Pittsfield Drug and Alcohol Meeting Minutes
7 pm at the Pittsfield Youth Workshop
October 11th, 2010

In attendance: Zach Powers, Officer John Webber, PYW Board President Rick Walters, Sarah Sadowski, Chief Wharem, Dan Ward, Denise Morin

Meeting called to order at 7 pm.

I. Opening Remarks
a. Sarah thanked everyone for coming on a holiday and starting the meeting half an hour late so as not to interfere with the PYW BOD meeting.

II. Secretary’s Report
a. No changes

III. Review of New Hampshire Charitable grant and CMCA activities
a. PDAC has received $33,000 in bridge funding from New Hampshire Charitable. Key elements of the grant are as follows:
i. Project Alert
ii. CMCA
iii. Sustainability (15% of the coordinator’s time)
b. Thank you notes have been sent and the press releases are ready to go.
c. Sarah briefly surveyed the group to see if any coalition members are available to attend the CADCA training in Washington DC February 7th-10th. Sarah is looking for at least one member to go and needs to hear before November 5th so that she can file a scholarship application for a staff member to attend as well.
d. Sarah provided a brief presentation about the differences in project funding (CRCPC versus NHCF). She pointed out that PDAC has largely been following the evidence-based Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) model: retailer walk throughs, patrols, enforcing Social Host laws, retailer education, etc. The challenge facing PDAC now is to formalize and account for these activities.
e. Activities being scaled up:
i. Compliance checks need to occur every 6 months
ii. More emphasis (and funds) for retailer education (ID check trainings)
iii. Chief will be conducting more DWI Checkpoints
iv. Using police data to describe how much IS being done
1. Creating a place on minor protective custody forms to say where the youth obtained the alcohol (Chief noted that this is already being done and most youth will not disclose a source)

IV. Scaling up the Coordinator’s hours
a. Thanks to the support of New Hampshire Charitable funding, the Board of Selectmen and a Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Service grant to implement All Stars, it is now likely that PDAC can scale the Coordinator position up to full time. Sarah will now be able to focus on policy, direct service and coordinate the coalition’s efforts much more effectively.

V. Safe Homes Brochure
a. Over 90 Pittsfield youth live in homes that are part of the Safe Homes Network. 40+ families have signed the pledge. The group reviewed the booklet and made the recommendation to add a brief note to clarify underage drinking parties may now be reported to 211.

VI. Rx Box Promotion
a. Press releases have been submitted, advertising on the Chamber sign has been requested, an article will appear in the Senior Center November newsletter.
b. The group brainstormed other ways to get the word out, including creating a flyer to hang at the pharmacy, at the health clinic in Epsom and on bulletin boards around town.

VII. Newsletter
a. A template of the newsletter was displayed and the group discussed the desired content.

VIII. Landlords
a.

Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Sadowski