Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCH-OCVB minutes 081711 MINUTES Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Board of Directors Meeting August 17, 2011 The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau met at The Residence Inn, Chapel Hill Board Members Present: Dave Gephart, Karen DeHart, Mike Gering, Jim Ward, Greg Overbeck, Jim Norton, Laura Morgan, Dwight Bassett, Annette Stone, Anthony Carey, and Jim Parker Members Absent: Mark Sherburne, Lydia Lavelle, Lee Pavao, Valerie Foushee and Gordon Jameson Staff Present: Laurie Paolicelli, Linda Ekeland, Martha Shannon and Tina Fuller CALL TO ORDER Chairman Dave Gephart called the meeting to order at 8:07 am. Gephart introduced Andrew Strickland, area sales manager with Residence Inn. Mr. Strickland updated Visitor Bureau board members on the recent renovations at the hotel. Strickland also informed on their occupancy expectations for the upcoming football/fall season stating they receive a mixture of guests from weddings and medical to overflow from Duke’s events. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Chair Gephart requested a motion to approve the minutes. Greg Overbeck so moved with Jim Norton seconding. Further discussion commenced with Laurie Paolicelli stating that the BOCC and Town of Chapel Hill have asked to see the minutes when we send them out to this board. However, Lydia Lavelle expressed that she is not comfortable with that process and would like to see those boards have them on a delayed process. Paolicelli explained that sometimes there are written nuances that we may interpret one way or report one way and others might interpret another and gave an example of how information printed could be interpreted in different ways. Mike Gering asked what the current process was. Paolicelli replied that they are sent by email and also available on-line. Mike suggested posting first in draft form on the website as it is all public information. Mike expressed concern that if anyone would want to see them that they have a right to see them. After some discussion, the board agreed that the minutes should be posted right away in draft form, then once approved, noted as such. With all members in favor, the June minutes were passed as written and from this point forward, minutes will post in draft form first on the website. Once approved, it will be noted as such and minutes will be sent out via email to other boards. REPORTS Marketing Report Anthony Cary informed board members of the upcoming RFP reviews on August 23, 2011 to hear marketing and travel tourism presentations from the top ten agencies in one day. Mr. Carey also stated that the committee would be convening to discuss best ways to finish the calendar year with the current marketing agency and bring travel to Chapel Hill for the slower 4th quarter months. Arts Martha spoke on the upcoming artist’s salon, Friday the 19th of August at The ArtsCenter. Shannon stated the topic would be ‘Becoming a Teaching Artist.’ Shannon stated that attendance runs anywhere from 25-70 people. Discussion on organizing satellite artists under one county umbrella arose concluding that both Martha and Laurie have reached out only to find they work best in isolation or under a loose organization. Paolicelli commented that the Chapel Hill Museum, as an example, might have had a better chance of succeeding had they merged all their historic and preservation entities and emerged as a superpower. Sales Linda Ekeland spoke on Money Magazine’s upcoming financial speaking engagement. Chapel Hill voted as one of the best places to live in 2010. The event “Take Charge Live” will take place on September 14th at 5:30 pm at the Theater at the School of Government on campus. Ekeland and Paolicelli took their representatives on site tours around Chapel Hill, before deciding on the Theater at School of Government. 15 room nights is expected to come from this event Next week Ekeland will be in Chicago attending the Connect Trade Show. 27 associations requested to meet with Linda so far, she is hoping to get a few more. Finalizing details now for the next Road Show, September 28th at MEZ. Ten hotels and meeting venues are participating this year including the Botanical Gardens. Currently working on details for the upcoming AENC Tradeshow in December – new twist this year “ Past, Present and Future” thanking troops for their dedication to our future –will have meeting planners color post cards and write a note, and those will be sent out to the troops. Informed that the VB will keep Nancy’s services through December. Ekeland updated members on Nancy’s progress including her work on a roundtable of meeting planners to discuss their needs and how we can accommodate them. Budget & Finance Mike Gering reported that June’s occupancy ended with 17% above last year and an 11% increase overall. Gering reviewed the current fiscal year approved budget with board members pointing out the line items of 42,000 for the design and printing of a visitor guide and $18,000 for the printing of a map for 2012. Gering introduced the question of whether this expense is worth continuing as is or should it be reduced in size and/or could we gather some data to justify whether it is worth keeping; Gering called on Laurie to elaborate. Paolicelli stated that information resources are trending more toward on-line these days and there is a big debate on whether print is as viable as on-line data and debatable because it is so costly. Paolicelli stated she would like to do a survey with few hundred visitors to see if the visitors guide is being used. Paolicelli would work with Missy Julian-Fox (UNC) and Elizabeth Read (Hillsborough) in a survey. Results would come back to the board next month. Paolicelli pointed out that some options would be to downscale and supplement with other guides such as a foodie guide and a walking history tour guide. Mike continued with the budget, referring to the end of year budget chart. Mike stated that the bureau ended with a surplus of $100,000 plus and opened the floor for discussion on requesting a budget amendment to have the surplus appropriated to our current budget. Paolicelli stated that typically the surplus would revert to the Visitors Bureau fund balance and a budget amendment would be requested as needed. The concern has been the precedence set last year with the fund balance going to Economic Development for the revolving loan fund. Paolicelli suggested this board make a motion requesting a budget amendment to appropriate the surplus and use it for a research study to determine the visitor profile and also research the feasibility of having a performing arts venue in Hillsborough which could coincide with the Hillsborough gap analysis. Jim Parker so moved and Mike Gering seconded. With all members in favor the motion was approved to ask the commissioners for approval to appropriate $60,000 of surplus to the current budget. Gering continued with his report referring members to the Occupancy and ADR comparison charts and commented whether it would be possible to use funds in a more productive way during the off seasons. Laurie Paolicelli agreed to look at potential new markets in ways that would augment the hotels sales departments during the slower months of December and January. Executive Directors Report Paolicelli asked Laura Morgan for news on UNC Athletics. Ms. Morgan stated that they are excited for the football team to get started and reported that people are coming to more games to show their support and fan support overall has increased through ticket sales. However, there is still some concern. As a follow up to that and in response to a possible crisis of losing business due to the recent UNC athletic issues, Paolicelli opened the floor for discussion on whether to keep the current campaign media schedule going or dump it and design a new campaign that talks about the value of staying in town - switch to newspaper ads that have more of a retail call to action. After extensive discussion, the board agreed to have Laurie instruct Jennings to redirect the current media schedule to a creative campaign more retail driven. Paolicelli continued with her report, elaborating on the details of Money Magazines event here in September and how Linda and the Town of Chapel Hill along with Laura Morgan’s help, aggressively went up against 25 other towns to bring this event to Chapel Hill. Continuing her report, Paolicelli informed members that periodically the VB receives suggestions on ways to promote Orange County; recently the County manager suggested agri-tourism. To this effect, Paolicelli showed a PowerPoint on different ways to promote agritourism for Orange County and who would benefit. Concluding her report, Paolicelli spoke on Hillsborough’ and Carrboro’s legislation to collect occupancy tax that could possibly bring a change to the current structure of the Visitors Bureau. Town Updates None Old Business In regard to the Visitor Bureau’s parking issues, Laurie Paolicelli stated she met with Pam Jones and discussed moving towards a permanent parking sticker system. However, for the next step, Pam Jones will speak with the County Manager to have some of the Bentley Building parking spaces painted as Visitor Center parking. New Business Interviews for the vacant EDC director position will be held on August 25th. A total of six candidates will be interviewed; 4 local, 2 out of town. Laurie Paolicelli informed members that she was invited to sit on ¼ cent tax campaign committee and that Joel Sheer & Associates won the contract. And with no other business to discuss, Chair Gephart adjourned the meeting at 9:39 am. __________________________ ___________ ____________________________________ Minutes reviewed by: Minutes accepted by: Laurie Paolicelli, Executive Director Dave Gephart, Chairman ____________________________________ _ ____________________________________ Date Date