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Chair asks for five-year plan as Newland tourism authority debates website control and conflict-of-interest rules
Summary
At the February meeting, the Building and Tourism Dwelling Authority agreed to meet monthly, discussed that a recently read resolution directs tax revenues to the tourism authority, debated whether the authority should manage a dedicated tourism website or leave updates to the town clerk, and raised conflict-of-interest concerns about board members bidding on work.
The chair of the Town of Newland's Building and Tourism Dwelling Authority opened the February meeting and proposed the authority keep monthly meetings on the first Tuesday at 5:00 p.m., and asked members to set up an authority account before the next meeting.
The chair said members should review the exact text of the resolution establishing the authority because "as the resolution is read, it appears that it all comes to the tourism development authority" and noted the authority is tasked with using at least "two thirds to promote travel and tourism and 1 third for tourism related expenditures." The chair asked the group to begin drafting a deliberate five-year plan and to place that planning item on the March agenda.
Members then focused on the authority's online presence. Participants reported that the town's business pages are out of date (one example named a local business still shown as closed after a recent storm) and discussed whether the TDA should build and operate its own tourism website or continue to rely on the town clerk to maintain a town-hosted business page with an outward link to TDA material. The chair said the authority could either create a standalone site and link from the Town of Newland's pages or retain the town-hosted pages while obtaining editor privileges on the site.
Technical options were discussed: the group mentioned Wix for site hosting and Google Analytics for tracking traffic and page-level statistics if the authority assumes responsibility for the site. The chair urged improving search visibility using appropriate keywords so Newland appears in searches for regional terms.
A member raised ethics concerns about procurement, saying: "I don't think that it should be anyone on the actual TDA board that would be able to put in a bid personally... it's a conflict of interest." Other members disagreed with sweeping characterizations of community consensus but acknowledged the need to avoid real or perceived conflicts when soliciting work.
To move forward the chair asked members to obtain a few written quotes within about 30 days and agreed to add the website/specifications item to the March agenda. A member advised the authority to draft a clear solicitation or RFP describing the authority's website needs before seeking bids so vendors can respond to uniform requirements. Members suggested pulling features and examples from other tourism authority websites to include in the specification.
No formal votes were recorded during the meeting. The group left with several follow-up directions: set up the authority account, compile example sites and desired features, draft an RFP/solicitation describing the website requirements, and obtain vendor quotes for consideration at the March meeting.
