University/Schools Alliance Executive Meeting
May 12, 2010 3:30 PM
at UD-Cooperative Extension Office

Attending:
Harry Baetjer Tower Hill School
Kristen Blanchard SODAT Delaware
Nancy Chase UD Wellspring
Pat Dever Salesianum School
Howard Isenberg Open Door, Inc.
Claudine Malone NCCO Police Dept.
Yvonne Nass Parent Education Consulting
Greg Snapp Delaware National Guard
Lorie Tudor DPNA
Jo-Ann West Salesianum School Nurse
Jaime Wolhar Delaware National Guard

Staff Attending
Roberta Gealt USA Director
Mary Perno USA Project Coordinator

Discussions:

Review of April Minutes: Reviewed and approved by Howard Isenberg and second by Kristen Blanchard.

New Board Member: The board discussed points for Lorie Tudor to become a new board member for University/Schools Alliance. Kristen made a motion to move and Howard 2nd it, the rest of the board agreed.

Farewell to our Board Members: Earlier this week Kathy Ward announced that, she will be leaving the YMCA at the end of May.

During today's meeting, Jo-Ann West announced that she would be retiring at the end of the school year.

Both will be missed, they have been a great asset to USA. Thank you, ladies for all your years of dedication!!

Updates:

DFC Grant: Carryover funds must be spent by September 30. The money will pay for the Policy Summit and the Physician's Conference which will take place in September to maximize planning time. Kristen suggested we talk to DSAMH because they do a big kick off in September and we do not want to conflict with that.

SPF-SIG Grant: The plan for this grant has been sent to the project officer and returned back to them for revisions, but it is expected to be approved by the end of summer. This grant will give Delaware $10.6 million dollars for the next four and one half years. The Advisory Council for the grant will choose the priorities it will focus on. Roberta announced that they chose alcohol, prescription drug abuse and other drug abuse as their priorities, which may be too broad. There will be a meeting on Friday, May 14 from 10 AM to noon at the Appoquinimink State Center in Middletown to work on the State Strategic Prevention Plan, which will incorporate the SPF-SIG plan.

Social Host Legislation-synopsis: The USA Social Host law committee has been reviewing social host laws from other states and communities. Roberta has also been communicating with Michael Barbieri (state legislator) on this matter. The work group met about a week ago. During this meeting, they compared the laws of nine states and municipalities. About 20 states have a social host law now. USA is not lobbying on this matter, but educating. Michael Barbieri (D) has asked Michael Ramone (R) to co-sponsor this bill with him. It will be written by the legislative attorneys.

The work group specifically excluded landlords and hotels, who might otherwise form opposition to the bill. The bill will probably be introduced this year.

Medical Marijuana and Grocery Store liquor sales legislation updates: The bill to sell liquor in the grocery stores has been tabled. The medical marijuana bill may pass this session.

Office of National Drug Control Policy: Strategy Statement Release-What is new: The first strategy statement from the Obama Administration has been released. A copy of it was handed out during the meeting. SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment) is talked about in this summary. This screening has been found to be effective in ER's and at universities. Howard mentioned that Christiana Care Hospital Systems is starting to train their personnel. in SBIRT.

Roberta stated that it looks like the DFC grant will be continued for next year. The Federal Government will also have 20 new Prevention Prepared Communities.

Events:

Town Hall Meetings: The Federal Government will not offer a stipend to hold these meeting next year. They plan to offer it every other year.

The Charter School of Wilmington held their Town Hall meeting in April. They had a small response, but were very pleased with their meeting. They want to do it again in 2011.

DPNA also held a Town Hall meeting in April. They had about 350 people, dinner was provided and the people from each community center were required to bring people to the meeting. Their advertisement was a poster named "Wasted". They said it was gory but effective.

Howard Isenberg said that he might consider doing another Town Hall meeting next year as well.

State PTA Day: Yvonne Johnson is the head of the state PTA Legislative Committee. Roberta spoke at the State PTA meeting and showed the Sophia Slide show. Some legislators were present.

Policy Summit: We need to form committees in order to plan this event.

Physician's Conference: We need to form committees in order to plan this event.

The meeting was adjourned at 5:00 PM.

The next USA meeting will be on June 16, 2010 at 1:00 PM at Arcadia University, 2nd floor.