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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-06-27 - Minutes -Fayetteville Advertising and Promotion Commission Minutes June 27, 2022 Fayetteville Town Center Commissioners Todd Martin, Chair, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Present: Elvis Moya, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Chrissy Sanderson, Tourism & Hospitality Representative Andrew Prysby, Commissioner at -large * Online Sarah Bunch, City Council Representative * Online Commissioners Katherine Kinney, Mark Kinion Absent: Staff: Molly Rawn, CEO; Jennifer Walker, Vice President of Finance; Hazel Hernandez, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Chair Martin called the meeting to order at 2:00 pm. Old Business A. Chair Martin asked commissioners to review the May minutes and asked if there were any additions or revisions, hearing none, he stated that the minutes stood approved as presented. III. New Business A. CEO Report. An executive overview of the previous month's activity, issues and opportunities facing the organization. Complete memo attached. Before she began the CEO Report, Rawn stated that the commissioners were receiving an updated budget revision that would supersede the version provided earlier in regard to the budget revision agenda item. She stated that the two commissioners attending virtually were receiving an email with the updated version and the commissioners in person were handed a new printed copy. Additionally, she said we would ensure the city clerk's office received an updated version. Rawn gave an update of upcoming activities for the commission, including the audit presentation in July by BKD. She also stated that BKD was rebranding and is now called Forvis. In August, we will be issuing a couple of Request for Proposals, one for our IT provider and one for our Advertising Agency of Record and in this next quarter we will also be hearing an update from Theatre Squared. Rawn highlighted a few items from her report, beginning with the quarterly consumer leisure newsletter developed by Jerrika Longueville on our Experience Fayetteville team. Please let her now if you don't receive this quarter's newsletter this week. Rawn mentioned Buxton, the new research software we are using, and that we did some testing with it during NWA Pride events and will be reviewing the data we received. The Experience Fayetteville sales team has been busy, starting out the month with the Walmart Shareholders/Associates week with more than 24 countries represented and 3,500 hotel nights in Fayetteville with over 40,000 meals. The sales team also assisted Fayetteville's first Lego League event with over 3,000 participants with the goal of helping and ensuring that events like this stay and grow in Fayetteville. With Cycling, Rawn stated that we wrapped up a month of doing the Dinner Rolls bike valet program programming and learned a lot and would like to partner with other organizations to potentially bring some regularity to this helpful program. Additionally, in June, both the USA Gravel and Mountain Bike national championship and the Highlands Gravel Classic occurred and were quite successful. Chair Martin commented that his business completed the Bicycle Bootcamp program, commending Brannon Pack for doing a great job with it and stating that his team is wanting to do several things to make his establishments bike friendly. The Visitors Center update included a 28% increase in May visitation when compared to April and a 19% increase in sales compared to May. Rawn stated she is very pleased with all of Eden Moore's work. June's First Thursday event "In Bloom" had approximately 2,700 in attendance with food trucks reporting $8,000 in sales and our art vendors reporting over $6,500 in sales and our cash bar reporting almost $2,000 in sales. Also, Chloe Bell has been nominated to Fayetteville's Arts Council and received, for a personal project, a grant from the Creative Exchange Fund and the Tyson Family Foundation. The Fayetteville Town Center continues to reassess its sales strategy in this slower time and is gearing up for a busier 3rd and 41" quarter. Rawn also noted that the town center was simultaneously seeing more competition from a landscape that included more rental venues than before and slower business and corporate bookings as companies continued to be slower coming back to in person events. While these factors are creating slower business bookings, she is confident in the team at the town center. Rawn mentioned that the Clinton House Museum board of directors continues the work of separating financially from the A&P, including creating their own account with Square, allowing them to sell their own inventory. We'll hear more about the museum later in the meeting. She discussed both HMR and lodging numbers, stating that we had 74% occupancy at our hotels in May, a 15% increase over May 2021 and 60% occupancy, year-to-date, which is an 8% increase over 2021. The most significant data is that year to date, we've had a 21 % increase in HMR collections compared to last year, and the largest collection amount on record. We have more than made up for the small dips in revenue in restaurant collections for the prior two months. Commissioner Moya asked about the status of the Director of Downtown Initiatives job posting and Rawn stated that she expected it would be posted by the July meeting. B. Financial Report. Jennifer Walker, Vice President of Finance May financial statements are included in the commission packet and they show that revenue projections are 42% and we are very close with 41 % in actual revenue and expense projections are also at 42% and we are currently at 33% actual expenses; net revenue as of the end of May is $438,000. The balance sheet shows cash and investments at approximately $4.5 million and unearned revenue is $124,000, reflecting upcoming events at the town center. Walker stated that tax revenue for the end of May is 6% ahead of budget, after adjusting for seasonality. CEO Rawn asked if Walker could speak about the one time overhead reimbursement we are receiving for Cyclo-cross expenses. Walker stated that in June financials we will see a one time reimbursement of approximately $160,000 for overhead or indirect expenses including our staff time, marketing expenses and more. C. Marketing Report. Hazel Hernandez, Vice President of Marketing and Communications Hernandez stated it was a busy May for the marketing team including Vanny's first appearance at First Thursday and also serving as a sponsor for Her Set/Her Sound, a DJ music festival. She also gave an overview of our social media reach which showed really positive numbers for both Facebook and Instagram. Hernandez stated that some of our numbers were close to reaching the same numbers as our state tourism department. She noted that the Pride events in June really drove up some of these impressions. Hernandez mentioned that our new pocket guide will be delivered very soon and that we are working with a new influencer company and launched our first campaign with the company during Pride. Marketing also been working with Tina Archer Cope, our VP of Sales, and Arkansas Tourism to do a motorcycling shoot with a shift to include a focus on adventure or gravel riding. Hernandez ended her remarks and Mike Sells elaborated, beginning with the recently conducted influencer campaign and we'll take lessons learned from Pride for the upcoming campaigns which will focus on the food scene, night life, motorcycling and craft beer. Sells also talked about the large amount of cycling assets we've collected and that the Sells Agency will be giving recommendations to the marketing team on different ways to use these assets. Sells mentioned that last week was a big week as our new campaign launched with the majority of the elements ready and the video being filmed. He looks forward to showing it to the commission. He mentioned that the website continues to be refreshed with the "Eat" page being the most recently refreshed. He stated that almost 25% of this page's visitors downloaded the restaurant guide which is a very promising percentage. He also highlighted the latest Longwoods International travel report which showed that travel spending was for the first time higher than 2019 and more than a quarter of travelers planned to spend more than their 2019 travel budget. He also stated that the report showed that meetings and conventions were still trending behind leisure travel and most meeting planners didn't expect this segment to be back to pre -pandemic levels until 2023. D. Vote. Budget Revision. CEO Rawn stated that budget revisions are not uncommon and we may come to expect them to be a normal practice. We are bringing a budget revision forward which includes a one sheet that is a summary consolidated budget and then detail for both Experience Fayetteville and Fayetteville Town Center. Overall, we are calling for more revenue than budgeted for Experience Fayetteville and less revenue than was budgeted for Fayetteville Town Center. Walker added that revenue was revised upward on the Experience Fayetteville side to include that one time grant reimbursement for Cyclo-Cross and that some revenue for the Art Court has been shifted into future years simply because the Art Court will be starting operations later than we predicted. We are not making changes to the HMR revenue budgeted numbers. On the Fayetteville Town Center, you'll see revenue decreases projected due to decreased bookings. Commissioner Moya asking about the decrease in the Experience Fayetteville promotions budget from $280,000 to $204,000. CEO Rawn said that the decreases were not in video or other projects we are doing, but in activations or projects that were possibilities for this year that due to timing or capacity we would not be doing, i.e. we are not cutting anything we had planned to do. Likewise, Rawn stated, you'll see a slight increase in the sales expenses as there are needs the team does have and things they will need for the remainder of the year. Chair Martin asked if there were any further discussion or questions and there being none, he called for a vote on approving the budget revision. With a roll call vote, Commissioners Prysby, Moya, Sanderson and Martin approved the revision with Martin noting that Commissioner Bunch had needed to leave the meeting. E. Vote. Clinton House Museum budget allocation transfer. CEO Rawn stated that it is important, as the Clinton House Museum further separates itself financially from the A&P, that they be able to pay their own expenses and set up processes for doing so. With a board willing and able to this, it is time to consider transferring the amount of funds in the A&P budget allocated to pay for Clinton House Museum expenses to the Clinton House Museum board. This will also allow them to take advantage of any opportunities to save funds as a small not -for -profit. Rawn's recommendation is to pay out the remaining budgeted amount to the Clinton House Museum and to also donate the remaining inventory that is specific to the Clinton House Museum and not items we would sell at Experience Fayetteville. With that recommendation, she invited Clinton House Museum board chair Steve Smith to speak. President Smith thanked the commission for the ongoing support the A&P has extended and also thanked the Clinton House Museum board of directors. President Smith stated the board has made good strides including getting the University of Arkansas to waive rent on the house through 2023 with CEO Rawn being very involved in that project. They've also had multiple conversations with Arkansas Tourism's Secretary Hurst to learn of grant opportunities for the foundation and have made application for one of them. The museum is now open Thursday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm. President Smith also mentioned multiple media coverage the museum has had. The museum has had a soft launch of its membership drive and can now sell gift shop items. They've also established that the Special Collections department at the University of Arkansas library will store the museum's records. President Smith also talked about other grants the museum has applied for, including a grant that would help create an augmented reality feature that will be added to the museum so that a visitor could hear and see interviews from the Clintons about the house. President Smith also stated that the board is looking for a bookkeeper. They are also organizing the Golden Anniversary Campaign that will start now and go through October 2025 which will be the Clinton's Golden Wedding Anniversary. He would like to come back to the commission later this year and make a proposal for continued support and said he would like to work on a Memo of Understanding between the Clinton House Museum and the A&P which Rawn stated she would like to work on with President Smith before sending it to the commission for review. Chair Martin stated that he was pleased to see the work the Clinton House Museum's board of directors has taken. He asked for a motion to authorize CEO Molly Rawn to pay out the remaining 2022 budgeted support in a single payment to Clinton House Museum and donate the Clinton House Museum inventory to the Clinton House Museum. The motion was made by Commissioner Sanderson and seconded by Commissioner Moya and was approved unanimously by a roll call vote of Chair Martin, Commissioner Moya, Commissioner Sanderson and Commissioner Prysby. F. Vote. Agreement with Art Court, LLC for a three-year lease of Dickson Street Art Court for $1.00. CEO Rawn presented the lease and there were no questions. Chair Martin asked for a motion to authorize CEO Molly Rawn to sign an agreement for a three-year lease for $1.00. Commissioner Sanderson made the motion and both Commissioners Prysby and Moya seconded with it being approved unanimously by a roll call vote of Chair Martin, Commissioner Moya, Commissioner Sanderson and Commissioner Prysby. With no further agenda items, Chair Martin called for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Sanderson made the motion with Commissioner Moya seconding it and the meeting was adjourned at 2:57 pm. Minutes submitted by Amy Stockton, Director of Operations, Experience Fayetteville