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Approved September 17, 2014 MINUTES Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau Board of Directors Meeting August 20, 2014 The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau met at Sheraton Chapel Hill, One Europa Drive Board Members Present: Anthony Carey, Dave Gephart, Lee Storrow, Debbie Hepp, Greg Overbeck, Mark Sherburne, Aaron Bachenheimer, Lee Pavao, Mike Gering, Penny Rich, Annette Stone, and Meg McGurk Not Present: Jim Parker, Karen DeHart, and Michelle Johnson Staff attendance: Laurie Paolicelli, Steve Brantley, Linda Ekeland, Martha Shannon and Tina Fuller Also attended: Natalie Perkins, Clean Design; Michael Schinelli and Professor Nicholas Didow, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School Call to Order Chairman Anthony Carey called the meeting to order at 8:11 a.m. Welcome from the Sheraton Chapel Hill Nitin Khanna, General Manager for the Sheraton Chapel Hill welcomed board members and guests. Mr. Khanna spoke briefly on hotel activity including current room occupancy with Carolina Students through Lux Apartments. Budget Update Penny Rich talked about the Board of County Commissioners agreement to drop the line item used to pay rent; she explained that those funds would be used for advertising in the 2014-15 budget. Ms. Rich noted that this year’s $1.5 million budget shows some increase in key areas; the Arts Commission is basically the same as last year with a slight increase in advertising and printing. She also noted that occupancy revenue is going up. Mike Gering inquired about the fund balance. Paolicelli replied that there was a $165,000 surplus this last fiscal year and $192,000 has been appropriated into this budget year. Gering commented that the funds should be used for tourism. Ms. Rich agreed to meet with 3-4 people. Paolicelli replied there is already a finance committee in place. Brand NC Project Chairman Carey introduced Professor Nick Didow and Chief Marketing Officer, Michael Schinelli along with students Tori and Summer with the UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School to discuss the Brand NC project Professor Didow gave a background of how the project came about– last October Tom Ross, President, UNC Systems, said Sharon Decker called about North Carolina not having a brand. UNC Agreed to help Commerce with branding and Tom called Didow. Working with group of 10-23 students on project, there is a statewide board of advisors, public and private. Challenge is to listen and capture, engage and represent the voice of current NC citizens and future NC citizens. Purpose: create an authentic and credible brand. Project Strategy was conducted in three phases: Discovery, strategy and creative with the Discovery Phase just completed. The data found in the discovery phase will be implemented in the strategy phase, which is currently under way. A PowerPoint presentation followed with explanation on the quantitative and qualitative research conducted.