USA Executive Meeting Minutes
February 27, 2008
3:30 PM
Newark Public Library
Attending:
Yvonne Nass, Kathy Ward, Rosemary Brooks, Howard Isenberg, Jo-Ann West,
Kristen Blanchard, Nancy Chase, Linda Brasel, Cindy Genau
Staff:
Roberta Gealt, Mary Perno
Discussions:
Old
Business-January
minutes were e-mailed earlier today and approved in the meeting.
New
Members-We would
like to welcome two new members today, Rosemary Brooks from Sanford School and Howard Isenberg from Open
Door, Inc.
USA has been adding new members, last
month we welcomed Kristen Blanchard, Karen Busby, and Fred MacCormack. We are
still in need of someone from Law Enforcement, Religious/Fraternal and
Youth. The community of concern group
and the state PTA declined our invitation to join USA. Jaime Wolhar will be contacting someone from
the New Castle County Police Department to see if they are interested in
joining. Roberta contacted Marie Allen
from Heroin Alert; she is interested in becoming a member. Nancy
did not get an answer from rev. Weddington.
Rabbi Kaplan was supposed to attend today’s meeting, but he did not
answer any recent e-mail reminders.
Kathy Ward hasn’t had any luck in getting student interested in
joining. If anyone knows of any youth 18
or under who would be willing to attend a meeting once in a while or even just
correspond by e-mail, please let Roberta or Mary know. Rosemary Brooks has 8 students who will be
speaking at her Town Hall Meeting; she will ask if any of them are
interested. She also has a 15 year old
daughter who may be interested, as well.
CADCA
Conference-When
Roberta and Mary were in Washington, DC two weeks ago for the CADCA conference, USA did a
presentation called “Tell Me a Story”.
It was well received by about 200 attendees. They must have liked it because nobody left
during the presentation. There were 100
business cards in the beginning and none by the end of the workshop.
Roberta
and Mary also visited the Delaware
legislator’s offices. Senator Biden has
introduced the Dextromethorphan Abuse Reduction Act of 2007 (DMX Reduction Act
of 2007). This will restrict teen access
to cough and cold medicines containing DXM. It will also regulate the sale of
raw, unfinished DXM often purchased feely by teens over the internet. When taken in the recommended dosage, DXM is
safe and effective. However, it is a
dangerous and potentially lethal substance when abused, a practice that is on
the rise. Delaware’s stats are higher than the
national average on DXM abuse.
Building
Bridges Coalition-Linda
Brasel and Howard Isenberg attended a DFC grant writing workshop in Washington, DC. They are hoping to receive a DFC grant for Building Bridge
at Newark High School.
Logic
Model-A copy of
the USA
logic model was passed out.
- Nancy said that the DATA collection and needs assessment is
missing from it. She also thinks
that we should work with pharmacists.
- Howard thinks we should target
local doctors and pediatricians who are prescribing the drugs of
abuse. He has a connection with the
medical Society of Delaware and will contact them to possibly help us.
- Linda Brasel said that DE is
the #1 state for prescribing Ritalin.
- It was suggested that the USA web
site be linked to a “wall of shame” or have a place where people can
anonymously alert us when someone is selling illegally. Roberta will have to check with the UD
attorneys before doing anything like that first.
- Another suggestion was to have
DABC come to one of our meetings to talk to us.
- Or, we could have a “wall of
fame” to display which liquor stores has not had a violation in ___ years.
- Nancy said that we should do some research to see what
public information can be put into our newsletters such as a “Did you
know…?” section
- Some areas have a “Lock up
your liquor” campaign.
- Delaware is weak in changing policies. DE still does not have an open container
law, except within the city of Newark. Maybe we can publish who voted against
it.
- USA should meet with the
politicians and present the data. We would like to know why DE is not
getting the money like some other states.
This is a good time to initiate this as Newark
has a new Police Chief and will soon be getting a new City Manager. We could invite them and the City
Council out to a nice dinner, USA has the money to do
this.
- We’ve heard that the DUI task
force has been disbanded in Newark.
Town
Hall Meetings-
Salesianum-
- Yvonne Nass will be the
facilitator
- Father Martin Ashley will be the keynote
speaker
- John Downs, Deputy Attorney General
- 2 former Students who are now
at UD
- Need someone to talk about the
effects on the brain
- Fliers have gone out
Sanford-
- ER doctor, Dr. Gordon Reed-#1
date rape drug is alcohol
- John Slice, Judge
- Policeman
- Therapist
- 8 Students-2 from each school
(Friends, Sanford, Tatnall and Tower Hill)
Building Bridges at Newark High
School-
- Roberta Gealt will be
presenting Data
- Need someone to talk about the
effects on the brain
- Greg Miccolucci, SRO
- Assistant District Attorney,
Ann Marie Hayes
- Sent fliers out
- Will try to put on Christina School District web site
Dickinson High School-
- Norm Cohan, School Resource
Officer
- Ginny Corrigan, Think 1st
Trauma, with Victim
- Dave Baylor, NKS Distributors
- Someone from AA
- Possibly a DuPont Employee who
was an athlete, who will talk about alcohol & athletics
- Fliers are going out
- Arrangements are being made to
transport people from the city to event
- Chris Miller has contacted all
of the secondary schools to advertise it
USA Newsletters-have been going out as
written. Please send Roberta and Mary
your events that you would like us to publish.
Kathy Ward
is offering a FREE Life Skills workshop.
It is 7 weeks long with 2 hour sessions each week. If interested, please contact Kathy at kward@ymcade.org.
The next USA meeting will be on THURSDAY, APRIL 3RD
at BUENA VISTA
CONFERENCE CENTER
from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.