2012-10-30-TOUR2-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Tourism Committee Minutes of the meeting of Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. Legion Room Members Present: Kerry Brandin, Bebe Fallick, Trisha Kennealy, Dawn McKenna, Denise Ricketts, Jim Shaw, Lou Sideris Staff: Masha Traber Guests: George Burnell, Fred Johnson Carl Valente Absent: Mary Jo Bohart Selectmen Liaison: Peter Kelley 1) Selectmen Meeting Regarding Strategic Plan for Tourism — George Burnell George has invited what he referred to as "all of the stakeholders" a group to a meeting on November 28 to discuss a strategic review of tourism. They include Peter Kelley and George Burnell for the Selectmen, Larry Smith and Pam Shadley for the Chamber of Commerce, Fred Johnson and Jerry Michelson for the Center Committee, Susan Bennett and Paul Ross for the Historical Society, John McWeeney for the Economic Development Advisory Committee, Lou Sideris for the National Park Service, Richard Travis from the Museum, Bill Pool and Bill Mix from the Lexington Minutemen. He has also asked Dawn to come with someone from the Tourism Committee. All are welcome to participate. He is looking to discuss their objective as committees. A set of questions has been given to him and no effort has been made to answer the questions. He is looking to identify issues to be part of dialog. The Tourism Committee was very skeptical about the meeting, the participants, and the questions that are forming the agenda. Each Tourism Committee member present at the meeting expressed serious concerns with the process and whether it was appropriate to have people making decisions about tourism who have not been at the table for these discussions. Those invited have a narrow purview. George is creating confusion amongst those with whom he is speaking about whether these efforts are supported by the Board. Some questions asked by the Tourism Committee: 1. What is the title of the group? 2. Can you point us to a model of another committee who went through visioning and then have another group come in to decide on their vision? 3. Why is George proceeding with a process that is not supported by the majority of the Selectmen? When questioned, by Peter Kelley, George refused to identify from whom the questions were coming. Rather he indicated that he did not have a model for doing this, there were some questions that need to be discussed and he wanted to come to some resolution. George indicated that at the Selectmen's goal- setting session in June, they did not have sufficient time to discuss the direction the Board would like to see for the Town's tourism efforts. The Committee proceeded to go through the questions. Many of the questions showed a lack of understanding. For example, cultural tourism is defined by the Massachusetts Cultural Council as recognizing that people within your own community can be tourists. Cultural tourists (those less than 50 miles from Lexington) come back over and over and statistics show that cultural tourists spend more time and money in the community. The state recognizes tourism as the