RAPAD Coalition Meeting Minutes
Friday June 26th, 2015
Max’s Grill, Olivia 12:00 P.M.
Present: Annie Tepfer/RAPAD Coordinator, Susan Williams/Volunteer, Virginia Sullivan/Volunteer/Coalition Secretary, Ashlie Johnson/ Public Health, Polly Peters/Woodland Centers, Brad Rekstad/National Guard Counterdrug Task Force, Terra Hyytinen/MSU Post Graduate, Cy Schweiss/ MSU Post Graduate, David Car/ MSU Post Graduate, Hannah Abraham/SHIP Coordinator
Business: May minutes were reviewed and accepted as written. Match forms were handed out to coalition members & collected.
Hannah reported on the Tobacco Free/Smoke Free Park Policy for Olivia, which now includes all types of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, e-cigars and e-pipes. SHIP will purchase 20 signs for all the parks which will include the SHIP and RAPAD logo along with an attention getting message to let people know there is a new policy. The tobacco committee completed the environmental assessment (signage, tobacco products at eye level, proximity to candy, etc) July 7th there will be a hearing & presentation to the county commissioners and the tobacco committee plans to request that the selling age of youth be changed to age 18. The youth who participated in the “Educate & Congratulate” compliance checks were invited to be present to tell them their story. Annie shared that 24% failed the compliance checks. Some clerks checked the licenses of the youth who participated and still sold them tobacco. Training is needed for many of these employees.
There will be a free Responsible Beverage Server training July 15th, 2015 @ 6:30-8:00 pm at the Olivia American Legion. The Legion contacted Annie to have their beer tent volunteers trained before the Olivia Corn Capitol Days weekend. Derek Lee-Olivia Police Chief and Annie will be the trainers.
A discussion about the remaining year 5 budget and unfinished activities were considered. The coalition can apply for a no cost extension to complete activities from the Strategic and Action plan. A time frame was talked about to finish activities by January 30th, 2016. Pact For Families In Kind participation will continue. Annie will cut her hours to 2/3 time. Some activities to continue is the Program Sharing Conference in October (2 days) for leadership skills will benefit coalition members and others to help them stay involved. The Media Campaign addressing underage substance use with Lakeland Broadcasting and the Renville County Register and our website presence will be updated to reflect the coalition’s work. Other projects to continue would be Responsible Beverage Server Trainings, Project Northland teacher trainings, outreach to the Hispanic/Latino community, and data collection. Now that we have done so much work accomplishing Tobacco Free Parks in Olivia the Tobacco Committee wanted to develop a Responsible Tobacco Retailer Training for all vendors to access on the Renville County website. The Tobacco Committee is working on the County Tobacco Ordinance to make training mandatory when licensed to sell Tobacco. The coalition members agreed this would be a good thing to apply for the No-Cost extension. Jill and Kari will work on the budget and narrative and Annie will submit the application by July 30th.
Marketing/Media – KOLV played the graduation and prom ads and Sheriff Hable helped make a radio spot to highlight information about the Social Host ordinance.
Other Activities: Coalition members discussed what kind of theme should be displayed at the Renville County Fair booth this year. Coalition members discussed e-cigs and agreed that more education should be made available. Annie handed out copies of an informational pamphlet about e-cigs and pregnancy from the American Lung Association. Coalition members agreed this would be helpful education as well as other information for youth since e-cig use is on the rise. Susan suggested enlarging some of the pages of the pamphlet information for people to read. Virginia suggested themed freebies to help with those who want to stop smoking like lollypops or chewing gum; since fair goers are always looking for free items at booths. Last year the coalition handed out free shopping bags with a “Keep calm & stay above the influence” logo. Volunteers at the booth stuffed the free bags with the pamphlets available because many fair goers do not usually take them. Annie shared that she was asked to provide funding for Max’s Grill on Corn Capital Days for free rides home for those who have had too many drinks. Coalition members declined due to the counter message this would send for drinking too much. Heartland Transit System already provides this service. Our funding is to address underage substance use.
Information was shared from the MN Dept of Health about smoke free medical marijuana. The state of MN is planning to create a registry of anyone who is approved for it’s use by a doctor as well as proof of ID. They are the first state program in the country to offer only smoke free medical marijuana in pill, liquid or oil form. This may deter those who see medical marijuana as a recreational source. The medical community would like to see the medical marijuana genetically modified to produce less THC & more of the medical grade ingredient, since over the years recreational marijuana was genetically modified to produce more THC to make it stronger. Annie also shared a study done at Columbia University in New York stating that medical marijuana laws did not lead to an increase in adolescent pot use. Susan stated that in her years of reporting for the Renville County Register; for the agriculture community, she learned to recognize who funded the study. Usually whomever funded the studies had results meeting their favor for their personal platform. In this case, Virginia did research and discovered that the National Institute for Health sponsored this study. Since the study focused on 8th graders, the results may be ongoing for that age group and older adolescents. RAPAD coalition members had 3 guests from University of Mankato, studying in the nursing program. They planned on interviewing some coalition members to help with their course study. Two of the students are interested in working with public health.
Youth Group Activities: The TADA group from RCW had a great time at the Prairie Woods Environmental Learning Center for their Youth Leadership Training. It was a rainy day but the youth had plenty of indoor activities to do. The youth stated that they would like to go again. TADA youth also did a School Board presentation sharing results from their activities in the community. TADA students have hosted several educational Town Hall Meetings, organized a prescription drug collection and helped pass social host ordinances around the county. Coalition members enjoyed the pictures showing the students participation. Annie handed out survey results from 2013 Minnesota Student Survey showing youth who had more than 5 drinks in a row. The results for most of the counties showed higher use for males especially in 11th grade. Annie stated she would like to use this data to focus coalition efforts to the 11th grade in the near future.
Other: Brad Rekstad shared that he will be helping to host a National Coalition Academy training at the airbase for 45 people from across the nation to learn about the Strategic Prevention Framework. This training is 3 weeks long & held throughout the year.
Upcoming Events & trainings: Responsible Beverage Server Training -Olivia American Legion, Wednesday July 15th, 6:30-8:00 pm. Native American curriculum -Substance Abuse and Prevention Programs, Granite Falls, at Prairies Edge, September 21-23rd.
Next coalition meeting: July 17, 2015, Max’s Grill, Olivia, MN 12 Noon
Respectfully Submitted: Virginia Sullivan/Coalition Secretary