Experience in the tourism industry and confidence working with elected officials will be key ingredients in for the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau when a permanent executive director is chosen, said interim executive director Clara Ross Stamps.

“The search committee will be looking for someone with strategic planning ability, preferably with 10 years’ experience,” Stamps said.

Since the search committee was formed, the VCVB has received 33 resumes, thanks to an advertising effort including The Vicksburg Post, The Clarion-Ledger and a posting on the Web sites for the International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus and careerbuilder.com.

June 30 is the closing date for all resumes to be submitted, Stamps said, with the committee, chaired by board member Eric Biedenharn, to select the top candidates for final review by the full board.

The position of executive director of the tourism-development agency is open due to the April death of Emy Wilkinson, who had served in the post for a year.

Members at the VCVB board meeting Thursday also received thanks from Lynn Foley, chairman of the President’s Cup Soccer Tournament, for its help in promoting the recent event, sponsored by the Mississippi Youth Soccer Association.

“Including all the family members of the 141 teams, referees and players, we had about 3,600 people attend,” Foley said.

Separately, VCVB is still awaiting modifications on 16 directional signs. The board’s main contact with the city is out of town and no action has been taken, Stamps said.

The board was also briefed on its role in the 22nd annual Chicago Blues Festival, to be held June 8-13 in Chicago celebrating old style blues music. VCVB will sponsor a 20-by-20 foot booth with the Mississippi Development Authority and the Mississippi Delta Tourism Association to market and expand travel to the state at the event.

The official promotional tattoo for the VCVB-sponsored booth at the Chicago Blues Festival was unveiled by public relations and special events manager Samantha Hosemann at the meeting, a tilted golden saxophone hanging below the official VCVB logo.

VCVB operations are funded by an extra 1 percent sales tax collected countywide on restaurant and bar tabs and rooms rented by the night.