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05-19-2023, TOB minutesMontgomery County Tourism Operating Board (TOB) Minutes May 19, 2023 8:30 a.m. Commons Area – Tourism Administrative Offices 300 Pepper Street, Christiansburg, VA Present: Craig Meadows, David Rotenizer, Randy Wingfield, Marc Verniel, Cheyenne Kees (recorded minutes) Chairman C. Meadows called meeting to order at 8:35 a.m. 1. Agenda Approval. a. M. Verniel motioned to approve the agenda. R. Wingfield seconded the motion. By formal consensus, the agenda is approved. 2. Approval of Minutes: February 10, 2023 a. R. Wingfield asks that the minutes are changed to say “whether” instead of “when” under FY 23-24 budget in regard to Christiansburg Town Council meeting. b. R. Wingfield motioned to approve the minutes. M. Verniel seconded the motion. By formal consensus, the minutes for February 10, 2023 are approved. 3. New Business • Expiration of Current Lease o D. Rotenizer shares that it has been decided not to continue occupying the current location. o He shares that they are working with the Town of Blacksburg for a potential office space. M. Verniel shares he will check on a potential timeline and that a draft lease has been made for the new location. He believes the lease will be a year-long lease, with the ability to end the lease within a 30 day notice. o C. Meadows shares the need to gather quotes from moving companies since General Services with the county will not be available to assist. o R. Wingfield shares an update for Christiansburg Town Council and the approaching removal of funds in July. • March/April Financials o D. Rotenizer shares the financial statements for March and April. o C. Meadows mentions brainstorming some future projects for the reserve funding. o M. Verniel asks about the surplus and if there is a standard amount to be kept there. C. Meadows mentions it remains there for a potential brick-and- mortar visitor center. R. Wingfield mentions the Passenger Train Station being a location for a physical office in the future. o D. Rotenizer mentions having a 6-month reserve as well as $100,000 for a mobile visitor center and brick and mortar visitor center. o R. Wingfield mentioned that housing and a maintenance area are being planned for railroad staff. C. Meadows shares from his meeting with the Rail Authority that the topic of conversation was keeping the local officials aware of what was going on. o C. Meadows mentions budget adjustments in areas like Professional Services and Advertising. o C. Meadows mentions a called meeting in June in regard to the budget and the lease being necessary. • FY 23-24 Budget (Option A & B) o D. Rotenizer shares option A depicting if Christiansburg continues to fund the program and office B is for if they continue their plan to withdraw. He mentions the town of Christiansburg has not completed its budget, so he pulled its numbers from its draft budget. o C. Meadows mentioned the big difference would be a drop in Advertising between the two plans. o D. Rotenizer mentions that the next year will have a large focus on ARPA projects being funded. o D. Rotenizer shares projects related to Professional Services being budgeted for. o D. Rotenizer also talks about Professional Web services increasing due to the Virtual Visitor Center. o Printing and binding were increased for increased print collateral the office expects to produce. o D. Rotenizer suggests partnering with DCI, DBI, and Main Street Connects by paying membership fees in support. R. Wingfield shares that grants are not the best use of funds and that a liaison role is what is appropriate. R. Wingfield mentions that if the grants are for initiatives, this would be a positive thing, with regulations being in place for it to be a new event or initiative. The goal would be seed money to start something new, not just support existing projects or programs. All agree to keep a small amount in Civic Contributions. o M. Verniel asks when the board should schedule a time to discuss and approve the budget. Randy mentions June 16 as an option for a meeting date. M. Verniel and C. Meadows confirm this date could work. o C. Meadows says to schedule a meeting at 8:30 a.m. Friday, June 16th to discuss the budget and the new lease. • Trademark Renewals o D. Rotenizer says that the trademark renewals have been submitted for approval. • Hospitality & Tourism Partnership Committee o The first meeting of this committee since COVID happened last week during National Travel and Tourism week. It was also Virginia Tech’s graduation week. o The Inn at Virginia Tech was very hospitable and fully comped the meeting space and refreshments for the committee. o D. Rotenizer mentions key partners that attended the event. The event was videotaped and will be shared with partners that could not attend. o These meetings will be quarterly. The goal is to bring hospitality partners together and D. Rotenizer hopes to have a continuing education component to the meetings. o During the meeting, Monica Hall with iTi Digital gave a presentation of the Virtual Visitor Center and best practices and the meeting served as a launch for the Virtual Visitor Center. C. Kees shares a walk through the Virtual Visitor Center. • Sports Tourism o R. Wingfield mentioned Brad Epperley with Christiansburg Parks & Rec wanting to get restart this committee. In the past, it included Virginia Tech, Radford University, and Parks & Rec from the towns and the county. o D. Rotenizer mentions the ARPA project for Sports Inventory needs a committee and this would be a great start to creating interest for that committee. The committee would meet quarterly. o R. Wingfield mentions the importance of communication when large tournaments are taking place and how this committee would benefit that. 4. Old Business • ARPA Tourism Recovery Program Update o D. Rotenizer met with Jeff Groseclose with the Procurement for the County about an RFP for the FAM Tour ARPA project, which should hopefully be going out next week. He expressed the need for this RFP to go out first to obtain quality travel writers and journalists in advance. o D. Rotenizer shares that the ARPA project for Destination Optimization for Google places will tie in well with Virtual Visitor Center. o D. Rotenizer mentions the rebranding to get away from current wordy, URL currently in place. o Sports Inventory o Virginia State Travel Guide lead spread • Virtual Visitor Center / QR Code Info Rack Card • NRV Tourism Survey / Rebranding o The Visit NRV group received the completed travel study done for the region. o The Visit NRV rebrand was also videotaped and received great publicity. o Judy Lynch presented a resolution for rail heritage. • 2023 Agritourism Conference • March Marketing Blitz at Lambsburg o D. Rotenizer shares visitation statistics from the time of the Blitz. • Visitor Guide o D. Rotenizer mentions reprinting a revised guide in the new fiscal year. • Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6) o Deadline has been extended for survey collection. o D. Rotenizer shares that a total of 1077 surveys have been collected to date. • Virginia’s Rail Heritage Region o Judy Lynch with Delegate Ballard’s office has the lead on moving forward with this project. o D. Rotenizer shares finding history within Floyd County to include them in this regional heritage region. • Roadside Markers o D. Rotenizer met with Andrew Warren with the Town of Christiansburg for ideas on where to place the historic marker for Route 76. o The Huckleberry Trail marker • Website • Social Media M. Verniel asks moving forward, how can information be shared in the best way with elected officials, especially with big projects like the Virtual Visitor Center, ARPA projects, etc. R. Wingfield mentioned a yearly update still remains needed with his council. The next regular meeting will be held August 25th, 2023 with a budget meeting to be held June 16th, 2023. Meeting is adjourned at 9:42 a.m.