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Home My WebLink About2026-07-27 - Minutes -Fayetteville A&P Commission Meeting Minutes, July 27, 2026 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Present: Chair Moya, Hunt, Tyree, Hamilton, Stafford and Wiederkehr Absent: Commissioner Kinney Staff Present: CEO Ryan Hauck I. Chair Moya called the meeting to order at 2 pm II. Administration A. CEO Hauck noted changes to the agenda included adding an industry update to the CEO Report, including a inadvertently omitted page of the MOU proposed by Philip Elmore and also a new format for the new financial report “Look Back” which compares the month to the same month last year rather than a YTD view as was issued in the previous agenda packet. B. Motion to approve June 15th meeting minutes was made by Commissioner Hamilton and seconded by Commissioner Wiederkehr and was approved unanimously. C. Director of Finance Hunt requested the commission open a operating bank account with Bank of Fayetteville with the same authorized signers as the commission currently has. She explained that this is the next step in changing financial institutions. With no questions, Commissioner Wiederkehr made this motion with Commissioner Hunt seconding it and it was approved unanimously. III. Reports A. CEO Report – CEO Ryan Hauck Hauck recapped the A250 celebration, highlighting the July 2 Gulley Park event, the sold- out Sound Bites with BITE NWA event with 1,000 attendees, and the well-attended July 4 Fireworks at the Mall. He reported on the success of Restaurant Week, inviting commissioners involved with restaurants to share their experiences. Commissioner Tyree reported Penguin Ed's sold nearly 300 Restaurant Week specials compared to approximately 40 during a typical week, while Commissioner Hunt shared Atlas had another successful year, their 4th, participating. Hauck noted Restaurant Week concluded with influencers, A Couple in the Kitchen, visiting Fayetteville for two days of social media content creation and food styling training for participating restaurants. Hauck updated the commission that we may no longer need to allocate Favoriteville Funds to TougeCon due to an event restructure and that the staff is awaiting final invoices and documentation from the first Favoriteville Fund recipient, Prairie Street Block Party. Personnel updates: We said goodbye to Griffin Stroupe, our Director of Sales at the town center after five years with us. Hauck noted that Stroupe was starting a role at the U of A. This prompted us to announce several promotions, including Emma Reed to Director of Sales, Robbie Courtway to Event Services Manager, and Mason Rios to Event Services Coordinator II. He noted we do have an open Event Services Coordinator I position. The Visitors Center welcomed 1,056 visitors in June and completed six Ale Trail passports. Julie Pennington completed her final session of Southeast Tourism Society Marketing College and continues work on the Certified Tourism Ambassador program. She also attended an Arkansas Hospitality Association meeting regarding a potential Northwest Arkansas chapter. The Sales team supported four group/meetings events with $3,500 in assistance, an estimated attendance of 1,400, and an estimated economic impact of $244,000. They also supported six sports events with $9,450 in assistance, an estimated attendance of 2,000+, and an estimated economic impact of $728,356. Hauck noted two of those sports events were produced through All Sports Productions' annual $16,000 agreement and were not included in the reported total. Dell Hall also represented Experience Fayetteville at the Great American State Fair in Washington, D.C. Staff is planning a hosted fall FAM tour for 15–20 meeting and sports planners. The Fayetteville Town Center hosted 14 bookings in June, has 18 confirmed bookings for July, s ubmitted the American Cancer Society's renewal for next year, and has approximately $654,000 in potential bookings in the pipeline while continuing to pursue 2027-27 business. The successful recent “Women of All Generations” event was also called out. Hauck reported Marketing & Communications launched a six-month Expedia matching campaign, hosted travel writers and influencers, and supported Northwest Arkansas Pride through sponsorship, media outreach, and activation of Vanny. Attendance was estimated at 50,000, the largest to date, with coverage by GLAAD and Dallas Voice. He also highlighted A250 media appearances with Chair Moya and increased website traffic. Hauck concluded with recently released Arkansas tourism data, reporting 54.3 million visitors in 2025, a 4.4% increase over 2024; leisure visitation increased 5.6%; overnight visitation increased 1.3%; tourism generated $17.4 billion in economic impact and $10.2 billion in visitor spending, and supported more than 71,000 hospitality jobs. Commissioner Hunt asked if the state had benchmarks for these stats, and Hauck noted Arkansas has not established formal benchmarks but that approximately 5% year-over-year visitation growth is generally considered a positive target and that Governor Sanders wants to double the tourism budget in the coming years which would serve as one benchmark. B. Financial Report – Director of Finance, Gretchen Hunt Director Hunt presented the new Appropriated Budget to Actual report in the format requested by the commission and highlighted budget lines nearing 100% of appropriations. She reviewed June HMR collections, noting a significant increase from May activity, and introduced a new Lodging Report and HMR Collections Look Back comparing June 2026 to June 2025. CEO Hauck explained hotel metrics (OCC%, ADR, and RevPAR), noting ADR increased while RevPAR declined from the prior year. Chair Moya highlighted Community Event Incentive allocations made since the previous meeting. With no further discussion, the report concluded. C. 2025 Audit Report – Forvis Director, CPA Cynthia Burns Burns shared appreciation for the ongoing cooperative and organized audit process this year and said that the audit outcome was similar to last years with her reporting an unmodified opinion on regulatory basis of accounting, the best audit opinion possible for an organization of our type. She noted the fund balance remains stable and continues to trend upward, investments remain available if needed, and no internal control issues or material weaknesses were identified. She mentioned a minor journal entry review issue during last summer's leadership transition that has since been resolved. With no questions, commissioners expressed their appreciation. IV. New Business A. Favoriteville MOU & Process Changes – Legal Counsel Philip Elmore Elmore presented a proposed procedural change in which staff would review applications, rather than a group of both staff and commission, before forwarding qualified applicants to the commission for public scoring and discussion, along with a proposed MOU for approved applicants. Discussion focused on simplifying the MOU, reducing reporting requirements where possible, extending reporting timelines, and incorporating standard language on the website. Commissioner Hamilton agreed to work with Elmore on a revised draft within one week. Regarding the procedural change, after discussion, there was a motion by Commissioner Wiederkehr for Experience Fayetteville staff to qualify and recommend applications for the Favoriteville Fund to be put in front of the commissioners for approval including any lists of applicants not selected for approval. It was seconded by Commissioner Tyree and approved unanimously. B. Favoriteville Fund Request – Freak Show Day Fest – NWA Camp CEO Hauck presented this funding request and discussed the commission's funding options. Commissioners reviewed the proposed budget, margin protection amount, lodging impact, prior financials, and event history. Hauck proposed to contact the organization and request a scaled-down request that would reflect the amount of margin protection that could be offered (approximately $5,000 was mentioned). This would also allow time to provide the organization with the revised MOU. No vote was taken on the application at this time. VI. Good of the Order/Adjournment Chair Moya reminded commissioners that the next meeting is August 24 and requested agenda items be sent to Ryan or Amy. He also noted the Town Center's open position. With no other announcements he called for a motion to adjourn which was provided by Commissioner Hamilton and seconded by Commissioner Hunt. The meeting ended at 3:36 p.m. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Experience Fayetteville