Bill, a consultant with DMO Pros, told the Middleton Tourism Commission on Nov. 18 that Visit Middleton is performing solidly for its budget but needs better community engagement and at least one additional staff member to execute outreach and marketing.

"It's all we do. It's all we've done for 30 years in business," Bill said as he opened an organizational assessment that covered structure, office efficacy and the city's partnership with Destination Madison. He said the city's model — a DMO operated as a city department — is uncommon but can work if the office has entrepreneurial latitude and access to city services.

The report flagged a recurring stakeholder complaint: businesses and event hosts sometimes do not know when tournaments or other visitor-driving events are happening. Bill recommended adding a focused community-marketing or outreach position to free the tourism director to build local relationships and run quarterly town-hall meetings to showcase grant recipients and boost transparency.

On Destination Madison, Bill said the countywide partner uses different room-night accounting methods than Visit Middleton, complicating comparisons of return on investment. He noted Destination Madison reports about "365,000 social media impressions mentioning Middleton" but questioned whether Middleton’s 17% contribution — cited in the presentation as roughly $260,000 annually — yields commensurate benefits and suggested renegotiating benefit levels or creating a tiered partner structure.

Bill also called room-tax law "maddeningly complex" and urged a formal orientation (90–120 minutes) for commissioners to explain statutory limits on eligible uses and grant guidelines. To reduce potential perceptions of favoritism, the report recommends removing delegated staff authority to discard noncompliant grant applications and instead have the commission formally mark applications as noncompliant.

The presentation concluded with benchmarking: among comparable DMOs Bill reviewed, staff sizes averaged about 3.8 people; he recommended Middleton consider adding one position to improve outreach. Bill offered to take questions and said the draft assessment remains open for edits from commissioners.

What happens next: staff and commissioners said they will review the draft and consider Bill's recommendations as they approach the Destination Madison contract renewal and the commission’s strategic planning work.