Convention Visitor’s Bureau Review Committee Struggles with Purpose

Monday Mornings have become a routine for the 14 member review committee that was formed by Mayor Mike Huether and City Finance Director Tracy Turback to review how the Convention and Visitor's Bureau operates.

The CVB is mainly funded by Sioux Falls Hotels who voluntarily tax themselves two dollars per hotel room and invest it with the CVB to create what they term "more heads in beds."  The hotel group can also collectively rescind their tax by alerting city council, who collects and disperses the funds to the CVB.

The CVB is actually under the direction of the Chamber of Commerce, a separate entity from the city of Sioux Falls.

The program has received many accolades during the meetings and comments have been made as to the benefits of any organization reviewing their process and planning for the future.  Others believe the series of meetings have been designed to divert funds to another way than originally intended.

Jan Grunewald, Manager of the Ramkota has invested many Monday mornings in the meetings that stretch beyond two hours each time.  She doesn't see progress being made in the meetings:

As one of the task members noted today we have not progressed.  We're almost at the same place as we were from the very first meeting.

What was going to be final meeting on Monday December 7th, has now been extended to at least one more gathering, scheduled for Monday December 21, 2015.

After hearing from multiple sources and organizations, the review committee still has to agree on if they desire to make general recommendations or bring specific details in their final report.

Steve Sanford of the review committee voiced to the rest of the members that there is uncertainty as to what their recommendations will accomplish:

This group has no authority other than to make recommendations.  We're not going to make anything happen, alright.  We're simply going to provide our observations from what we've heard with all the strengths and weaknesses the composition of this group has. I don't know what's going to happen to our report.  I don't know if its going to get tossed in a trash can.  I'm not even sure who's going to do anything about it.

Jim Hagen, South Dakota Department of Tourism described his thoughts:

We are essentially celebrating success here.  The CVB has had a ton of success, Sioux Falls has had a tons of success, and if you're asking my opinion today on how this CVB is doing, I'm going to tell you straight up they're doing a fantastic job.

After hearing from multiple sources and organizations, the review committee still has to agree on if they desire to make general recommendations or bring specific details in their final report. The next meeting is scheduled for December 21, 2015.