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Home My Public Portal About03-02-2020 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting Hillsborough Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 919-296-9477 | shannan.campbell@hillsboroughnc.gov www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov www.visithillsboroughnc.com | @HillsboroughNC Tourism Board Minutes | 1 of 3 Minutes Hillsborough Tourism Board 5:30 p.m. March 2, 2020 Town Hall Annex Board Meeting Room, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Mark Bateman, Barney Caton, Barry Hupp, Billy Maupin, Chair Matt Hughes, Vice Chair Kim Tesoro (arrived at 5:53pm) Absent: Tommy Stann Staff: Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell Guests: Sherry Appel, Sarah Parris, Cathleen Turner 1. Call to order Chair Matt Hughes called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. Economic Development Planner Shannan Campbell confirmed the presence of a quorum. 2. Agenda changes and approval Shannan Campbell requested that the board consider an item not on the agenda, as item 4C to consider allocating some funds for a special project/partnership project with the Town. Motion: Member Billy Maupin moved to approve the agenda as amended. Member Mark Bateman seconded. Vote: Unanimous 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on February 3, 2020 Motion: Maupin moved approval of the minutes as presented. Caton seconded. Vote: Unanimous 4. Presentation/Action Items A. OCHM Contract Services and Budget Update Sherry Appel presented to the board how the museum proposed to move forward with their reopening plans after being closed since mid-November. She explained that all the clean up work was done at the museum and the museum board planned to re-open two days a week starting mid-March. She said they don’t have a formal reopening date yet, as the museum had to lay off it’s staff in December so they would be opening at first with just volunteers and board members working. She shared their strategic plan which included refreshing current exhibits and starting to plan for future ones. She explained that there was a salary lapse for Q3 in the amount of $6,525.00 that would be used in Q4 to hire staff and refresh exhibits. Member Kim Tesoro observed that doing this would inflate staffing costs to $13,000 per quarter. She expressed concern that this board would not be able to fund museum salaries at that rate per quarter in FY21 and asked if these staff persons would see reduced hours or lay-offs starting in July? Tourism Board Minutes | 2 of 3 Appel explained that the board was working on strategies to figure out how fund these positions using a combination of other funds and resources as well. She said that it will take some fundraising to do the full staffing they want. Tourism Board members discussed how they’ve handled lapse contract funds in other circumstances such as when the Burwell School was closed for 5-6 weeks and the time that Hillsborough Hog Day was cancelled and whether or not it would be more appropriate to allow the museum to roll Q3 funds into Q4 to bolster museum reopening or if the Tourism Board should request the funds back since the museum was closed for Q3. Board members weighed the pros and cons and discussed how much of the contract the museum had fulfilled since it wasn’t open as a tourism attraction. Motion: Member Barry Hupp motioned to allow the Orange County Museum to roll Q3 funds to be spent in Q4 to hire staff and reopen the museum, indicating that this board would like to see how any Q3 or Q4 funds were spent in the FY20 Q4 report and that any unused funds would need to be reported and possibly returned to this board. Second: Member Tesoro seconded. Vote: Unanimous. Member Hughes abstained from the vote due to any possible perceived conflict of interest. B. Alliance Visitor’s Center Mid-Year Budget Adjustments Sarah Parris highlighted the necessary budget adjustments, which included moving funds around to different line items. Motion: Member Maupin moved to approve the adjustments. Member Caton seconded. Vote: Unanimous. C. Holiday Wreaths in W. Hillsborough- Special Projects & Partnerships Campbell explained that there has been some interest in getting holiday wreaths that match the ones in Downtown over in West Hillsborough, since there is a freestanding business district there. She that the poles in West Hillsborough along the western side of Nash Street, in front of the businesses are not tall enough and do not have enough clearance to support the wreaths, however she met with a representative from Duke Electric and there are poles on the east side of Nash Street that can support the wreaths. She explained that there is some expense in purchasing the wreaths as well as having a qualified Duke contractor run the electricity down the pole and install the outlet for the wreath. She indicated that a request would be put forward to the Town to absorb any electricity costs while they’re operating. She showed a map of the pole locations and indicated that an initial estimate for the project would be $6,500. Member Tesoro said the poles that could support the wreaths weren’t in a very standard pattern. Member Hupp said that the wreaths were fine, but could West Hillsborough do something different instead of the wreaths? The Board expressed interest in trying to find an alternative and not moving forward with the wreath proposal. They’d like to see something more coherent that ties the business district together more. They advised staff to work on the idea further and come up with some alternatives. 5. Discussion Items A. Annual Tourism Program Report & Tourism Data Report Campbell asked the Board for any feedback before the report was finalized and mailed out to businesses and community stakeholders. Board members pointed out various formatting issues that they noticed as well as things they liked and didn’t like in the presentation of the report. Staff indicated that changes would be made accordingly before printing. 6. Monthly reports and comments A. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Director and Alliance Programs reports; Visitors Center Communications Report; Tourism Staff Report and Orange County Visitors Bureau Updates Tourism Board Minutes | 3 of 3 Parris said she and Shannan Campbell were in the process of interviewing for a new communications person at the Visitors Center. She indicated that herself, Campbell, and Program Coordinator Annie were working together to keep social media, calendars, the website, etc. updated in the interim. She updated that the Preservation Fund was working with the Alliance to add more African American history to guided walking tours so that more of that rich history would be represented. B. Tourism Board and staff comments and updates Member Tesoro indicated that it would be likely that the Chamber of Commerce would need financial support again this year (in FY21) from the Tourism Board in order to do the Hillsborough Holiday Parade and some funding to support marketing in general of the Hometown Holiday Festival/Candlelight Tour would also be helpful. She explained that these events bring many tourists into Town and that it has grown to be more of a tourism draw than a benefit to the local business community, which is why the Chamber originally ran it. She indicated that she would like to see this become a contracted event that Chamber runs for the Tourism Program. The Board directed staff and Member Tesoro to work on a scope of work and budget for the potential contract for FY21. Campbell said that update highlights included that everyone was registered for the VISITNC conference and all reservations were made, the VisitHillsboroughNC.com website was updated with guidance from graduate student Kasha Ely to pivot from ‘itineraries’ to ‘self-guided walking tours’ since there was more demand there. Additionally, the option for audio was added for the tours. Food and Beverage tax revenues were up 10% or about $10K for FY20. 7. Adjournment Motion: Hughes adjourned the meeting at 8:23 p.m. Vote: Unanimous