CVB director to be hired after Jan. 1

Friday, November 27, 2015

The hiring of a new executive director of the Putnam County Convention and Visitor Bureau will not take place in 2015, the board confirmed on Tuesday.

When the CVB board voted to remove Executive Director Karla Lawless and Assistant Director Dianna Love back in June, the goal appeared to be to have a new, permanent director in place by the end of the year.

However, a long audit process and the work being done by interim Director Lynne Fuller has the board prepared to wait a little longer on making a hire.

Additionally, board member Eric Wolfe laid out a timeline for hiring a new director on Tuesday, showing that the board performing due diligence on this task will take at least a two-month process.

Wolfe's initial timeline included getting the job posted through local media in addition to university and online resources by Monday, Nov. 30.

From there, the board would like to keep the posting up for around three weeks, with Fuller sharing some initial applicants with the board during the week of Dec. 14.

On Dec. 23, phone interviews would be offered to as many as 10 applicants, with the interviews to take place between the Christmas and New Year holidays.

Following the phone interviews, in-person interviews with finalists would take place in early- to mid-January, with a vote on Tuesday, Jan. 26 about making an offer to one of the candidates.

Negotiations would follow, after which the hire would be final.

"I did that as an exercise to say, 'We've got a lot of work to do,'" Wolfe said.

Fuller agreed, saying that Wolfe's timeline might be a bit too ambitious.

In the meantime, the board and Fuller plan to move forward with the process.

One part of moving forward will be a new contract with Fuller. Although much has been accomplished since she was hired, the process will not be complete in December, which is when her contract expires.

Treasurer Michele Faison brought up the topic of keeping Fuller longer, with President Rick Patel suggesting another three months.

Fuller, while willing to stay longer, said she would need to figure out how much time she can offer and come back to the board with her thoughts.

The board also announced that the CVB has been awarded a pair of marketing grants from the Indiana Office of Tourism Development's (IOTD) Marketing Assets Grants program.

The primary grant was written and submitted by the Putnam County CVB. The CVB is looking to establish and online portal and social media identity that would promote programs and services offered by many Putnam County organizations, with emphasis on making the county a vibrant visitor destination.

Local partners committed $10,500 to the project, including $5,000 from the CVB. The IOTD is contributing $23,500, bringing the total budget for the project to $33,500.

The second grant was written and submitted by the Hendricks County Convention and Visitor Bureau, Visit Hendricks County.

With the grant award, this is now a three-county initiative under the brand of "Rural Routes to Main Street," with Hendricks County, Morgan County and now Putnam County as partners. The Rural Routes project juries and promotes local businesses as part of artisan and culinary destination trails.

The CVB is dedicating $3,000 as local match for this project, with a total three-county match of $10,000. With the state two-to-one contribution, the total promotion and development budget is $30,000.

The CVB is also currently engaged in a study that will measure the impact of visitor spending in Putnam County. This is a primary research project that is being conducted by Certec Inc. of Versailles, Ky.

Among other data, study findings will measure the approximated number of annual visitors to the county, spending per visitor and local jobs supported by visitor spending. The cost of the study, fully funded by the CVB, is $5,900. Results will be available next May.

The next meeting of the CVB board is set for 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 22.

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  • Have been watching for the advertisement of this position, have not found it yet.

    -- Posted by talkymom3 on Mon, Nov 30, 2015, at 4:56 PM
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