University/Schools Alliance
Executive Board Meeting
April 15, 2009 3:30 PM
at Arcadia University

Attending: Rosemary Brooks, Sanford School Parent
Erica Melman, OPEI
Linda Brasel, Arcadia University

Staff Attending: Roberta Gealt, Director
Mary Perno, Project Coordinator

Discussions: The March minutes were handed out, but not in their final form, so they will be forwarded electronically along with the April minutes.

DFC Grant: We do not have a budget update as of yet, but USA has a lot of money remaining in the grant, which will support the Transitioning to High School Parent Chat and the Policy Forum. We are hoping to schedule the Policy Forum for September 15, 2009. It could cost several thousand dollars.

ALA: We’re behind on the tasks for this grant, but are moving forward. Roberta handed out 5 fact sheets to see what the board thinks about them. It was suggested that on the back of “Who are the bad guys” we use bullets to get our message across.
There were also 4 posters passed out. The board liked these—they will teach kids that most kids are not smoking.

The USA version of Jeopardy is making progress. Roberta also showed a promotional piece that will be advertising the game. She had hoped to load it onto her computer to bring today, but had some technical difficulties.

SPF-SIG: It is now unlikely that anything will be announced about these awards before June, and the awards will not actually be made until October.

Parent Chats: We will be holding two “Transition to High School” chats this summer. One will be at Tower Hill School on Wednesday, August 19^th at 6:30 PM. The other one will be at Christiana High School, date TBD.

Some suggested speakers for these were: Harry Baetjer, Yvonne Nass and Dr. David Mandelbaum.

Town Hall Meetings:

Sanford School: This meeting was held on April 1^st. They had between 375-400 parents in attendance. Their keynote speaker was Stephen Wallace from SADD. He was excellent. Mr. Wallace also spoke to the Sanford students the next morning. The meeting was a collaboration of the Parent Awareness groups from Sanford School, Tower Hill School, Tatnall School and Wilmington Friends School.

Newark High School: This meeting was held on April 8^th. They used the World Café model in which participants rotated between discussion tables so that they would be able to engage in conversations around different topics-5 tables with topics of Gambling, Law Enforcement, Alcohol Enforcement, SADD and Consequences were provided. Attendees were handed cards numbered 1 – 5 when they arrived, so they knew what table to start the program with. Every 12 minutes they moved to the next table. There was also a Power Point presentation about adolescent brain development and the effects of alcohol. A professional facilitator kept the program moving, and will provide a report from the notes submitted by the facilitators at each table. Several people suggested this program should target the parents of middle school children. Roberta asked Linda if she was interested in doing this again next year. Linda responded, “Ask me next winter”.

Physicians/Pharmacists Initiative: No update as of yet.

OPEI Forum: This will now take place in October, maybe in Dover.

OPEI Youth Summit: This will take place on August 8^th at the Double Tree Hotel in Wilmington. OPEI now plans to make it into part of a prevention weekend line-up: Friday: Frank Hawkins from Aids DE with Delaware Idol, Saturday: Youth Summit, and Sunday: Duffy’s Hope baseball game.

The workshops that they are concentrating on for the Summit will be about violence, drugs and alcohol. They are looking to attract a more diversified audience this year and are hoping USA can help, which we will by spreading the word. Roberta also suggested contacting the PAL center in Hockessin and the Boys and Girls Club in Bear.

The next USA meeting is: May 13^th at UD-Cooperative Extension (Cindy’s office) at 3: 30 PM.