08-30-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Slebonick stated that they are two (2) separate entities, but there is a shared agreement to operate the entrance area. A lot of our visitors actually think that they are visiting one thing. We've been having a great time working with the history museum continuously to find efficiencies and collaborate to maximize each of our potentials. Committeemember Voorde asked if there is recorded oral history of Studebaker from people who worked there in any archive. Mr. Slebonick stated there is some recorded history, but one of the bigger sources we have the most of are the Worker's Spotlights, the worker's publication, but there is also a periodical devoted to Studebaker's corporate sports leagues. We are actually in the initial stages of working with the library to find ways to digitize those. People ask us if we have any information on their great - great - grandfathers or uncles that worked at Studebaker. By engaging in the digital project, we hope that people will be able to find pictures of their uncle working in the factory or anything like that, so that will be a lot. That encompasses the corporate history and there is certainly room to grow in the oral history. Committee Chair White thanked Mr. Slebonick for his presentation, and welcomed him to our city. Aaron Perri introduced the next presenter, Leanna Belew, 120 S. St. Joseph Street, the General Manager of Century Center. Ms. Belew introduced Brandon Gerlach as the new Director of Finance. He has been with the Century Center since the beginning of July. The goal of the Century Center is to achieve our financial goals as described in the budget to contribute to the overall impact for South Bend. We look to achieve this goal by being the leader in customer service by exceeding our guests' expectations, providing a healthy, safe, happy place for employees to work in order to ensure a professional and friendly staff, and be a vital and active member of the community by supporting our local league and minority -owned businesses, volunteering our time at local charities and causes, and doing our part for the environment by reducing our carbon footprint by ways of energy saving measures and recycling and composting waste. Goals and challenges for 2016: To achieve a valuable presence in the convention industry and the community, so far this year we have done this via industry trade show opportunities, side visits, fans and blitzes. Year -to -date we have hosted one (1) fan in conjunction with the CDB, and our sales team has done ninety -seven (97) side visits to Century Center, increasing revenue and decreasing our year -to -year net loss. Year -to -date, our revenue is at nineteen percent (19 %) compared to budget, and our net operating loss is forty -one percent (41 %) better than budget so far this year. We also want to increase our number of events and sleeping rooms. Since we are funded by the events we bring in and the Hotel Motel Tax, we need to show our contribution to those hotel rooms that we bring in, so we are continuing to focus on multi -day events that bring in events with a greater economic impact on the City. 7