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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-07-22 - Minutes -Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes July 22, 2024 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Commissioners Absent: Staff: Chrissy Sanderson, Chair, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Mike Wiederkehr, City Council Representative Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at-large Todd Martin, Tourism & Hospitality Representative (virtual) Katherine Kinney, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative Tyler Wilson, Executive Director, Fayetteville Town Center and Jennifer Walker, VP of Finance, I. Chair Sanderson called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm and declared a quorum. She noted that Molly Rawn, CEO, was not able to be present. Tyler Wilson, Executive Director, Fayetteville Town Center will be the staff facilitator for the meeting. II. Old Business A. Chair Sanderson presented the June minutes for approval with the following correction: she was present at the meeting and Todd Martin was not present. Commissioner Wiederkehr made a motion with Commissioner Prysby seconding it to approve the minutes as presented with the attendance correction to be made. III. New Business A. CEO Report The full CEO report will not be given today but will commence again next month. HMR collections were reviewed, and it was noted by Jennifer Walker that we have gone back and restated April, May and June collection amounts. Normally, we would not do that but because the amounts were so far behind what they normally would be because of the new reporting system, we felt this was appropriate. We may restate one more month. These numbers for April and May are much better than they were last month. The numbers last month showed that we were 5% below our seasonally adjusted budget (year to date) and this month we are only 1% below our seasonally adjusted budget year to date. We feel like we will continue to see improvement as more HMR partners become comfortable with using the online reporting system. B. Financial Report VP Walker stated that the June financials were in the agenda packets. The target budget for both expenses and revenue for June is 50%. With total revenue YTD at 49% and total expenses at 45%, we are staying well balanced. YTD HMR tax collections are right at $2,467,000 which is just 1% below the seasonally adjusted target. Our net income is $212,833 and on the balance sheet, our cash and investments are approximately $5.1 million dollars at the end of June. The town center unearned revenue is $306,000 for events reserved for 2024, that is a great revenue number, especially considering all of the down time the town center has had with the repairs and upgrades. Tyler Wilson added that we have finished the roof work and are starting on the solar panels. He also mentioned that we are starting conversations with the city to see if EV charging stations in the parking deck were an option. He also wanted to let the commissioners know that Lights of the Ozarks will be two separate events this year with the lighting night held when it typically is held, Friday, November 22 and the parade night will be a separate night on December 5th. Additionally, we are gearing up for August First Thursday next week. C. Vote. Renewal of Arrivalist subscription. Sarah King, VP of Marketing and Communications, presented this item. Arrivalist is a marketing software tool we adopted in 2023. It provides aggregate information from mobile devices and allows us to see where our visitors are from and where they are visiting. This is very helpful in planning and evaluating our marketing programs. Last year the appropriation for this service was almost double what we are requesting to renew today. We are able to just renew one module today that will help us move forward with the items we need to track. It was noted that the data captured has been very helpful in our work with Coraggio on our Master Tourism Plan. The module we are selecting is the trip information module. Chair Sanderson asked for a motion to authorize the CEO to renew the subscription for the Arrivalist Trip Dashboard for a total cost of $22,500. Commission Wiederkehr made the motion which Commission Prysby seconded. It was approved unanimously via a roll call vote. D. Vote. Memorandum of Understanding with TheatreSquared. Tyler Wilson reviewed the enclosed memorandum which outlined several items we wish to accomplish: - Better collaboration between our two entities and staff members - Our shared goal to strengthen the arts in Fayetteville, of which Theatre Squared plays a critical role - A continuation of A&P’s funding to Theatre Squared - A seat on Theatre Squared’s board of directors, to be held by either an A&P Commissioner or an employee of the commission (Experience Fayetteville). An MOU drafted by the commission’s legal counsel outlining the shared commitment to a board seat is attached to this memo. Shannon Jones, the Executive Director of TheatreSquared briefly spoke, reiterating their support for this project and shared Theatre Squared’s excitement about working with Experience Fayetteville. Commissioners Wiederkehr and Martin shared their appreciation of this partnership and what can be accomplished through the updated MOU. With no more questions, Chair Sanderson asked for a motion to authorize our CEO to execute the MOU for TheatreSquared. Commissioner Moya had a question about how the board seat would be assigned to either the commission or a staff member and how someone would express their interest in serving on the board. Wilson stated that he thought Rawn would welcome an email expressing interest in the position. Commissioner Wiederkehr stated he may be incorrect, but he thought that any vacancy on the commission could be filled by a nomination to the commission and that the first step would be having the MOU signed by both parties, hopefully before the next commission meeting. The motion was then made by Commissioner Wiederkehr and seconded by Commissioner Moya and approved unanimously via a roll call vote. E. Additions to the agenda Commissioner Moya gave a brief update on his recent visit to the Walker Stone House which was a coffee also attended by Commissioner Wiederkehr. Commissioner Moya brought up the topic of repairs such as painting and electrical needs. Tyler Wilson did state that the porch repairs have been made and the porch is able to be safely accessed. He also stated the utility company has been contacted and a new electrical pole is in the que to be installed. Wilson said that the next big project for the house will need to be window installation to continue the water abatement. Commissioners did agree that it would be wise to bring an agenda item on this topic. With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 2:25pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville