At its November meeting, the Columbus Lowndes Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Trustees voted to purchase the Elks Club building on Main Street and the building next door to it for $400,000.
The plan is to build a children’s discovery center, which CVB officials believe will help the city attract more visitors while providing educational and entertainment opportunities for local children.
For long-time observers of the CVB board, the move represents the first tangible evidence of a change in philosophy that started about two years ago.
“There’s no doubt about it,” says CVB Board President DeWitt Hicks. “This is something we could not have done a couple of years ago.”
Two key decisions were pivotal in the change of direction.
First, in June 2013, the board approved a new ethics policy that prohibited elected officials, CVB board members, its employees or family members from receiving CVB funds. Then, in August of 2014, the board announced another major change, voting to reduce the amount of money for local grants — mostly through festival funding — by 25 percent over the next four years.
During the 2014-15, the CVB’s local grants fell by almost 30 percent, from the $111,049 it distributed in 2013-14 to $78,016 it spent in 2014-15. This year, the CVB budget will reduce those grants by approximately $31,000, as the CVB makes incremental steps toward making festival funding an even smaller part of its expenditures.
“We realized that our mission is not just for what we call quality-of-life but that our primary purpose is bringing visitors to Columbus,” said CVB Executive Director Nancy Carpenter. “It’s a matter of using our funds the best way we can.”
Carpenter said the money freed up by reducing the emphasis on festival funding has allowed the board to think bigger and support projects that have a direct impact on tourism.
“We do know that when we do have events here, like the big soccer tournaments, people want other things to do while they are in town,” Carpenter said. “We missed out on a couple of large conventions in recent years because what there was for children to do here was limited. Now, we are able to address some of those issues in a way that we think we’ll not only make Columbus more attractive for visitors, but will also be something the people here can enjoy as well.”
Another benefit of the change in direction has been the atmosphere of monthly CVB meetings, which were often filled with bitter in-fighting among boards, usually over festival funding. With a smaller emphasis on festival funding and more rigid guidelines governing that funding, the board’s meetings have been far more collegial, both Carpenter and Hicks acknowledged.
“It has changed,” Carpenter said. “It’s far more professional and calm.”
Hicks said the difference has been night and day.
“We’ve gotten away from the petty criticisms so that we can concentrate on the big picture,” he said. “I think the entire attitude at our board meting has changed, and I think that has allowed us to do a much better job.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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