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HomeMy Public PortalAbout05-06-2019 Tourism Board Minutes Regular MeetingPage 1 of 5 Approved Minutes Tourism Board 6:15 p.m. May 6, 2019 Town Hall Annex Board Meeting Room, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Chair Mary Catherine McKee, Mark Bateman, Matt Hughes, Barry Hupp, Billy Maupin, Jeff Strickler and Kim Tesoro Absent: Tommy Stann Staff: Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell and Public Information Specialist Cheryl Sadgrove Guests: Sarah DeGennaro and Ernest Dollar 1. Call to order Chair Mary Catherine McKee called the meeting to order at 6:17 p.m. Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell confirmed the presence of a quorum. 2. Agenda changes and approval Campbell said that under Item 6D she would introduce the possibility of partnering with Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Orange County on a walking tour app. McKee added, under Item 4B, the opportunity for audience comments on the draft contract renewals. 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on April 8, 2019 Motion: Member Barry Hupp moved approval of the minutes. Member Billy Maupin seconded. Vote: Unanimous 4. Action items A. FY20 grant scores and awards Campbell reviewed there are four applications totaling $24,900 and there is $27,000 budgeted for grants. The board discussed how it wished to proceed. A few members noted that the lowest scoring application, from the Orange County Historical Museum for traveling or rotating exhibits, did not include a detailed budget or an explanation of the exhibits. It was noted that the Tourism Board is interested in drawing visitors to Hillsborough and it wasn’t clear how a traveling exhibit in another part of Orange County would do that. It was noted that the annual Hillsborough Holiday Home Tour, organized by the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce, is a longstanding event. During the discussion about the Orange Community Players’ upcoming Mary Poppins production, Member Kim Tesoro pointed out that the summer musical has a cast of about 60 people and generally includes families who do not live in Hillsborough and must come to town for evening practices for about two months. She noted that those families tend to eat dinner in Hillsborough. She added that the four performances draw extended family to the Page 2 of 5 town. Campbell noted that last year the Orange Community Players returned a little over $1,000 to the Tourism Board because the nonprofit organization made enough money that it felt it could return some of the grant money in good faith. Regarding the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough’s Outlander Festival proposal, the board members said they liked that it is tied to the same weekend a related event would be taking place at Ayr Mount Historic Site. Board members noted this festival would provide a great opportunity to partner with other community groups. Motion: McKee moved to grant the Hillsborough/Orange County Chamber of Commerce $4,900 for the 33rd Annual Hillsborough Holiday Home Tour, the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough $10,000 for the Outlander Festival and the Orange Community Players $5,000 for the Mary Poppins production. Hupp seconded. Vote: 6-1 (nay, Member Mark Bateman) The board decided to discuss contract renewals before deciding what to do with the remaining $7,000 in the grant budget. B. FY20 contract renewal partner updates and funding awards Campbell said the Tourism Board had several questions for the Orange County Historical Museum about a possible merger and wanted more information about how the extra $10,000 given by this board this fiscal year was spent. Ernest Dollar introduced himself. Dollar is a former director of the Orange County Historical Museum and is the current chair of the museum’s board. He noted there were two other board members in the audience. Dollar said this museum was started in 1952. He asked the board to consider what would happen if the museum closed. He said the museum’s board is trying to make plans that will turn around the museum. He noted that a two-day event in February called “Dead of Winter” was well received and generated a net profit of $2,000. He noted that the February event also attracted people from 14 ZIP codes outside of Orange County. He shared some recent print articles about the museum and shared information about those who search for the museum on the web. Dollar said that the museum used the $10,000 to pay a development assistant, to organize the museum’s financial giving, and to generate more giving. Dollar said donations from individuals and businesses increased because of the development assistants’ efforts. Dollar said the Orange County Historical Museum is now ready to capitalize on grants. He added that the board would like to be able to charge admission to the museum. Dollar said the focus of the museum board is to: • Integrate the arts into historic programming. • Move to a new building. • Merge with Orange County or the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. Dollar said the museum has raised more than $700 online for the “Let’s Play!” exhibit of children’s toys and games. He noted that he would be leading a historic bike tour of Hillsborough this Saturday to raise money for the museum. He said the board and staff were thinking of hosting a multi-day genealogical conference in Hillsborough. He noted that many settlers traveled through Hillsborough before moving west and that he had held a conference in Hillsborough about 15 years ago which was successful. The board then discussed whether it was OK for the museum to start charging for admission. It was determined Page 3 of 5 that by removing the word “free” from the contracts, each contract partner could decide whether to charge admission. It was noted that this would likely not apply to the Hillsborough Arts Council and that the Burwell School Historic Site has additional regulations because it is run by a state-appointed commission. Motion: Maupin moved to remove from the contracts the stipulation that admission be “free.” Commissioner Matt Hughes said that he felt strongly that these sites should be free because they receive tax dollars. Tesoro thinks an admissions fee for a special exhibit might be appropriate. Second: Member Jeff Strickler seconded. Vote: 4-2 (nays, Tesoro and Hughes) The board then discussed the contract requests for the Burwell School Historic Site, Hillsborough Arts Council and Orange County Historical Museum. The board had included in its draft budget a total of $65,000 for these three contract partners. The requests from these three partners added up to almost $105,000. It was noted that last year these contract partners asked for significant increases to their funding and that the Tourism Board had asked them not to ask for a significant increase in funding again this year. It was noted that the Burwell School Historic Site and Orange County Historical Museum had prioritized their requested budget lines. Bateman said the Tourism Board had told the Hillsborough Arts Council last year that it was paying too much for bands at Last Fridays. He said the Council was continuing to pay too much for the bands. He noted that the businesses on Churton Street do not think the bigger, louder bands are bringing customers to the restaurants and shops downtown. Tesoro said there has been clear discussion at merchant meetings that visitors would trickle away from the courthouse lawn and walk around stores when the Last Fridays bands were smaller. With the larger bands, people camp out on the lawn and do not shop. Campbell said there are two schools of thought: The Arts Council says bigger bands bring more people into town, and the merchants say the bigger bands might bring more people but do not necessarily bring more business to town. It was noted that the Hillsborough Arts Council is spending roughly $1,600 for each month’s band when adequate music could be provided for around $800. Maupin excused himself to leave the meeting early at 7:31 p.m. McKee suggested cutting the amount for bands in April, May and June 2020. Bateman suggested cutting the band budget line by $2,400, which would cut the amount by $800 for those three months. Motion: Bateman moved to cut $2,400 from the Hillsborough Arts Council band line item because the board would like the council to focus on smaller, more local bands. This would set the contracted amount to $18,518 for FY20. Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous Regarding the Orange County Historical Museum, it was noted that the museum board was asking for a $14,000 increase over last year’s budget. It was noted that most of the increase was due to restructuring of positions. Tesoro wondered what would happen with money given by the Tourism Board if the museum merged with another organization. Hughes said a merger would have to be timed to start on July 1. Page 4 of 5 There was discussion about removing the passport program from the budget of the Burwell School Historic Site because this project should be a special project and a joint effort among the contract partners. It was discussed that this might be a better grant or special project/partnership project. There was also interest in removing the budget line for QR codes. Motion: Tesoro moved to approve the top-ranked priorities of the Burwell School Historic Site. Strickler said that would still be $9,500 over the budgeted amount. More discussion followed. It was noted that the Tourism Board has a fund balance of $334,028. Hughes said he was comfortable with using money from the fund balance to help the organizational health of these contract partners. McKee pointed out that one-third of the fund balance would cover all the requests of these three contract partners. Tesoro pointed out that the amount repaid by the Visitors Center could be used. Motion: McKee moved that funds left in the Arts Council line item move to the special projects and partnerships line item. Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous The board then discussed what to do with $7,000 left in the grants budget. Bateman suggested that the money be used to fully fund the contract organizations’ executive director line items and let the organizations figure out the rest. There was discussion of encouraging the contract partners to come up with fundraising opportunities over the year and of the Tourism Board then deciding whether to fund them. There was discussion of whether to earmark money within the special projects and partnerships budget for these contract partners. McKee suggested that the Tourism Board fund the contract partners at the level the board has budgeted plus use the $7,000 left over from the grants budget line. It was suggested that the Tourism Board fund the Burwell School Historic Site at $26,000, using the leftover grant money and fund the museum at $26,100. Motion: Strickler moved to fund the Burwell School Historic Site at $26,000 and the Orange County Historical Museum at $26,100. Bateman seconded. Vote: 5-0 (Hughes abstained) McKee asked if the Tourism Board wished to transfer money from the fund balance to the special projects and partnerships budget line. Tesoro advocated for waiting until there is a need to do so. McKee asked about the funding of the additional kiosk signs. Motion: Tesoro moved to fund the kiosks at $25,000 from the fund balance. Campbell said she had already moved $20,000 from fund balance to the Visitors Center budget for the kiosk signs. McKee advocated for moving money from the fund balance to special projects one time during the year instead of as needed. Campbell said she would update the draft budget and calculate how much would be needed in the fund balance to cover a quarter of all contracts, staff positions for a quarter, and all of the grants for a year. Campbell explained Page 5 of 5 that she does not advise moving a large amount of money from the fund balance to the special projects and partnerships line because the Tourism Board does not want to overbudget for the year. She also explained that the $20,000 for the kiosk signs was this board’s own ‘special project’. C. Review draft FY20 Tourism Board budget and approve public hearing at 6:15 p.m. June 3 Campbell said she will prepare a revised draft budget based on decisions made this evening and send it to the board via email. She asked for a motion to approve the public hearing date. Motion: Hughes moved to approve the public hearing for 6:15 p.m. June 3. Bateman seconded. Vote: Unanimous 5. Discussion items A. Special projects/partnership funding: Nash Dash 2019 updated budget with income Campbell reported that the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners voted not to approve the road closure for the Nash Dash event because of safety reasons. The $2,000 set aside for this event in the special projects fund will go back into the fund balance. Board members said they wanted the money to be rolled into the special projects fund for FY20. Motion: McKee moved that any special projects funding remaining at the end of FY19 go into the special projects fund for FY20. Hughes seconded. Vote: Unanimous 6. Monthly reports and comments A. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Director and Programs Report (March) B. Visitors Center Communications Report (March) C. Tourism Board Staff Report (March) and Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Updates No oral reports were given for 6A, B, C. D. Tourism Board Member Comments and Updates Campbell reminded the board that a quorum is needed for the public hearing. Campbell said contract partners will have an opportunity to speak at the next meeting. The board then discussed the possibility of a partnership for a walking tour app. Campbell said that Carrboro had proposed the partnership and that the proposed financial split was $6,000 each from Carrboro and Hillsborough and a combined $10,000 from Chapel Hill and Orange County. Board members expressed interest in learning more about the app and whether it could interact with the town’s website. They also said the split would be more equitable if each of the three towns paid $4,000 and the county/Chapel Hill paid $10,000. 7. Adjournment Motion: McKee adjourned the meeting at 8:47 p.m. Vote: Unanimous