COLUMBUS CIVIC CENTER ADVISORY BOARD MINUTES
February 19, 2009
Board Members Present: Sam Wetzel, Brian McCluskey, Robert Anderson,
Wanda Jenkins,
Board Members Absent: Mildred King, Patrick Sleem, Julius Arrington, Wane
Hailes,
Kevin Shirley, Jim Irvin, Sharon Pierce,
Civic Center Director: Dale Hester
Civic Center Staff: Jennifer McVay, Alfonzo Moore, Brian Giffin,
Rae McConnell
Civic Center Staff Absent: Robin Walker, Lisa Thomas- Cutts
Aramark: Ty Washington, Charles Benjamin,
Meeting called to order at 10:35 am
Review of minutes
Noted- Sharon Pierce excused from this February 19th meeting.
January 2009 Minutes approved as presented.
Open Remarks: Sam
Welcomed and thanked everyone for coming.
There are a number of people that have not been here for several meetings. Rae
contact the Board Members not here to see if they wish to remain on board.
Finance: Jennifer
Everyone has the building utilization report for January. Sam went over several
events stating to Dale that the figures on the Ice Rental are good ammunition
to get the other Rink going. Dale- I have e-mailed everyone the figures. I am
responding to Council members on the Ice Rink.
Robert- in the expense column please explain what the expenses are. Dale
explained what is included in the expenses. Wanda- is the ticket master fee
included in there expense? Jennifer- it is included in the revenue. Dale-the
customer takes care of that.
Jennifer went over final figures for FY08.
Advisory board minutes continued 02/19/09
Marketing: Robin
I am going to give a combination of Marketing and the Box Office report because
Lisa is not in today. I gave everyone an Upcoming Event Sheet. March Skate
dates have not been scheduled yet. There will not be many more and we still
struggle with having to turn people down for ice time.
We have Vision 2009 tomorrow. That is an event where they are selling tickets
on their own. They did not go thru the Ticket master system this year. I do not
know how many tickets they have sold as of yet. Dale- Vision has sold a little
over 1200 right now.
On Sunday the Columbus Lions are doing a Georgia vs. Alabama football game. It
is doing very well. Wanda- how did they go about selecting the athletes? Brian
M. ? how it worked in Georgia was the head coach contacted the schools in the
region and asked coaches to send names of students that might be interested in
playing and from that list they put together a 21 person roster. The only
criteria were you had to be a senior.
The Mixed Martial Arts event upcoming is something we have never done before so
I don?t know how it will go. We are just kicking off The Harlem Globetrotters.
I am working on Jeff Dunham, Buckcherry, and Cirque of Dreams.
Events upcoming that are not on sale yet are George Jones, Disney Live a stage
show and Darius Rucker. We have a lot going on keeping us really busy.
Operations: Brian
We are getting the bugs worked out of the marquee and the scoreboard but they
are coming along
The Muscogee County student program is working pretty well. They are getting
experience in different areas. Sam- how many do you have? Brian- we have
minimum 6 maximum 11. Some of the students are working at the Springer and some
at the airport. Wanda- how were they referred to you. Brian- thru the school
district.
Sam- do we have a capital list I would like to go over that at next meeting.
Robert- I would like to mention that the planters out front need attention.
Wanda- will there be any effort or opportunity to recycle or sell some of the
technology we are replacing? Brian- we have tried but it is so obsolete.
Aramark: Ty
The RFP has been received at the Corporate Office. They are working with us
here in the field to make sure we get everything together and ready to present
for the bid.
Gary Allen did well. The hockey games are about average. Military night was
good; we had Domino?s here to help us out.
Director: Dale
First of all I like to say that the staff is unbelievable in what they are
doing. I don?t know if you realized when Robin was going over upcoming events
especially in March; we have eight events in ten days. There is a lot that goes
on to make sure everything happens smoothly. With finance, Jennifer has to make
sure that she has what she needs from the contracts and that they are right.
Rae has to make sure she gets all the information to everyone that needs to
have it. Robin has to make sure all her bills are in and her ads are running.
Operations, needs to make sure everything is ready and set for turnovers at
night. So the staff is unbelievable in what they do. When you talk to your
council please tell them that we are doing the same thing with the same staff
as we have in the past ten years. We haven?t changed anything
Advisory board minutes continued 02/19/09
except the amount of money we make. We did do three million and now we are up
to six and will hit seven million this year with the same amount of staff. So
if you could mention we could use a little more staff down here that would be
great.
I have talked to the new president of Columbus State he wants his staff and our
staff to get together and see what we can work out to work with the college on
concerts and evens and see if we can start a club hockey team.
We do have a meeting next Friday with everyone that wants to bid on the
concessions.
Brian didn?t mention this but we are in the process of getting new carpet to
put out on the arena floor.
We are booking, and right now we have events booked all the way thru the end of
the year and into next year. We do have some things on hold thru the next five
years. We are meeting every obstacle head on we are not letting the economy be
an excuse. We are doing everything possible to make sure it is a pleasant
experience. The patrons spend there hard earned money to come here to enjoy
their selves and we want to make sure that is what they do. Any complaints we
have we take care of them immediately. Most of the time we invite them back to
an event on us.
Chairman Sam Wetzel:
Complements the entire team.
Open floor for questions. Wanda- when we talk to our councilors is there
specific staff positions we need to ask for? Dale- what we need is an Assistant
Manager and they need a few more people in operations.
Sam closed the meeting by thanking everyone for coming.
Meeting Adjourned 11:09am
Minutes Prepared by: Rae McConnell
Next Meeting: March 19, 2009
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