Vicksburg will be put in the fore at the International Blues Challenge.

Up to $4,000 will be spent to promote Vicksburg and the two local Blues Challenge winners when they participate in an international competition in Memphis Jan. 29-Feb. 2 after a vote Thursday night by the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Board of Directors.

VCVB executive director Bill Seratt said the bureau will buy an ad in the Memphis program and have brochures promoting Vicksburg printed for distribution at the event. He said the advertising material will include the Vicksburg Blues Society slogan “Vicksburg’s got the Blues.”

The two local Blues Challenge winners are the band Mr.Sipp and Kinfolk from McComb and the solo/duo David Dunavent and Evol Love from Clarksdale.

The decision came after Shirley Waring, Vicksburg Blues Society president and a member of the VCVB Board, asked for approval for a $4,000 grant for the Memphis competition.

The board did not approve the request, president Annette Kirklin said, because it decided to use advertising funds already budgeted.

Seratt said the money will come from the bureau’s $18,000 sponsorship budget.

“It’s unusual, promoting an event out of town, but this will bring business back to the city,” he said after the meeting.

In another matter, the board amended its fiscal 2013 budget, rolling over $73,000 from the 2012 budget to increase the bureau’s checking account from $75,000 to $148,000, and reduce funds for outdoor advertising from $50,000 to $25,000.

Seratt said the $73,000 was money allocated for three projects in the 2012 budget that were not completed, including a $15,000 kiosk at the Old Depot Museum at the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley Railroad Depot on Levee Street and replacing new direction and promotional signs in the city.

“These were projects we projected paying for in December, but the contractors changed the completion dates and we will not be billed until January or February, so we moved the money from 2012 to the new budget,” he said. He does not need board approval to use the checking account.

In other action, the board:

• Established five committees to oversee VCVB activities.

The board approved a motion by Lamar Roberts to form budget, personnel, building and grounds, advertising and publicity committees. Kirklin said she would assign members later.

Roberts said the committees also would give board members more insight into VCVB operations.

“I don’t know of one corporation or other organization that doesn’t use committees to help with operations,” Roberts said after the meeting. “These are to assist Bill in running the bureau.”

Seratt said he “meets with committees all the time,” adding he talks daily with board members.

“I don’t see a need for it, but I’ll do whatever you want,” he told the board.

• Learned 6,788 people stopped at the VCVB’s visitor information centers in October, up 2,196 from 2011. A total of 4,193 people stopped at the centers in November, up 953 from 2011.