Six months after filling the seat as chairman of the board of the Vicksburg Convention & Visitors Bureau, Tim Darden announced his resignation Thursday to fellow VCVB board members.

Darden, once manager of the Holiday Inn Express at 4330 S. Frontage Road, replaced former chairman Curt Follmer in December. Follmer had resigned in October.

Darden said his reason for stepping down was a recent appointment as corporate director of revenue and sales for Southern Hospitality Services, a management company that oversees 13 hotels in Mississippi, Louisiana and California.

&#8220I will be representing 11 properties outside of Vicksburg, as well as two here,” he said. &#8220But, I also have an obligation to the other 11 properties – that is my ultimate purpose” for resigning.

Darden said he will also step down as president of the local Hotel & Lodging Association, a position he held since the organization’s inception in 2005.

Darden was made chairman shortly after being appointed to the tourism development agency by city officials. He guided close votes and fractious discussions that led to the hiring of Compass Facility Management of Vicksburg to manage the agency.

Thursday, other VCVB board members did not hesitate to fill Darden’s position. He was the newest of 11 members when made chairman and they followed that precedent, unanimously approving a motion by board member Lamar Roberts to name Nelda Sampey, who filled the only city-county appointment last month, as chairman.

Sampey, vice president of business banking development at AmSouth Bank, accepted the position.

The board voted to move the tourism bureau’s headquarters temporarily across the street to 1300 Washington St., formerly Downtown Designs Fabric & Interiors, until the bureau’s operations can move back to its location at 1221 Washington St. The building was vacated in January after the neighboring building, which formerly housed Thomas Furniture, collapsed.

VCVB employees have worked from the bureau’s Clay Street location across from the Vicksburg National Military Park since the collapse.

&#8220We’ve got to get back downtown – quickly,” board member David Maggio said before the board voted on renting 1300 Washington St.

Larry Gawronski, vice president of Compass and manager of all Compass Vicksburg activities, said the management company would try to have the VCVB moved and operating in the new location by Tuesday.

Main Street’s two staff members, who have been operating from City Hall since being asked to move on Feb. 15, three weeks after the collapse, will also move to the new location.

VCVB’s board is made up of five appointees of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, five appointees of the Vicksburg Mayor and Aldermen and the one combined appointee. All serve as volunteers and decide how to spend about $1 million collected in tourism taxes each year to help the industry grow.

In other business, the board heard a report from Mary Anderson of the VCVB, who said the number of May visitors from tourist information centers was down from 6,349 last year to 4,615 this year.