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CASE Committee Meeting Minutes 2025.11.20CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2025 IN-PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 20 NOVEMBER 2025 PAGE 1 | 3 1. ROLL CALL CASE Committee: Committee Chair Justin Chesney, Committee Members Ian Grask, Thomas Walsh, Kristen Dudding, Chuq Yang, Amy Lewis, Kerri Thelen, Alejandro Cerda Virtual: Town Councilor Ruth Stanley Absent: Committee Vice-Chair Pedro Campos, Town Councilor Lindsay Hardy Staff: Chief Cultural Officer Danita Dempsey, Senior Special Events Coordinator Chelsea Van Winkle, Special Events Coordinator Emily Dennis Public: Russell Frederickson from the Art Guild at Avon The meeting was called to order at 12:29 p.m. Alejandro Cerda joined in person at 12:32 p.m. Town Councilor Ruth Stanley joined virtually at 12:33 p.m. Russell Frederickson joined in person at 12:35 p.m. 2. MINUTES Committee Member Grask motioned to approve the meeting minutes from October 16, 2025. It was seconded by Committee Member Thelen, and it passed unanimously. 3. PUBLIC COMMENT No public comments were made. 2. STAFF UPDATE Chief Cultural Officer (“CCO”) Dempsey provided a review of the staff report. It was confirmed that the bluegrass festival will be moving forward for 2026. Due to ongoing construction, bluegrass will only be scheduled in October 2026, and we will look to 2027 to host an additional bluegrass festival in June. The Committee commented / inquired: A. Does the restroom project impact any other third party or Avon produced events in 2026? B. What is causing the delays? CCO Dempsey stated that special events will have to rent portable restrooms for the month of June. The modular buildings have been delayed. Senior Special Events Coordinator (“SSEC”) Van Winkle provided a recap presentation about culture, arts, and special events programming in 2025. Avon was activated for 101 days, hosted over 38,000 guests, and had an 88% diversion rate. The Committee commented / inquired: A. What’s a diversion rate? B. Will Town Clean Up and Sustainability Fair be back at the Sun & Ski lot next year? C. Why are we separating Town Clean Up & Sustainability Fair this year? D. Can we bring back TopHouse to AvonLIVE? E. AvonLIVE! won “Best Of Vail Valley”. CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2025 IN-PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 20 NOVEMBER 2025 PAGE 2 | 3 F. What’s driving the difference between budget and actuals for AvonLIVE? What about on the expense side? G. We are seeing the same trend with consumption of alcohol. We have added non-alcoholic beverages to try and close that gap. I think that could be an option for Avon. The younger generation is not drinking as much. H. Why is the Salute budget over? I. Have we finalized Lakeside Cinema for 2026? SSEC Van Winkle said the Sustainability Fair will likely be at the Sun & Ski lot again. There was a decline in participation of the clean-up portion which is why it will be separate next year. Special Event Coordinator (“SEC”) Dennis explained the definition of a diversion rate and mentioned that Avon works closely with the Walking Mountains zero waste team to track that information and provide zero waste services. SSEC Van Winkle also explained that concessions at AvonLIVE! were down this year. It is an industry trend right now. We budgeted 2025 numbers based on 2024 and vendor fees have stayed flat. CCO Dempsey mentioned that we spent less money on talent in 2025 and the booking team has directed Avon to spend a little more for larger bands in 2026. SSEC Van Winkle noted that the I-70 closure impacted Salute attendance, and we did not have the level of talent as we had with Melissa Ethridge in 2024. We also could not accept as many food vendors as we relocated them to Lake Street. CCO Dempsey stated that increased prices caused Salute to be overbudget. Talent was also more expensive. We offset some of the cost with support from our sponsors. Lakeside Cinema will not return in 2026. SSEC Van Winkle recapped the 2025 art installation and programming. The Committee commented / inquired: A. Are we making postcards for all our murals? B. Where do those postcards get distributed? C. Congratulations to you all, the Art Guild at Avon also got voted “Best Of”. We got a lot of support from Avon this year. The art walks got some traction, and people are really starting to check out the gallery space. D. Will you take this presentation to Council? How does that work? CCO Dempsey mentioned that our new reusable bag design will be the new mural, Postcards from Avon. Postcards will come later. An Art Guild at Avon update will hopefully go to council in Q1 of 2026. The Art Guild at Avon has done a great job with increasing engagement and offerings for members and non-members. Kudos to the Art Guild and Russell. SSEC Van Winkle noted that a written report detailing everything in this presentation has already been included in a council packet. It also included the AvonLIVE! and Salute survey results and is linked in the CASE packet materials. CCO Dempsey explained the committee’s history of council work sessions and that we have not had one since October 2024. There is not one scheduled for 2026, but we will have one if there is a need for policy direction. SSEC Van Winkle reviewed the third party produced events, mentioning that the Vail Lacrosse Tournament canceled their event at the last minute. Some highlights include a slight change in venue design at Triple Bypass, Avon Arts Celebration saw an increase in attendance, and there were weather impacts at Dancing in the Park and AVID Dance. CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2025 IN-PERSON AT AVON TOWN HALL CASE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES, 20 NOVEMBER 2025 PAGE 3 | 3 The Committee commented / inquired: A. We need to work on the Cars in the Park sound system for next year. B. Vail Valley Soccer Tournament had 217 teams, and we had every hotel and restaurant packed from Vail to Gypsum. It’s worth looking into how much revenue that event generated in Avon. C. Can we promote AVID Dance a little more next year? D. Does Avon always offer the option to market for a third-party event? E. Is Pride in the Park a fundraiser? F. It’s interesting to see the cost per attendee for each event. I would like to see how much each person brings to the town. If they are spending money at restaurants and businesses, then we are making money. G. Kudos to the Avon Arts Celebration. I was impressed with the variety of mediums they had this year. They had so many different offerings! H. Man of the Cliff was a big third-party event that went away with the producer. I’m curious to see if there is an element of that event that comes back with the bluegrass festival. I just wanted to plant that seed as you grow the relationship! CCO Dempsey stated that Avon gave AVID Dance cash funding to do their own marketing this year. Avon provided them with marketing last year but that is not traditional. When it comes to funding, we do not see in-kind and cash support going away. Committee Chair Chesney clarified that Pride in the Park is not a fundraiser. CCO Dempsey mentioned that the cost per attendee at Dancing in the Park is higher than for our other events but speaks to our support of arts and culture. We used to use MuniRevs to track where event guests spent their money in Avon. It was a was not an efficient way to track the data. Now, we use an educated guess and have plenty of spreadsheets to estimate return on investment (“ROI”). SSEC Van Winkle mentioned that we have the AvonLIVE! survey data as a reference, but next year we will be using Placer AI technology to support us in collecting data. 4. CURRENT ACTIVITY / PLANNING CCO Dempsey reviewed the CASE members whose terms are up in 2026 and provided a brief overview of the application process. The CASE Committee collectively decided to cancel December’s meeting and save future conversations until January 2026. CCO Dempsy provided a brief overview of the park master plan that will be presented in January. CCO Dempsey reviewed the 2026 meeting schedule. The committee opted to keep the monthly meeting schedule for 2026 except for June, July, and August. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 1:34 p.m. Respectfully submitted by: Emily Dennis Special Events Coordinator