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HomeMy Public PortalAbout05-07-2018 Minutes Tourism Board Regular MeetingPage 1 of 7 Draft Minutes Tourism Board 6:15 p.m. May 7, 2018 Town Barn, 101 E. Orange St. Present: Chair Mary Catherine McKee, Mark Bateman, Matt Hughes, Tommy Stann, and Kim Tesoro Staff: Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell Guests: Gail Cooley, Sarah DeGennaro, Kate Faherty, Eileen Ferrell, and Stephanie Pryor Item 1: Call meeting to order Chair Mary Catherine McKee called the meeting to order at 6:31 p.m. Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell confirmed the presence of a quorum. Item 2: Consideration of changes or adjustments to the agenda Under new business items, Campbell added electing a vice chair. Motion: McKee moved to approve the agenda as amended. Member Matt Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous Item 3: Consideration of minutes from April 2, 2018, meeting Board Member Kim Tesoro asked how much WCHL had quoted for advertising. Campbell answered $1,000 to $2,500 monthly, depending on the package. Campbell said there is a possibility to work out a deal that would be $500 per month for banner advertisements. Tesoro noted the Town of Hillsborough has a $1,500 credit with WCHL through its membership with the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce and wondered if the Tourism Board could use that. Campbell noted that possibility for further inquiry, but indicated that Tourism Program spending and Town of Hillsborough spending are entirely separate so it might not work to do this in this way. Motion: Tesoro moved approval of the minutes as presented. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous Item 4: General public comment There were no comments. Item 5: New business items a. Added item — election of vice chair Campbell noted that Commissioner Kathleen Ferguson had been serving as vice chair of this Page 2 of 7 board and had resigned so that newly appointed Commissioner Matt Hughes could continue to serve on this board, now representing the Board of Commissioners seat. Motion: McKee nominated Hughes to serve as vice chair. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous b. Contract Quarterly Reports- 3rd Quarter: • Hillsborough Arts Council — Last Fridays Treasurer Gail Cooley noted: o The third quarter is a planning time for the council. o The council’s website has been improved, and there is now a featured vendors page. o Vendor fees have remained the same. o There is no rain location this year for Last Fridays band performances. If the band can perform on the courthouse steps and there is no lightning, then the band will continue to perform even if it is raining. o The April Last Fridays event went well and was well attended. • Burwell School Historic Site — Visitors Services There was no one from the Burwell School to present. Tesoro requested that future quarterly reports include expenditures. • Orange County Historic Museum — Visitors Services Interim Director Stephanie Pryor reported that: o There were 817 total visitations in this quarter. o The month with the most visitors this quarter was February because of the museum’s participation in the Living History Day. o The other high points were tour groups and the first Wednesday lecture series. o The website has been redone and she has data for this quarter but no other data with which to compare it. o For Black History Month, there were two digital exhibits and longer posts. (She shared a post from Women’s History Month as well.) o Monthly newsletters are sometimes sent biweekly. The opening rate for the electronic newsletters is 47 to 49 percent. o There were more school group tours in the third quarter than in the second quarter. o The museum has increased its outreach to college students. o There are five college interns lined up for the summer. The museum held an open house and created a brochure for that recruitment effort. o There was a fundraiser planned at the Hot Tin Roof. c. Review current draft budget Campbell reported the projections for the food and beverage tax revenue is $335,000 for Fiscal Year 2019. Also, she would like the Tourism Board to consider sharing with the Page 3 of 7 Tourism Development Authority and Board of Commissioners the cost of a new holiday tree, which would be $12,000 total with lights and decorations. This money would not come from what is set aside for grants but would be a Special Projects & Partnership line item. The existing tree was bought in 1999, has rusted, and is generally in bad shape. She explained that a new tree would benefit tourism, economic development, and would serve residents. The draft total operating budget would be $339,000. There was interest from the board in recouping the attorneys’ fees incurred from enforcing the food and beverage tax. d. Fiscal Year 2019 contract renewals and new contract RFP discussions • Hillsborough Arts Council —Last Fridays Program Coordinator Eileen Ferrell noted that she works part time for the Arts Council and the other person who works for the council is a bookkeeper who works 10 hours a week. Everyone else is a volunteer. Ferrell noted that the budget for the Paint it Orange Plein Air Paint-out has increased to $1,000 to cover advertising. She said the event was a partnership with the Orange County Arts Commission last year and the intention is for the Hillsborough Arts Council to take over that event, but they still need some financial sponsorships for this year. Ferrell reviewed that in total the Arts Council is requesting $21,052.50. She noted that in this amount, the Tourism Board has already paid $4,762.50 in FY18 for the coordination of the Handmade Parade and $4,762.50 remains to be paid for FY19. Tesoro asked how the paint-out draws visitors. Ferrell answered that 87 percent of the painters came from outside Orange County and there were more than 450 visitors to the Hillsborough Arts Council gallery for the opening night event. Most artists painted in Hillsborough. Only a few went other places in Orange County. Ferrell said while it is a countywide event, she feels strongly that it is beneficial to Hillsborough and should be housed here. She encouraged the Tourism Board to give it one more year and then consider whether it should stay in Hillsborough. Ferrell added that the Orange County Arts Commission may want to move it after this year but the Hillsborough Arts Council wants to keep it here. She also noted that the painters ate in local establishments, stayed in local lodging, etc. • Burwell School Historic Site — Visitors Services Campbell noted this organization was asking for more than last year for operations costs as requested by the Tourism Board for the site to stay open mid-December through mid-January. Regarding the request from the Tourism Board for the site to stay open during the winter holidays, Campbell said the Burwell School response was that the staff person who generally would open the site is a graduate student who is not available during that time but possibly someone else could be paid to keep the site open. There are some additional funding requests for increasing garden maintenance and for paying for a docent in the time period when the graduate student is away. Page 4 of 7 Executive Director Kate Faherty joined the meeting at 7:13 p.m. She said the Burwell School Historic Site would be trying to build on the Elizabeth Keckley bicentennial year. The focus has always been on the 20 years the school was in operation on the site, Faherty said. That focus was expanded to Keckley, and now there is a desire to expand the focus again to include when the Collins family took shelter at the site during the Civil War and the years that the Spurgeon family was in residence. John Sanford Spurgeon was a scholar in dentistry. (The honors dental court at UNC-Chapel Hill is the Spurgeon Court.) Faherty said conducting research on the persons of color and enslaved persons who resided on site also is desired as well as creating a brochure and literature after researching. The Burwell School Historic Site has newly donated rotating displays. The organization also hopes to raise funds to paint the interior in FY19 as well. Campbell shared a comparison of last year’s budget and this year’s requests. Faherty said the site is significantly understaffed. The staff donates about 30 extra hours a week. She said the site needs to build on the momentum of the Elizabeth Keckley bicentennial, but everything is running on fumes. She said the volunteer base has expanded greatly. The organization wants to prepare the site for its 200th anniversary in 2021. • Orange County Historical Museum — Visitors Services Board of Directors Chairman Ernest Dollar said funding from the Tourism Board has decreased over 20 years. He noted that one of the reasons the museum’s board is asking for more money is to offer staff a living wage and that Orange County had noted the museum staff is not paid a living wage when the museum applied for grants from the county. Tesoro pointed out that Orange County’s living wage policy only applies to full-time staff and that the museum’s staff is not full time. Dollar said the museum is seeking help from artists to redesign exhibits. Also, hiring a development person is important so that the museum can fund raise and become more self-sustaining. He indicated that staff is working hard to reinvent the museum. Dollar said as we look at tourism in Hillsborough, the museum needs financial help and community support. He believes that in two or three years the museum will be back on strong financial footing. Tesoro said that the most important elements of the contract funding requests are the development position and exhibit improvement. Pryor said new exhibits drive people to come in. They had 500 people come for the new exhibits in the last month. Also, they are looking for ways to reach people in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. Page 5 of 7 The board decided to determine grant awards before deciding on the se three contracts. e. Grant scoring and awards Campbell noted the top three scorers for grants were the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Hillsborough Holiday Home Tour, the Hillsborough Arts Council’s River Park Concert, and the Free Spirit Freedom/Hillsborough Arts Council’s Gospel Festival, totaling $12,700. The next top scorer was Hog Day for $10,000, and the fifth highest scorer was the Eno River Farmers’ Market project for $2,200. It was noted that the score between the fourth and fifth top scorer was very close. It was noted that Hog Day would not be eligible for a grant next year because this would be the third year of grant funding for it. Motion: Hughes moved to fund the top five scorers. There was no second. Discussion: Tesoro wanted more discussion about the Hillsborough Arts Council having two grant applications. Cooley said last year was the first year the River Park Concert came under the Arts Council and it was previously put on by another organization. The second grant application is a project of Free Spirit Freedom, with the Arts Council assisting them since they’re not their own 501(c)3. Cooley said it would be the last year of funding for the River Park Concert. She does not see any reason that it would not continue as it is working to become a sustainable event. A board member said he liked the idea of the farmers market’s tours but wishes the project would impact more people and draw more tourists to town. There were concerns that it wouldn’t be the best bang for the buck. Board members considered and discussed the options. Motion: Hughes amended his motion to fund the top four scorers. Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous. f. Finalize draft budget for Fiscal Year 2019 Tesoro suggested funding the museum at $19,700, the Burwell School with $24,135 and the Arts Council at $21,052.50. There was discussion about not sponsoring the Arts Council’s Plein Air event. Some board members expressed concern for funding the Burwell School less than last year while asking its staff to keep the site open during the winter holidays. Campbell noted the funding increases last year were supposed to cover Keckley bi-centennial events in FY18. There was discussion about pulling money from the fund balance, putting a cap on the increase requests for next year, and letting the contractors know that the amount could decrease next Page 6 of 7 year. The board decided the contract amounts would be $20,000 for the Hillsborough Arts Council contract, $28,000 for the Burwell School Historic Site contract, and $30,000 for the Orange County Historical Museum contract. The board also decided to transfer funds from the fund balance in order to make up the difference in available revenues and the expenditures that they wanted for FY19. The board expressed interest in setting a goal to keep in reserve one quarter of the cost of contracts, Visitors Center expenses for a quarter, and the entirety of what was given in grants for the fiscal year. The board also discussed interest in setting a policy of how much to save for the reserve fund when there is extra tax revenue unspent or returned to the board at the end of the fiscal year. Campbell was directed to learn what the Town of Hillsborough’s policy if it is different than the amount required by LGC. Motion: McKee moved to set the contract amount for the Hillsborough Arts Council at $20,000 for the next fiscal year; leaving the Plein Air Event Advertising unfunded and deducting $52.50 from the Art Walk advertising line item. Hughes seconded. Vote: 4-1. Mark Bateman voted no because he thinks the amount for the Arts Council is too high. Motion: McKee moved to approve $28,000 for the Burwell School Historic Site contract for Fiscal Year 2019; leaving the gardens unfunded and reducing the amount for site operations. It was suggested that the Burwell School get sponsorship(s) for garden maintenance and beautification. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Motion: McKee moved to approve $30,000 for the Orange County Historical Museum contract for Fiscal Year 2019; reducing the amount for the Museum Assistant position, removing the funding for the Museum Assistant position, and removing funding for Utilities. It was suggested that the museum use its own funding or fundraise for these expenses. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Motion: Tesoro moved that funds be transferred from the reserve fund to help cover the increase in contract amounts for the FY19 budget. Bateman seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Item 6: Old business items a. Set public hearing for Fiscal Year 2019 budget Motion: Tesoro moved to set the public hearing for 6:15 p.m. June 4, 2018. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Page 7 of 7 Item 7: Staff and board comments, discussion items and monthly reports a. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Director and Programs Report and Visitors Center Communications Report Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Director Sarah DeGennaro reported that: • She is working on the program policy by which the Occaneechi Indian Village replica will operate. • The Alliance is continuing to work on a book of Orange County historical architecture. • The Visitors Centers is now certified as a dementia friendly facility. • She took a cultural resources course. • In March, walking tours started every Saturday. Those have been popular and will run through September. • A special group came March 16. • There were 60 volunteer hours in March. • There is a new tour booklet with the new branding. • The Visitors Center had 349 visitors in March. b. Tourism Board Staff and Food and Beverage Tax Revenues Report and updates from Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau. Campbell reported there were several egg hunts in March as well as the Friends of the Orange County Library book sale and food truck. She went to the conference organized by Visit NC where she was able to network with other tourism professionals throughout NC . Board members said the grant scoring software worked well. There was interest in using it for contract applications. There was interest in tweaking the scoring so that it is more about the project than about how the application was filled out. Item 8: Adjourn Motion: McKee moved to adjourn at 9:36 p.m. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous