AUBURN’S HISTORIC & CULTURAL SITES COMMISSION
Meeting minutes from January 6, 2004
Present: M. Alberici, K. Walker, B. M. Lewis, M. Vanek, T. Hussey, P. Wisbey, D. Lamb,
E. McHugh, S. Marteney, J. Bryant, A. Wood, P. Copes Johnson, D. Dempsey and J. Kline
Excused: M. Weitekamp and S. Craner
Absent: J. McCormick, C. Carter, P. Anderegg and T. Bridenbecker
Chair M. Alberici called the meeting to order, and E. McHugh read the mission and vision statements for the Commission.
I. Approval of the Minutes
M. Alberici asked for approval of the October ‘03 minutes. D. Lamb made a motion to accept the minutes as submitted, seconded by E. McHugh. All were in favor and the motion carried.
Committee Reports
II. Planning & Development Committee
D. Lamb said the committee had not met, but she will set a meeting date in the near future.
III. Marketing Committee
As for leads from ads, M. Vanek said for the month of December the Tourism Office responded to 132 inquiries; the top producer was Better Homes & Gardens. That totals 10,806 inquiries for the year, a 79% increase over last year’s leads. M. Vanek said the first draft of the brochure reprint is done. M. Vanek said the Marketing Committee and the site directors need to set a date to meet to look it over. She asked those Committee members and directors present to stay on after the meeting to set a date. (They met on January 12th at 10AM at the Willard Chapel.)
M. Vanek said she hasn’t had much luck moving forward with the signage projects that the Committee had been working on. The one finished City pedestrian sign is at the DPW garage, and there are five more signs to be made. After leaving numerous messages, M. Vanek has not heard back from Jerry Del Favero re: installation. J. Kline is meeting with J. Del Favero tomorrow at the City Garage to see where things stand.
M. Vanek said next Monday, she is meeting with an intern to discuss the quality standards project. Site promotional materials, tours, staff, appearance, hours, etc. will all be assessed. In addition to the sites, other attractions in Fair Haven and Aurora will be included. There may be a non-traditional student helping the intern with the visits. The project will continue through the month of May. The intern will compile a final report with a summary of each visit, and (if applicable) recommendations for change. A copy of the Randall Travel Marketing Report will be used as a stylistic comparison. Comments will be constructive suggestions for internal use only. This report will not be released to the press. J. Kline circulated copies of the site criteria developed by P. Wisbey, J. Bryant and E. McHugh.
M. Vanek referred Commission members to the copy of the press release on the updated survey of the Finger Lakes Region by Randall Travel Marketing. M. Vanek reviewed some of the highlights such as 81% of adult visitors to the Region were historic/cultural travelers, 30% were influenced to come to the Region by a specific event. This is very good news for our sites, since their positioning is perfect. M. Vanek said the Office sent copies of the release to City Council, the Mayor and County Legislators so they are reminded of what a financial asset the sites are, by bringing new money into the community. M. Vanek referred to the new travel guide and calendar of events (January – June 2004). J. Kline provided extra copies of both to take back to the sites. M. Vanek said someone from the Office will be out delivering
cases of the brochures very soon, or people can pick them up at the office if they want them sooner.
M. Vanek said she has also not had any luck with finding out where things stood with the signage that was to go along the arterial. M. Vanek resubmitted the original plans to Mike Long that were to be included in a DOT City Planning application in May of ‘02. Dave Dempsey said he did follow up with M. Long. M. Long said some of the signs fall within the scope of the DOT application (the ones on the arterial), and some don’t. The ones that don’t need to be drafted up by the City sign person who has been on vacation. The others are still in the planning process. M. Alberici said she had noticed that the Tubman Home is listed on a Weedsport Thruway sign, and that there was room for some of the other sites to be listed there too. J. Kline said she got in touch with T. Ottley from County Planning to see what
could be done. It seems the other sites are located within 10 miles of the Thruway; the Tubman Home is actually the farthest south. M. Vanek thought there was an annual fee of about $750 for the signage. We will wait and see how T. Ottley makes out.
IV. Community Outreach Committee
S. Craner is on maternity leave until the first week in February. E. McHugh said the Ukrainian School of Sts. Peter & Paul will be added to the “Passport to History” program this year.
V. Quality Assurance Committee
Committee Chair W. DeWitt is no longer with the Tubman Home, as seen in the Post Standard. M. Alberici thought that P. Wisbey should be the new chair of this committee. P. Wisbey said the Committee met and drew up the quality assessment criteria (this was passed out earlier in the meeting).
VI. Prison Museum Study Group
P. Wisbey said he will e-mail copies of the letter he will draft to Melina Carnicelli and Mayor Lattimore stating the Study Group’s mission of exploring whether a stand-alone prison history museum is feasible or necessary was fulfilled. P. Wisbey agreed the natural solution was the Cayuga Museum’s permanent display of prison-related information and artifacts, which will be on view once the second story renovations are completed.
VII. Other Business
D. Lamb said Common Threads is now over, and it went very well. The Schweinfurth sold one quilt, and the others have been shipped back to their owners. They are collecting the survey forms from the sites to then be given to David McCarthy to be scanned and tallied. D. Lamb said S. Bieljec would send out an e-mail reminding everyone to get them in. D. Lamb asked P. Johnson to remind C. Carter at the Tubman Home to get theirs in. Once the results are in, the Commission should present the results to City Council. M. Alberici said next, questions for a summer survey should be drafted; please bring your ideas to the next meeting.
D. Lamb said SMAC quilt show numbers were up 17% over last year. She felt there were a lot of new people that had attended the show. D. Lamb said they had some great press coverage, plus the TV commercials and the ads and articles that ran in national magazines helped boost publicity. E. McHugh said their quilt show attendance was about the same as last year, but overall annual attendance was down. D. Lamb said their annual attendance had slightly decreased too. But, E. McHugh said they saw some group tours come through that were spending the day in Auburn, having lunch, etc. D. Lamb agreed, and added that they had a large number of school tours and quilt guilds come through.
E. McHugh said they had received complaints from visitors that had tried to visit the Tubman Home for the quilt show but found it was closed, or open by appointment only. The Common Threads brochure had listed specific hours of operation for that site, and visitors had planned their trip accordingly. E. McHugh felt this inconsistency cast a negative reflection on the entire program. The Schweinfurth and the Chapel had also received complaints about the Home’s operating hours. One solution would be to not list specific hours for the Home in the next brochure, but to have visitors call there directly for further information.
J. Kline said Margaret Weitekamp produced the first Commission newsletter, and J. Kline mailed the copies out to the sites for their Board members and visitors. An error was caught, after the fact, that Malcolm Goodelle was still listed as the representative for the Historian’s Office. J. Kline corrected this before sending copies to City and County elected officials. M. Alberici said that the mission statement also needs to be updated on the next one. J. Kline asked for suggestions for the next issue, and ideas discussed included the Tubman Home Pilgrimage, the Historic Preservation Tour in July, the results of the Common Threads Visitor Survey, the updated Randall Report’s information on historic/cultural travelers and the different preservation projects happening at the sites. J. Kline asked for information
about all those activities to be e-mailed to her as soon as possible. S. Marteney offered to include the newsletter in with a Red Cross mailing that goes out in mid February to 3,600 people; 50% from Auburn, the other half from various locations. S. Marteney would need the information by February 1st. (J. Kline has since told S. Marteney that unfortunately creating the new newsletter and paying for 3,600 copies to be made, when the project was not budgeted for, isn’t possible.)
M. Alberici said she met with D. Dempsey to discuss the possibility of raising funds for the Commission. D. Dempsey then inquired with the City Manager, who in turn said that we could.
D. Dempsey said it is obviously a Catch-22, if the Commission is successful in raising money, the City may not see the need to continue to provide funds to the Commission. D. Dempsey continued right now, the economic climate is not going to improve since the City is mandated to pay $2.5 million dollars in pension plans in the next six months; up from $900,000 last year. D. Dempsey said, obtaining additional revenue for the Commission may become crucial.
M. Alberici thought the sites would mutually benefit from fundraising, and since our budget was cut $25,000 this past year, we may not have a choice if we want to continue on with various programs. Many things that we did this past year were actually funded from the previous budget cycle, and next year, we don’t have that cushion to rely on. We can only hope to hold onto our $50,000 budget. M. Alberici continued, if we don’t move towards self-sufficiency, the Commission could become defunct. M. Alberici said she does not believe in fundraising without having a goal. For example, funds could be raised to hire a grants writer, or to secure a trolley that would take visitors around to the sites (like the one in Canandaigua). M. Alberici asked the site directors to meet and discuss 3-4 goals for the Commission to
work towards, as well as providing the name of a person who could help raise funds from their Boards. J. Bryant made a motion to open up the topic of fundraising for discussion, seconded by A. Wood. All were in favor and the motion carried.
E. McHugh said she was not in favor of joint fundraising, and thought it would hurt, not help the individual sites. The local funding streams are already limited, and why would they want to fund yet another entity? There is also the question of input. Different sites provide different levels of involvement and support to the Commission, and it is fair that all should benefit equally? D. Lamb said her first priority is raising funds for the Schweinfurth, but that maybe there were ways to organize a cooperative project that would benefit everyone. Although the Schweinfurth and the Cayuga Museum already receive funds from NYSCA, maybe they could partner with an institution that doesn’t. M. Alberici agreed that it could be project oriented, targeted at more than the local audience. For example, our strategic planner
Barry Warren worked with a professional fundraising company to offer the 100 holes of golf event, which raised over $15,000 in one day.
K. Walker agreed with the idea of doing an event to raise funds for a specific project. Maybe enough funds could be raised for the entire Common Threads program ($6,000). Regarding equality and participation K. Walker said the Chapel, which manages the budget for Common Threads, only has the ability to offer a one-day quilt show. The cost for this program is almost 10% of the Commission’s entire budget, but the Chapel doesn’t benefit equally from this promotion. Her point being, it’s all part of the whole and for the greater good for everyone, whether or not they have equal exposure or gain isn’t important.
S. Marteney thought a special event during Common Threads had great potential. One idea is to bring in a renowned quilter to do a lecture or workshop, which would supplement the current program and have an extended audience. T. Hussey offered that there’s also the Arts Council’s “Summer Celebration” that the Commission could add onto. This year’s date is August 7th, at Deauville Island. They have live music all day long, food, a fine art show, etc. but there’s room for additional activities.
M. Vanek stressed the Commission’s financial need in simply fulfilling brochure requests. The budgeted amount has already been spent, and the budget year is only halfway through. Requests were up 79% over last year, and the added costs for postage and manpower needs to be accounted for. Also, M. Vanek said, we need to do more work educating the politicians of the Commission’s importance and economic impact in light of the sales tax and jobs tourism creates. M. Vanek said we needed D. Dempsey’s guidance with advocacy and scheduling public/private meeting with City Council. J. Bryant thought that the City and the County should annually contribute a certain percentage of their budgets to the sites.
M. Vanek said, our last conversion study showed that 50% of the people that request information about Auburn actually came, and using last year’s inquiry numbers that equaled approximately 5,000 people. With the current regional average spending rate being $398 per day, times the length of their stay, that generates quite a bit of new money for this community. M. Vanek said she has presented these figures to City Council before, but we need to continually remind them. The group present agreed that perhaps the Planning & Development Committee should work on advocacy right now. D. Dempsey said he would help with advocacy, and that working the numbers backwards like that, will make more of an impact than the Commission offering “feel good” programs. M. Alberici asked everyone to think on this, and E.
McHugh tabled the fundraising motion for further discussion at the next meeting, seconded by M. Vanek. All were in favor and the motion carried.
D. Lamb said the site directors still need to meet to discuss priorities, and then decide if an additional committee is needed. (Since the directors are meeting January 12th to review the brochure copy before reprint, they planned to discuss this then.)
M. Alberici said “Chef’s Night” is scheduled for Thursday, February 5th. Half the tickets have already been sold, and this year, they are only being sold at the Chapel. They are assigning tables in advance to alleviate confusion. D. Lamb said they are opening a new exhibit, “Domestic Bliss: Refrigerator Art & Beyond” on February 1st. There are some local artists involved, i.e. Jesse Kline. The Art Center will be closed for the month of January for restroom renovations.
S. Marteney said in March they are putting a display together of vintage Red Cross uniforms at the National Bank of Geneva on West Genesee Street. E. McHugh said their next exhibit will be “Dining through the Decades,” part of the Home Grown Business Series focusing on businesses that started here and stayed here for a long time. Visitors will be encouraged to contribute their stories and memorable moments from various local restaurants. D. Lamb said this show is a great compliment to the Schweinfurth’s show. E. McHugh said the Cayuga Museum received a grant to undergo a complete strategic plan. In order to assess local residents’ opinions, they will be conducting public forums during February and March.
M. Alberici said she will be leaving shortly for North Carolina to see her son’s family. She will not be back until the beginning of February. The Commission’s next meeting will held on February 10th at 3:30PM, 3rd Floor City Hall. The Commission adjourned at 5:05PM.
Recorded by Jesse Kline
| 
