Norman Convention and Visitors Bureau Meeting

Board of Directors Meeting Wednesday, August 16, 2017 Legend’s Restaurant 1313 W. Lindsey St. Minutes Board Attendance: (P) Kyle Allison, City Council (P) Rex Amsler, Embassy Suites (P) Adrian Buendia, Restaurant Industry (A) Charles Diclemente, Marriot at NCED (A) Carol Dillingham, Cleveland Cty. (P) Jerry M. Hatter, Balfour of Norman (P) Mandy Haws, Attraction (P) Brenda Hall, City of Norman (P) Kevin Henry, OU Athletics (P) Randy Laffoon, SportsRadio 1400 (A) Alesha Leemaster, Norman Public Schools (P) Leesha Maag, Norman Arts Council (A) Scott Martin, Chamber of Commerce (P) William Murray, Montford Inn (A) Michael Palermo, Restaurant Industry (P) Paige Williams Shepherd, Chickasaw Nation (P) Andy Sherrer, Republic Bank (P) Jason Smith, NEDC (A) Juna Stovall, OU, CCE Call to Order Sherrer called the meeting to order at 11:40a.m. Minutes Minutes from May and June were considered. Laffoon moves to approve, Murray seconds, the motion passes unanimously. Finance Report Schemm goes over the financials from May. One change is moving $40,000 for computer software which is for our website and moving that to other assets. Revenue is from the luncheon. Expenses in convention services are pens and maps. Hawes presents financials for June. Highlights include, any differences in personal costs reflect end of year bonuses. Advertising revenues is from visitor guides Schemm askes to move $28,000 to the money market account. Murray states that the money market was set up offset any catastrophe that might occur. Haws also presents financials for July. Differences in personal expenses reflect the board approved PTO policy, which goes by a fiscal year. Lower revenue reflects decrease in stay tax collection. Expense in public relations differ year to year due to the bloggers who were in town. Laffoon moves to approve as presented, Murray seconds. Motion passes with no objections. FY 17-FY18 goals Schemm reports on the end of the fiscal year standings, stating that the year was completed strongly, especially sales. Room night goals have been at 12,000. With an anomaly such as the 5,250 room night BNSF helped far exceed this goal last year. Due to this Schemm suggests that the goal be set at 15,000 room nights for FY 2018. TMD/Sports Commission Update Schemm talked to his Tulsa counterpoint and Tulsa has had a change in mayor and the Asian American hotelier have raised concerns, which have been addressed and they are hoping for a fall implementation. VisitNorman is hoping for a July 1 implementation. As far as Norman Forward, as soon as master planning is done and we have plans to share we will start selling. OKC Omni Hotel Schemm reports that Oklahoma City is going to be building a 600 room Omni Hotel. The partnership involves $150 million from the developers, and $85 million from the city. He says that he thinks this will be an opportunity for Norman to be able to step up for some of the smaller events that may now be priced out of the city. Air B N B Schemm reports that the agreement is for state lodging tax, does not have local lodging tax. The solution is to get city council to make an agreement directly with them. Alison says that other cities are doing just that, and that it is a quality of life issue at a local level. Editorial Schemm shares an editorial suggesting that the sports complexes from Norman Forward be prioritized for completion first to help offset the cost of the other projects. Arts and Economic Prosperity 5 Erin Gavagan presents the Arts and Economic Prosperity 5. The arts provide a huge benefit to the local economy. Some highlights of this activity in Norman include spending in 2015 of $11, 552, 877 by organizations and another $44, 621, 918 by the audience. This resulted in the generation of $4, 839, 000 in state and local government revenue. Sales Wagner discusses the upcoming APO fly-in. Schemm discussed the Beep Baseball bid which we did not land. Leisure Burgess-Cady reports that 7 Convention/Groups and 5 Leisure groups were serviced over June and July 2017. Communications Brickman reported on the digital influences that visited Norman in June and July. She also reports that there have been more downloads since we went to our new website. SEO and SEM have been restarted and adjustments have been made to the website since then.