Committee Minutes

Grand Forks Events Center Commission
Regular Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Alerus Center Meadowlark Room #12


CALL TO ORDER

Dwight Thompson, Vice Chair, called the Alerus Center Commission meeting to order on Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at approximately 7:31 am.


ROLL CALL

Present were: David Evenson, Curt Kreun, Dwight Thompson, Laura Block, and Duane Hafner establishing a quorum.

City: Howard Swanson; Saroj Jerath

VenuWorks Inc: Steve Peters, Ron Cummins, Sharon Cummins

Alerus Center: Vione Jordheim, Wendy Nimens, Rod Oas, Jeremy Linstad, Charlene Wifall, Tami Pearson, Roger Swanson


AMENDMENT TO THE AGENDA

Dwight Thompson asked for a motion to amend the agenda as Ms. Jerath has received the agreed upon procedures for the upcoming Brady Martz audit.

A motion was made by Duane Hafner to add Agreed-upon Procedures as an agenda item. Seconded by Curt Kreun. Motion passed unanimously.


APPROVAL OF MINUTES September 22, 2010

A motion was made by David Evenson to approve the minutes of September 22, 2010. Seconded by Curt Kreun. Motion passed unanimously.


APPROVAL OF SEPTEMBER 2010 FINANCIALS

The September 2010 financials were presented as distributed in the packets. September revenue less hospitality tax was $401,030; budgeted revenue less hospitality tax was $683,713. Year-to-date revenue less hospitality tax is $2,416,779 or 58% of budget. We should be at 75% at this time. September revenues fell short of budget by approximately $282,683; contributing factors included two concerts that did not occur and lower than anticipated attendance for UND football games. Catering revenue, year-to-date, is $74,485 ahead of budget.

September expenses were $334,238 which were $174,189 below budget; budgeted expenses were $508,427. Year-to-date expenses are $2,839,789 or 62% of budget which are $476,284 below budget. Staff continues to work hard to control expenses and year-to-date utility expenses are nearly $100,000 under budget. Forecast financials at the end of the 3rd quarter show that the Alerus Center will finish the year with an $85,580 loss.

Guest, Hal Gershman, asked of the hospitality revenue being down. Staff indicated that the revenue is based on projections from the City which are monitored monthly and actual revenue has been close to what the projections were.

Staff will check the numbers of budget vs actual; arena vs convention as there was a question on the line item. A revision will be sent out if warranted.

A motion was made by David Evenson to accept and file, including the accounts that were received, the September financials and forward them to the proper City officials for distribution. Seconded by Duane Hafner. Motion passed unanimously.


3rd QUARTER REPORT

An updated report was distributed as there was an error on the report that was included in the packet.

At the end of the 3rd quarter year-to-date finances are $130,510 in the red. A loss of $151,666 was budgeted for this time frame. Contributing to this loss is the lower than anticipated attendance for football games which has a large effect on the budget.

Attendance at the end of the 3rd quarter is slightly ahead of last year although year-to-date attendance compared to 2009 shows a 2.45% decrease.

The gross economic impact at the end of the 3rd quarter is just over $3 million. Net economic impact is approximately $1.8 million.

Event highlights during the 3rd quarter included GF Area Equipment, Biomass Regional Workshop, 2nd Annual Beer Fest, Military Appreciation Banquet, UND Football, ND/SD Realtors Convention and ND Library Association.

Upcoming events include high school football - Minnesota playoffs and North Dakota state championships, Pride of Dakota, Army vs Air Force ROTC football game, Dakota College of Bottineau vs Trinity Bible College football, Military Ball, UND Football, Prairie Grains Convention, Holiday Pops, Sesame Street and Celebrate the Night.
Mr. Gershman inquired on packaging services to clients. It was reported that staff is currently working on packages. At this time three different levels of packaging are being worked out. As requested; packages will be provided at the next meeting for Commission review.

The Commission had received a concern from a client via email. Staff was asked to follow-up with the Commission when a response is given to the client in order that they know it was addressed.

Staff was requested to review the invoice statements that are sent out and condense the information if possible. It was indicated that the reason they were sent as they were is that initially clients wanted to see what they were paying for and what was being included with their event. However the needs will be addressed as they change.

VENUWORKS CORPORATE REPORT

Mr. Peters introduced Sharon and Ron Cummins who maintain the resource library for staff in all departments and also travel to locations to conduct operational audits which they are currently doing in Grand Forks.

The Commission Chair had asked that information be made available to the Commission as to what VenuWorks does for the Alerus Center and what the immediate plans include. A power point presentation was given and hand outs were distributed reviewing that information.

Darrell Larson joined the meeting at 8:03 a.m.

Current issues, FY 2010 financial forecast, FY 2010 highlights and non-football arena events over the past 12 months were reviewed.

VenuWorks plans to address the following:
Hire an Executive Director
Exploit the upcoming 10th Anniversary season to create a turn around in entertainment programming. This would include reconfiguring a cut down set for the arena.
Present season announcement event.
Search for second sports prime tenant.
Reinstate the annual schedule for governance and management.
Work with the Commission towards periodic performance reviews.
Purchase ads to present quarterly reports in 2011 to the citizens of Grand Forks.

VenuWorks requested Commission action on the following:
Authorize hiring of an Executive Director.
Authorize use of the event fund for a Classic Rock Series.
Add Show Room rigging/curtain system to CIP.
Reinstate Governance and Management Calendar.
Commit to VenuWorks through 2011
Re-evaluation of VenuWorks contract in the 4th Quarter of 2011.

The curtaining system would qualify for capital and it was suggested that current CIP projects be finished before beginning this project. The Renovation Committee will meet with the City Finance Director to review the capital budget. Depending on how extensive the system is the cost estimate would be between $300-500,000. The Commission would like to see projections on how many shows we would do in this configuration.

Ms. Jerath indicated that the event fund was approved through the City Finance Committee and the $250,000 is now available. Mr. Roger Swanson will forward copies of the event fund process to all Commission members.

The Vice Chair asked for any other input from the Commission with regards to the action items requested by VenuWorks.

It was noted that an existing and current contract is in place to address the management action items requested.

The general consensus was to support the Classical Rock series.

A motion was made by David Evenson that on the behalf of the Event Center Commission the classic rock series and anniversary ideas be endorsed. Seconded by Curt Kreun. Discussion took place. Motion and second were withdrawn.

A motion was made by David Evenson that the Commission proceed, based on the information from VenuWorks, with the Classic Rock series. Seconded by Laura Block. Motion passed unanimously.


COMMITTEE REPORTS

Renovation Committee – Members: Randy Newman, Curt Kreun & Duane Hafner
A meeting was not held this past month.

Celebration Committee – Members: Darrell Larson & Brian Faison
A meeting was held on October 19th, a draft copy of the minutes were distributed in the packets.
Items discussed at the October 19th meeting included:
o 10th Anniversary Timeline
o Open House Reception during Business After Hours in March 2011
o 2010 Football Game Trivia
o UND Football Best of Players – to be announced at Spring Game 2011
o Various Promotional Activities/Items/Advertising
o 10th Anniversary logo will be used from the present through 2011

CVB REPORT

Commission representative, Duane Hafner, reported. The Director of the ND Tourism Department attended the CVB meeting and gave an overview. A new marketing plan for the coming year was released and the CVB is looking forward to having a social time with the Grand Forks Events Center Commission; scheduling when the new Executive Director has been hired.


MANAGEMENT REPORTS

Meetings/Convention/Ballroom – September was a very busy month as conventions were held every week with multiple conventions during some weeks along with the smaller business meetings.
-Multiple bids were prepared including the NE EMS Conference and the ND EMS Conference.
-Sales staff is in Fargo today doing sales visits and promoting the ND Petroleum Marketers Convention which will be held at the Alerus Center.
-Staff will also be traveling to Bismarck and Winnipeg along with the Canad Inns and CVB in November for sales visits and training.
- Sales staff meets with CVB and Canad Inns almost every week and every couple of weeks goes out with the CVB and Canad Inns on sales visits.

Marketing – Report was covered in the 3rd Quarter Report.
-Question was asked if the Club can be rented exclusively to a group. Staff indicated that this was done this season due to the timeline of the club finishing just prior to football. The plan is to sell individual permanent seats with standing room accessibility to all suite holders.

Operations – Green seal certified cleaning chemicals are out to bid. There is a required pre-bid meeting today. Bid opening is scheduled for November.

Food and Beverage – UND Football Homecoming week was phenomenal; thanks were given especially to the staff around the table as each of them helped out in order that quality service could be given to the clients during a very busy week. It was a total team effort.

Executive Director – Packaging is being planned in order to be proactive to meet clients needs.
-Meet with Canad Inns every week to work on how we can better work together. We are currently waiting for a proposal from Canad Inns that we can offer to holiday party attendees with special room night packages and also talked about similar packages for concerts.
-Hall of Fame football game this weekend with a 12 noon start to accommodate the UND hockey series later that night.
-Attend City Department meetings every week. Both the Mayor and the City Staff have made comments on the outstanding product and service they received at the Alerus Center.


AGREED-UPON PROCEDURES

The City Finance Office has received the Agreed-upon Procedures from Brady Martz for the upcoming 2010 audit. They are the same as were in place for the 2009 audit. It was asked that the Commission authorize the Chair to sign these procedures. Ms. Jerath will send the document via email to Vione to forward to Mr. Newman.

A motion was made by David Evenson to authorize the Chair to review the Agreed-upon Procedures from Brady Martz, commit the Commission to the procedures, sign them and return to the City Finance Department. Seconded by Darrell Larson. Motion passed unanimously


OTHER

Question was asked if less time could be spent on materials included in the packet and more time spent on strategy at the Commission meetings. Mr. Thompson will discuss with the Chair and work toward putting together an agenda to be tried at the next meeting which would include required action items and strategy.

Mr. Peters requested that two agenda items be added for next month. 1) to discuss a more simplified version for evaluation of VenuWorks performance than the BPM that was used previously. 2) to discuss the Annual Calendar of Governance and Management.


ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 9:10 a.m.




____________________________ ____________________________
Respectfully submitted,
Vione Jordheim Darrell Larson
Director of Administrative Services, Alerus Center GFECC Secretary