By Dewey Terrill
JC Post
Rick Dykstra will serve as Chair of the new Geary County CVB Advisory Committee. He was elected by committee members during the initial meeting of the new board on Tuesday. "Well I'm excited. I think there's great future in convention and visitors for this community, and I'm excited to work with the board and the community."
Dykstra served as an assistant director for the CVB for multiple years before his retirement from that job. Tyler Downey will serve as the vice chairman of the new committee and Ty Arneson will be the secretary / treasurer.
During their organization the members were asked and did sign code of conduct and conflict of interest policies. The goal is good decorum and transparency.
The committee was formed after the Geary County Commission disbanded the previous CVB advisory panel. Commissioner Trish Giordano, who now sits as an ex-officio member on the new panel, noted that there were issues the last time there were board members. She stated that the CVB has to work with their partners. "In the past we've had some members vocally talk bad about city commissioners or the chamber, and I just feel like we're representing the county and trying to work on repairing and building bridges, and that kind of conduct is not acceptable."
Giordano said she also wanted new CVB Director Donna Price to choose her committee. "Let her choose her board, and I think she has done a great job with that. We have a lot of people in the tourism industry, not just hotels but destinations like the fish hatchery, the historical society, as well as the people involved in airbnb's. I think that is a new industry that is up and coming and they do pay transient guest tax so I do think they should have a voice at the table."
CVB Director Donna Prince confirmed that the code of conduct was her idea. "We need a code of conduct so that people just understand that the CVB is being as transparent as they can be, and so that everybody around the board table as well as the county commissioners understand that we're doing things to the best of our ability." The idea is to be positive and work together as opposed to the criticism in the past. "That is absolutely correct. We want everybody to work together and we want everybody to be proud of the CVB and the work they put into it," said Price.
Price informed the new board if there is yelling or screaming at the Geary County Commission in an open meeting, at the next meeting she would probably ask for them to be removed from the CVB Advisory Committee. Transparency is being sought as well with the conflict of interest policy.
Members of the new panel also received books and printouts with information on Roberts Rules of Order and conducting a public meeting.