Last week I reported on the declining occupancy rates at Marshall's hotels. This should not have come as any big surprise. One of the big drivers for Marshall undertaking a tourism project five years ago was the realization that the federal court system and land-men could not keep the hotels full forever. People recognized that the city needed to start working on something that could fill in the anticipated drop in occupancy in the out-years. Tourism was going to help fill that void.

Early this year I posted a score card on Marshall's progress in implementing its tourism plan. It was not a pretty picture. Despite four years and over $2 million dollars in expenditures the Convention and Visitors Bureau has little to show for their effort.

Perhaps the most discouraging thing is that the CVB has done almost nothing to establish a brand for Marshall. Destination Development said that this was critical during its first meeting with the city and they repeated their statement at every meeting they had with the city during the life of the contract. Despite this warning very little work has been done on this requirement and we are still years away from having a brand. In 2007 Destination Development said that it took three to five years to establish a brand. Since little has been done, Marshall is still at least three years away from branding the city even if it started a focused effort tomorrow. I see no evidence that the CVB is concerned about this.

What went wrong?

Several people have pointed out that I am too critical of Marshall and I don't recognize how much has changed in Marshall.

I do know that Marshall is much improved over what it was when I returned home in late 2001. Almost all of the change is the results of large investments by private investors and a great grassroots effort by many.

My concern is that very little if any is the results of a systematic execution of the plan to improve the town and increase tourism -- but this is the subject for future articles. Today I want to discuss what has been accomplished.

Several critical things happened prior to my returning to Marshall but they are critical to improving the quality of life in Marshall and developing a successful tourism program.

For starters, the effort of individuals to save the Marshall Depot from destruction was important to any future successes. Equally important is the formation of an organization that has protected the structure since that time.

The new bylaws for the CVB state that the board should be composed of:

* one downtown property owners;
* two hotel/motel industry representatives;
* one downtown retail business owners;
* one brand product representative;
* two at-large representatives

Because Marshall's brand, Center Stage, is all about entertainment, one member of the board should be connected with the entertainment community and represent that interest. That was not taken into consideration two years ago when the initial appointments were made. This position is currently filled by a banker. The City Commission needs to appoint a person connected to the entertainment industry to this position to bring the board into compliance with the organizations' bylaws.

By Ron Munden - January 21, 2010

For over two years I have written about the need for the CVB to implement a project management system to manage the tourism plan. To date no one has addressed this need but the need increases in importance every day.

Currently the 2009/2010 CVB Action plan is posted on the site. If you review the document that was prepared by the CVB, you might conclude the completion dates for most action items on the list has been missed. One could easily conclude that nothing is getting accomplished.

Actually, I don't think the situation is as bad as it looks but I don't know because the CVB does not use a project management tool for managing its work.

Perhaps a significant amount of work has been accomplished on many of the action items. If a project management tool were being used, everyone would know what has actually been done. Without such a tool the public assumes nothing is happening on these action items.

During the December 8, 2011, meeting of the City Commission, MEDCO told the City Commission that the MEDCO Board had voted to amend articles 4.01 and 4.05 of its bylaws.

The first change states - board members must be full time residents of Harrison County and no elected official of the city or the state can serve as a voting board member.

The second change adds three ex-officio members to the board -- the City Mayor, Mayor-Pro tem, and City Manager. As I recall the City Manager already serves as ex-officio member.

The changes will take effect immediately on the approval of the City Commission. This means that when approved Commissioner Bill Marshall will be removed from the MEDCO board and Commissioner Paddie and Commissioner Timmins will become new MEDCO board members.

In my opinion this is all being done for political reasons and has nothing to do with improving the effectiveness of the MEDCO board. This is why I believe this to be the case:

Editor's note:
The City Commission would like for citizens who are interested in being considered for an appointment to the CVB to contact the City Manager's office by telephone at 903-935-4421, or by email at thompson.laurie@marshalltexas.net, by the end of the day on Wednesday, December 7, 2011.

It is time for the City Commission to make appointments/reappointments to the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors. The City Commissioners should ensure that these selections bring the board into compliance with the organizations' bylaws. The bylaws specify that the City Commission appoint/reappoint 3 board members in odd years and 4 board members in even years.

The bylaws do not specify which board members should be appointed in odd and even years. Since this is the first appointment cycle the City Commission has the flexibility to appoint/reappoint any of the seven board positions it chooses this first time. That flexibility will not exist after this first cycle. The City Commission should use this flexibility to correct some existing problems that now exist on the board.

The bylaws state that the board should be composed of:

i. two downtown property owners;
ii. two hotel/motel industry representatives;
iii. two downtown retail business owners;
iv. one brand product representative;

Because Marshall's brand, "Center Stage", is all about entertainment, one member of the board should be connected with the entertainment community and represent that interest. That was not taken into consideration two years ago when the initial appointments were made. This position is currently filled by a banker. The City Commission needs to appoint a person connected to the entertainment industry to this position to bring the board into compliance with the organizations' bylaws.

It is time for the City Commission to make appointments/reappointments to the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors. The City Commissioners should ensure that these selections bring the board into compliance with the organizations' bylaws. The bylaws specify that the City Commission appoint/reappoint 3 board members in odd years and 4 board members in even years.

The bylaws do not specify which board members should be appointed in odd and even years. Since this is the first appointment cycle the City Commission has the flexibility to appoint/reappoint any of the seven board positions it chooses this first time. That flexibility will not exist after this first cycle. The City Commission should use this flexibility to correct some existing problems that now exist on the board.

The bylaws state that the board should be composed of:

i. two downtown property owners;
ii. two hotel/motel industry representatives;
iii. two downtown retail business owners;
iv. one brand product representative;

Because Marshall's brand, "Center Stage", is all about entertainment, one member of the board should be connected with the entertainment community and represent that interest. That was not taken into consideration two years ago when the initial appointments were made. This position is currently filled by a banker. The City Commission needs to appoint a person connected to the entertainment industry to this position to bring the board into compliance with the organizations' bylaws.

I was pleased to read in the Marshall News Messenger that the City of Marshall has hired a Longview firm to redesign their website. My guess is that MEDCO, the CVB, the Chamber, and anyone else interested in promoting Marshall feel the same way.

Today the Internet is often the first view one gets of a city. It is important that the first view leaves a good impression. Up until now that has not been the case for Marshall.

The last time I did a Google search, the first three search results were the City of Marshall site, the Chamber of Commerce site and the Convention and Visitors Bureau website.

The CVB website is attractive and gives a good first impression. The same cannot be said about the City and Chamber sites. Neither is attractive and have little visual impact. They don't contain much useful information. If my first encounter with Marshall were via a Google search, I would not have a very good impression. Marshall is not doing a good job of selling itself. It has more to offer than what one sees from an Internet search.

Over the past few months EastTexasTowns.com has posted several articles requesting people to provide suggestions on how the Pelz House, which is owned by Trinity Episcopal Church, can be saved from the wrecking ball.

To date no one has come up with a solution so I must assume the historic house's days are numbered.

This week Grady Lee reminded me that in 2005 he proposed a solution but the church rejected it.

Actually he proposed two solutions and both were rejected.

Mr. Lee said the he offered to buy the house and to convert it into an antique shop. He though it would be a nice addition to the downtown area so he wrote a proposal and submitted it to the church's attorney. After a period of time he was informed that the church was not interested in selling the house.

Mr. Lee said that he then submitted a proposal to lease the house from the church. He said that he offered to do all of the repairs required to put the building back into service at his expense. He said the church's attorney again informed Mr. Lee that the church was not interested in leasing the building to him.

Unfortunately, CVB Board Member Jan Black's suggestion that the CVB should advertise all of the Fire Ant Festival activities, not just the CVB concert, had no impact on their billboard advertising or the event promotion on their website.

The CVB stated position is -- they could not promote Friday October 7 activities because CVB would be stepping on the toes of the Boo Benefit people. When I called Patsy, Boo's wife and co-director of the Boo Benefit, she said there was no conflict. She said, "In fact, I think it would be a good idea. That will inform our people of other things they can do while in the area." So I have to assume it was the Brand Manager's decision to only advertise CVB's event; not a request by the Boo Benefit people. I specifically say the Brand Manager because the advertising strategy was never presented to the CBV Board until the finalized billboards were being fabricated.

One of the main reasons why Destination Development recommended establishing a new organization instead of assigning the responsibility for tourism to the Chamber of Commerce was that the Chamber is a membership organization and would/should promote its members first. This presents a conflict.

DDI envisioned an organization that would promote every activity of value in Marshall.