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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-08-28 - Minutes - Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes August 28th, 2023 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Staff: Todd Martin, Chair Tourism & Hospitality Representative Mike Wiederkehr, City Council Representative Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Katherine Kinney, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large Elvis Moya, 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 and declared a quorum. II. Old Business A. Chair Martin presented the July minutes and hearing no additions or corrections, they stand approved. III. New Business A. CEO Report. We received four proposals for tourism master planning work and Rawn stated that members of her team as well as Chair Martin were reviewing the proposals and planned to have a decision by September 1st and hopefully a contract at the September commission meeting. We expect to have a contract for our Agency of Record at the October meeting. Congratulations to Kelly and DFC on the funding proposal that was approved by the city. We will receive $60,000 this year with the potential to receive more in coming years. Julie Pennington received the Presidents Award from South Central Motorcoach Association, Alabama Motorcoach Association and Georgia Motorcoach Association. She also just returned from an e-sports summit, a rapidly growing field, in an effort to recruit teams and events to Fayetteville. The sales team also supported the Arkansas Government Finance Officers Association for their annual conference. It was their first time in Fayetteville and it had a direct economic impact of over $203,287. The Visitors Center welcomed 1461 visitors in July with visitors from Poland, Canada, Ireland, Singapore, Japan, England and a host of other countries. She shared that the Black Owned business Expo, which was held last weekend, continues to grow after relocating to the town center; it was very successful. The town center only has 10 days left of booking in September and October and Rawn also offered congratulations to Tyler and the FTC team for landing a long- term contract with Legacy Church. The Downtown Fayetteville Coalition has selected Public Sphere Project to help with their strategic plan and governance work this fall. Also, Save the Date for first Falltoberfest on Sunday October 1st on Dickson Street - and thanks for latest sponsor to it, South by Northwest Hospitality, thank you Chair Martin. We host our 5th Bicycle Friendly Bootcamp on September 13th and it’s our goal to double the number of restaurants that are bicycle friendly. The Arkansas Graveler, was announced last week and will be a 3 day gravel ride featuring 400 taking off from Fayetteville and ending in Jonesboro. Rawn then shared some background information about the financial pledge to TheatreSquared: In October 2022 the preliminary budget contained $200,000 for TheatreSquared and it was also presented in the November 2022 meeting at which time the A & P Commission voted to remove the $200,000. In the July 2023 budget revision, the $200,000 was also not present in the budget. Rawn stated that she has had good conversations with Todd Simmons, TheatreSquared’s board president, and also Shannon Jones who will serve as the new Executive Director and is also present at this meeting. She hoped that with continued transparency with TheatreSquared, the $200,000 for 2024 would be included in the 2024 budget. Rawn stated that she did not intend to recommend that the commission make the funding distribution for 2023. Commissioner Kinney asked for clarification and that she would like to request 2023 funding and that she would like to work with Chair Martin to determine how to fund that as Rawn stated it would need to come from the reserve fund. Chair Martin has stated that he would like transparency and accountability with TheatreSquared and he is hoping with new leadership that transparency and accountability will increase and that the A & P needs to be a good steward of public funds. He met with Todd Simmons last week and he stated that he gave a letter to Simmons outlining his concerns and that he could certainly make that available to our commission. Commissioner Sanderson stated that she would like to see the letter. Commissioner Bunch also stated that she would like to see it. Chair said he would be happy to share that information with the commissioners. It was decided the topic would be revisited next month. B. Financial Report. Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance VP Walker stated that the financial report is in the packet with a P&L through July and a Balance Sheet. The target revenue and expense percentage is 58% and our revenue is at 57% with expenditures at 53%. HMR tax collections are on target with a 0% variance with the seasonally adjusted budget. Walker pointed out that our expenditures are 5% below budget and our numbers continue to trend positively. Our operating net income is $428,477 year to date. Walker also stated that unearned revenue bookmarked for 2023 events at the town center is approximately $190,000. The Chair turned it over to Cynthia Burnes, CPA with Forvis to present the 2022 audit. C. Audit Presentation, Cynthia Burns, CPA, Forvis Ms Burns began by reviewing the management letter which outlined what both parties are responsible for and that it’s audited under government auditing standards and that the A&P Commission is under the regulatory basis of accounting which is approved under Arkansas law. A key thing she wants to bring to everyone’s attention is that there were no adjustments required by the audit and this is excellent news and is not always the case. The financial team and staff did a great job preparing information for the audit. In the audit itself, you will see that our numbers are getting back to normal and that the financial statements are materially correct on the regulatory basis of accounting. With the leases standard being implemented this year, you’ll see some additional footnotes pertaining to that matter, but nothing of concern. You will see you received unmodified opinions, which are the best opinions you can receive. There was also nothing in the controls as they were doing their testing to show a significant deficiency or material weakness. She commended the team on a great audit. D. Marketing Report. Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications VP King shared the tag along series from visitors and community members in their own voices – this resource is on our website for visitors and community members alike to share. She also shared updated trails guides and stated we would have those soon. She shared an updated Ale Trail passport which goes along with the 10th anniversary of the Ale Trail. Mike Sells reviewed some recent ads with the commission – gravel ride, Ride Texas magazine, Arkansas Travel Guide. He then went over website top referral sources, with arkansasrazorbacks.com being the top source. Overall traffic for the website – sessions and page views are both high, with pages per session showing increased engagement. He stated that our traffic comes from these top sources: organic is the top source with paid search and display advertising being the top 2 and 3. Social Media is up 54% when comparing July 2023 to July 2022. Email is up 693% compared to July 2022. In comparing 2019 YTD to 2023 YTD (precovid): Overall website sessions are up 55% and average duration is up 32%. Arkansasrazorbacks.com represents almost half of the referral traffic. Sells also talked about our emerging metros and spoke about our Arrivalist platform which is now starting to track our data as of 2.5 business days ago. This will allow us to show our emerging metro markets due to actual visitation rather than website visitors. D. Vote. Experience Fayetteville Office and Bathroom Renovation . Chair Martin asked Rawn to speak about this updated proposal. Rawn stated that that this proposal is to cover the estimated architect fees which will be 7.5% fixed fee of project cost with an estimated construction cost of $435,000. The expected budgetary impact of this scope of work is a minimum of $32,443. Commissioner Sanderson made a motion which Commissioner Kinney seconded to authorize the CEO to sign the attached agreement which represents 7.5% of overall project. It passed unanimously. E. Announcements With no other agenda items to address, Chair Martin brought up the 2024 Eclipse where significant portions of Arkansas (not NWA) will be in the path of totality. He asked how Experience Fayetteville is planning for this event. Rawn stated that the last Hospitality in a Heartbeat covered this topic, with Kim Williams from the state serving as the speaker. We will order branded Eclipse glasses. It was pointed out that much of the lodging in the path of totality has already been reserved and that many of the lodging options have 4 night minimums which will mean that travelers will have time to travel and very well may visit Fayetteville. Rawn said we will see how we can best support our hospitality partners during this time. With no other business or announcements, Chair Martin asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Kinney made a motion, which Commissioner Sanderson seconding, to adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 2:58 pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville