Logan County Tourism Board struggles with website issues

[September 25, 2017] 

LINCOLN - The Logan County Tourism Board met on Monday, September 18th for its monthly meeting. During that meeting they heard from David Doolin who announced that, in summary, after reading an article published in Lincoln Daily News about the August meeting, he would be rescinding his offer to incorporate the Tourism Bureau into his website, explorelogancounty.com.

Doolin said, “What I witnessed through the published account of that meeting was a direct attack by a member of this board right out of the gate against me and my approach to solving tourism’s website problem that was laced with inaccuracies and misrepresentations. What is ironic is that the member leading that charge against this approach has the least amount of information about the approach and has shown the least amount of interest in pursuing more information about it and has repeatedly misrepresented the facts of the agreement and the clarifications that were given during follow-up discussions.

“In addition I have heard from several sources that this board member has also been insistent on bad-mouthing myself, my work, and my product, both in meetings, out of meetings and everywhere in between. This board members behavior is unprofessional, not constructive, or objective to the process at hand, and this should be addressed by this board.”

Doolin went on to talk about the history of his involvement with the tourism bureau saying that he had met with former director Bill Hoaglin in January of 2017 and discussed a proposal that would include incorporating specific pages (up to five) designated to Logan County Tourism within Doolin’s website Explore Logan County.

Doolin said that he had been approached by Hoaglin to take on the project, which in turn the full board approved at their February meeting. A Memorandum of Understanding was drafted, and Doolin said that MOU has been on the table since March.

In his reference to a certain board member, Doolin had been referring to Kevin Bateman. He spoke next about some of the inaccuracies and misrepresentations, naming Bateman as the one who had spoken about these. Doolin said that the original MOU included up to five pages for tourism, whereas Bateman had said there would only be one page. Doolin went on to say that he didn’t believe there would be a need for more than one page, but the provision for multiple pages had been included.

Doolin said Bateman had also stated that with the Doolin proposal, once again the tourism board would not have control over the website, or the ability to change or add information to the website at will. Rather, Doolin would be the webmaster, and information would have to be added by Doolin.

Doolin said this was not accurate. He had included plans to work with the tourism staff so that they could do updates to certain information. Doolin said that the end goal had been to provide the bureau with a quality product with as little staff time investment as possible, freeing staff up to do other work vital to the bureau.

In August, Bateman had also spoken about the board’s desire for a website of its own, which was not part of the proposal by Doolin.

Doolin also said that at the end of the day, he did not believe that people looking for tourism information on the internet would care about the name on the website or the website address. Rather what they would care about is finding good, quality content.

Bateman had also said that Doolin had missed deadlines.

Doolin said that he had never established deadlines for his current website overhaul, and therefore did not miss any such deadlines in getting the new website up and running.

To clarify, currently the Explore Logan County website is not working. It has been taken off line and Doolin is working on a new website. At the June meeting of the Tourism Bureau, Doolin was on hand, and said that the new website would be up and running in August. At that time in June, he made arrangements for a private preview of the website for board members. That meeting was held soon after, with no press allowed to attend. It was thereafter reported that Doolin gave the board an overview of what the site was going to look like and how tourism would be incorporated.

Doolin went on to speak about the work involved in putting together a quality product and asked the board if they felt they had on staff the expertise and manpower to produce a website comparable to Explore Logan County. He said he didn’t feel that the board understood what it was going to take in time investment to create a good website.

He noted that he had tried to work with the 2014 tourism board, but that board had taken on a “we know best” attitude that resulted in a failed relationship with DCC Marketing.

Doolin concluded, “It is a sad day when one of this organizations biggest supporters over the years finds himself in a position that it is not worth the time or the risk to put up with the back and forth nonsense any longer. I cannot simply sit back and let members of this board continually give inaccurate statements that misrepresent the spirit of this agreement and defame myself and my product. With that, it is my decision that until this board decides to cut out the nonsense and have a serious conversation about promoting Logan County, I hereby rescind my agreement.”

Doolin had previously mentioned that the tourism staff did not have the expertise to do data analysis on the website once it was up and running. After he finished, Steve Parrott asked if the MOU between Doolin and the bureau had included that analysis. Doolin said, no it had not, but it would have been included.

Parrott asked, “If we had come to an agreement in March, where would we be today?” Doolin answered, “We’d be much further along.”

Parrott asked, “Is your website up and running.” Doolin said, “Not right now.”

Parrott pointed out then that tourism would still not have a website. Doolin said that everything that has gone on since March has pushed back the progress of the entire project. He continued saying that the MOU was never a bid to build a tourism website, it had all along been the intent that tourism would become a part of Explore Logan County. Doolin said he had moved forward on his own, gathering information and preparing to put together information for Logan County Tourism.

Emily Davenport commented that she understood the time Doolin had put into the project, but her understanding had always been that tourism wanted its own website, and she thought that was the end goal. However, Doolin had no plans to do that, he instead intended to incorporate tourism into his website. To clarify Davenport asked, “From our point of view, we would like our own website. That is not something you are willing to do for us.” Doolin confirmed that he would not build a website just for the bureau.

Bateman commented that he understood he came off like a “metal cheese grater,” but at the same time, he stood behind everything he had said. He added that it was not a personal attack, but that it was true that Doolin did not meet the timelines he had shared with the board.

Bateman said that he had been informed and on the ground floor of this project. He, Davenport, and Hoaglin had met, and all had agreed that the bureau needed its own website. He said that goal had gone to the wayside and the board had realized that the intention was to put tourism in Explore Logan County. He said that tourism does not need a complicated website. There was no need for 60 pages of content, the need was for one or two pages with information and a calendar of events.

DCC Marketing

When Doolin had concluded, he left the meeting. Discussion continued later in the evening regarding the current situation with DCC Marketing. Bateman reported that he had reached a company executive in Chicago and had gotten some immediate results. What he learned was that the bureau could purchase the current website, destinationlogancountyil.com. DCC Marketing would need one to two hours to complete the transfer and the cost to do the transfer would be less than $500.

Paul Adams

Bateman said he had also contacted Paul Adams about taking the website and bringing it up to date and instruct tourism staff on how to add and edit information when needed.

Adams had said he would do the initial work for a onetime fee of no more than $2,000. He would also provide support services as the website host for a fee of $400 to $500 per year. This fee would include paying all the domain fees and other annual costs associated with website ownership.

Bateman said he did not have a written document on hand that evening but there was one. He explained that the information from Adams had been emailed and Bateman would be able to produce it next month.

It was suggested that based on the information Bateman had just provided, the bureau should go ahead and get started on the process. Bateman said he thought the board should wait until they have a written document in hand from Adams. Davenport then suggested that the project be tabled until those written documents were presented.

Those documents could be presented at the October meeting of the Tourism Bureau and a vote could be taken at that time. The October meeting will be held on Thursday, October 19th at the Holiday Inn in Lincoln at 4:45 p.m.

[Nila Smith]