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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-07-24 - Minutes - Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes July 24, 2023 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Staff: Todd Martin, Chair Tourism & Hospitality Representative Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large Mike Wiederkehr, City Council Representative Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representative *Virtual attendance Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Katherine Kinney, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Molly Rawn, CEO; Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance; Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications I. Commissioner Martin called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm, welcoming Mike Weiderkehr as a commission member and declared a quorum. II. Old Business A. Chair Martin presented the May minutes and hearing no additions or corrections, they stand approved. He then asked if there are any additions or corrections to the June minutes and hearing none, they were also approved. III. New Business A. CEO Report. Rawn began by stating she expects Forvis will be here in August to present the 2022 audit. We received Master Tourism Plan Proposals and Chair Martin has agreed to assist with reviewing the proposals. We plan to come to the August meeting with a selection. She then gave a personnel update, stating that Mike Krasowski joined the Town Center as a part time facilities technician, this position has been vacant since the onset of the pandemic and we are glad to have him on board. Rawn also gave a Downtown Initiative update, stating that the city of Fayetteville staff has brought forward a proposal to enter into a contract with Experience Fayetteville to support the work of the Fayetteville Downtown Coalition. The City Council will vote on the item at the August 1st council meeting. She then spoke about some of the events held in the last month including the Arkansas Professional Firefighters Association with an estimated direct economic impact of $183,000 and she shared information on NWA Pride Weekend which had an 84% city wide hotel occupancy rate with overall participation for the weekend, reported by NWA Equality, at 35,000 people. She reported that several team members staffed our Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington D.C. in early July and it was a great success. The next Bicycle Friendly Business Bootcamp, which is primarily geared towards HMR partners, but open to all Fayetteville businesses is coming up Wednesday September 13. Rawn then shared information about the Visitors Center, including a list of countries represented by our visitors. She also stated that we partnered with both NWA Equality and Gulley Park Concert Series to sell merchandise to benefit their respective organizations in June and July. She also included a partial event listing which she will start doing each month. Finally, Rawn noted that she’s including a current list of new business license granted with NAICS codes which appear to be food related. Rawn ended her report stating that June HMR collections were up more than 7% from last June and year to date, HMR collections are up 12%. B. Financial Report. Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance Walker stated that June financials are in the commission agenda packets and at the end of June, our target for both revenue and expenses is 50% and we are just 1% below for revenue and 8% under budget for expenses. HMR tax collections are at $2,465,119 YTD, which is less than 1% below seasonally adjusted budget expectations. Our net operating income is $502,321 year to date. On the balance sheet, cash and investments are approximately $4.9 million at the end of June and unearned revenue for 2023 events at the town center is $197,000. Commissioner Kinney asked if the unearned revenue was contracted events and Walker stated yes. C. Marketing Report. Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications King opened by stating that she is very pleased with Melissa Freeman’s work on our web calendar, it continues to grow and be a useful tool. She also highlighted a recent guide to Lake Fayetteville Food Trucks that Jerrika Longueville created. King also stated that Ashley Cane is updating several maps and publications we use on a daily basis. She showed a picture of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and shared that it was truly the largest festival she had seen and been involved in. We gave away 5,000 fans with an image of Fayetteville co-branded with Smithsonian and Arkansas Tourism and met many Arkansans and members of our congressional staff. Urban cycling routes have been uploaded to our website and are all on off-street paved trails and great for families; King thanked Brannon Pack for this work. She ended by showing photos of Dog Daze First Thursday. Mike Sells shared some social media campaigns starting with the town center and then shared some of the marketing projects we have done throughout the first half of the year. He then shared Web traffic trends for January through June of this year. Overall users and sessions are up 44% compared to same time last year. The third highest GEO locations are those who have their locations “not set” and that is a growing trend. The top two are NWA and DFW. We’re also seeing traffic grow in some of our secondary markets. We continue to see growth on our calendar page. CEO Rawn asked if we could track our Experience Fayetteville ad on the Razorback Athletics page and report back at the next meeting. D. Vote. Budget Revision The next item will be the budget revision and Chair Martin stated he will be entertaining a motion to adopt the revision. Rawn stated that the initial budget showed a surplus of $200,000 and the new revision includes a net operating revenue of $361,208. A remodel budget is included in this at a cost of approximately $533,000 and we are working with Flintlock Lab for these expenses. Rawn pointed out a few significant revisions with one being Employee Benefits reduced by 77% due to us not being able to start a new retirement plan with a higher match this calendar year. There is a reduction in Tourism and Client due to a Master Tourism Plan not starting until possibly Q4 so we don’t anticipate spending the entire project dollars this fiscal year. The Community Campaign is going very successfully and she would like to increase that by $20,000 to best meet the needs. We are removing the recommended $100,000 contribution to capital expenses as we would be utilizing that for the renovation. Rawn stated that the revision included removing the $200,000 contribution to TheatreSquared per the commissioners’ request. The request for overspending in FFE Improvements is due to capital expenses with the renovation and we are requesting to take it out of unreserved fund balance. Chair Martin would like to entertain a motion to accept the 2023 revised operating budget as presented. Commissioner Kinney asked if we had established a time to review the TheatreSquared request and Rawn recounted the process stating that TheatreSquared declined to appoint someone from the A&P to their board. Chair Martin has asked for a financial review for TheatreSquared. He understands it has been given to the city council but has yet to see a financial review presented to A&P. Commissioner Kinney stated that she thinks it is a reasonable request to have a seat on TheatreSquared board but struggles with not keeping the pledge that a previous commission made. Bunch also agrees that we as a commission made a pledge and also agrees that us making a request to have a seat on the table seems reasonable. Chair Martin stated that he understands we can always consider this $200,000 request at a different time. Commissioner Sanderson asked to table the conversation on TheaterSquared with other commissioners concurring with this decision. Chair Martin also asked Commissioner Moya as he had been involved in attending the TheatreSquared meeting with Rawn. A motion to table a discussion on TheatreSquared was made by Commissioner Sanderson and seconded by Commissioner Bunch and it passed by a roll call vote. Chair Martin stated that what he would like to do is direct the CEO to begin to have financial discussions with TheatreSquared within 60 days with either their interim or new leadership. CEO Rawn asked what specifically they needed to provide, and Chair Martin said a budget review and program review, i.e. a full financial picture without just looking at the capital expenditures. Chair Martin asked if we could have a presentation not unlike the one T2 gave the city council. Commissioner Wiederkehr asked if the issue was a concern about not having a board seat, then a financial presentation may not assist with that concern. Through discussion it was clarified that a majority of the commissioners were solely interested in reviewing financial information related to capital rather than programmatic or other funding. Commissioner Sanderson made a motion to approve the revised budget as is while tabling the discussion on TheatreSquared to be resolved by the end of 2023 and this was seconded by Commissioner Kinney. It was approved by all with a roll call vote. Rawn stated she would work with TheatreSquared to add this item to the August or September agenda. E. Announcements Commissioner Moya gave a brief update on the meeting he and CEO Rawn held with city staff Jonathon Curt to discuss wayfinding signage. He stated that the city team is looking for a pathway to explore monument signage. Reviewing the state highway signage was also discussed as it is a possible option. With no other business or announcements, a motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Commissioner Kinney and seconded by Commissioner Moya and the meeting was adjourned at 3:20 pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville