Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau Board OKs PR firm pact, guide, logo

A $75,000 services agreement with RK/PR Inc., a public relations and marketing firm, was approved Monday by the Carson City Convention & Visitors Bureau Board. The contract, which covers six months, was approved without dissent. It was followed by presentations on a new visitors guide and logo to promote the city, plus discussion of website work the Reno firm is handling.“Wake Up To Carson City” is the planned guide’s front-page headline, with a photograph of Nevada’s Capitol dome rising among surrounding trees at dawn.“I object,” said Linda Barnett, general manager of Hampton Inn & Suites of Carson City. She said the colors didn’t please her and that it “looks dead.”Board members asked that alternative color schemes be considered, which Ronele Kingensmith of RK/PR Inc. said could be done easily.The PR firm actually began work in January and the services contract runs through June, according to Linda Ritter, interim bureau director. She said the firm not only will handle website work, but also do e-blasts for the bureau.Action on agreement with the firm, on the guide ??????— although color schemes remain in transition — and the logo were preceded by discussion of the board’s marketing committee bylaws.It was back to the drawing board on those bylaws because Stan Jones of The Purple Avocado, head of the Chamber of Commerce board, proposed a seven-member panel rather than six. The committee’s draft plan called for six and included the bureau director as a voting member, which also prompted dissent from Jones as a bureau board member.Stephen Lincoln of RE/MAX, the bureau board member who brought the draft bylaws plan to the full board, said he preferred having the bureau director included. But the proposal was tabled and sent back to the committee for additional drafting work.