[07/18/02]Eight members of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau board of directors called a meeting Wednesday and after an hour in closed session voted to instruct the agency’s executive director to present a new operational plan in a month.

“Over a number of years we have seen no new ideas to differentiate Vicksburg from other convention and visitors bureaus,” said board chairman Eric Biedenharn. “We’re running a visitors center like every other little, podunk town in Mississippi.”

The discussion was closed under the personnel matter provision of the state’s open meeting law. The unanimous vote that followed says 17-year executive director Lenore Barkley must draft a new plan to increase tourism in Vicksburg.

The session brought to the surface rumblings that VCVB board members feel the agency is not aggressive enough in how its $1 million budget is spent to promote tourism.

Board members are appointed by city and county officials since the agency was created 30 years ago by the Legislature to operate independently of local politics.

Biedenharn said tourism in Vicksburg is down because the VCVB operates the same way as bureaus in Greenville, Greenwood and Yazoo City. He said the board should not be happy with the status quo anymore.

During the first four months of 2002, visitation at the Old Court House Museum was down by 11 percent from last year, he said, but visitation at the Vicksburg National Military Park was up 20 percent for the same period.

“We’re not satisfied with the performance as it is right now,” Biedenharn said.

Barkley said late Wednesday that she had not spoken with the board about the directive. While Barkley did agree that the local tourism bureau does a lot of the same things as bureaus in smaller cities, she said that it also does the same things as agencies in El Paso, Albuquerque and Savannah.

She said that includes advertising, brochures, working with tour groups and hosting travel writers to promote Vicksburg.

“Everybody in the region has been down some,” Barkley said. “9-11 has played a big part in that.”

The VCVB operates on an extra 1-cent sales tax collected on restaurant meals and room rentals. It has a full-time staff of eight.

The organization operates two tourist-information centers and staffs desks at the State Welcome Center at the river bridges and the Visitor Center at the military park.

Biedenharn said it will be up to the board whether to accept the new business plan presented by Barkley in August.

“A number of boards such as Enron, WorldCom and United Way a few years ago just rubber-stamped everything that management gave them and they got into a lot of trouble,” Biedenharn said.

The VCVB board is made up of 11 appointees by the city and the county. Three were absent for the special meeting Wednesday.

The board has employment and salary authority over the staff members, including Barkley. It also approves budgets and marketing strategies the staff conducts.