HomeMy Public PortalAbout12-04-2017 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting
Draft Minutes
Tourism Board
6:15 p.m. Dec. 4, 2017
Town Barn, 101 E. Orange St.
Present: Vice Chairman Erik Myers, Mark Bateman, Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson, Matt
Hughes and Tommy Stann
Absent: Chairwoman Mary Catherine McKee, Libbie Hough
Staff: Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell
Guests: Sarah DeGennaro
Item 1: Call meeting to order
Vice Chairman Erik Myers called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m.
Item 2: Consideration of changes or adjustments to the agenda
Motion: Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson moved to approve the agenda as presented.
Second: Board Member Mark Bateman seconded.
Vote: Unanimous
Item 3: Consideration of minutes from Nov. 6, 2017, meeting
Motion: Commissioner Ferguson moved for approval of the minutes as presented.
Second: Mr. Bateman seconded.
Vote: Unanimous
Item 4: General comment
There were no comments.
Item 5: Monthly reports
a. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Director’s Report:
Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Executive Director Sarah DeGennaro reported that:
• 901 visitors were counted at the Visitors Center in October.
• A landscape meeting was held to discuss the long-term vision of the grounds at the
Visitors Center.
• She has hired a communications staff person with marketing experience to do both
Alliance and Visitors Center communications. His name is Matt Novik.
• She attended the presentation regarding the ‘State of the Arts’ in Orange County.
• She is attending the Hillsborough merchants meetings and the Holiday Home Tour
meetings.
• All the guided tours were sold out in October.
• Volunteers served 203 hours in October. Volunteers filled in shifts left vacant by the
vacant communications position.
• Boy Scouts cleared a path between the Visitors Center and the post office and mulched
it.
b. Visitors Center Communications Report:
Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell reported that the Visitors Center gained 57
followers on Facebook, 17 on Twitter and 35 on Instagram. She reviewed some of the most
popular posts. She reviewed ads placed and the October newsletter theme. She noted that she
was able to interact more with the Pinterest platform and add photographs that gained
Pinterest followers. She said that with the new communications person it would be good to take
time to add more photos of Hillsborough to Pinterest.
c. Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Report:
Ms. Campbell reported the Visitors Bureau Board met at the North Carolina Botanical Gardens.
She said that the Visitors Bureau had contracted with a new marketing firm, FleishmanHillard
and they did an analysis of the current marketing efforts and recommendations for
improvements. She said that report would be emailed to the Tourism Board members. She also
shared the results of a Convention, Sports, and Leisure analysis looking at whether Orange
County could support a conference center and/or a recreational/sports complex.
d. Tourism Board Staff and Food and Beverage Tax Revenues Report:
Ms. Campbell reported that:
• The second annual Historic Hillsborough Half Marathon was successful. The first race
generated revenue, so the organizers did not request funding for this second event from
the Tourism Board.
• The YepRoc concert celebrating its 20th anniversary had about 1,800 in attendance.
• The Weaver Street Market wine tasting had about 125 in attendance.
• River Park Concert drew about 4,000 people over the day-long concert held.
• She worked with the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce to put out the
flyer on the Spooktacular weekend events. There were social media posts as well.
• She attended downtown trick-or-treating Friday night, and it was well attended.
• For the Hillsborough Arts Council’s Plein Air event (a project partially sponsored by the
Tourism Board), 48 artists participated from six states and produced over 100 paintings.
• The Hillsborough Board of Commissioners has begun to talk about outdoor alcohol sales
at events but was waiting for the chief of police to be present before continuing that
conversation.
• Jimmy’s Famous Hot Dogs opened and
• She had an onboarding meeting with the new marketing firm that the Chapel
Hill/Orange County Visitor’s Bureau has hired. The conversation included possible future
partnerships and engaging the firm to work with the Hillsborough Tourism Program.
• For August, the revenues were up by 6 percent. Two months into this fiscal year,
revenue is up about 3 percent over this time last year.
Item 6: New business items
a. Presentation: The State of the Arts
Orange County Arts Commission Director Katie Murray spent a couple of minutes talking about
the Paint It Orange event. She said many of the artists chose to paint Hillsborough, although it
was a countywide event. A total of 52 artists registered, but a few did not attend due to illness,
so they ended up with 48 active participants. Although six states were represented, many of the
artists were from Durham and Raleigh. About a third were from Orange County.
Ms. Murray shared the highlights of the State of the Arts report. The report covered Orange
County as a whole as well as the towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough.
Ms. Murray said the overall takeaway is that the arts is a $130 million industry in this county,
employing many people and generating a lot of money for the local governments.
When asked, Ms. Murray said that the data only reflects organizations that participated and
those that are non-profits. The hope is to increase participation for the next survey.
Ms. Murray distributed a copy of the report to the board.
Commissioner Ferguson recommended making a regional presentation to the Triangle J Council
of Governments.
Ms. Campbell said that the Hillsborough Town Board would also be seeing this presentation at
their December 11th meeting.
b. Adopt Tourism Plan
Motion: Commissioner Ferguson noted that there were a few typos, but moved to approve with
those corrected in the future, since they wouldn’t change the content of the plan.
Second: Ms. Hough seconded.
Vote: Unanimous
c. Additional budget amendment for special projects and partnerships fund
Ms. Campbell reviewed there was a $21,115.56 repayment from the Alliance for Historic
Hillsborough for food and beverage tax revenues collected that exceeded the budgeted amount
needed to operate the visitors center and provide visitor services under the contract. At the last
meeting, this board chose to allocate $4,762.50 to the Hillsborough Arts Council for the
Handmade Parade.
Ms. Campbell asked the Tourism Board what it would like to do with the remaining extra funds,
which amount to $16,352.86. She said that it could be applied as an expenditure for another line
item or the board could save it for future use.
Motion: Vice Chairman Myers moved to save the money for general future use.
Second: Mr. Bateman seconded.
Vote: Unanimous
Item 7: Old business items
There was none.
Item 8: Staff/board comments and discussion items
• RFP response — Ms. Campbell said that the Friends of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail had
asked for proposals from NC communities for holding a conference in February or
March of both 2019 and 2020. Ms. Campbell shared that the Town of Hillsborough was
chosen as a finalist. Earlier that day, she had shown representatives around town,
including possible conference venues. She said the MST folks were hoping to have a
decision made on the final location in the next month or so and she said she would keep
the board posted as the event may need some funding in FY19 and FY20 if Hillsborough
is selected.
• Accountability — Mr. Bateman said he would like to increase the level of accountability
on reporting when organizations receive money from this board. He said that he was
concerned that some events and projects are not following through on all the plans,
hitting the goals, etc. that are presented in their grant and special project/partnership
proposals. There was interest and discussion on whether or not it is a best practice to
audit grants and whether or not the expectation is that if there is extra money left in a
line item that this board expects the money back. It was suggested to count cars for
special events, and there was a question of whether the town has the equipment or the
Tourism Board could purchase the equipment to count cars for traffic generated for an
event. It was noted that at a previous meeting, this board had discussed moving the
Handmade Parade to a contract. There was discussion of keeping note of what grantees
say they are going to do and where else they are seeking money. Ms. Campbell said that
she would like to speak off-line with Mr. Bateman if this was in regard to a specific
concern regarding any suspected misappropriation of funds or if this was a general
concern. Mr. Bateman indicated that it was a general concern.
• Accessibility — Ms. Hough suggested that organizations have information about
accessibility on their websites regarding their events. She said it would be good for
event organizers to let people know how/where their events are ADA accessible. It was
noted that Orange County and the Town of Hillsborough have information about
accessible parking but that event organizers can provide more/better information to
guide decisions and assist people with disabilities to be able to access events easily.
Item 9: Adjourn
Chairwoman McKee adjourned the meeting at 7:35 p.m.