HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-02-26 - Minutes -Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission
Minutes February 26, 2024
Fayetteville Town Center
Commissioners
Present:
Commissioners
Absent:
Staff:
Chair Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representative
Mike Wiederkehr, City Council Representative
Katherine Kinney, Tourism & Hospitality Representative
Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative
Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative
Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large (online)
Todd Martin
Molly Rawn, CEO; Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance, Sarah King, VP of
Marketing and Communications
I. Chair Sanderson called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm and declared a quorum.
II. Old Business
A. Chair Sanderson presented the January minutes and hearing no
additions or corrections, she stated that the minutes stood approved as
presented.
B. Roll call attendance reflected that Commissioner Martin is absent and
Commissioner Prysby is attending virtually, with the other
commissioners present in person.
III. New Business
A. CEO Report
In Personnel, AC Day has transitioned from her part-time role as an Event
Services Coordinator to a new role as a part-time Marketing Coordinator for
Fayetteville Town Center. We also hired a new part-time Event Services
Coordinator, Camille Letchford.
Rawn then shared an update on our Tourism Master Planning work with
Coraggio Group - by the end of the day, each of the commissioners will
have received a stakeholder survey and they have also received a
resilience survey. We will also be hosting listening sessions (in person
and virtual) with stakeholders. She is speaking with the city of Fayetteville
to see if we can host the residence survey on the Speak Up Page.
In sales, she reported that we landed the NICA conference in June,
additionally the Arkansas Black Music Festival’s estimated economic
impact was $25,000 and was a great event.
We have two staff members, Madison Hurley and Monica Jannati who are
now both Servsafe certified.
Fayetteville Restaurant Week starts February 25th and we have surpassed
76 signed up restaurants.
Rawn stated she is asking Kelly Rich to come and update the commission
at an upcoming meeting to share the Downtown Fayetteville Coalition’s
strategic plan. The DFC will also host their first annual meeting in April.
Kelly has also successfully rolled out a new process to inform downtown
merchants of special events. Finally, the DFC has announced a
Strawberry festival to be May 19th.
Rawn then shared the 2023 Community Investment sheet and the process
that Sarah King and Tina Archer Cope created. Rawn stated that the
community is understanding the process and that she anticipates that we
will run out of funds as more and more community event organizers learn
about this opportunity.
B. Financials
CEO Rawn shared the 2023 HMR slide which showed a 7.2% increase
over the prior year’s collection.
VP of Finance Walker shared that we ended 2023 with 104% in revenue
and 96% in expenses and $786,000 in operating net income. She stated
that these are not audited financial statements, these numbers are subject
to change.
The balance sheet for December shows $5.1 million dollars in cash and
investments.
In reviewing the January financials, she pointed out that 8% is our target for
both revenue and expenses with both coming in around 7%. With almost
$383,000 in HMR tax collections, we were 2% below our seasonally
adjusted budget. Our net operating loss is ($42,938) due to some large
quarterly or annual expenses that are paid in January.
C. Vote. Engagement letter with Forvis, LLP
Rawn stated this is our 4th year for the Forvis team doing our audit and we
budgeted $30,000 to do this work for our 2023 financial audit and she is
asking for a vote to authorize her to sign this engagement letter. Chair
Sanderson asked for any questions. With no questions, Commissioner
Wiederkehr made a motion which Commissioner Kinney seconded to
authorize Rawn to sign the engagement letter. It was approved
unanimously via a roll call vote.
D. Vote. Internal AV Upgrade at Fayetteville Town Center
This will upgrade the Creston system. Commercial Audio Systems is the
recommended vendor as they are the only local vendor certified to provide
the necessary upgrade. Chair Sanderson asked if we had a motion to
accept the quote from Commercial Audio Systems for the projector and the
equipment refresh and authorize the CEO to spend up to $48,600, which
represents the quote plus 10 percent to do the necessary upgrades.
Commissioner Kinney made the motion with Commissioner Bunch
seconding it and it was approved unanimously.
E. Conclusion.
Commissioner Sanderson asked if there were any additions or
announcements and Commissioner Prysby asked if we could consider
linking our website to the Coalition of Hip Hideaways which is a project with
NWA Council and involves Missoula, MT, Chattanooga, TN, Colorado
Springs, CO and NWA. Rawn stated that she just finished doing an
interview about that and she would love to work with the NWA Council to
see how we could work together.
With no further business, Chair Sanderson asked for a motion to adjourn
the meeting and Commissioner Moya made a motion with Commissioner
Kinney seconding it to adjourn the meeting
Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville