City staff and the Fulshear Regional Chamber presented a proposed memorandum of understanding to the Fulshear Development Corporation on Oct. 20, asking the board to consider a partnership in which the chamber would help produce signature events including Freedom Fest, the Scarecrow Festival and the Christmas Festival.

Rachel Durham, vice president of the Fulshear Regional Chamber for Commerce, told the board the chamber had "found ourselves in the position to provide our unique expertise to offer to the EDC's and to the city of Fulshear to assist Annelle and Hayden with their event planning." Durham said the chamber wants to "support the city and bring something great to the residents together to show a unified front."

Board members raised several substantive concerns. One asked whether the chamber was proposing that the A and B EDC boards jointly commit roughly "$800,000 over an 8 year period" to support three signature events; Durham replied, "I'm not sure about those numbers, but, yes, that's basically the 0.3 signature events." Other board members requested clearer definitions of who would be responsible for permits and final sign-off, saying section 5 of the draft MOU was "very open and vague as to who ultimately is responsible for all of the permits to be submitted." Staff said the citys event permitting process is an extensive application that is typically filled out by EDC staff and routed to police for public-safety review.

Board members also discussed governance and marketing concerns: several said any partnership should ensure the City of Fulshears branding is prominent in marketing and that joint committees or shared event committees could be an appropriate form of collaboration rather than the chamber unilaterally running events. The A board asked the chamber to return with specific, event-level requests (dates, locations and requested sponsorship levels) so the A board could consider proposals on a case-by-case basis.

Timing was a recurring point: board members noted the fiscal-year 2026 event budget is largely set and that decisions about 2026 signature events need resolution within weeks to allow planning, permitting and sponsorship sales. Staff was asked to continue communications with the chamber and to return with more specific proposals and a recommended governance structure for collaboration that addresses permitting responsibility, ticketing and prominence of city branding.

No formal action was requested or taken at the Oct. 20 meeting; the chambers request was for feedback and a potential future MOU.