Event PlanningBy: Paige Solo

The New Washtenaw County Bureau's (WCCVB)

The Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners has preliminarily approved a contract with the new Washtenaw County Convention and Visitors Bureaus.

The debate and negotiations preceding the merger lasted through much of the spring, summer and fall.

"I think we have an obligation, and I'm sure not all of you will agree with me on this, but I think we need to do this and let them get started. We need to give them their legs and let them go."

“We put the two bureaus in a position where they realized they had to come together and they did that. It wasn’t easy, and it wasn't quick, but they did it and they've agreed to this contract that's in front of us,"Ruth Ann Jamnick, D-Ypsilanti Township, said.

The Contract:

The 10-year contract would send approximately $5 million annually to the organization, which was recently formed by combining the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti-area convention and visitors bureaus.

Conan Smith(director AACVB) had many issues with the contract including its length. Both Smith and Jamnick said they were concerned 10 years was a long time to lock the county into this kind of a commitment.

Smith then realized that the entire board could be replaced within two years and the funds, collected under the accommodations ordinance, could be used for other means.

Smith brought up the idea of a convention center when discussing how the county could use the remainder of the 10 percent of the collected tax now used for administration purposes. While the county collects 10 percent to administer the tax and its distribution, it only uses a small portion of those funds. The remainder are eventually turned back over to the bureaus.

Smith floated the idea of having those funds stay with the county, which could use them for allowable expenditures—including the convention center

Ideas and changes

Ideas and Changes continue...

No changes were made to the contract, but Smith’s idea gained some support from other board members. Director Mary Kerr from AACVB, who will be the inaugural director of the WCCVB, said taking those funds ($350,000 per year) back from the bureau’s would mean there would be less money available for marketing.

One change to the contract during this meeting that was a clarification put forward by Yousef Rabhi, that Community Tourism Action Plan (CTAP) grants should not be taken from the 25 percent of the funding designated for activity within the Ypsilanti Community.

The board passed the contract by a vote of five to three with commissioners Jamnick, Conan Smith and Alicia Ping voting against it.

The board is expected to give the contract final approval at its next meeting Dec. 2.

December 2, 2016

Ypsilanti’s concerns. The board.As it's now outlined in the tentative merger plans, at least 25 percent of the members of the new CVB board would be people who either live or work in the Ypsilanti area, including the city of Ypsilanti and Superior and Ypsilanti townships.

Similarly, at least 25 percent of the board members would be people who either live or work in Ann Arbor.

Lastly, at least 25 percent would be people who either live or work in other Washtenaw County communities such as Saline, Chelsea, Dexter and Milan

Critics of the plan, some of whom see it as a takeover of the Ypsilanti brand by outside interests, argue that leaves the door open for Ann Arbor to potentially have as much as 50 percent of the representation on the new board.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations

Overall with the merge i think everyone’s goal and expectations are geared towards Peters and Watermen’s eight themes.

1. A bias for action- react quickly and do not spend excess time planning and analyzing.

People within both of the organizations are getting frustrated spending and wasting time on the controversy and arguments at hand. Situations needs to be discussed and resolved fairly.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations2.) Close relations to the customer- gear decisions and actions to the needs of customers.

AACVB and YACVB are both putting up a fight against each other because they feel like merging might affect their personal connection with customers within each city. Although, AACVB has the upper hand and might gain customers they didn’t know before coming from YACVB. YACVB might be lost within this merge because they might not have as many visitors attending ypsilanti, being overshadowed by AACVB.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations3.) Autonomy and entrepreneurship- encourage employees to take risks in the development of new ideas.

This entire merge is asking all employees to be adjustable and accepting to become one large bureau. Including accepting new positions and cooperation with selecting the new board.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations4.) Productivity through people- encourage positive and respectful relationships among management and employees.

In order to remain productive, the commissioners have to be cautious on who they select for each position and making sure Ann Arbor does not take majority of the board and decision making. Ypsilanti has made sure their concern is recognized and as long as that is respected, and the workers are treated equality, all will be productive.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations5.) Hands-on, value-driven-employees and managers who share the same core value of productivity and performance.

This could be great for WCCVB because before at least one person was assigned to each job within the organization and now combining both bureaus their will be multiple people for each position and could bounce ideas off each other and learn new ways for producing the job.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations6.) Stick to the knitting- stay focused on what they do best and avoid radical diversification.

Some say combining bureaus could cause some employees job loss. I disagree, the bureaus have the budget to consume multiple people for certain positions and could produce a better product with combining thoughts from people that know and are great at their jobs. Repositioning people to different jobs could be confusing and not a polished product.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations7.) Simple form, lean staff- avoid complex structures and divisions of labor.

This could be good to train multiple people on different positions because there might be a day where there are multiple events going on and the bureau will need others to fit into that position in order to still run smoothly.

Peters and Waterman’s themes for excellent organizations8.) Simultaneous loose-tight properties-exhibit both unity of purpose and the diversity necessary for innovation.

Each event planner has their own way to producing a product/event. This product may have been made/seen differently but the end execution is a great success. Each event planner is unified differently but all know they have the same end goal.

Questions????

Is merging actually a great benefit to both bureaus?

Will ypsilanti be visited more or less after the merge?

On December 2 will there be any other changes to the contract?

If so will they benefit Ypsilanti?

Will the board be completely conformed by December 2?

Questions????

Will there be job cuts in order for it to become a lean staff company?

Or will they have multiple people from both bureaus fit into a position?

What is going to be the budget for each city tourism tours?

Will all people within the bureaus accept the change and continue their jobs or will people be so upset, that they will leave?

Questions????

Are both bureau's ok with the decision of giving up both names and becoming WCCVB?

Will this name change affect the business/customers searching online?

Will all of this negative controversy affect people's views of using the bureau?

Questions???

What does the future hold?

Will business be better? More efficient?

Will spending less time fighting against eachother result in spending more time productively?

Will this new bureau product a new overall culture?

Work cited page

What will CVB merger mean for Ypsilanti? Officials explain latest plans:

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/10/what_will_cvb_merger_mean_for.html

New Washtenaw County convention bureau contract passes first reading:

http://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2015/11/new_county_cvb_contract_passes.html