A long standing committee for the City of Clovis is looking for new members to join its ranks and any member of the community of Clovis can apply.
The Tourism Advisory Committee, a committee that has been a part of Clovis history dating to the late 1990’s, is a committee focused on bringing in tourists to the community of Clovis. Business owners along with citizens are encouraged to apply to be a member of the Tourism Committee, as the City continues to look for those who are interested in bringing tourists to Clovis.
Along with business owners and citizens, the committee tries to house members from the Clovis Unified School District, the Clovis Rodeo Association, and the Clovis Veterans Memorial District, groups who represent the bigger and more well-represented side of tourism in the City of Clovis.
Having a background in tourism is very important and where one must be interested in the City of Clovis as well as tourism, there are no specific ramifications when choosing a member to join. Anyone merely interested in tourism is invited to apply.
Where nine is a “good number” according to City Staff, the committee does allow more than just nine members. Over the years, groups of twelve to fifteen have been known to serve on the committee.
Why join? According to City Staff, anyone who is interested in serving the community in a certain way, such as the Planning Committee, the Citizens Advisory Committee, or even City Council, the Tourism Advisory Committee is a perfect place to begin. These committees all help advise the City Council, and therefore the City itself, in ways of serving and making a difference in the community.
The community reaps the rewards as the Tourism Committee “makes Clovis a very successful place for people to visit.” City Staff also reminds that tourism, just as important as retail sales and industrial jobs, brings to the table a “third leg” in economic development. “Through the years, the Tourism Advisory Committee has really formed this really good industry in the City of Clovis, the industry of tourism.”
Hotels for one thing have been added since the Tourism Advisory Committee first began when the City of Clovis only had one hotel. In the last twenty years, there have been at least twelve hotels added to the City.
Members meet once a month with a varying schedule of when and what time the meetings take place. Depending on what works for each member, the committee will take notes under advisement to appease the needs of each of its members.
The committee is guided by City Staff member Shawn Miller as he moderates committee meetings. His job will be first to introduce the importance of tourism to the new members of the committee, but after this is when he will be “turning the keys over” to the committee and allowing them to run the meetings.
Shawn Miller also states that the City periodically updates general plans and these updates relate to part of the actions of the committee. Updating the economic development strategy is where the committee looks to place focus moving into the future. A certain document will then be worked on partly by the committee. Where it takes about a year to fully complete the document, a third of the document is focused solely on economic development, which is the committee’s focus.
If you are interested in learning more about this opportunity, please email TarpeyDepot@cityofclovis.com or call (559) 324-2084 up until September 2.