Buncombe County/Asheville Visitors Bureau came and gave a presentation at the OC/CB Visitors Bureau meetings. She explained that Ms. Pace-Brown had a lot of great insight since their tourism program has grown exponentially since 1983, when they enacted their occupancy tax and created their TDA. She said they have a 6% occupancy tax with a quarter of that going to product development and some going to serious infrastructure projects. She said that the OC/CH Visitors Bureau is going to do a marketing blitz after occupancy tax did not meet goals this fall, largely due to the UNC football schedule and hurricane Matthew. Page 2 of 4  VI. New Business Items a. Welcome new Board Member i. Mark Bateman (Restaurant Seat- Hot Tin Roof) Chair Myers welcomed Mark and encouraged him to ask any questions as the board went through the agenda. b. Special Project and Partnership Funding Request- Francesca Talenti’s production of “Rap’unzel” on Riverwalk in conjunction with Last Fridays Ms. Campbell indicated that the applicant was present and was asking for $1,000 for this project. Ms. Talenti explained that she was very dedicated to the performing arts in Hillsborough and right now she’s been working on site specific productions such as the play she had recently done at the Burwell School, which sold out. She said that she and the Town’s poet laureate, William Davis Jr., were collaborating on a play to be performed on the Riverwalk at the Stickworks sculpture with the help of Nick Hatcher. She explained that since the sculpture looks like a castle that it would provide a great backdrop. She said that the play is expected to be short and in ‘pop- up’ format where people can come down to see it but that the expectation is also to entice passer- bys to stop for a few minutes and watch it. She said that the play is expected to be performed a few times each night and will be held the same time/night as Last Fridays. She said that she is working with the Arts Council for cross promotion and that she was awarded a $1,000 grant from Orange County Arts Commission. She said that the matching money from the Tourism Board would be used for props, costumes for performers, and marketing/publicity. She said that she’d like to involve more kids and was thinking that perhaps she’d like to ask for $1500 to increase the number of actor/participants. Chair Myers asked about the marketing plan and how they would make sure that people know that this is going on during Last Fridays. Mr. Hatcher said they were planning a heavy social media campaign and were planning to market to various community groups and with Arts Council. Chair Myers asked about how long it would run and if there would be lighting, etc. Member Tesoro asked about the possibility for raising more money. Ms. Talenti said that right now they were only going to do the plays until dusk and weren’t going to mess with generators or anything. She said it’s only going to be during Last Fridays but if it becomes very popular they could plan for expanded performances and lighting, but that would be in the future. She explained that they could potentially do sponsorships to raise more money to continue this if successful and also use the donated funds during the performance. She asked for ideas. Board Members offered various different fundraising options that could be pursued and asked Ms. Campbell how much money was left in Special Projects/Partnerships allocation. Page 3 of 4  Ms. Campbell said that there was a little under $4,000.00 left through the fiscal year. Motion: Chair Myers motioned to approve the initial matching funds requested of $1,000. Second: Member Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous. c. Tourism Plan Outline Presentation i. Discussion/Comments Chair Myers said that he thought that the outline was in order, but wanted a section on crisis management and a communication plan. He said for example, what if there is a major fire in town, or a hurricane/flood or something that puts a lot of our restaurants out of business for a long time. He asked how would the board fund projects and how would we communicate with business owners. Ms. Campbell shared Member Hughes’ emailed comments that the executive summary should be 1 page if possible. d. Nominations and Voting: Chair and Vice Chair Chair Myers said that he would like to step down as chair, if anyone else would like to serve. He also said that he would be fine to table this item to the next meeting where there will be more members present. Vice Chair McKee said that should would serve as Chair, if anyone would want to serve as vice chair. Motion: Member Tesoro moved to table this item to the next meeting with the recommendation that Member McKee be chair and Member Myers serve as Vice Chair. Second: Member Bateman seconded. Vote: Unanimous. e. Online Payments of Food and Beverage Tax Discussion Ms. Campbell explained that the Town would like to offer the option of Food & Beverage Tax online, however there are some associated fees in doing this. The fees would generally be viewed as convenience charge and are 3.91%+ .30 cents/per transaction. The question is does the Tourism Board want to offer online payments, and if so, does the Board want to absorb the fees (approximately $12K based on revenues if all businesses opt to pay online) or pass these fees on as convenience charge for being able to do it online. The board discussed the issue at length, citing that paying the fees would take money away from other projects and programs, the ethics and duties of their board and taxation in general, and how to best go about offering this. Page 4 of 4  Motion: Chair Myers moved to offer online payments, with the fees being the responsibility of the payor only as long as the payor also has the option to pay the fees by check and/or cash in person or by mail and the online payment is not the only way that the tax payments can be remitted. Second: Member Bateman seconded. Vote: Unanimous. VII. Old Business Items None. VIII. Staff/Board Comments and Discussion Items Ms.Campbell indicated that she was planning on preparing a memorandum on the current contract with the Alliance for the Visitors Center and Visitor Services and some suggested changes to that relationship at the March meeting. She also shared with the board some initial data collected at the Visitors Center regarding geographic location of visitors and more depth visitor information that she hopes to use to prepare a general visitors center/tourism annual report in the fall with the collaboration of the visitors center staff. IX. Adjourn Motion: Vice Chair McKee moved to adjourn at 8:01 p.m. Second: Member Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous.