(Seguin) — The city of Seguin is not getting rid of its Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) Board after all.
The Seguin City Council recently turned down a request to dissolve the CVB advisory board. Staff had suggested that the citizen advisory board might no longer be necessary because the Destination Seguin office is already handling most of those functions, with oversight coming from city management and the council.
Destination Management Director Blaire Friar provided the council with some history on the city-run board, which was created when the city took over the Convention and Visitors Bureau. It was a somewhat contentious decision at the time because the bureau had been tied to the Seguin Area Chamber of Commerce for years.
When taking over the operation, the city agreed that it would maintain the citizen-based CVB Board to help advise staff. However, questions about the need for the board began to surface after it was revealed that the committee had not met in years.
“This board was established at that point when the city overtook the Convention of Visitors Board from the Chamber of Commerce. It was established to serve in advisory capacity to the Seguin City Council to oversee kind of the operation of the Convention and Visitors Burea,” said Friar. “The purposes included advising on the promotion of Seguin, on solicitation of groups and meetings to bring some of those organizations into our community for overnight stays. suggesting advertising campaigns and then just overall discussing other means to attract tourists, visitors, groups, meetings, sports teams, etc.”
Friar says that the city’s ordinance not only defined the board’s work, but also its membership.
“The composition of the board was very specific. It was seven members. Two from the lodging sector, one from the Hispanic Chamber, one from the Chamber of Commerce, a restaurant representative, a tourism attraction representative, and a city council representative,” said Friar.
Friar says the fact that the board hasn’t met in years, coupled with much of its work now being handled by staff, ultimately led them to bring the item to the council for consideration.
“All of these things are still happening. Tourism planning is still happening at the staff level. Our budget recommendations are done annually through the budget process and overseen by City Council. Our occupancy funding allocation is reviewed annually with a full proposal to the occupancy tax committee. Marketing direction is all handled in-house and with staff. And then our strategic planning is done with staff and City Council oversight,” said Friar.
Staff time was also a concern as the duties of the Destination Seguin office continue to grow. Friar says some cities have similar advisory committees, while others do not.
“Our team has three responsibilities. We are Main Street, we are tourism, and we are arts. So, we tried to look at some communities that may have one or two or all three of those pieces. Both models do exist, and they exist well. Some of the ones to look at that maybe don’t have boards, they do have Main Street. Some that do have boards maybe don’t have Main Street. It varies all across the board and there’s no perfect way. It’s just finding the best way for us. One thing that we did notice is that some of the ones that do have a CVB or tourism board, that board also kind of owns something. They manage an event or they handle the occupancy tax grants for the city or they have a facility that department also oversees,” said Friar.
When the committee stopped meeting, the advisory work was largely picked up by staff, which reached out to stakeholders throughout the community and then used those contacts to help inform its day-to-day work.
“Some of the challenges…with any board is maintaining active participation. And then it’s also just that a lot of the advisory functions do already occur in other channels. And then (there’s) the administrative support that is needed for managing multiple boards,” said Friar.
Councilman Paul Gaytan pushed for the board to be restarted. He says he believes that citizen input is important to the city.
“I think it’s very important to have a board made-up (citizens) that are voicing their opinions on how it affects their businesses, how it affects the community, (and) how it affects downtown. I see no negative at all. In the parks board, we have meetings, and there were things brought to those meetings that the administration was recommending, and the Parks Board said no. And I think we did some good things in stopping some of the things that were going to happen. And then of course, there’s a lot of great things that did happen. That’s the give and take of a democracy. You have the experts, the administrators, and then you have the people who it’s their money and it’s their city and they want a voice and they want to give their opinion. And that’s a beautiful thing,” said Gaytan.
But Councilwoman Monica Napier questioned whether the board was still necessary, given the current structure and operation of the city’s destination management office.
“I think from what I’m understanding is what would be covered on that board, again, it’s already being covered on the multiple other boards. And I’m in agreement with what you’re saying that again, this just almost seems like it would be another board, just for the sake of saying there’s another board,” said Napier.
Despite the issues raised by staff, the council voted last Tuesday to retain the committee. Friar says they will now look at reworking the board and its membership.
“I would want to kind of re-envision it. Maybe look at board composition and ensuring that we are open to as many (people) as possible. In my opinion, it’s pretty strict…so you are limiting yourself. So, maybe expanding that a little bit, opening it up for say a meeting planner, somebody that organizes meetings and conventions and can really bring that perspective,” said Friar.
The proposed changes will be brought back by staff at a future meeting. The council will then be asked to consider revisions to the existing ordinance that created the CVB Board.