Call to order visit Broken Arrow.

Well, you just walked in right on time.

So call to order, please.

Dean.

Yes.

Yarty.

Yes.

Bowie.

Yes.

Ford.

Here.

Hagen.

Muskrat.

Yes.

Lop.

Yes.

Schneider here.

Swanson.

Yes.

Here.

Yes.

Okay.

It's okay.

Sorry.

All right.

Consider consideration and consent agenda for action A 26-814.

Approval.

Um meeting minutes from April 13th.

Yep.

So Tiffany Shepard with the Broken Arrow Chamber is here to just go over Rooster Days and tell us how that went this year.

This is actually from the Board of Adjustments.

Never mind.

The Board of Adjustments agendas on here.

That's why I was like, okay.

I was looking at the people I'm like, Rebecca Eagle's not on our board.

Sorry, we're on here to just the computer.

Sorry about that.

So it's on our computer.

This is so we don't have printed agendas.

No, we moved to just the um computers.

Okay, we all know how to get to the agendas on your computers, everybody.

Okay.

Okay, sorry.

That's okay.

Hi, everybody.

Hi.

Okay, so I have some just statistics for the event for you all in 2026.

We did wrap up Rooster Days.

Uh we were a little bit lower in attendance this year compared to last year.

We were just under 33,000.

So we saw 32,700 people.

Um peak attendance was of course Saturday.

That's pretty um par for the course for us.

We see a big push right after the parade.

We did have one of the strongest parades that we've had in the last couple of years.

Um election years are really great for parades.

So that was wonderful.

We had a little over 95 parade participants.

Um and Sarah was our MC, which is fantastic.

It was fine.

Right?

We're like lean to the left, lean to the left.

Don't move from the spot.

Um for entertainment, we've really we've kept the opening night with our Broken Arrow High School show choir and jazz bands, and that has been really great for us.

We tried a different setup for the stage location this year, and we got a lot of positive feedback on that, and then of course, with vendors, we still had our marketplace and food vendors, just as usual, and we did have record breaking run attendance this year.

So Fleet Feet was very pleased with that.

They had over 650 that showed up for that.

And then moving on to marketing statistics.

Oh, some of our spacing gets a little wonky.

So some of the marketing just kick it off.

We did partner with two different influencers.

So Mike Collier obviously has a very strong presence on social media now.

So he partnered with us and was posting on Facebook and Instagram.

His statistics were insanely high this year, especially compared.

We did utilize him last year, and this really just shows his growth as well.

Um so link clicks last year.

I think I think I told you we were like 300 when I was looking at it earlier from last year, and this year we were 33,000.

Um which is much stronger.

Definitely drives traffic to the website as well.

And then we partnered with Mary Hathaway, and she did campaigns for us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Um, and you can see her views and impressions up there as well.

So both very strong for the social media aspect of the campaign.

Is that the readers go?

Yeah.

Yeah, she'll be doing taste of summer with us too.

If I am you knew who she was, I'm so proud of you.

Um, and then for our other marketing, we did actually make a shift.

So traditionally we've partnered with uh Griffin Media Group.

We actually partnered with Zellner Media Group this year for a bit of a change, and we saw a lot of success with their campaign.

So they did a social media campaign as well with a little over a million impressions.

They did radio promotions for us as well, and we actually got a little bit more um bang for our buck there.

So we did 184 different radio commercials with them, and then web page.

They did do on-site parade appearances as well.

Um, and then the streaming TV and audio, uh, that we saw a lot of success on that.

The click-through rate on the social media was much stronger.

Um, and then the click-through rate for the streaming TV and things like that.

Well, they anticipate that that'll continue to grow over the years as well.

And then promotional, these are things that we really do in-house.

So we did promotional yard signs that we put around just the broken arrow community to highlight the event with the QR code that links to the website and on the parade poster or the promotional posters as well that we post uh any anywhere that'll let us post posters on-site signage throughout the festival grounds, highlighting different sponsors and people who partner with us, and then of course our volunteer shirts um and staff shirts this year.

Rooster Days is coming back again, May 13th through 16th, 2027.

Um, we're already confirmed and in contract with the carnival company, so those dates won't change, and then of course, just a thank you to you all in the city of Brokenair.

So those are stats from 2026.

Yay.

Yeah.

It was good.

It was um, you know, we never know what it's gonna look like going into it.

I had a conversation with the carnival, and she was pretty honest.

She was like, uh, we've been down about 30% throughout our entire year.

We were only down about 12% with them, which was decent.

Um, but we definitely saw it in our numbers.

Full budget hasn't been finalized yet.

We're still waiting on a couple of outstanding expenses and variables there, but we'll be down a little bit for ourselves as well.

So I have any questions?

I do I do have some questions.

Yeah.

So I asked our staff to pull um, like how much like we know the tourism board gives you 20,000 um to be a sponsor.

So one question that I asked them to pull is to see how much because TTCU is the the naming, I don't know what you call them, like the naming sponsor.

I don't know what else to call them.

Yeah, um, I'm not looking for the city of Broken Arrow to be a naming sponsor, but um I understand that they're for them to have the rights for the naming sponsor is $20,000.

So we give $20,000 cash, but then also the City of Broken Arrow, because you know how we talked about we give cash, but then we also give services.

So I do know um the police alone.

We also gave $26,000 in just police services.

Um, did we get a number for parks yet?

No, I did not.

Okay, so we do so we also um we have I don't know how many people from parks also works the event, like putting down the floors in the gym, and then we also have staff, park staff there.

Um, I don't know if they pull trash or whatever, but I do know we have staff like in the community center.

Um, I also know too that we have um people with the streets department that actually puts like the barriers, you know, like the officers close the street, but we have street people that like put the barriers down and pick the barriers up and that type of thing.

Um, so look like clearly we're probably well over 50,000, the city of broken arrow.

And I'm I know when you presented originally, you know, we told you that we're kind of I mean, I don't know what we're gonna do next year, but just kind of be aware that we're kind of like doing like one or the other, either money or um services.

Um I also feel like like TTCU gets a lot of stuff for just 20,000 if we're paying over $50,000 in services and cash.

Like I didn't even see our city of Broken Arrow logo on everything that you even had out there, like the posters and the yard signs and like I didn't even see our logos on there.

I mean, I know our logos are on some things, but it probably wasn't on everything.

A lot of it was the event, like the signage on the fencing.

And I know usually city can I maybe this is just what city council usually get, but like we usually usually get like VIP parking, like we didn't get that this year, and you know, like those should have been.

Like we didn't get t-shirt, the tourism board didn't even get t-shirt.

Like, I mean, you know, I don't know.

I just if I can make a recommendation that maybe our staff work with the chamber to like whatever level sponsorship, like if even if we just do one or the other to kind of see what that package looks like for next year, like in plenty of time, so that way if we decide not to do both, we need to know when you need to know that you know, in plenty of time, so you'll know.

Um, I mean, maybe TTCU will need to step up their price a little more.

I mean that they get a lot of stuff for just $20,000.

I think we do they do, and I mean, full disclosure.

So when I took over events, is the first time that we really increased their sponsorship level.

Um, so we made a jump, but only a couple of thousand a dollar, a couple thousand dollars, and it was really only like two years ago.

Okay, do you know right at the top of your head just so the rest of the tourism board knows like what TTCU gets for their 20,000 dollars?

Yes, this is just information only for you all to kind of know what yeah.

So they're the title, so all those benefits would be those.

Does everybody get one of these?

I only have one copy on it.

Okay, these are just the other.

Okay, so I'll just read it.

Did you all read this?

Okay, they didn't they didn't read it, I'll just read it to you all.

So for $20,000, um all of the Rooster Days activities is presented, it says presented by TTCU.

First position in the parade behind the pride of broken arrow.

Address audience from stage at Rooster Days Festival.

Logo on TV spots, name on radio spots, logo on billboard, addresses audience from stage at Rooster Day Run.

Logo on Rooster Days website, logo on Rooster Days Run website, logo on Rooster Days Run banner, logo on Run T-shirt, 10 VIP parking passes, 10 entries in the Rooster Days Run, ability to include an item in the run goodie bag.

Um so that's what they get for their $20,000 um investment.

So I mean, I just want to, you know, I just let me let you all y'all are welcome to look at that if you want to.

So I would like to make a motion recommendation.

I'm not sure exactly how I need to word that, but for our staff to just work with the chamber to kind of work on I don't think we've ever well it didn't go, it's never come to the tourism board before, right?

But it's our money that we're no, I know.

I just mean like we're I think in the past, um I've never talked to Scott Udy was on the tourism board and he was also Mr.

Rooster Day's sort of, you know.

So I don't I think in the back in the day, I think it may have just been I think it and we were not as big of a city, and we in our and and on in all honesty, our tourism board wasn't as busy as we are now.

Like we weren't doing the films and we weren't having so many you know hotel stays, and we probably weren't spending all of even all the money, and now we're having to ask for more money even in our budget to cover the hotel stays, which is a great thing, but I feel like we need to be better stewards of our of our of our tourism money to really kind of go for what we need to be going for.

And and I'm not saying we still, I mean, I'm still not saying we we should still sponsor Rooster Days, but we just need to look at how we're sponsoring it.

And I mean, you saw what all TTC you got for 20,000.

We're well over 50,000, and we're not even getting a fourth of what TTC either TTCU needs to step it up, which I feel like they really need to step it up, or we we need to either be getting more.

I don't want to be, I don't want to just say city or broken arrow presents rooster days.

I'm not looking for that, just so you know.

I I'm not and I'm not looking to be the lead in the parade either.

Like I'm not looking for that, but I just feel like we probably needed to step back, re-examine it, see what we're doing, and maybe offer either the cash or the services, and then and TTC step up on wherever we don't, you know.

But are we a gift?

Like if you like not even just rooster days, but anything that approaches us.

Are we wanting to be sponsors of any event that comes in that we want?

Like, are we wanting a sponsorship level like TTCU where we do have like you're getting this for that money, and then we do that for any event that's coming through, not just Rooster Days, but you know what I mean?

Well, I mean we could.

I mean, right now we're paying over double right TTCU is and we're right, and we're not getting that.

So we could be sponsorship.

Whatever, yeah.

Have we ever gotten a package from like Rooster Days?

Like do we, or is that just like we've always given $20,000 non-therbusters?

Can I just add something just for clarification?

So we have a contract with Rooster Days that's been the same for a long time, and it's very specifically that it's for marketing use.

So they have to provide all of the receipts, which Tiffany has that they're spending $20,000 in marketing.

So basically, right how it is structured right now is broken arrow or visit broken arrow is paying.

I think that's all the marketing you do.

So we pay for their all of the marketing of Rooster Days.

So if we want to change that, that's where that would come in.

If we wanted to be a sponsor instead or do something different, um, we can do it that way.

But that's how it's structured right now, is it's very specific.

That makes more sense.

We pay them back based, we get the receipts that proves that they spent $20,000 on marketing.

So are we sorry?

Are we listed then as a sponsor in the marketing?

Or are we listed in the marketing and advertising as a sponsor?

Not necessarily a sponsor.

So the way that it was handed off to me is that it's a partnership with the city.

So we have banners on festival grounds that say thank you for partnering with us, City of Broken Arrow and visit VA, um, but not necessarily it's never been structured as an actual sponsorship.

Not that it shouldn't be.

I mean, yeah.

I just think we just need to really, I mean, it's she got a handed to how it's always it's kind of like we've always done it this way.

It's that type of situation.

Like I'm not mad at the chamber, it's just something like it's now.

We just probably need to re-examine it, you know, on the chamber side and on the city side, and we'll just come to an agreement on what we think is best for the chamber and for the city, and then come to that.

So, you know, we're just getting bigger, and I just feel like we need to.

I think it's always been kind of like a it's how we've always done it type situation.

Like when you look at it, it's 30, whatever, 33,000 people stretched over four days.

I think those are I don't think anybody's going twice, right?

It's not that cool.

But like Oh, I think I think the teenagers go several times.

I think a lot of them have to be able to do that.

Yeah.

But I I I think that's unique visits, a lot of it is, and it's really driving people here, which I it's hard to quantify because we know we have heads and beds for Rooster Days because I think it's mostly Broken Arrow people.

So well, if we can and maybe yeah, if we can just look at that was you just my motion, maybe we need to just re-examine.

I think we need to be careful on how we talk about TTCU.

I mean, as far as I'm concerned, they did step up.

I mean, they there is a package they offered, they accepted it, and so um I think we need to be cautious because I'm thankful for them.

They're I mean, quite honestly, when people sponsor events, they don't usually get a return.

It's a loss.

Yeah.

And so we need to be very cautious.

Oh, I didn't mean to be able to how we present that.

Yeah.

Do we have any information on the numbers as far as like because I know there were a lot of different things going on in the city, like were we able to pull out of town people?

Do we have any of those kind of numbers to within?

I'd have to dig into that data that was provided a little bit deeper just to see how much in or how in depth it goes, honestly.

But I can do that.

I just there was just a whole bunch going on and I hopefully some yeah, yeah, towners.

We do pull just within the perimeter of the central park, so we try and avoid any main street traffic that may overflow um into those numbers, but that's a that's a good question.

We did have I know we had some out out of town vendors um and entertainment that is helpful.

So we saw a little over 70 businesses that were just unique businesses that were participating.

Um roughly 40 of those were chamber members here in Broken Arrow, which is a pretty strong percentage as well.

The parade was packed though, like I mean the parade was it seemed bigger as like in the past five years that you know that I've been involved in like being like in the float, it seemed like one of the biggest Rooster Day parades we've ever had.

Yeah, it was really strong.

We had a lot of and good entries, like knock anybody, but sometimes they're you know, some are not there does others.

So it was a really good parade.

We got a lot of great feedback.

Seems like there's a more effort in the in the floats than what has been in the past.

Yes, absolutely.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah, absolutely.

Open to any conversation.

Um in terms of timing, we will start budgeting in August too, so that'll impact us pretty quickly, just if we have to switch anything around.

We can just plan on getting together and have a conversation.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I'm sorry if I sound like I picked up it's whoever the major sponsor is, not just TTC.

They may not decide the sponsor again, but whoever that that level is, you know.

Don't say that.

They do get a lot of things.

Yes.

That would that gives me anxiety.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you, guys.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Action item four general visitors broken arrow business.

A two six dash eight six seven consideration discussion of possible approval of median minutes for May twelfth.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Dean.

Yes.

Yardie?

Yes.

Bowie?

Yes.

Ford.

Yes.

Muskrat.

Yes.

Lop.

Yes.

Snyder.

Yes.

Swanson.

Yes.

All right.

Action item B 26-768 consideration discussion, possible approval of the FCA women's championship hotel rebate.

Request and the amount of $3,333.

Hi, Gary.

Can you hear us?

Oh, hold on.

We gotta make sure we can hear you.

Hold on.

Okay, now try.

All right.

How about how about that?

Is that better?

Very good.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, thank you.

Uh Rooster Day sounds amazing.

I have to be there.

Sometimes it looks like we scheduled our FCA women's championship the same week.

Maybe that's why Saturday's attendance for the term wasn't as high as we go.

Um let's talk about golf a little bit.

Um we had a very good women FCA women's championship.

It's part of the ongo women's all pro tour, which is a Rolex World Golf Rank tour, known internationally.

And this year we had nearly a hundred well, we had 109 female athletes from 11 countries come to Broken Arrow to compete.

Um we had a four weeks of activities, which included Monday, we had a executive women's round table with uh Chantel Preston who owns several hospitals.

She flew in from LA.

She also owns the LA women's pro basketball team.

She came in and spoke to the athletes as well as other uh female executives from town.

I think the attendance was was just over 80 for that for that function.

It was really nice for the players to hear from some amazing women about uh sports and being a woman in sports.

Uh on Tuesday, we had a great pro am with the FCA.

We had 40 teams from a region, we had teams from Oklahoma City, uh Barlesville, Miami, Oklahoma, uh, and actually a team came from up from Texas down from uh the Dallas area.

Um that day ended with a with a nice dinner that night, and we presented awards and recognized some athletes for their uh contributions to the FCA program.

Um and then Wednesday through Friday, the athletes and cells competed uh in a 54-hole tournament, which we didn't we had to go extra holes.

We had a playoff between young lady from San Antonio and our eventual winner, Tilly Claggett, the Vanderbook grad, she's from La Brota, Canada.

So she uh she hosted the Prophe this year, and she got to uh say a few words to some of the FCA athletes that were in attendance for the for the presentation.

Um attendance this year, we were around 800 for the week.

That was a little lower than we anticipated.

Um we did promote the event this year by Facebook and Instagram with some paid promotion.

We did area posters with QR codes for people to either attend uh the event themselves or actually volunteer or participate in the program.

The media coverage this year was pretty good.

Um 6 was out several times during the week.

Tulsa Beacon had quite a few articles, and then we got a nice uh piece in golf course industry magazine, which covers quite a few events in the Oklahoma area.

Um in surveying the athletes and their families, uh, it looks like each of them we had an average of eating out in town uh four times during their during their stay, which they really enjoyed, by the way.

They love downtown.

Um, they love the ice cream shops, the bars, all those good kind of things.

Um they they said they shopped twice in town.

Um, and then kind of going over some of the hotel states because that's really what the grant was for.

Um we we had about 30 athletes stay with private homes, which we generally have, but we were a little disappointed in the hotel numbers because a lot of players opt for Airbnbs.

I'm not sure what the Airbnb situation is with the broken era area, but at least 46 players were staying Airbnbs this year, which is a little disappointing, uh, especially for our host hotel.

And it looks like we generated about 80 of the 300 we had hoped in hotel nights, which equates out to the 3300 that you all are going to look at to approve.

Um, in all, I think the event was a success.

I think we're gonna do a little bit more planning with the Jim Glover group, auto group next year.

We'll probably make sure we're not gonna be the week of rooster weekend or days.

Um in all, I mean, it's it's a it's a great uh it's a great event for the ladies, their families really enjoy the town, and uh our plan is to be back sometime next May.

What golf course did you play on?

We played Indian Springs, which for us is a good, it's a great golf course, um, and the membership's very supportive of the event.

The challenge is location.

We do lose quite a few hotel room nights to what the Southeast Side of Tulsa over there at the loop uh where some of the shopping is best by and all that are over there.

So we do lose a little of that.

We've talked to some other golf courses in town, but finding the golf course these days is not easy, they're very, very busy, and shutting a course down for five days is very difficult, but um not opposed to looking at another site.

I think it's brings us two courses, so it doesn't disrupt the membership terribly when they shut down the course.

Yeah, that it helps that they have 36 holes for sure.

Yeah, I'm just curious.

Um I'll make a motion to reimburse the 3,000.

We had a quick question about four.

Sorry, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Um, do we have pickup reports for because I don't recall having a block at my at my hotel personally?

Yeah, we did have okay, yeah.

Sorry.

Yeah, I think it's I think I filled all the information out that was required.

Yeah.

I think you guys mainly utilize Hampton and I'm drawing a blank.

Um Hampton was the main one they had a block with.

Yeah, Hampton had the block, and then some of the other players.

Yeah, Hampton had the block, and then some of the other players we did have triple uh stay at uh town place suites who we didn't have a block there to monitor that.

We just that was from the survey.

Um they also stayed at uh uh the Stun Lane and and uh a few others, but like I said, we did lose quite a few to Tulsa address um hotels that were close to golf course.

How many?

How many hotel stays there were in Tulsa?

Uh it was on the report that I submitted to the off the top of my head.

I'm gonna say another 40, 45.

Wow.

Nice.

It may have been more than that, actually.

Gary, I'm not sure if you have that number in front of you.

It's not on the report that I filled out.

I don't have it in front of me.

Okay, but it was it was pretty significant.

And we do not promote those hotels, we only promote our own scale.

We have a motion and a second.

Okay, that's fine.

All right, uh Dean.

Yes.

Yardie.

Yes.

Bowie, yes, Ford, yes, Muskrat, yes, Lop, yes, Schneider, yes, Swanson.

Yes.

Thank you, Gary.

So you know the CNB.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Bye.

Do we have anything in place for like Airbnb stuff?

Like, do we get like a lodging tax on that?

So it's interesting you brought that up.

I brought that up at council a few times um because we we looked at the Airbnb ordinances.

Some Arab the way I understand it, some Airbnb um, like depending on who they're signed up with, they do take it out, but not all of them take it out.

I feel like they all should be taking it out.

When we were looking at it, they were like, but that's just that much more that we have to pay.

And I said, but the hotels are paying that, and then we turn around and advertise our city, which is what's bringing the people that are staying at your Airbnbs.

Can we talk about this?

Because this is uh no, not really.

Okay.

Can we put that on new business for next time?

Yeah, can we put that on the agenda for next time?

Yeah, and I'll talk about it during my report.

Yeah, just an update on that.

Okay.

Yeah, do an update on that.

We need to we need to modernize that, I think.

I'm just wondering, I wonder if we can work with him, because I'm sure because of Indian Springs being so far south, and most of our hotels not being so south.

Yeah, it probably is more convenient for them to stay at hotels in that area.

Yeah, I'm just wondering if there's some other kind of benefit or I mean, you know, there's some other something else we could do to try to encourage them to stay at our hotels here, although that is a lot of traffic between there and here.

I mean, but you know, like those girls are going out there at 7 a.m., you know, like they're not.

Oh, yeah, that won't be much traffic at seven.

I mean, and you you're really talking about like a hundred people.

I mean, it's not like the the crowds are flocking to the Annika Tour.

Yeah.

Yeah, I didn't even know anything about it, honestly.

So they were here the same weekend as Rooster Days.

We're we're mostly members driving around with their golf cards.

Yeah, watching them.

I mean, I'm glad they picked Broken Arrow.

Yeah, been with this several years.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Action item C 26-838 consideration discussion of possible approval of the purchase of a set of 3D event letters not to exceed $16,818 and 67 cents.

Okay, so I I don't know if you guys click the or we can we'll pull it up here.

Uh, we're really excited about this.

So I know you guys have been to like different conferences and events where there's the big life size letters.

Um, and we've been looking at this for a little bit, like how it can we every time we go see them, we want them for ourselves.

So uh I wish I can you pull up there's another image that's more of I thought I had it more of a rendering of what it looks like.

Maybe oh no, that's just a quote.

Um so we had some money that we had set aside for block party fireworks, and that ended up being taken out of community development.

So we were like, oh, this is an opportunity to spend this money that we'd never really have extra.

Um and so we're hoping for support.

Um basically these are six feet tall, like the eye is six feet tall, and the heart is where big enough to where you can like sit in there and take a selfie in it, and then the BA, and then we could also use the broken arrow.

That's gonna be one piece as well.

And so just looking at it, I mean it's hard to see the scale of it, but it's huge.

Um so the plan is to take these around to different events that we have in town.

They're made out of like hard foam, so they're portable.

We can move them around.

Um, take them to conferences where it makes sense.

Um it originally came up because Aaron wanted them for Christmas in Broken Arrow as just a new new thing.

Uh so we have a lot of ideas for them.

I think they'll be well used.

Um and then also, you know, we can just put them outside our office in the Rose District for the weddings, you know, the heart would be cute for the weddings, and just there's a lot of different things that we could use them for.

So we thought this was a great opportunity to be able to do that with funding that we didn't really expect to have left for the year.

I like it.

Are you looking at one or the other or both?

It's both.

So we have the well, we have the I love, and then we have BA, or we can use broken arrow.

Um just whichever one we kind of need to do.

Yes, very social media friendly.

Yeah, I like the broken arrow with the broken arrow.

Me too.

Yeah, but I mean, if you're gonna do both.

Here was my question.

I love love love this.

Does anyone else have questions?

I'm talking so much.

So here's my question.

So, like I like to do selfies, yeah.

So that's way too big for me to do a selfie to get all of that.

Is there do they sell any kind of stands, or we have very talented people within our city?

Could we build some kind of a stand where people could put their own phone on there, set the timer, and then get behind the little circle and then get the encompass the whole thing?

Yeah, we could add that.

Because to me, I mean, we want the whole thing in their picture.

Do they?

Yeah, okay.

I just thought I just invented something.

I did not invent something, but yes, I I would like to say I mean we have one of Paul Billy's Lisa.

So okay, well, I love that idea, but I would like to include that also that piece where people can put their own phones to get the whole thing because you know sometimes it's just a couple, you know, they don't have someone take the to Bridge or take their picture.

Yep, like a tripod or something.

Yeah.

Are the hearts big enough to do the actual like um as an ordained minister?

Oh course.

Can we do the lightings in front of the hearts?

Yeah, like could you actually do it?

That would be cute.

Okay.

That would be cute.

Yeah, that's cool.

Because that's a lot of like pictures being taken and stuff like that.

So that would be really fun.

Yeah, and we don't really know exactly where we're gonna store them.

But we're hoping that most of the time they'll be out in front of our office, at least the ILOP B8, like the shorter, it just depends on kind of how it fits.

Um, but we really plan on them being used as much as possible.

So um just kind of something that people will expect to see and take pictures with.

And they deal with the weather, the hard phone.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep, they're some of them are permanently outdoors, so they're very they're like resin-coated or something, they're very, very strong.

And we're gonna get a couple dollies to be able to move them around.

And we have our truck now, so when you see Aaron mainly, Aaron and I out lugging these things around.

Like, how does the wind not blow them?

Like we have they're pretty heavy, but I'm guessing there's some sort of weight on the bottom.

I'm not sure.

You think they could do a disco ball?

Yeah, hanging down from the hanging down from the heart a little bit.

I picture it, I can picture that.

Yeah.

I I love the idea.

I I'll make the motion with an additional of the whatever what do you call that?

The selfie stands.

The selfie stand foam, yeah.

Second Dean, yes, Yarty, yes, Bowie, yes, Ford, yes, Muskrat, yes, Lop, yes, Schneider, yes, Swanson.

Yes.

Real quick before we move on, I want to commend Michael.

We we saw we met a vendor at the main street conference that took place in Tulsa two months ago, and a lot of us went to that and we met these this group and they had these on display, and we all fell in love with them, and we were headed down that path, and they were gonna be like 32,000, and we were still in love with them.

We were like, we're getting these, and then kind of at the last minute, Michaela just took it upon herself to like, well, let me see if there's other folks out there, and um lo and behold, there was another group out there that could do it for half the price.

So she's saved a lot of money there.

Like a bargain, bargain shopper you.

Good job.

Yeah, I'm excited.

I think I think that'll and to get both of them because sometimes you don't have that much room like for that one big one, but yeah, yeah.

And it's been approved by the ordained minister that we have on our board.

Absolutely.

That's two ordained.

Oh, two ordained ministers.

Look at us go.

Oh, look at that.

Action item D 26-844.

Consideration discussion and possible approval of selection of Sparkluff Media to provide marketing service for visitors BA for FY27.

Okay, so just the RFA is fine.

I just wanted to read that because mine's not opening it up, but um, okay, so this was a very grueling task.

Um we are very excited that we got 23 RFPs in our office in my office in a big stack.

I mean, 23 that we had to go through.

Um Aaron and I spent hours, Travis helped, uh, just kind of combing through, and you know, luckily there were some easy not no, there was eas some easy no's, but there really was not a lot of them, and so it just took us a lot of time.

Um, and then we had the review committee that met um a couple weeks ago to kind of narrow it down even more, and then um the review committee recommended that we ask the five finalists to do another exercise, kind of a sample project.

And so what we did was we asked the five remaining finalists to um do a sample project, which it was they had 25,000 to basically tell us how they would advertise or how they would market a faith-based to attract faith-based conferences, which is something that we really have been doing with um in-house, and so um we gave them another week to do that, and then um they submitted more another document, like this one is 20 pages, and so I'm just emphasizing that there was a lot to go through.

Um, and you know, the problem really was that there were so many good agencies, and it was really hard to narrow it down to I think all five that were left would have been great, and probably 15 of the 23 we got would have been great, and so it's like just what's most important, who who's this, you know, like the narrowing it down was very difficult.

Um, but for us it just came down to you know, going back to the RFP, and this started out being something that um came from the strategic plan that we just got done doing, and it's so it's very important to me and Aaron and Travis.

I know that we're like sticking, you know, we spent the money, the the strategic plan is is what we're doing, and we have to kind of stick to that.

And so um in the RFP, we were very clear like we want you guys to read this RFP, or we want you to read our strategic plan, and what would you take out of it that matches?

And that takes a lot of work for these companies to pay attention enough to come up then with a strategy.

And so Sparkloft, long story short, um Sparkloft really just ended up on top.

They they were the ones that um really focused on the strategy and they understood what our strategic plan was saying, and so we're confident in uh moving forward with them.

They are a Portland-based um organization, so that's gonna be new for us.

Um they do plan on visiting four times, um, and that you know, the all of the details about everything that we're gonna be doing will come after we have this our first discussion with them.

But they are gonna travel out here four times.

I want to either if they come during a meeting, come and present to you all.

If they don't come during a meeting, then we'll do like one-on-ones or a lunch or something to where you guys can meet and have input, and you know, we can have discussions, and um they'll be coming out to to take pictures and do videos.

Um, they're so impressive.

Um, if you guys um are bored, go home and look at their website.

They've got some great campaigns that are very, very creative, which um Aaron and I both loved, and so um I just think that it's gonna really take us to a next level.

Um, these guys have worked with um destinations all over the world.

Um visit Utah is one of their newest ones.

Um they're on like high level, they do visit Los Cabos.

I mean it's um, and then some others that are more more relevant to us, but uh they just have great experience.

Destination marketing is what they do, so we have confidence that it's gonna be a good partnership, and this is just one year, so we'll get going.

You know, it's not a lifetime commitment, so we're gonna just try it.

And I but I really do have confidence that they're gonna just take us to the next level for our marketing.

Um and so I will answer any questions that you guys have with that.

Didn't we have a couple of board members on this committee as well?

Yep.

Um, Ben, Brian, Sonia, and Sarah.

You all want to add something to it?

I was a non-factor in those meetings.

You were there in the spirit.

I was uh yeah, honorary member.

I didn't do I wasn't able to attend.

You know, Brian had them go back, um he and I thought it was actually a really good exercise to have them go back and come up with something so that we could see it on the next level, and this company did great.

Okay.

So I mean the ones we got back were great.

I mean, they did actually do the work, and I think that's kind of what we were looking for was could they hear what she's saying, what we're saying as like what we actually need, and could they figure it out?

And this company in particular is pretty amazing just because this is what they do.

So I like it's not gonna be something that's out of left field.

They they already know what they're doing.

We're not reinventing the wheel.

Um, we're not as cool, maybe as some of the places.

So maybe it'll be easy for them.

Who knows?

But I like the idea that it's only one year.

So if it comes out and we're just like, okay, this is great, but that's that's all we need from them, then we can just move on.

Um but their pictures and everything looked amazing.

Maybe they'll rise us to the cool light.

Right, right.

They'll they'll put an ocean right in the middle of broken arrow.

I actually think it's harder to uh I think it's harder to market broken arrow than it was copos.

Oh yeah.

This is a harder job, I feel like we have a few challenges.

Yeah, yeah.

We have a pond in front of the events park.

Come on.

There you go.

Nature.

What do you think, Sonia?

What'd you what do you think?

Were you on the committee?

Yeah, I think that might have been my second one that I'm gonna put that back through, but um I was kind of leaning toward the one in Oklahoma City myself, but um I think this was my second one.

Yeah, but from the we were all leaning, there was another that we were leaning towards, and then after getting the exercise back, just the just that helped us to make a decision because that kind of swayed everybody kind of the other way.

So that was you never know.

One of my top they're all just so close, yeah.

Um my only concern was it being in such a different, completely different area of the country than what we are.

Yeah.

Um it's kind of interesting because we have we're getting a new pastor at our church, possibly, and he's from that area, and he's coming here because it's more conservative than that area, you know, so it's from a whole different type of area, but but um but the type of things that they do are what we're looking for more, I think.

Maybe with the visitation things.

Yeah.

So what kind of what did you have them do that they brought back that was so impressive?

It was just about how they would distribute funds and what we could expect in return for it.

So um like how would they build the audience?

How would they distribute to that audience?

How many impressions, traffic, collection of leads, what to do with the leads.

Um pretty much what we wanted to see.

I think they rank really high on the message, they were probably the third or fourth most expensive.

Um, but if they execute with the delivery, it should be all right.

So, like, will bullseye retire, or will we continue a bull with bullseye or we um were planning on bullseye retiring, but Sparkloft, and we haven't had this discussion with them yet, but they were like maybe there's a way, and we we've been talking in our office, like maybe there's a way we can like bring him back, is like modern bullseye.

I don't know, we don't know yet.

Um it's possible by 2.0.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I still really wanted the bullseye suit.

I thought that was a good idea.

There's some potential, I mean I'd like to see in that suit.

People love people love it.

We couldn't get anybody to commit to the suit, but yeah, um, yeah, so that's to be determined.

They weren't like, oh, well, this is dying right away.

And I've seen some other other work that they've done, just creative work, and they I think there's a way that we could continue, not not as the main thing, but we'll see.

I'm okay not having bullseye.

Yeah.

I think everyone likes the um mural at the airport, yeah.

You know, and it doesn't have to be bullseye, but like something broken error recognizable, you know what I mean?

Yeah, I think that'd be cool.

Yeah, and regarding that, we I'll I'll talk about that uh okay.

Well, thank you everybody for being on that committee, even in spirit.

You sent your positive vibes, right?

Yeah, right.

So I'll make a motion to approve the contract with Sparkloft.

Second.

Okay, Dean?

Yes, Yarty, yes, Bowie, yes, Ford, yes, Muskrat, yes, Lop, yes, Schneider, yes, Wanson.

Yes, okay.

Action item five, board members opportunity to address it visit BA on general topics related to business or services.

I have a question about what you were saying earlier, but I don't know, are we allowed to talk about that?

About the um when you were talking about the sponsorship that and what I was trying to clarify, I guess to say there.

Do we want as a board our money to be equated almost as a sponsorship with anyone?

Like if we like the the golf thing that just happened, would we not want our logo, whatever logo it is, city of broken arrow, whatever, um, on their stuff as well.

Like I feel like that's actually a really great point that we may want to go back and consider on our end that we're not just giving money with no ask.

It would be nice to see branding on their stuff.

Yeah or visit BA logo at least.

Right, yeah.

Right.

Was it on the golf?

Was our visit BA uh logo on the golf thing?

Yeah, I think that's so it's just mandatory.

Well, on the golf.

So the so our actual event sponsorships, yes, they that's one of the requirements is visit BA has to be on their but rooster days, no.

But like the golf thing.

Yes, they do or does it BA logo was on their thing?

That's one of the things that's part of our contract.

Yeah.

So what if we go back and figure out exactly what that all looks like as far as what that exchange is?

Because what if we wanted to do like a QR code instead of just the logo so it's interactive, like something.

I feel like we can do something else, so it doesn't just seem like free money.

Um that there's some kind of ask.

I don't know.

I don't know what, but I feel like that's where you were going with this, and that made absolutely perfect sense to me as well.

Um, but I think we could do that for more than just rooster days.

Yeah.

One thing that we did change last year was uh our the spotlight series that we always it was always just like here's money for the the 5,000, but we did change it last year um to where we're we're like what's the sponsorship levels and we chose one, so we are a sponsor because they didn't really fit into any of the other categories, and so maybe it's for those that don't fit into the categories.

Um I don't know I don't know what else would really fit.

I mean, I kind of like our logo on anything we give money to, though.

Yeah.

And yeah, not really the city logo, but like our logo, like the tourism logo.

Yeah.

And that's what I meant when I said our our logo, I meant our logo.

Yeah.

No, I agree.

I think I I agree.

I think we if we're giving money to I really think that Rooster Days is the only one that is out there right now.

That because it is in the guidelines, and everyone else.

I so I'd you know being on the other side of that deal on Rooster Days when I was the chair.

If we I'm pretty sure, based on the dollars that they did this year, if we were to pull city services or our $20,000, I don't think it's viable.

Well, she said she hadn't got all the numbers back yet, right?

They don't know how much they made.

Yeah, and I don't I just know we didn't do I know what we did last year, and she said, Okay, okay.

Um that would be my I I think she might not she, the chamber might say then you guys have it.

Maybe that's I mean, that's that's a different discussion, but are we able to make exceptions then and to some give services and the money?

I yeah, I think that's up to this board for 100%.

For community events we have that flexibility, but and it may be we're a thing where the tourism board could possibly give the 20,000, but maybe the city side maybe give services.

You know what I mean?

I mean, I don't know.

Yeah, that's how it is.

That's how it is now.

Yeah, yeah.

I just know that we just made new policies that we we're just kind of looking at, maybe not always giving both, but remember we also made it to where we vote on that.

Right.

But this is the first time we talked about rooster days since I've been on the and I just think and I just think we just need to just like Tiffany said, it was just kind of handed to her that way.

I think it was the same way with us, it was just kind of handed to us this way too.

I just think we just need to clean it up.

And I I don't think anyone meant, and I don't mean anything bad about it too.

I just think it's time to kind of look at those things.

We're we're growing up into a a big tourism town and a film town, and like our money is in a lot of different pockets, and we're doing a lot of awesome things, so we want our money to stretch as far as it can stretch, and so I just think we just need to clean it up a little bit, make sure our logos are everywhere, and you know, because just when she showed that one slide, um our logos weren't everywhere, but yeah, we have a lot of you know money and as donations.

I just think we just I just think I think they can just I think there's a lot of value in calling out exactly what we do have in it.

Yeah, because like I mean, I didn't I mean that that's a lot of city services.

I didn't know.

That's my that's my city council hat on, which is why we have a city counselor on this board, probably.

But it just so happened the city counselor before was Mr.

Rooster Days, so it worked out really good for him.

And I love rooster days, but yeah, I just think we just need to look at it just like they probably want to too, so it's fine.

Right.

Yeah, I think it'll and and it's up to our board what we do.

So beneficial to have that ask for those things too, like for you know VIP passes and for branding and for all that stuff, and you know, I think that's I mean the logo at the very least.

Yeah, the logo at the very least.

Yeah, for sure.

At the very least.

I would say visit BA and the city of BA should both be on the side.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so I just thought I just thought staff could probably just kind of work and then bring it back.

She'll then she'll we'll talk about and then bring we'll still get the final say.

Right.

This board.

Okay.

We'll get the final say.

And we may still decide to do both.

Right.

Because that's what we that's why we get to vote.

Right.

That's why we're on here.

Does that how does it make you feel is that better?

Oh, I don't feel any good.

I probably should recuse myself because I I have a vendor space there.

I do the alcohol for it.

So I don't I don't even know how how involved in the discussion I should be.

Our attorney can tell you if you need to do that.

That's why he's here.

We'll try to forget everything you just said.

Yeah.

We got some time.

Strike that.

Yeah, we got some time.

But I think the logo though is the least.

And I feel like we could really get creative with what else we could ask, even if it's yeah, I mean, rooster days is one thing, but anyone who comes up here, we may find someone and go, Whoa, we could actually do this or we could do that and be promoted a little differently.

Um if we just kind of I don't know, think outside the box a little bit.

And then just make sure we get the Airbnb on our next agenda.

And maybe we can make a recommendation then to council, whatever this board pre comes up with, maybe with then we can bring them recommendation to council.

Okay.

Can you um get some examples for surrounding areas and what they're doing for that?

Yeah, so regarding he said I can talk about it.

Uh regarding Airbnb.

So last year, about this time, um, it was one of my main priorities was the Airbnb thing, and I went down I spent a lot of time on this.

I don't know if we can talk about this.

Yeah, under Adam Bottom we can't.

Yeah, oh okay.

We did it up above.

Okay, gotcha.

Okay.

And so um, yes, and so I met with legal and the community development team, and we were like, okay, let's figure this out because it's come up multiple times and we know we're missing out on there's at least 200 Airbnbs, which to me is an extra hotel.

Um, and so um we started down the rabbit hole and we didn't get very far because it has to do with and James is the lucky one that can help us hopefully move this forward, but we kind of got stuck as to whether or not it would just be an ordinance change or if it would need to be a vote of the people if we're going to start charging a different tax, something.

So we I we never I never got that answer, and then what happened was the bond came along and we were told like everybody was just doing other things.

And so it's now back on my radar that we know we need to do this.

It's not new.

We we know we need to figure out can we or can we not?

Because it's been it's come up multiple times.

So just so you guys know, like we're it's so scary for like something that sounds like an additional tax to go to the vote of the people.

Yeah.

Well, since we can talk about it now legally, um when I explained to the Airbnb people that that money goes right back into tourism to bring people here, like they had no idea that that's what it went for.

Then they're like, oh, I mean they still don't like it because who wants to pay more money, but then they got it, like they understood that then.

So I'm gonna get more bills.

Yeah, yeah.

And so it's and I said it's not fair for the hotels to have to absorb all that money for you to then make money off of them, and they they agreed.

So but some I think some of the Airbnb businesses do charge it, right?

I don't remember exactly what we talked about.

An answer for that exactly, but it has to do with the way that the ordinance is written, is like five or more rooms or something, and so some fit into that and some you have to pay.

Do not you know, yeah.

And there broken error is a little bit different too than some of the other um cities in the state in that we remit um the like all of the lodging tax comes directly to us, it doesn't go through the state and then to us.

If we were to add Airbnbs, that's 200 extra people.

That's a big lift.

I don't even know if the if finance would be capable of that.

So we did have that discussion too is if that happens, then we may change our structure to where all of the lodging tax then goes to the state, like some of these other cities.

We pay kind of an admin fee, I guess, and then it then we get it back, which that's details, but there's some things that need to be figured out.

The main thing is can we just change the ordinance or do we have to does there have to be a vote, which would be a whole thing.

So I also think you could put some really good PR around that, only because there's so many Airbnbs around the Rose District, and many of them do have um I did design work on two or three of them, and I they have like uh brochures for broken arrow.

They have all that stuff.

So like if we gave them things, like I just feel like we can make some kind of partnership happen that would make it nicer, yeah and more palatable.

Yeah, which right now, you know that the Airbnb travelers are different travelers than those that stay at hotels, and so right now we just can't really we stay out of it because we don't, you know, it it's not right for us to right now.

But just that one tournament you said 48 Airbnb.

I mean, that's a lot, but yeah, it's a big number.

Yeah, if they're coming, you know, a lot of times they would just if they're bringing families or whatever, they just need more room.

So well, and I think it's putting our hotels at a disadvantage because they have to pay it.

Right.

It should at least be a level and even playing field.

Yeah.

I just worry about the vote of the people.

You get somebody compared to the thing that they charge on the ambulance on your water bill.

Yeah.

Jack ads.

There's just a few people that really don't like that, but for the majority of the people, they like that.

They're okay with it.

They may not like it, but they're okay with it.

Yeah.

To your question, Ben, I think we're one of the few communities that don't collect Airbnb.

Yeah.

Tax revenue.

Or hospitality.

Well, and it wouldn't really impact anybody else but the Airbnb owners, right?

I mean, it's they just pass it on.

Yeah, just that has to be really.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They can build they'll build it in.

Right.

I mean, I know there's some, like when we talked at when we did do some changing of the ordinance, and it all started off with, you know, some of the Airbnbs get wild.

Like Chief Arnold's the one who kind of brought it to us to try to be able to, you know, reel them in a little bit on the ones that were having big parties and stuff.

Um, and I know there was one like they some Airbnbs, like the people live on the premises, and there's just like one room that they rent out.

So we could make it to where, but I mean, they're still making money off of it.

You know what I mean?

So I don't know that we really I mean they're still making money off of it.

I agree.

You know.

We can look at all that.

Well then, Michaela, you just let us know what we need to do.

Put us a package together.

Yeah.

Yeah, just put a package together.

You do the work, let us know.

No big deal.

Yeah.

Are we ready to start talking about like the lodging tax increase yet?

Yeah, when's that?

When is that gonna be on the agenda soon or the lodging increase?

Uh that's above my pay grade to bring that up.

I mean, if you guys want to talk about it, maybe then would could recommend it to the city manager.

I mean, he's the one that's kind of well, he kind of had a game plan for it, but it was after the bond, which is where we're at.

I mean, I can check with him and see if he wants to address it yet, or if he has a plan at this point, or when or what um I can ask him.

I mean, I I think we're leaving it on the table.

Yeah, I I think it's probably time to.

We can raise it and still be under Tulsa.

You know, um, I know that I think Tulsa's about August, maybe.

Do you know?

Um, so they're gonna raise it again or raise theirs, so it may be good after that.

So what is ours now and what is Tulsa's now and what are they gonna raise theirs to theirs is four.

I mean, ours is four, and theirs right now is five, and you can correct me if I'm wrong.

Theirs right now is five, but eight percent if you're in a TID, which is most of their all of their downtown hotels, so it's really eight.

Um I don't know, I think they were gonna raise it to ten or six, which would then be maybe nine, something like that.

I don't know.

It was significant, yeah.

But you know, yeah.

So we could raise our sum and still be way below Tulsa's, but still make a meaningful impact for our city.

Yeah, if they go to ten, like we could go to six, and like it would be a big impact for us.

Yeah.

I think the main problem, if you want to call it that, is just having a plan.

Like, what are we going to have a reason why?

What do we want to raise it?

It's involving the hotel years, yeah.

This is what we're using it for.

Right.

And that's what we didn't do last time.

Yeah.

Right.

We had one hotel year that was very vocal.

Right.

Yeah.

And probably, I mean, for a good reason, honestly, we probably didn't really include him at the beginning, maybe or something, or I don't know.

Yeah.

Mr.

I've talked to him about this a couple times, and yeah, he's got a game plan for it.

Yeah, if you can ask Mr.

Spurgeon if he's if the if he's ready to talk about it.

We're ready if he's ready.

We are ready to speak of it.

Yes.

Got it.

All right.

Action item six tourism director report.

Okay, so I think you guys have this in front of you as well.

Um May significant spending Uber was about twelve hundred dollars.

Um that's becoming more of a common number, which is good.

Um, we did provide some, we didn't sponsor uh the women's conference, which is women in municipal government conference, but uh we agreed to provide some gift cards for the event, which is next week, I think.

Uh last week of June.

And so that was three hundred.

We did like some $15 gift cards for restaurants because we wanted it to be not enough to cover a whole whole bill, but enough that they couldn't just pass, you know, sometimes people will just throw a five dollar gift card, but you're not gonna throw away a 15.

And so we just did that as our kind of contribution for that conference.

So just to let you all know, we have um the last week of June, the first three days, it'll be the Oklahoma women and municipal government conference.

So Monday, Tuesday, half of Wednesday, and that's what she's talking about.

And then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday will be the National League of Cities women in municipal government.

And just to let you know, we asked for no money from the city.

I'm the president, and we were able to raise enough money to take care of everything.

So it can be done for the people that come up if you work hard enough, just to let you know.

And we probably have a hundred hotel rooms that will be.

I know.

I wish too late.

Um okay, no, this is still mine.

Okay.

Uh I was I was in a different world.

Um okay, so remaining grant funding is that's unencumbered.

I don't we're not gonna get any more.

This is the last meeting of the year, so we ended up with 13,000 um out of 90 that we had left over.

A lot of that was like, for example, the golf tournament where they had X amount and then just asked for less.

And then um, oh, this says unencumbered 10,000, and then unencumbered of our film incentive was 14, and again was because you know, Horrified got a little bit less than what they had asked for originally.

So I'm really impressed with that.

Um, we will have four of our of um we have the Mocha conference that we pre-approved, so they'll be here at the next meeting.

Um the flyover film is gonna be back the next meeting.

I mean, we're like rushing to get this in because fiscal year in, so we we've got to get them approved so we can get them their money.

We have money left over, does your money roll over?

Yeah, um, it doesn't roll over, it goes back into reserve funds.

So we can pull it out if we need it, but basically, if I have any left over, it goes, it just is wiped, it goes into our reserve, which is about 1.6 million, and then um we can use it if we need to, like we kind of have this year.

That's how we were able to get that extra money for um more like you know, that one conference wiped out our whole our whole year's um yeah money, yeah.

Um, and then I just put general tourism, I mean, these are just very highlights of some of the things we did.

We visited the set of flyover, that was really cool.

Um we had a meeting um regarding Sunset Amphitheater, which that's coming along.

Um we've Travis and I have been talking about hotels and there's a lot of interest in South BA, which would solve a lot of the Indian Springs conversations, you know, with just all that development.

I don't know when that's gonna happen, but sometime it will.

Uh spent a lot of time on our marketing proposals.

Um we've got a cool program called Real Scout that we'll demonstrate um as soon as we have a chance to implement it.

But basically um our we have a website, this filmba.com.

And one of the things that we've been wanting to do is have our locate um locations, like broken arrow filming locations on our site because right now people just use the Tulsa film location or the state has a really good program, but of course we want our own, and so we were like, do we have to reinvent the wheel?

And the answer is no, and the state actually agreed to allow us to use their program, which is called Real Scout, but we're paying about $2,400 to have it branded as broken arrow, so we'll be able to just basically um integrate it on our website and it'll look like it's our own.

Um but the state film office is paying the majority of that program, and so we'll just have just broken arrow locations and then be able to build that out.

So we're excited about that.

It's a big project, but that's coming.

Um then I'm speaking at a um I'm a panelist at the Metro Tulsa Hotel Lodging Association luncheon uh next week, actually.

And um this one's called the Suburban Show.

So normally that comp that luncheon is all about the Metro Tulsa downtown Tulsa Hotels.

Um, but they're gonna be talking about suburbs this time, and so it's myself and Jinx Chamber and Catusa and one other, and we're just kind of having a panel and get to talk about all the cool things that are going on in our city.

So I'm excited about that.

And then block party is at the end of the month.

So Aaron brought these for you all to take and please distribute as you can.

And then the interpreters conference is coming up um July 9th.

Um, Christian Interpreters, that's one that we gave some potential rebate money for, so that's a big one.

I think that's about 350 in attendance.

It's gonna be at Stony Creek, and then uh we are sponsoring APO, which is the association professional organization or something like that of um July 13th through 15th, which is gonna be at Hard Rock.

This is the they were previously OSAE, which is Oklahoma Associate.

It's like an association for all of the associations.

And so they they all have conferences, and so it's a really good place to be a sponsor.

We're gonna be the tote bag sponsor, and hopefully those associations learn about broken arrow and want to come have their conference with us.

So that's why the sponsor for them.

And that should have been a 74,000.

So we're down about 200 for May.

Otherwise, still up.

Um the numbers are still up fiscal year to date.

Um we're at 790,000, where last year we were at 769.

So hopefully when we get June's numbers, we can end saying that we had an increase in hotel tax collection.

And then occupancy is down a little bit.

It was about 60 percent last April, and these are kind of the numbers that I have so far.

They're they're late, but um, and then it was 59.7 percent for April of this year.

And that's about you think it's because of gas prices and people aren't traveling as much.

Do you see your numbers just in general?

Little, yeah, a little bit corporate travel is down overall for the whole year.

So and we're just kind of getting into summer, yeah.

So it'll be interesting to see there too.

But yeah, I'm sure that's gonna play into it.

That's all I have to do.

Did I hear you say that the marketing campaign is going to be focused on faith-based conferences, or that was just an example?

That was just an example.

Um, we have um been in-house, that's one of the projects that they did.

They they did a campaign for faith-based conferences, and we actually like that's how these Christian interpreters conference found out about us, and there's one other one that I can't remember.

Um, but we get you know, we it basically just generated lead, like they would submit information and then we would get the leads um from in-house, and then we would call them or reach out to them uh regarding the conference.

So that's not necessarily something that we'll continue to do, but maybe it's kind of been a niche that we've used in the past.

Okay.

That's a good question.

I think it's not that we weren't pleased.

I think in-house is not a destination marketing company, so they're great at what they do, but they don't understand visitors.

I don't want to there's other organizations that do this all the time, like that is all the market, that's what they do.

And so they have the access to the data, they have they understand how to generate more hotel overnight stays.

They they do this, and so they know where to go and who who target, and so I think that was it.

The marketing traits on branding, it seems like more.

Yeah, and we that was part of, I mean, they did a new logo, they did a new website for us, and and that was what they were very strong in.

And so now that we're like kind of established, we just felt like getting somebody that can kind of take us to the next level.

Yeah, and that kind of came out of the strategic because there's so many great organizations out there, and um also just helping us to come up with a creative because Aaron and I don't have time when they're like, Well, what do you want to do next?

And I'm like, I don't can you tell me what we should do next.

Yeah, because I don't know.

And so that's where we're hoping to be able to lean on uh a team that does this and see what the what we're lacking and see from an outside, you know, even I think there's uh good that can come from even in any in-state organizations, but also maybe more so from out of state, and there's always the argument about do they understand us or not, but um we're gonna just try and see.

And I you know, from our conversations, they're gonna they've done this, so they understand what they need to do to come and understand a community and listen and not just kind of put something on us.

Yeah, so but it was really just looking for somebody that has specific um experience in destination marketing, and that's what they do.

Yeah, so I think you you and Aaron for three three people in your office.

You all do such a great job, like you they juggle so many, yeah, so many balls.

You all do a really great job, and we appreciate you.

Thank you.

It's fun most of the time.

I second exactly it's exhausting.

Thank you.

That's when I see your all the stuff you all put on Facebook.

I'm like, oh my gosh, so much stuff going on all the time.

Those are really movable forward though.

I feel like that's the one.

Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Make a motion to adjourn.

Second.

Dean.

Yes.

Yarty?

Yes.

Bowie.

Yes.

Ford.

Yes.

Muskrat.

Yes.

Lop.

Yes.

Schneider.

Yes.

Swanson.

Yes.

Don't forget your block party.

Yes.

Oh yes, Tuesday's in the parking.