Memorandum

City of Lawrence

City Manager’s Office

TO:	Diane Stoddard, Interim City Manager
FROM:	Megan Gilliland, Communications Manager
CC:	Casey Toomay Brandon McGuire
DATE:	September 10, 2015
RE:	Convention and Visitors Bureau Reorganization

Background:

Since February 2015, I have served as the Interim Director of Destination Management, Inc. (DMI), the umbrella organization that oversees the Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Freedom’s Frontier National Heritage Area.  After many conversations with industry partners and community stakeholders, DMI and city staff are recommending that the creation of a new 501-C organization for CVB operations would serve the organization best and provide for direct oversight of the CVB’s operations as a vendor to the city for the promotion of travel and tourism in Lawrence.  The existing advisory board would not exist under this new organizational structure.

Resolution No. 7142 (added 09/11/15), creating a new, Mayor-appointed governing board, is provided for review and discussion by the City Commission. The CVB recently completed a re-branding process and is now eXplore Lawrence.  The new eXplore Lawrence governing board would be a seven member board with three ex-officio members representing the staff of the City Manager’s Office, Downtown Lawrence, Inc. and the Chamber of Commerce. The voting members of the governing board represent the overall travel and tourism industry in differing capacities – hotel properties, event management, university representation, sports and recreation, cultural amenities and a City Commission member.  Proposed bylaws (added 09/11/15) for the new eXplore Lawrence governing board are also provided for review. 

The CVB staff coordinates a monthly meeting, with all hotel properties invited to attend, to discuss sales efforts, requests for proposals, and general communication with hotel properties.  These meetings would still continue under the new organization.

The City of Lawrence also needs to establish a new agreement with eXplore Lawrence to operate as a vendor to the city for travel and tourism promotion.  A new agreement is attached which strengthens the performance measures and reporting to the City of Lawrence about the overall travel and tourism trends and efforts by eXplore Lawrence.

The new eXplore Lawrence organization would become effective later this year with the installation of the board of directors and would become the vendor for the city beginning January 1, 2016.   The eXplore Lawrence budget for 2016 has been established with a renewed focus on sales and marketing. 

Once the City Commission approves the creation of the new 501-C organization for eXplore Lawrence, we can begin actively recruiting for the Director to oversee operations of the CVB and serve as the primary spokesperson for travel and tourism in our community.  A draft job description is attached.  The new governing board for eXplore Lawrence will hire the Director later this year once the board vacancies are filled and the organization is created.

In addition to the reorganization documents, eXplore Lawrence would like the City Commission’s approval, via Transient Guest Tax (TGT) financial support, to sponsor two NCAA events with Kansas Athletics and to pursue placing a bid to host the 2017 Junior Olympics for USA Track and Field.  A memo from eXplore Lawrence is attached which outlines the impact of the events, including the estimated direct visitor spending/economic impact as well as the estimated TGT regeneration through hosting these events in Lawrence. The bid for the 2017 Junior Olympics event is due on October 1 and the CVB would then need to work in preparation for a site selection visit and then a bid presentation in Houston, Texas to the membership in December 2015.  The bid for the 2017 Junior Olympics will be awarded on December 5, 2015.   If the CVB is not successful in their bid, the request for TGT funds for this event would be rescinded, less funds used to prepare and present the bid.