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Home My Public Portal About04-17-2023 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting101 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. April 17, 2023 Board Meeting Room of Town Hall Annex, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Chair Matt Hughes and members Rainbow Cabbage, Barney Caton, Scott Czechlewski, Barry Hupp, Megan Kimball and Eryk Pruitt Absent: Victoria Pace and Smita Patel Staff: Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell 1.Call to order Chair Matt Hughes called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. with six members present. 2.Agenda changes and approval Hughes noted the board would need to discuss a change to the meeting schedule for May and June and added this as an agenda item. Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell requested that the Orange County Historical Museum be discussed before the Hillsborough Arts Council under Item 4. Motion: Member Barney Caton moved to approve the agenda as presented. Member Megan Kimball seconded. Vote: 6-0. New and current board members briefly introduced themselves. Member Barry Hupp joined the meeting at 5:33 p.m. 3.Minutes review and approval Feb. 6, 2023 Motion: Hupp moved to approve the February minutes. Caton seconded. Vote: 7-0. 4.Discussion and action items A.Contract partner presentations and requests for FY24 Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce Hughes noted the request from the chamber was to become a contract partner to fund the holiday parade and tree lighting ceremony. Tourism Board Minutes | 2 of 4 Hughes noted no decisions would be made at this meeting and reminded board members to step back from the discussion if they have a conflict of interest. He said he would be doing so for the museum and the Burwell School. Emilee Collins, vice president of the chamber, requested $10,000 for the holiday parade and tree lighting ceremony and explained where some of the expenses come in. Campbell said usually the chamber has funded the parade or, in recent years, has requested funding from the Tourism Board as a special project and partnership project. Because the chamber anticipates asking for this money every year, it would need to be moved to a contract partner relationship. A board member expressed concern about The Sunrock Group being a sponsor of the parade, explaining there were some environmental justice concerns regarding that company. A board member asked if there was any interest in changing from a vehicle-led parade to a pedestrian and bike parade. Another board member pointed out that Sunrock provides the lighting for the parade as a donation and it would be a big change to not include vehicles in the parade. There was brief discussion that safety precautions must be taken when vehicles are involved in a parade. And it was noted that there was interest in involving West Hillsborough in the parade, and the challenge is keeping the parade route at a reasonable length. Hillsborough Arts Council Don Norman, the council’s treasurer, addressed the board. Chelsea Meier, a board member of the council, explained that the council is requesting $5,000 more for running the gallery and gift shop. It was noted that the request for funding for the Solstice Lantern Walk is separate and is being funded as a grant request for next year. A Tourism Board member requested that applications include an attestation that employees are being paid a living wage. Campbell said she thought the gift shop was self-sustaining, if not profitable. Norman and Maier said the additional request is to help pay for a full-time manager instead of part-time manager. The gift shop manager is also the volunteer manager and helps coordinate volunteers for various events and programming. A volunteer manager of the gallery and gift shop said the shop serves as a big hub for fielding questions from tourists and visitors. Campbell said all contract partners have to give out tourism information and maps as part of the contract. So, the board needs to hear what makes this a unique position or ask. The board needs more information on the volunteer coordination part of it. Orange County Historical Museum Hughes noted that he is on the board of the museum, so he would not ask questions or participate in this item. Tourism Board Minutes | 3 of 4 Catie Atkinson, the museum’s site manager, addressed the board. The museum is asking for an additional $25,000 to hire a part-time development coordinator. Atkinson read the justifications for the position, which includes increasing salaries for staff. There was encouragement from a board member to increase pay rates to a living wage if possible, which is $16.60 per hour. There was also a recommendation for the museum’s board to consider adding a cell phone stipend and see what that would cost. Alliance for Historic Hillsborough Amanda Boyd, executive director of the alliance, addressed the board. She noted they would be giving back a little over $5,000 in unspent salary funds due to a gap in personnel for part of the FY23 fiscal year. There was more discussion about living wage and the important of offering benefits for full-time staffers. Boyd explained some of the alliance’s additional ask was to cover maintenance and rising costs of contracting with a certified public accountant. Campbell noted that the alliance had not asked for an increase in recent years. Burwell School Historic Site Sharon Ringwalt addressed the board. Ringwalt is chair of the Historic Hillsborough Commission, which operates the historic site. She reported that pay for docents had increased from $10 or $15 (depending on the position) to $16.60. She said the site manager position could not be successfully done in 20 hours a week, and it has been hard to keep someone in that position. She also noted they no longer charge a fee for school tours. She said paid holidays and benefits would promote stability which would benefit the Burwell School. She said that the Burwell School needs the additional funds to create staff capacity at the site and do more events and programs. 5. Draft working budget for Fiscal Year 2024 Campbell told the Tourism Board that she will provide for the next meeting a one-sheet document of each organization’s financial request, what the organization is currently receiving, and what the organization asked for last year. She explained that the June meeting will include a budget public hearing, and the board will make final budget decisions in May. Campbell noted that if all the requests were fully funded and $20,000 was included in the budget for grants, the board would need almost $187,000 from fund balance, which is healthy. Hughes noted that he has been encouraging the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners to draw less of Campbell’s salary from the Tourism Board because her duties have changed and a smaller portion of her time is spent staffing the Tourism Board these days. Campbell indicated that she had been looking at a salary split that allowed more money to go to tourism vs. administration. She said she would have an updated contract for both Tourism Board and TDA. 6. Updated board Rules of Procedure Campbell briefly explained that the town board had encouraged staff to make the rules of procedure the same or nearly the same across all appointed boards. She noted a few changes to the Tourism Board’s rules of Tourism Board Minutes | 4 of 4 procedures. There had been a term limit for the commissioner serving on the board, but the town board can appoint the same commissioner indefinitely, so the term limit was removed from that seat. Motion: Kimball moved to approve the updated rules of procedure. Pruitt seconded. Vote: 7-0. 7. Comprehensive Sustainability Plan: economic development and tourism chapter Campbell noted the public hearing on the draft plan would be held later this week. She explained that an earlier version of this board had reviewed the draft chapter on economic development and tourism. She said that the tourism goals from the Strategic Tourism Plan were being incorporated. She asked for any additional comments or feedback to be included. There were None. 8. May and June Meeting Dates Update Hughes explained that there were a lot of board member conflicts, himself included, for both May and June and that these meetings would both likely need to be rescheduled. Motion: Hupp moved to reschedule the May meeting to 5:30 p.m. May 15. Pruitt seconded. Vote: 7-0. The chair noted the June meeting may need to take place June 12. Staff was asked to find a public hearing date that would work for a majority of members. 5. Monthly reports and comments A. Tourism staff report and Visitors Center and Orange County Visitors Bureau updates It was noted the River Park Concert would be taking place soon, the Tourism Development Authority had funded a public mural on the back of the building that houses The Wooden Nickel Pub, and the Uproar sculpture display event would be taking place this summer. B. Board comments and updates There was a brief report about the Visit NC 365 Conference that had taken place in Asheville. Caton said he and Hupp had attended a session on the benefit of tourist attractions and towns or cities earning disability enablement certification. He suggested that the Burwell School Historic Site and the Orange County Historical Museum should look into earning autism destination certification. The board welcomed new members. C. Adjournment Motion: Hughes adjourned the meeting at 7:49 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Shannan Campbell Economic Development Planner Staff support to the Hillsborough Tourism Board Approved: August 7, 2023