City, county to name replacement for Jo Wilson.

Vicksburg and Warren County will combine efforts to name a replacement for a member of the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau who resigned this week.

Jo Wilson, an owner of Wilsonwood Lodge and a yearlong member of the 11-member board whose term was to expire in the summer, sent a letter Wednesday to VCVB board chairman Tim Darden announcing her immediate resignation. She gave no reason, Darden said during VCVB’s regularly scheduled meeting Thursday, and Wilson was not available for comment this morning.

Warren County Board of Supervisors President Carl Flanders, who represents District 4, said the county will meet with the city next week to pick a replacement for the only position shared by the two governments. The other positions are appointed by one government or the other.

&#8220We have not discussed any names specifically,” Flanders said this morning.

Wilson was among board members voting over the past two months to name Clara Ross Stamps, an interim director, to the executive director’s post. The final decision was to name Compass Facility Management, which operates the Vicksburg Convention Center and Vicksburg Auditorium, to run the VCVB.

In actions during the board meeting, the board, on a suggestion by Compass, voted for changes in the bureau’s financial reporting, staffing, job descriptions and chain of command.

Norman Ford, Compass director of business and operations, said the bureau’s finances should be better outlined quarterly to show every expenditure.

As far as changes in staffing, the convention center’s Executive Director Larry Gawronski said all the current employees of the VCVB will remain on the bureau’s payroll. However, their job descriptions will change. All employees will focus on marketing and sales, he said.

&#8220The Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau operation should be focused on sales, marketing and customer fulfillment,” the Compass report states. &#8220The heart of any CVB operation is its sales and its soul is branding the resources and marketing them to target audiences.”

The report recommends that Compass employees take over some of the &#8220mundane operational functions” of the VCVB in the areas of accounting, bookkeeping and public relations. The previous VCVB public relations coordinator, Samantha Hosemann, resigned from her position and she will not be replaced, according to the report.

The report also states Compass will be repositioning the existing employees of the bureau within a structure that will include sales representatives with emphasis in meetings and conventions, sports marketing, group tours, travel writers and other media relations and leisure packages.

Stamps will be placed back in her previous position of director of sales, which the Compass report says will now have more influence on the bureau.

According to the new structure chart, this position will be the lead staff position of the VCVB with all others under the direction of the director of sales. Previously, that position was under the direction of the executive director and deputy executive director, but those positions are eliminated under the new structure.

Darden said the VCVB will pay Compass $30,000 a year to take over the additional services in the areas of accounting and public relations. But he said the payment to Compass will save the bureau $37,000 a year because of the consolidation of services and elimination of positions.

Board member Bobbie Morrow said she is against the plan because Compass is requesting payment from the bureau for the services it will be providing.

&#8220I still take issue with the cost that Compass is requesting for services that are being provided because it is my understanding that Compass would provide professional services at no cost to the bureau,” Morrow said.

Member Bobby Bailess said he disagreed.

&#8220Compass was agreeing to offer its professional consulting services to the bureau free of charge,” he said. &#8220It did not include services they are recommending be folded in, in the nature of accounting, public relations, etc. Their recommendation will be a savings to the convention and visitors bureau because even in paying them, we will save money. I don’t think it’s a misrepresentation. I think it’s good business.”

Also during the meeting, the board: