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FINAL CASE Committee Meeting Minutes 3-21-24CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, MARCH 21ST, 2024 IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 21 MARCH 2024 PAGE 1 | 4 1. ROLL CALL Present: Committee Member Danielle McNair, Pedro Campos, Kerri Thelen, and Justin Chesney (Virtual) and Town Council Member Ruth Stanley Staff: Culture, Arts & Special Events Manager Danita Dempsey, Special Events Coordinator Chelsea Van Winkle, Special Events Coordinator Mike Pasquarella and Town Manager Eric Heil Absent: Committee Member Lisa Mattis, Thomas Walsh, Calyn Rieger, and Town Council Member Lindsay Hardy Members of the Public: Vail Valley Art Guild Representatives - Tara Novak and Patti Dickson The meeting was called to order at 12:31 p.m. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comments were made. 3. MINUTES Committee Member Justin Chesney motioned to approve the minutes from January 18, 2024. Committee Member Pedro Campos seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 4. STAFF UPDATE CASE Manager Dempsey gave a staff update and introduced new CASE Committee member, Kerri Thelen which is included in the committee packet (available at Avon.org). CASE Committee Chair & Vice Chair Voting CASE Manager Dempsey updated staff that Committee Members Pedro Campos and Justin Chesney have expressed interest in becoming the Chair and Vice Chair. Both Justin Chesney and Pedro Campos gave a brief introduction and explained their desire to be the Chair and/or Vice Chair of the CASE Committee. Committee Member Pedro Campos gave a brief introduction to who he is and stated that the Committee is poised to go to the next level and that he is ready to be at the next level on the Committee. He understands the role as a listener and is willing to lead the group forward. Pedro also stated that he is happy being Vice Chair with everything on my plate instead of Chair. Committee Member Justin Chesney welcomed the new faces and explained that this is his second term with the CASE Committee, and he has been actively involved with the group as well as role with Mountain Pride. Justin clarified that he feels like it is time to really step up as the chair of the CASE Committee and assist with leading the committee and moving CASE forward. Town Manager Heil moved to make a motion to have Justin Chesney as Chair and Pedro as Co-Chair. CASE Manager Dempsey said she would like to move forward with a regular vote due to members of the committee that were not present and submitted their votes electronically. Chair and Vice Chair Votes at CASE Meeting: CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, MARCH 21ST, 2024 IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 21 MARCH 2024 PAGE 2 | 4 1. Kerri Thelen: Justin for Chair | Pedro for Vice Chair 2. Pedro Campos: Justin for Chair | Pedro for Vice Chair 3. Justin Chesney: Justin for Chair | Pedro for Vice Chair 4. Danielle McNair: Justin for Chair | Pedro for Vice Chair Chair and Vice Chair Votes submitted electronically: 5. Lisa Mattis: Pedro for Chair | Justin for Vice Chair 6. Calyn Rieger: Pedro for Chair | Justin for Vice Chair 7. Thomas Walsh: Pedro for Chair | Lisa for Vice Chair With the votes submitted electronically and in person, Justin Chesney received four votes for Chair and Pedro Campos received three votes for Chair. For Vice Chair, Justin Chesney received two votes, Pedro Campos received four votes, and Lisa Mattis received one vote. Committee Member Kerri Thelen made a motion for Justin Chesney to be Chair and Pedro Campos to be Vice Chair and Committee Member Pedro Campos seconded, and all others agreed. Stage Sign CASE Manager Dempsey presented the information about the stage sign and included that there were support materials in the committee packet (available at Avon.org). CASE Manager Dempsey reviewed the space for the proposed sign and the current names that are up for consideration in the committee packet (available at Avon.org). Then she went into the examples staff collected of names of other pavilions, stages, amphitheaters, etc. The examples included The Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater, which is called the Ford Amp in marketing materials, the Telluride Stage which will change based on the event and production and it is not recognized anywhere but is called Town Park Stage and last the Levitt Pavilion which has a very small sign on a large stage. CASE Manager Dempsey then reviewed the eleven names that have been selected to bring to the CASE Committee and Council. Town Manager Heil stated that all the examples were to show the different sizes of the lettering. The Committee commented/inquired: A. It was helpful to have other community examples. B. Does anyone know the actual stage name in Eagle? C. Is there a “definition” of an amphitheater? D. I love having the Town of Avon Logo on the sign. I don’t feel like we need to put Colorado, we all know we are in Colorado. The Colorado makes the size too small. The full colored logo really brings life to the sign. E. My first selection was Avon Pavilion, I like the simplicity and boldness of it. I wouldn’t be opposed to the more stylized sign with our logo. F. I don’t resonate with the naming of “pavilion”. I like Nottingham Stage and the Avon Logo with or without Colorado. G. I like the word pavilion and I like both the ones of Avon Pavilion with the Avon logo. The pavilion sounds fancier to me than the stage. It could get confusing if we change it from the Pavilion. H. Is there any lighting on the sign? My concern with the logo is the shadow line, it creates a weird shadow over the inverted V. The sign at the roundabout has letters that are backlit. CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, MARCH 21ST, 2024 IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 21 MARCH 2024 PAGE 3 | 4 I. Could the letters be raised so the sun follows it? J. I think if we are not going to use the exact Avon logo, we do it all as one font. K. I like the Town of Avon logo because it will be photographed and then people will know where they are. L. I feel like we have named the venue by naming the sign. M. I recommend we do name the venue and the sign as the Avon Pavilion. N. I agree, the sign and the venue are the same. Town Manager Heil said he thinks it would be helpful to bring to Council one rendition. He asked, would we want to do the Avon Logo without the inverted V? He also agreed that we need to look into doing backlit lettering. CASE Manager Dempsey reviewed for a consensus that we will bring three signs to council Avon Pavilion in three different styles. We aren’t officially naming the Terrace, the Terrace but that is what we call it in materials. National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Grant Opportunity CASE Manager Dempsey went over the new grant opportunity that is the Our Town Grant through the National Endowment of the Arts. She continued stating the funds would be used for the Culture and Art Strategic plan. The requirements for the grant have two main components, one is having a strong non-profit who is on board and that is the Vail Valley Art Guild (VVAG), as well as that the Town matches the grant funds. We anticipate that the grant application will open at the end of June or July. The awards notice does not become available until April 2025. Town Manager Heil said in this scenario, we just put that whole number into the budget. He shared that he is very supportive of the grant and thinks it is very on track about what we have talked about with Council and the CASE Committee. For the strategic plan, we need to be very heavy on open houses as well as do research and see what other communities are doing. The time frame is super slow, and it is not a race. We need a couple of different cycles of feedback, and it could easily take 6-12 months. I don’t think anyone has a well-defined idea of what culture means for Avon so this will help us achieve that. The Committee commented/inquired: A. It is very exciting! It is now meaningful work and that is long term. The partnership with VVAG will be wonderful. What do you all do? Tara Novak of the Vail Valley Art Guild gave a cliff notes version about what the VVAG does. She explained there is a gallery they own in Eagle and do monthly, second Fridays in Eagle. They do an annual show at CMC as well as workshops mostly in the summer as they have not had space for programming. The partnership with the Town of Avon gives the VVAG the availability to have space and do larger workshops and mini workshop programs. The workshops cover everyone from beginners to experts. They plan on doing more activations, events, workshops, etc. as they move into Avon and the mall. Research and Travel Schedule CASE Manager Dempsey reviewed that town staff, and the CASE committee will be visiting other communities. She stated that the team has an email drafted to communities as well as dates for travel. Staff has made a google form that communities can choose dates and we can then arrange travel with the group. The questions that are presented in the committee packet (available at Avon.org) are to get the juices flowing and will most likely change over time or during our experience at each community. CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, MARCH 21ST, 2024 IN PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 21 MARCH 2024 PAGE 4 | 4 The Committee commented/inquired: A. Is the plan to all go together as a group? B. Is the Vail Valley Art Guild coming with us? C. The CCI Summit is so inspiring and a great way to network and create an impact. D. I thought these questions were right on track and was impressed with the calendar. I think we will learn as we go. It is a good guide for us, and we can be ready for changes. E. I think it is a good starting block and see how it evolves as we get more information. CASE Manager Dempsey confirmed that the travel will be all together as a group. She also said that the VVAG is welcome to come with us to visit these communities. Community Survey / CASE Related Questions CASE Manager Dempsey explained the community survey timeline and reviewed the questions that are going to be asked. Town Manager Heil stated that the Town has heard feedback that we needed to shorten the community survey, so we have shortened it to 30 questions. One of the approaches is how we are going to use the data and if we are ever going to use it. With that thinking, we looked at questions, what information are we seeking and how are we going to use it. We are also going to move Special Events questions up in the survey so there is not survey fatigue. Last time we asked a lot of questions about events and the satisfaction and how many events you attend. Now we are changing it to check all the events you go to and have a list of all the events in Avon. This makes it more streamlined when taking the survey. The other question is how they found out about events and lists marketing efforts. Lastly, we will have an open-ended question about what you would like to see from Avon events. For Arts and Culture, it will be more impactful after we have things more in place and have more community engagement. 5. CLOSING COMMENTS Case Manager Dempsey explained that there was an opportunity for a ticketed event this summer and we presented it to Council, and we found out the Council is supportive of a ticketed music festival but not in taking any risk. We are close to having people of interest, but they really have no interest in building the venue so we have said we will take care of building the venue. I feel like we are getting close but are on the wrong side of it for that kind of producer interest. 6. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 1:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: Chelsea Van Winkle Specials Events Coordinator