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HomeMy Public PortalAbout05-02-2022 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov www.visithillsboroughnc.com | @HillsboroughNC Tourism Board Minutes | 1 of 4 Minutes Hillsborough Tourism Board Regular meeting 5:30 p.m. May 2, 2022 Town Annex Board Meeting Room, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Chair Matt Hughes, Vice Chair Kim Tesoro, and members Mark Bateman, Barney Caton, Barry Hupp, Victoria Pace, Tommy Stann and Cathleen Turner Staff: Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell 1. Call to order Vice Chair Kim Tesoro called the meeting to order at 5:39 p.m. with six members present. 2. Agenda changes and approval Motion: Member Tommy Stann moved to approve the agenda as presented. Member Mark Bateman seconded. Vote: 7-0. Ayes: Members Bateman, Caton, Barry Hupp, Victoria Pace, Stann, Kim Tesoro and Cathleen Turner 3. Minutes review and approval April 3, 2022 The minutes were not prepared in time for this meeting. Minutes will be seen at May 2022 meeting. 4. Discussion/action items A. Contract partner quarterly updates 1. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Cathleen Turner, vice chair of the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Board, summarized the alliance activities that took place in the third quarter of the fiscal year. The presentation and report were included in the agenda packet. 2. Burwell School Historic Site Amanda Boyd, site coordinator for the historic site, summarized the activities that took place in the third quarter of the fiscal year. The presentation and report were included in the agenda packet. She noted the first two books in the comic book series will be released in August. 3. Hillsborough Arts Council This discussion took place after the Orange County Historical Museum discussion. Mollie Thomas, executive director of the Hillsborough Arts Council, did not give a formal presentation due to coming right off of Handmade parade weekend. She said third quarter is a reset quarter to get prepared for Tourism Board Minutes | 2 of 4 the Last Fridays ArtWalk season. The council was also preparing for the Handmade Parade. While there was no presentation in the packet, the written third quarter report was in the packet. Thomas shared highlights. Hughes said Last Fridays feels like it lacks diversity and he thought having a musical performance on the Orange County Historical Courthouse lawn helped draw a diverse crowd depending on the band hired. He asked what was planned to increase diversity. Thomas said HAC is working on forming relationships with diverse communities. She wondered if the lack of diversity in the crowd now is a perception or can be backed by data. She said there is not funding to allocation significant dollars for a central band on the courthouse lawn. She added that the art venues and restaurants told the council that they saw fewer visitors when a band attracted people to the courthouse lawn where patrons just sit and listen to the music and don’t move around town and that many businesses preferred the less centralized model. Hughes said he would like to see something more done because the feedback he has received is that some of the ArtWalk locations haven’t felt very welcoming to all. 4. Orange County Historical Museum Tanya Day, site manager of the museum, summarized activities in the third quarter, which were also available in the agenda packet as a presentation and a written quarterly report. She noted current exhibits. Hughes arrived at 6:04 p.m. B. FY23 grant application update Campbell reported there was one application. It was from the Hillsborough Arts Council to enhance the offerings of the Solstice Lantern Walk. She added that after the application period closed, other groups expressed interest so there may be smaller requests for Special Projects/Partnerships from some of them in fall. Thomas from the Arts Council said the plan is to grow an after-walk event after the Solstice Lantern Walk. The Council tested it this year with a food truck offering and a small musical ensemble. The funding would provide infrastructure and marketing for the expanded components. Motion: Bateman moved to approve the grant expenditure of $7,000 to the Hillsborough Arts Council for expansion of the Solstice Lantern Walk. Caton seconded. Vote: 7-0. Bateman left at 6:35 p.m. C. FY23 contract partners meeting update and FY23 funding request summary Campbell said there was a meeting about changing the structure of the personnel of the contract partners centered around having the Alliance employ everyone for consistency and shared staffing. There was an attempt to do this with service agreements but the Alliance ran into some employment law issues. The conversation now is focused on having a site manager for each location and then employees that would do various marketing, fundraising, and program functions at all three sites: Burwell School, Alexander Dickson House, and OC Museum. Tourism Board Minutes | 3 of 4 Turner said it looks like the thinking is maybe turning back to some original philosophies and relationships to minimize duplication of efforts and reduce territorialism. The alliance provided some staff to these sites when the sites were totally run by volunteers in the early 1990s. Tesoro wanted to know when the partners stopped receiving a percentage of the food and beverage tax funding. Campbell said the previous 60%/40% split was arbitrary and thus removed a few years ago in favor of asking contract partners how much it actually took to provide visitor services and a nice visitor attraction. She explained for example, that it wasn’t taking 60% of the food and beverage tax revenues for the alliance to run the Visitors Center. She said that the alliance was trying to find ways to spend all that money and then even sending some of it back at the end of the year. It’s more appropriate to give funds based on a budget that shows cost of doing business than giving a percentage of revenue to an organization. She said that the trouble is that it is costing more every year to run Burwell and the museum and funding increases were on hold due to COVID. Turner noted that a portion of the food and beverage tax funds were also now supporting the Tourism Board having a full-time shared position. Turner noted the alliance has a marketing position to support the visitors center and it could be dedicated more broadly to assist all the contract partners. There was some interest in this. Day said that there will continue to be turnover with the museum staff if they cannot be better paid. She advocated for allotting more money for employees to build on the momentum that the museum staff has achieved. Boyd said they need more money for utilities and to pay employees. When asked, Campbell said the fund balance was close to $300,000 but that final numbers come with the audit. Board members shared what they were thinking. Turner said it is paramount that the sites be open with staffing and that the utilities can be paid. It would take about $18,000 from fund balance to fund the first and second priorities. Pace was inclined to say yes to all the requests as an up-front investment. Tesoro said she is sympathetic toward the need for staff and working with a small budget, but she was concerned that she did not hear a plan to avoid making a long-term commitment to take funds from fund balance to cover these increases year after year. Caton said revenue projections seem to be rising and the town seems to have done OK in the pandemic. Hughes said, in the past, the partners have balanced their budgets with their endowments and fundraising. No action was taken at this meeting. 5. Monthly reports and comments Tourism Board Minutes | 4 of 4 A. Tourism staff report and Orange County Visitors Bureau updates Campbell noted: • Strike Anywhere performance group has mapped out their locations for May 6 and 7. • The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Center has a new video featuring James Taylor as well as the mayor from each town giving a welcome preview. • The Riverwalk rack card has been reprinted with more distance information. • The downtown map will be reprinted soon. B. Board comments and updates No additional comments were made. 6. Adjournment Motion: Hughes adjourned the meeting at 7:52 p.m. Vote: 6-0. Ayes: Members Hupp, Hughes, Pace, Stann, Tesoro and Turner. Respectfully submitted, Shannan Campbell Economic Development Planner Staff support to the Hillsborough Tourism Board Approved: 6/6/2022