Tourism Development Authority Regular Meeting

Minutes TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Regular meeting 5:30 p.m. August 28, 2024 Board Meeting Room of Town Hall Annex, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Chair Meaghun Darab, Dani Black, and Victoria Pace Staff: Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell 1. Call to order Chair Meghun Darab called the meeting to order at 5:33 p.m. Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell confirmed the presence of a quorum. 2. Agenda changes and approval Motion: Member Victoria Pace moved to approve agenda as presented. Member Dani Black seconded. Vote: 3-0 3. Minutes review and approval None. 4. Action items A. FY25 TDA Special Project/Partnership Funding: Uproar Festival of Public Art- $8,000 Campbell recapped the request and introduced Katie Murray, from the Orange County Arts Commission/OC Arts Alliance. Katie Murray explained that this would be the second annual UPROAR, one of the first festivals of its kind in NC that includes about 20 pieces of art in each town across Orange County. She explained that this time the festival would be the entire month of August 2025. She said that the TDA was being requested to sponsor the event because the Tourism Board sponsored it last time through their grant process and they found that out of town artists and jurors ended up utilizing about 60 room nights during the event. So the event was expected to have ROI for occupancy tax and to generate room night stays. Pace said that she loved the event last time and she was looking forward to it again. Darab agreed. Black asked if a budget amendment was needed to allocate the funds. Campbell explained that the board had left about $15,000 in unallocated funds for Special Projects/Partnerships such as this so no, a budget amendment wouldn’t be needed, just a formal allocation of the funds for this purpose. Motion: Black moved to approve the expenditure/sponsorship in the amount requested ($8,000) from Special Projects/Partnerships. Member Pace seconded. Vote: 3-0 B. FY25 Special Project/Partnership Funding: OCAC’s Paint it Orange Plein Air Paint Out 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 919-732-1270 | www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov www.visithillsboroughnc.com | @HillsboroughNC TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MINUTES | 1 of 3  TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MINUTES | 2 of 3 Campbell explained that Murray was also here to request sponsorship for this event. She said that the TDA has supported this event on and off since it’s first year. Murray thanked the TDA for their past support in making the event successful and said that the event was now in it’s 8th year. She explained that they had huge success and it was one of biggest ‘paint-out’ events in the state and that the youth competition was really taking off as well. She explained that last years’ event included 76 artists from 4 states and that they were partnered with Colonial Inn to offer 20% off room nights for the event so she was confident that the event would generate room nights in town. Members discussed how much they enjoyed this event and their experiences having attended either the kick- off party or closing reception and ‘wet paint sale’ where the artists sell the paintings they did during the week. Black said that she appreciated the partnership with the Inn to entice folks to stay here during the week. She asked if a budget amendment was needed for this, or if it would also fall into the unallocated funds. Campbell said it could be allocated from the unallocated funds in the Special Projects/Partnerships line item. Motion: Pace moved to approve the expenditure/sponsorship in the amount requested ($1,000) from Special Projects/Partnerships. Black seconded. Vote: 3-0 5. Discussion Items A. FY25 TDA Special Projects/Partnership Funding Detailed Proposal/Budget Draft Template Campbell thanked Murray, who used the draft template to complete her requests for this meeting. She said she had asked Murray to use it and provide any feedback as a ‘test user’ for the new request form and Murray gracefully agreed and provided some feedback. Black said that she liked having a standardized format for all requests. Darab agreed and noted that the form looked a lot like what the Tourism board used for other reporting and she liked the standard format. Members made some suggestions on form updates. Campbell said she would make the changes and start implementing use of the form for future asks. 6. Monthly Reports A. FY24 Gross Receipts Totals Report Campbell explained that all of the numbers were in now for FY24 and that revenues finished about $9K higher over FY23, ending with about $130K collected overall to support tourism for FY25. Darab asked if there were any insights for why August 2023 was down so much from August 2024. Campbell said that she didn’t know, but noted that there was a huge jump from August 2021 to August 2022, and then another jump to August 2023, but that 2024 was more flat. 7. Adjournment Darab adjourned the meeting at 6:13 p.m. Respectfully submitted,  TOURISM DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY MINUTES | 3 of 3 Shannan Campbell Planning and Economic Development Manager Staff support to the Hillsborough Tourism Development Authority Approved: May 21, 2025