Loading...
HomeMy Public PortalAbout12-03-2018 Tourism Board Minutes Regular MeetingPage 1 of 4 Approved Minutes Tourism Board 6:15 p.m. Dec. 3, 2018 Board Meeting Room, Town Hall Annex, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Chair Mary Catherine McKee, Mark Bateman, Libbie Hough, Barry Hupp, Billy Maupin, Tommy Stann and Kim Tesoro Staff: Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell Guests: Sarah DeGennaro, Alliance for Historic Hillsborough 1. Call meeting to order Chair Mary Catherine McKee called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m. Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell confirmed the presence of a quorum. 2. Consideration of changes or adjustments to the agenda There were no changes. The agenda stood as presented. 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on Nov. 5, 2018. Motion: Member Mark Bateman moved approval of the minutes as presented. Member Billy Maupin seconded. Vote: Unanimous 4. New business A. Fiscal Year 2018 Annual Tourism Program Report Campbell asked board members to email her if they see any corrections that need to be made. She plans to have them printed and mailed to stakeholders. B. Fiscal Year 2020 renewal process for contract partners Board members briefly discussed a few additional steps for the FY20 contract renewal process. There was interest in asking contract partners to provide detailed explanations of any budget requests that are significantly higher than the previous year. Significantly higher may be anything more than 3 percent higher. It was noted that the board prefers more detailed budget line items. The board also requested some additional explanation of any new line items/projects. Other suggestions included: • Providing contract partners with a more detailed budget increase justification form. • Asking on the application/budget spreadsheet what other ways the partners are planning to get funding. • Asking contract partners to explain how the services or projects for which they are seeking funding align with the Tourism Board’s strategic plan. • Asking contract partners to rank their special projects/increases in terms of priority. Page 2 of 4 C. Recommendations for updates to FY20 grant application, scoring or process It was noted that the electronic format worked well and that it was the first year the board had not received incomplete applications. The online application could not be submitted while incomplete. 5. Old business A. Visitors Center fund balance projects and draft invoice Campbell reviewed that for some fiscal years the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, which operates the Visitors Center, kept any Prepared Food and Beverage Tax remittance that was over the amount projected in the budget. For the last two fiscal years, the overages have been returned to the Tourism Board because that is now specified in the contract more clearly. For the years where the Alliance retained the money, those funds were placed in a fund balance account. Campbell reviewed that at the last Tourism Board meeting, the board discussed a list of projects that the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough would like to do at the Visitors Center with that unbudgeted $60,000. At the November meeting, the board approved the first four projects for FY19, leaving $43,380 to be reimbursed to the Tourism Board. Campbell has created an invoice to document the payment from the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. Motion: Maupin moved to approve the invoice for $43,380 to be paid by the Visitors Center with no FY19 allocation at this time. Member Libbie Hough seconded. Vote: Unanimous 6. Discussion items and monthly reports A. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Director and Programs Report Executive Director Sarah DeGennaro noted the report includes explanations of how projects tie in with the goals and the strategic plan of the Alliance. She reviewed fall projects, including participating in the Handmade Parade, a bell ringing on Nov. 11, documenting the Piper Cox House, connecting preservation specialist Dean Reudrich with Orange County Schools to make sure the roof of the Hughes Academy was prepared to preserve it. DeGennaro explained that the Visitors Center and other historic sites in town have seen a decline in school groups coming to tour the sites and would like to brainstorm ways to boost that. Hough suggested the Visitors Center staff consider creating a web-based interactive field trip that didn’t require students to leave their classrooms. She also suggested DeGennaro contact the field trip coordinator for the Morehead Planetarium to find out what the planetarium is doing to attract field trip groups. DeGennaro noted that photos with Santa was a recent successful event. B. Visitors Center Communications Report (September) Campbell reported the Handmade Parade generated a lot of social media traffic. She noted the Visitors Center had run a full-page ad in FINDER, the INDY’s Guide to All Things Triangle. Also, the Visitors Center had published blog posts about the River Park Concert and Handmade Parade. The number of likes on Facebook had increased by 77 in September. The Visitors Center counted 425 visitors in September from 19 states and two foreign countries. Campbell said River Park Concert was huge this year. She noted that it was a rainy fall season. McKee requested that a line be added to the report noting the weather so the weather can be taken into account when looking back at attendance or information like Spirit Tours being canceled (due to weather). C. Tourism Board Staff Report and Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Updates (September) Campbell reported that: Page 3 of 4 • The Hillsborough Running Club’s Hillsborough Half event had a good turnout. • The Hillsborough Running Club’s Running of the Elves was a big success before the Holiday Parade. • The Hillsborough Board of Commissioners had approved widening the sidewalk in front of the Colonial Inn, which will remove some on-street parking spaces. However, the next block of West King Street was in the planning stages to be striped to create more parking spaces. • There were ongoing discussions about the location of a second loading zone on West King Street for both the King Street businesses and Colonial Inn. • She has information about disaster-relief assistance loans offered by the Small Business Association. • She had attended Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce meetings to participate in planning for holiday events. • She had met with the new Arts Council executive director, Torey Mishoe. • The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau would be hosting an open house holiday party Dec. 11. • She was sick for the October Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau meeting at the Hillsborough Campus of UNC Hospitals, but DeGennaro had attended. • UNC-Chapel Hill opened a visitors center on Franklin Street. • The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau was changing marketing firms while working on rebranding. • She had placed additional information in front of the board about Prepared Food and Beverage tax collected in July. She noted the amount of tax collected was down in July, up in August and about the same in September, compared with those months in 2017. She does not project large growth in this tax next year because some restaurants have closed, others are coming online, and Daniel Boone Village is being redeveloped. She thinks the amount of tax collected will be comparable with this year. • The next Tourism Board meeting is Jan. 7. D. Tourism Board Member Comments and Updates Board Member Tommy Stann said the news release on the importance of reducing the use of single-use plastics got him thinking how great it would be if all the restaurants started using biodegradable takeout packaging. He said such packaging is much more expensive than the single-use plastics, though. Businesses cannot provide the more expensive packaging on their own. He is concerned that the encouragement would be followed by a mandatory reduction in single-use plastics from the Town Board and wanted to make sure that Town Board members understand how much more expensive a mandate like this might be for businesses. He is interested in financial assistance to help make that change. Stann thinks it would be great if Hillsborough restauranteurs could work together to come up with an environmentally friendly solution with some outside financial assistance. He could envision the environmentally friendly measures becoming a marketing point for the Town. There was interest among board members to help solve this problem. There was a suggestion for the Visitors Center to sell Hillsborough-branded multi-use takeout containers and bags. It was noted that the Orange County Health Department may not approve of the takeout containers, unless people brought them in to package their own leftovers at the end of the meal. Stann offered to talk with Dani Black, the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce’s restaurant ambassador. Kim Tesoro supported using the Chamber’s organizational structure to collaborate on this. McKee said if there is buy-in from restaurants, then the Tourism Board could help with signage and Page 4 of 4 marketing. Campbell added that on a related note, she is interested in getting bulk pricing for high chairs for restaurants to get a better deal and encourage restaurateurs to offer them based on clientele. She has noticed several restaurants don’t offer high chairs which is leaving money on the table, as young families will go elsewhere to eat. Stann said he had ordered safe, easy-to-clean ones a few months ago that he was very happy with. He indicated he would send Campbell the information on them. Campbell said that could be something for Black to discuss with the restauranteurs as well. She said that young families is a growing demographic for Hillsborough and that it would be a shame for them to go out of town to eat when they could eat here. DeGennaro reminded the board that the Visitors Center will be closed Dec. 24 through Jan. 6. The extra time is to allow for interior painting. Tesoro noted the Candlelight Tour was coming up. 7. Adjournment Motion: McKee moved to adjourn at 7:46 p.m. Maupin seconded. Vote: Unanimous