Today, Natchez aldermen are expected to meet to discuss nominations to the Natchez Convention Promotion Commission, formerly known as the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Aldermen wiped the commission’s slate clean earlier this month asking for the resignation of each member and the city’s Director of Tourism Kevin Kirby.

The issue of what to do next with the city’s tourism efforts has caused uproar with a private group of tourism industry personnel crying foul over how the city’s convention center is managed and convention business handled.

With no official board and the villagers at the gate with pitchforks and torches, aldermen may feel compelled to “do something” to resolve the matter.

We hope they’ll consider doing absolutely nothing in the short term.

As important as the city’s tourism efforts are, revamping those efforts may be far more important long term than any short-term gain to be had in nominating commissioners to a system that appears off-kilter at best, broken and lacking trust at worst.

Perhaps the city could take the lead from the effort several years ago when the county attempted to kill the area’s economic development entity.

Through some methodical work, a public-private partnership was created with the formation of Natchez Inc., and while the organization may have critics, few would argue it’s not a vast improvement over the older dysfunctional economic development structure.

Perhaps fully rethinking how the city’s convention center management and its promotional efforts are handled is in store? Clearly what we’re doing now isn’t winning the hearts and minds of the majority in the tourism industry and appointing new bodies to fill the commission will not quickly resolve the underlying problems — perceived or real. We need a new approach, communication and patience for a new tourism approach to emerge.