Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau
Board of Directors Meeting
March 26, 2014
8:00 a.m.
The Board of Directors of the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau met Wednesday, March 26, 2014, with Chairman of the Board Steve Critchfield presiding. The meeting was called to order at 8:00 a.m. Randy Brashers said the opening prayer.
Review of Minutes – A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to accept the minutes of the February 26, 2014 Board of Directors meeting as presented.
Financial Report – Chief Financial Officer Cathy Hubert provided a brief review of the current financials. We are in-line with the budget. She also stated we are currently undergoing the regular audit. The non-renewal reserve fund is set at $50,000. The auditors have agreed to reduce it to somewhere between $10,000 and $15,000. We’ve been trying to get this number reduced since 2009.
Treasurer Tim Connell stated the extended Finance Oversight Committee meeting to go over the budget amendment for the Chamber side of the organization originally planned for March was postponed to April. He encouraged all board members to attend the meeting beginning at 8:00 a.m. April 16th.
A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to accept the financial report as presented.
President/CEO Report – Ross Summers introduced Dr. Hal Higdon, Chancellor ofOzarks Technical College (OTC). OTC has established a tremendous presence in our area with the new campus in Hollister. Dr. Higdon stated that OTC has the distinction of being the fastest growing higher education campus in Missouri. A 10% enrollment increase was projected, but the actual was 33%. They’ve seen an increase of students from Branson and Arkansas at their Hollister campus. State law allows them to offer in-state tuition to counties that touch their district.
OTC is conducting an economic impact study. They have spent $13 million in Taney County the last three years. The building can hold 2500 students. They have about 700 right now. Dr. Higdon said they over built the Hollister campus on purpose. There is room on the campus for two more buildings.The 4th floor of the existing is a large meeting space at this time. They have a lot of space available for growth.
OTC currently offers 13 allied health programs and all of the students get jobs when they graduate. There is no room in Springfield for any new allied health programs. They would have to come to the Table Rock campus.
Missouri goes by school district, not cities. That means in-district cost per hour for students residing in Hollister is considerably less than for those living in Branson because they are out of district. OTC is looking at expanding the district. The property tax for OTC in Hollister is 15 cents per $100. It’s about economic development. The future is in technical jobs and OTC could help prepare for those jobs. Right now if Branson came into their district OTC would lose about $300,000 in out-of-district fees, but would gain $700,000 in tax dollars, which would allow them to offer more programs. It was pointed out that OTC recently joined the Taney County Business Development Partnership.
Upcoming TCED Tax Renewal Vote – Jim Barber - Jim stated he is feeling optimistic about the vote, but there is still concern among our senior voters. He’s trying to set up another community event for next Friday to specifically invite seniors.
Sports Task Force – Don Schumacher who is the Executive Director of the National Association of Sports Commissions was in town two weeks ago and provided a day-long presentation to the task force. He is impressed by what we have to offer, but unimpressed by our facilities because we do not have enough baseball/softball fields or indoor courts. He can produce a financial feasibility study forapproximately $5,000. Ross and Chairman Critchfield have talked to Jonas Arjes, Director of the Taney County Business Development Partnership (TCBDP) about splitting the cost for a new study. The study the City of Branson commissioned was poor. The costs provided were not accurate, etc. Craig Richards is a member of the TCBDP and feels the Partnership would be very interested in this. We are far behind other destinations that are growing this market. It’s clear the payback on this investment is large and it fits Branson’s long term objectives.
Tim Connell spoke about how manufacturing and sports are rising to the top for Branson. Springfield and other cities across the country have no place to add manufacturing and sporting facilities. This is a national problem as the economy is starting to move again. Private developers will build these facilities if they know someone will move in and use them.
Tim Connell made a motion to authorize staff to work with the consultant that Ross Summers and Steve Critchfield named and to present a proposal to the Board of Directors at the April meeting as well as to the Taney County Business Development Partnership. Following considerable discussion and lack of a second, Tim Connell amended the motion to authorize staff to work with the consultant and approve expenditure up to $5,000 from the Chamber to move forward on getting this taken care of and have the proposal ready to share at the next Taney County Business Development Partnership board of directors meeting. This board can vote electronically if needed. The amended motion was seconded and unanimously approved. It was noted the Chamber has $21,000 in contingency funds that had previously been marked for moving the polyhedron on Mt. Branson.
HR Committee Proposal – President/CEO Ross Summers described the recommendations for the online policy and the telecommuting policy. A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adopt the following policies and/or policy revisions into the Employee Handbook:
Online Media Policy: This is a new policy to address potential employment and/or legal issues associated with BLACC/CVB employees’ use of social media and other online resources during the course of their employment. This policy is modeled after the Walmart social media policy that has already passed NLRB approval.
Telecommuting Policy: This policy was changed from a temporary arrangement necessitated by the rising cost of gasoline or an employee’s request for accommodation due to a health or other personal issue to a standard policy open to any staff member whose job would allow such an arrangement. Employees may only work from home one day per week and supervisors have approving authority and oversight over this arrangement. Additionally, all CVB agreements must have the approval of the CMO. The updated agreement requires the employee and supervisor to sign a formal agreement to acknowledge their respective responsibilities and to define the specific telecommuting arrangement.
Not all BLACC/CVB positions are eligible for the telecommuting arrangement.
Legislative Issues – The legislature is moving into budget discussions as they returned from recess this Monday. Ross Summers reported that we have been closely monitoring an effort to change the way the MO Division of Tourism’s cooperative marketing dollars are distributed. An amendment was recently made to remove $2.5million from the cooperative dollars which would have caused the dollars to be distributed differently. Fortunately, that was withdrawn yesterday. Local Representative Don Phillips did a great job getting that amendment removed.
Medicaid expansion is still being debated. There is a push for expansion, but no one is feeling positive about getting it through.
Personnel Changes – Shelly Vorhaben was just promoted to Manager of Marketing and Membership Programs. Julie Bolton was hired yesterday as the new Manager of Sponsorships and Events. She’s currently the executive director of the White House, Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and is originally from this area. We anticipate her to be on staff within a month.
Strategic Planning – Chamber Executive Director Sharon Rosche’ talked about the upcoming Strategic Planning. She stressed the importance of the pre-sessions. There will be one offered in the afternoon of April 7 and another that evening. Staff members will not attend the pre-sessions. The facilitator will talk with members, non-members and some elected officials. Thursday, April 10th will be a full day planning session with the board of directors and Friday, April 11th will be a morning session, ending at noon. Both will be held at the Holiday Inn Express located behind Shoney’s on Highway 76. This strategic plan will set the stage for a lot of things in our future. It will lay the foundation for programs and be critical to us as we go into our fall membership campaign.
Airport Update- Jeff Bourk with Branson Airport reported they will be forming a committee soon whose focus is on attracting a new airline for 2015/16. He anticipates it being a seven to eleven member committee. They’ll go through a lot of details of the type of planning they’ve done andwill work on developing a community-wide incentive program, among many other things. The first meeting of the committee will be held the week of April 14 and will likely meet every two weeks for several months then move to monthly meetings.
Chairman’s Report – Chairman Steve Critchfield asked for a show of hands from board members who have attended a Chamber event outside of Black Tie. He requested each director commit to at least one event a month. It is important for this board to be visible to our community and our members.
Chairman Critchfield stated we are not getting a quorum at the Membership & Funding Advisory Council meetings lately. We need to get some new council members who will attend the meetings and be active.
Political Action Committee – We have heard several reasons why we need to develop a PAC. There are a lot of needs in this community with more coming, including OTC tax, building a sports market, helping Branson Airport attract airlines, etc. We need to get out and make sure our city and county leaders understand the importance of such things. That will be a major part of our discussion at the Chamber’s strategic planning. We need to figure out where we’re headed, how we get there and who is doing it.
Membership Update – Chamber Executive Director Sharon Rosche’ reviewed the report included in the packet. Craig Richards requested net gain or lossto be included in the update, as it would be helpful. She then passed around a list of valued members at risk and asked board members to sign up to contact them and email her the results of the conversation.
Membership Drop List – The list was included in the packet. A motion was made and seconded to approve the drop list as presented, with the Baldknobbers Jamboree Show removed. Vote taken, all approved.
Community & Economic Development Advisory Council Report – The report was provided in the packet.
Small Business Development Advisory Council Report – The report was provided in the packet.
A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to accept both the Community & Economic Development Advisory Council Report and the Small Business Development Advisory Report as presented.
New Business – Ross Summers congratulated Sight & Sound Theatres on Jonah. Mike Pitman said so far every show has been sold out since opening.
William Mahoney stated they have seven new doctors coming to Cox in the next 60 to 120 days and contracts for several more.
Brad Swofford reported Branson Public Schools have hired David Large from Cassville as the new athletic director. The school is also looking for a new football coach, but they hope to have that wrapped up in a week or so.
Board members reported briefly how business has been and is looking for them so far in 2014. The majority stated that February was a bit down, but March is coming around.
Jeff Bourk reported Southwest numbers are really strong, 95% load factors through June (when they leave BKG).
Tim Connell reported Connell Insurance recently picked up an endorsement for the manufacturing association for the entire state. They will take that over April 1 for about 80 manufacturers. They’re based of out Springfield where Connell will open a new location in the next 30to 60 days.
Craig Richards reported that Ozark Mountain Bank was on the Forbes Best Banks in the country list for the fifth consecutive year.
A motion was made, seconded and unanimously approved to adjourn this meeting of the Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau. The meeting adjourned at 9:36 a.m.
Present: Jim Barber, Jeff Bourk, Randy Brashers, Danita Brown, Mike Combs, Tim Connell, Steve Critchfield, Chris Hamon, Ron Jett, William Mahoney, Janet Oller, Mike Pitman, Craig Richards, Steve Scherer, Scott Skoglund, Angie Smith, David Smith (Legal Counsel) Brad Swofford and Jamie Whiteis.
Absent: Bob Cox, Stephen Marshall, Chris Myer, Patrick Parnell and Craig Wescott.
Guests: Dr. Hal Higdon
BLACC/CVB Staff Present: Leah Chandler, Monica Evinger, Cathy Hubert, Debi Lipper, Sharon Rosche’ and Ross Summers.