The City of Alva Tourism Tax Committee voted to form an advertising and promotions subcommittee at their Jan. 25 meeting. Members attending were Chairman Norville Ritter, Jaunita Dotson, Dr. Charles Tucker and Terri Parsons. Bryce Benson was absent.

No specifications were established for the number of members or how those members might be chosen. The subcommittee has no funds nor do they have a budget at present.

Alva Mayor Kelly Parker spoke to the tourism committee, setting forth proposals for membership and responsibilities of the subcommittee. In addition to the mayor, those answering questions on the topic were Melissa Heaton, Brenda Hood, JoDe Bradt and Alex Mantz.

Some History

Parker first provided some history. In 2008, the City of Alva commissioned a community engagement process entitled "Alva Alive." From that process, multiple citizen committees were established. The civic services committee is one of two remaining active committees established in the Alva Alive initiative.

Heaton, Hood and Bradt are the three remaining members of that volunteer committee. The committee has continued to meet and work to highlight events and tourism opportunities for Alva. Each year they have made a presentation to the tourism committee requesting funding to promote Alva. Those projects have included interstate highway billboards and most recently advertising in the Oklahoma Today magazine.

In February 2016, the tourism commission agreed to fund Oklahoma Today magazine ads totaling $20,433 to run from June 1, 2016 to June 1, 2017. The group received the same amount for the same purpose the preceding year.

Parker said Mantz, the city's economic development specialist, called him in December about working with the volunteer committee on branding. He realized there was some overlap with their projects and the purpose of the tourism committee. He proposed they become part of a subcommittee of the tourism committee.

"The committee needs to be adopted under the organization of another entity in order to achieve their worthwhile ambitions," said Parker. "The Tourism and Convention Development Committee is the only entity that has an unbiased interest and responsibility to advertise and promote such area activities and events."

Proposed Subcommittee Membership

Parker provided the tourism committee with a written proposal of membership and responsibilities of the subcommittee. He recommended five to seven members including two representatives of the tourism committee, four to five citizen representatives (initially selected from Alva Alive Civic Services Committee), and one ex-officio, non-voting member of the City of Alva staff, i.e. the City Economic Development Specialist or other staff member with responsibilities consistent with the purposes of the subcommittee.

The terms of the members would be indefinite in length at the will of the appointing body. The tourism committee representatives would serve at the will of that committee; citizen representatives would serve at the will of the advertising and promotions subcommittee, and the ex-officio staff member would serve at the will of the city business manager.

Proposed Subcommittee Responsibilities

• Report and answer to the Tourism Committee for direction and approval of A&P Subcommittee activities and finances.

• Support the Tourism Committee to promote public awareness and education including the branding and promotion of the community, conventions, events, and activities geared toward generating tourism.

• Support the Tourism Committee to gather information and ideas, conduct research, develop advertising, promotional programs, materials and equipment, travel to bid conventions and trade show events and to promote the city's image so that the city will be developed and maintained as a convention, tourism, and recreation center.

• Support the Tourism Committee to employ and/or engage persons or other entities to perform services necessary to the fulfillment of the committee's duties.

• Support the Tourism Committee to seek and obtain alternative funding support for A&P Subcommittee activities including but not limited to sponsorships, and grant funding as appropriate and authorized by the Tourism Committee.

• As appropriate, ex-officio staff shall be responsible for carrying out the decisions of the A&P Subcommittee as authorized by the Tourism Committee and directed by the city business manager in accordance with applicable federal, state, county and municipal guidelines, rules and regulations.

Questions and Answers

Parker said he anticipated the subcommittee working with a professional advertising agency to put the tourism message out. Any expenditure would have to be approved by the city and go through the normal purchase order process within their budget. The city would be the purchaser as the agent of the tourism committee.

He said the city would assign a staff member to field calls and move the work objectives forward. He concluded it was time to establish a website and online calendar to highlight and promote activities and events of the community.

Tucker asked about the Alva Chamber of Commerce website already being in place to handle the same function. Ritter said the chamber website is changing to a more business-oriented site instead of focusing on tourism.

Ritter continued that he was a big fan of the Alva Alive civic committee and he wanted this (the subcommittee) to be "a very transparent thing."

When asked about money the Alva Alive committee received in past years from tourism taxes, Heaton estimated $10,000 had been spent on billboards and $68,000 with Oklahoma Today advertising.

Heaton said she has a daughter working for an advertising agency. When she was telling her about their expenditures and their ideas for promoting Alva, Heaton said her daughter asked, "Do you know how much an agency can do for you?"

Heaton spoke about a coordinated effort with a website, a social media campaign and other ideas. Mantz said, "We can do social media." However, she said an agency could "push out to demographics we can't reach."

Asked how much money such a campaign might cost, Heaton said they'd talked to two agencies. One estimated a cost of $45,000 to $50,000 the first year and $25,000 for each subsequent year. The other agency estimated $30,000 to $40,000 each year.

Tucker, who is a member of the Alva Arena Authority, expressed concern that funding this promotion might jeopardize funds needed for the arena project.

Hood, whose husband is also a member of arena authority, said the arena would benefit from having this advertising and promotions campaign already up to speed by the time the arena is ready to start booking events.

Parker added that hiring a professional firm "is what I think is of value. Get someone who does this for a living on a grand scale like they do for other communities." He said it was time to bring scattered websites under one website.

Tucker asked for an example of other communities who have done this. Mantz said she was most familiar with Enid as an example. Instead of several entities promoting one event, they use a combined effort with one marking approach.

Tucker said while it sounded like a great idea, he'd like to have contact with a community the size of Alva that has done this. He also said he thought the number of subcommittee members should be held to five.

"I move that we accept this proposal, that we set the subcommittee up and that we adjust as we go along," said Tucker. His motion was seconded by Parsons, and passed unanimously.

Further discussion indicated a list of subcommittee members will be decided upon at the February meeting of the tourism committee.

Financial Report

The tourism committee accepted minutes of the last meeting and the financial reports for November and December. The November report had some clerical errors which were pointed out during the December meeting and were corrected.

As of Dec. 31, the tourism committee had $618,689.66 in funds available.