Last
meeting:
The SPARC
quarterly coalition meeting was held
Thursday May 18th from 2-4 pm at the
Holiday Inn Express in Dillsboro.
|
Coalition Member News
& Updates
2006
May 23, 2006
Dear coalition members,
What a wonderful turnout last week for the Wake
Forest SPARC site visit! We had 2 meetings with
administrators and managers in the morning and
the coalition meeting that afternoon so
altogether, 23 of us heard the same data and
messages. Now we are all officially on the same
page! Whew! I want to thank those of you who were
able to come and participate in the discussion
and subsequent committee breakouts.
I think we have certainly gotten the message that
now is the time to plan for change and push to
get some outcomes. There are some pertinent
details I wanted to reemphasize—we are
seeing trends in the right direction and three of
the indices have statistically significant
changes. However, we need more time to evaluate.
The original grant has 6 months (and some change)
left for this position, but that in no way means
that the spirit and energy of the coalition can
afford to lose momentum. The continuation
application for an additional 2 years of funding
has a good chance of being awarded, but we
honestly will not know until the fall. Best case
scenario will be that funding for the position
and programming money will be extended until May
2008. We may have 6 months or 24 months.
So—a few coalition members made specific
requests in terms of what you all need to take
this to the next step. One was a list of all
committee members by domain so you all can
communicate with each other and set up meetings.
I have listed below three committees but before I
give out contact info I want to make sure that is
okay with everyone. If you do not want your email
included in the next list, let me know by the end
of the week. You can also hit “reply
all’ to one of the emails I have sent in the
past to your committee and effectively send a
message to all of the members or you can set up
your own distribution email list. Two, the next
meetings have been tentatively set up for 2 of
the 3 committees. See below. We are reviewing our
strategic plans and evaluating what we want to do
next. Invite a friend to the next one! Three, in
the past I have requested committee chairs via
email, meetings, and personal requests. Now it is
even more imperative that leadership forms for
each of these areas so please consider the
leadership role for your committee. I will
continue to be a support for resources, mailings,
budget access, facilitation, and ideas but you
are truly the life of this coalition. The last
housekeeping bit is to solicit feedback about the
meeting frequency and structure. In the first 9
months, we met as a full coalition 1-2 times a
month. Then last spring (2005) we began meeting
once a month in subcommittees and holding full
coalition meetings every quarter. Some folks at
last week’s meeting thought it was difficult
to keep up momentum between full SPARC meetings.
In order to balance this with avoiding burnout,
please answer the following questions:
1. Do you prefer the current rotation with
committees every month except for each quarter
when we have the coalition meeting (EX: Feb, May,
August, Nov)
or would you prefer another arrangement such as
2. Committees every other month alternated by a
coalition meeting (EX: May-coalition, June
–committee, July-coalition,
August-committee)
3. A third structure that someone suggests ???
I am open to whatever the coalition
decides—it is your group. For now, here is
the committee makeup and the next meeting date if
already set. If your name is not listed below and
you have previously indicated interest in a
committee, please remind me as it may have gotten
lost in the shuffle!
Social Norms committee next meeting week
of June 12-16 (who is contact person for this?)
Robin Minick
Cari Robertson
Keshia Martin
Walter Turner
Rebecca Saunders
Judy Woodard
Julia Simmons
* we need students on this as one of them left
last year
Availability/Enforcement Committee next
meeting Thursday June 15 10:00 am Scott Hall
conference room
Sheryl Rudd
Bill Haggard
Jim Davis
Tom Johnson
Michaelle Finch
Tommy Duncan
Steve Lillard
Mickey Randolph
* we need students on this as they both graduated
Safe Ride Committee_next meeting TBD!!!!!
Tom Walawender
Bart Andrus
Cody Grasty
Eileen Farineau
Lorna Barnett
Eric Margiotta
Jamie West
Jason Kimenker—Soul Infusion
Mike Statton –Main Street
Lynn
Stanberry—O’Malley’s
David Baker—Jack the Dipper
+Tommy Burrell –Rusty Lizard
requested info for next meeting
Two last things:
* A big thank you to Jason
Kimenker for hosting our SPARC website and for
keeping it updated. J
* If you have changed jobs,
graduated, are no longer at the email address
above, or wish to be removed, please let me know
As always, thank you for your hard
work and energy in this community to prevent
alcohol-related consequences. Have a great week!
Elizabeth
May 10, 2006
The SPARC quarterly
coalition meeting will be held next Thursday May
18th from 2-4 pm at the Holiday Inn Express in
Dillsboro. The first 45 minutes
/hour will be a presentation by members of the
Wake Forest SPARC team on a new 3 year look at
the data trends at WCU and the other schools
involved in the SPARC research project. The
second hour will be our regular committee
reports, general announcements, and planning.
Please let me know if you will be
attending or not so I can get a general count for
the room set-up. If you have anything to add to
the agenda or would like to present your
committee’s brief progress report, contact
me. Directions to the Holiday inn Express are
below.
Directions:
From Sylva, Take 107 to Dillsboro.
Go towards the Jarrett House, at the traffic
light make a right and go up the hill and take
the exit labeled towards Cherokee / Bryson City.
You will see the hotel and BP gas station shortly
on the right.
From Highway 23 East, take exit
81. The hotel will be on the right on the exit
ramp.
Elizabeth
May 4, 2006
SAVE THE DATE!
We have confirmed that the Wake
Forest SPARC team will be on campus Thursday May
18th to share the three year site report of data.
This is an excellent time to ask questions and
discuss trends and implications for the direction
of the coalition in the coming year(s). We will
have the quarterly coalition meeting from 2-4 pm
on May 18th at the Holiday Inn Express in
Dillsboro. The tentative agenda will be to use
the first hour for the site report and the second
hour for general progress reports from
committees. It may not take the full 2 hours but
please block off this time in your calendars and
join us for as much as your schedule will allow.
If you would like to give the committee report
for your committee or add anything to the agenda,
please let me know. Directions to the Holiday Inn
will come later.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
Upcoming meetings:
1. Our next quarterly SPARC
coalition meeting will be Tuesday
February 7th from 5:00-6:30 pm at The Village
Commons Room at WCU.
2. Availability/Enforcement
Committee Thursday January 19th from
8:45-9:45 am Residential Living conference room,
Scott Hall, WCU
3. Social Norms Committee
Friday January 20th from 10-11 am in the
University Center of WCU, 2nd floor, Cardinal
Room.
4.Safe Ride Committee
TBD soon!
January 12, 2006
Welcome back from the holidays
everyone!
I hope you all had a safe and
peaceful break. I have been in contact with some
of you about committee meeting times, but this is
also a reminder about the full coalition meeting
coming up in February.
Our next quarterly SPARC coalition
meeting will be Tuesday February 7th from
5:00-6:30 pm. We rotate on and off campus
locations each meeting, so this time we will meet
on the campus of Western Carolina University in
the Village Commons Room. Please send any agenda
items you may have to me and I will include them
on a future email along with directions to the
Village.
Upcoming committee meetings are as
follows:
- Availability/Enforcement
Committee Thursday January 19th from 8:45-9:45 am
Residential Living conference room, Scott Hall,
WCU
- Social Norms Committee Friday
January 20th from 10-11 am in the University
Center of WCU, 2nd floor, Cardinal Room.
- Safe Ride Committee TBD soon!
We will be evaluating the
“SPARC experience” thus far and
discussing the direction in which we want to
head. Also, we will be soliciting nominations for
co-chairs—one community and one
campus—of the coalition. If you would like
to be nominated or want more information about
what that entails, please contact me at 227-3774.
Feel free to attend any committee meeting if you
are not already involved with one.
Elizabeth
2005
November 17, 2005
Link to interesting article worth
reading.
USA TODAY: Colleges are reaching their limit
on alcohol
October 17 - 21, 2005:
Alcohol Awareness Week was a
success!
Our booth included "If this
Wall could talk" display and staffed SPARC
information tables.
(photos coming soon)
October meetings:
Alcohol
Awareness Week at WCU
Monday October 17 - Friday October 21
2nd Floor University Center (12:30-2:30
each day)
Tuesday
October 18 (6pm - 7:30pm)
We will be hosting a discussion and
training on NC statutes, laws, and student
liabilities related to purchasing, providing,
serving, or hosting a party with alcohol. This
includes how to reduce risk and tips for how to
work with neighbors.
The
next proposed coalition meeting date is:
November 9 at 2:00 pm at the
United Community Bank.
October
3, 2005
Calling
all SPARC members!
As promised, I said I would be emailing again to
get support and sign ups for our SPARC sponsored
Alcohol Awareness Week activities. SPARC will be
involved with three activities during October
17-21.
1.
Each day we will have our wall display “If
this Wall Could Talk: Student Stories of
Alcohol-related Consequences” on
the 2nd floor of the University Center. I need
assistance with set up on Monday at noon and take
down Friday at 3:00.
2.
We will staff an information and giveaway table
from 12:30-2:30 in the University Center Monday
through Friday. Please see sign up sheet sent in
e-mail.
3.
On Tuesday evening from 6:00-7:30 pm, we will be
hosting a discussion and training on NC statutes,
laws, and student liabilities related to
purchasing, providing, serving, or hosting a
party with alcohol. This includes how to reduce
risk and tips for how to work with neighbors.
Please
mark off some of your calendar to join us for
this effort so SPARC has a conspicuous presence.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation. I will
send an updated sign up sheet next Monday to fill
the holes.
Have
a great week!
Elizabeth
September
8, 2005
Dear
coalition and committee members,
Wow! We have had quite a start to the semester
with kickoff events, material distributions and
action! We had 33 new students sign up to
get involved with SPARC, we have given out more
than 600 keytags and info cards, and we have
collected 400 Safe Ride survey responses so far.
Plus, we have gotten a good bit of press recently
through various media, which is why I have not
been able to schedule committee meetings yet.
Thank you all for your continued interest and
energy that is helping change the culture in and
around our campus and community. I have lots of
things to update you on, but I will save that for
the committee meetings.
First we need to set up committee meetings.
Please fill out the schedule attached and email
back to me with your committee name in the
subject line so I can sort them more quickly. I
have already blocked out times I cannot meet, so
hopefully it will be narrowed down.
Second,
there is a new live call-in radio show about
student health issues on Sunday nights at 7:00 pm
on Power 90.5 Fm WWCU. This weekend, September
11, alcohol is the featured topic and I will be
the resource person on the air with two student
hosts. Tune in and, if you hear a lull in
callers, call in!
Third,
here
is a link I wanted to share with you to a piece that was in
the Asheville Citizen-Times August 31, 2005.
Last,
Alcohol Awareness Week will be here before we
know it so please mark it on your calendars and
consider helping us for an hour or two with one
of our sponsored projects. The dates are October
17-21, and we will again be displaying “If
This Wall Could Talk: Student Stories of
Alcohol-related Consequences” in the UC each
day.(times TBA) We will also offer a workshop in
conjunction with ABC on student liabilities and
risk management that week. If you have an idea
for a program or speaker, please let me know.
As
soon as I get confirmed times /dates set for the
committee meetings, you will hear from me again.
Have a great weekend!
Elizabeth
227-3774
August
25, 2005
Thank
you to all who helped out with the Valley
Ballyhoo SPARC table on Tuesday—Keshia
Martin , Craig Lian, Sheryl Rudd, Judy Woodard,
Michaelle Finch, John Ritchie, and Walter Turner.
We had some great response about our ideas and we
now have more than 200 Safe Ride surveys filled
out. Our goal is to reach 550, and we will be
fielding more of them next Monday at our kickoff
event.
Speaking of the kickoff
event---please come help support our SPARC
kickoff on Monday August 29th from 2:00-4:00pm on
the UC lawn.
We will have a table and tent set up spreading
the word about our social norms keytags and how
students can win money just for having one.
§ We want to give out 3000 keytags this semester
and get feedback from students about what they
think of this campaign.
§ Plus we will distribute material on how to use
the Designated Driver cards.
§ Anyone filling out a Safe Ride survey is
eligible to be entered into a drawing for several
prizes donated by local businesses.
If
you have a student organization meeting or if you
teach or advise student groups, please announce
this event! Look for flyers in student
organizations’ mailboxes and around campus.
Thank
you to those who have agreed to work the table so
far. We need more Safe Ride Committee members to
staff it as well, so any of you out there that
are free, please let me know if you can make it.
If you can only make it for half an hour or 45
minutes that’s okay—we’ll take it!
We may have the news there to cover it, so look
spiffy!
1:30-2:00
Set up Elizabeth ____________
2:00-3:00
Cari Robertson Julia Simmons ____________
__________ Elizabeth
3:00-4:00
Walter Turner Jason Kimenker (maybe) ____________
__________ Elizabeth
4:00-4:20
Clean-up Elizabeth ____________
As
always, if you have questions, please feel free
to call me at 227-3774.
Thanks!
Elizabeth
August
11, 2005
Dear
coalition members,
As
promised in the last two meetings, an
assessment/evaluation tool is being fielded by
the Wake Forest team in lieu of the evaluation I
was developing so that you will have an
opportunity to give feedback about your coalition
experience to date.
The goals of this "Organizer Assessment
Tool" are:
1) to assess the effectiveness of community
organizers so that the SPARC research team can
identify the qualities of effective organizers,
which will be an important contribution to the
community organizing field; and
2) to help the SPARC Intervention team to tailor
future training and technical assistance to each
campus' specific needs.
I have been asked by the Wake Forest team to give
them contact information for any involved
coalition member for which I have it. If your
number has changed in the last 2-3 months and you
want to be included on the list, please let me
know your correct number ASAP. They will then
randomly pick names and conduct telephone surveys
with a sampling of you sometime between August
30 and September 9. I will not know who
is contacted, so please give honest and
constructive responses. Thank you in advance for
your input as this will help us shape your
coalition to better meet your needs.
Secondly, this is another request for coalition
members to get involved and sign up for the Valley
Ballyhoo table. This exciting
“welcome back” event for students and
community members will be Tuesday August
23 from 4-8 pm on campus. We have spaces
from 5-6 pm and 6-7pm. Attached is the current
list. Let me know if you can work any part of
that time (even if it is from 5:30-6:30 on the
half hours). We will be fielding Safe Ride
surveys and signing up people for committees. It
is a great way to observe and soak up the campus
culture!
Thank you for your continued interest and
commitment to the SPARC project.
Elizabeth
*
OLDER NEWS ARCHIVE *
July
23, 2005
Dear
coalition members and subcommittee members,
I hope you have had a chance to relax some this
summer. Though I have been on leave I have been
keeping myself abreast of action items and
committee work via email. I apologize if it has
taken me longer to respond to some of your
queries.
Below
on June 30th I sent the dates and times of
upcoming meetings, but I have now confirmed
locations for next week's committee meetings. Two
of the locations did not work out as planned so
please make a note of these as they may be
different from the website. Please bring any
tasks you are working on to these meetings, in
whatever state they may be.
Tuesday
July 26th: 11:30 am- Availability/Enforcement
Committee, WCU University Center,
2nd floor, in the Dogwood Room
2:30 pm- Social Norms Committee, WCU University
Center, 2nd floor,
Dogwood Room
4:30 pm - Harm Minimization /Safe Ride Committee,
O'Malley's in Sylva
June
3, 2005
Dear
SPARC committee members,
I am very excited about the progress we are
making in our subcommittees and hope that you are
able to attend the scheduled summer meetings once
per month. I have just received word that I have
been approved for Family Medical Leave for the
adoption of my two daughters and will be out of
the office most of July. For that reason and
because I only surveyed you for your availability
in May and June, I would like to know
your availability for July 25-27. I will
come to Sylva for a committee meeting if we can
find a day and time that works for the majority
of you. Ideally we can have them all in one day,
but we’ll see what the response is.
The other alternative is for you guys to have a
meeting without me, and I certainly want to
empower you to do that! J
Please let me know as soon as possible before
those days get taken by other commitments.
Thanks,
Elizabeth
227-3774
May
6, 2005
Dear
coalition members,
Here are the notes from last week’s
record breaking meeting! This was the single best
attended SPARC coalition meeting yet, and it was
fruitful and fun! Please review for corrections
or comments.
I will be sending out feelers for committee
meeting times early next week. If you have not
yet attended a meeting and want to please contact
me @ 227-3774. Also, if you are unable to meet
over the summer, please let me know. Otherwise, I
will assume you will be participating.
April
19, 2005
Thank
you to those who responded about meeting times.
In order to avoid exam week and get the most
participation, the coalition has been set for
Wednesday April 27th from 4:00-5:30 at the United
Community Bank on Highway 107 across from Smoky
Mountain High School.
This will be a time to hear reports from the
subcommittees outlining the plans each of them
have made for implementation of the strategies
you chose. Please make every effort to attend as
we will make plans for the summer to put our
ideas into action. If you cannot be there, please
send a designee from your department or
organization to keep your group informed of SPARC
progress.
Elizabeth
Dear
coalition members,
As
the semester comes to a rapid close and we are
finalizing our strategic plans, I would like to
schedule a full coalition meeting in the next few
weeks. Since students and faculty will be gone
for the most part over the summer, I would like
to do this before May 4th.
Since we have not met as a full coalition since
February 17th, we will use this time for members
of each subcommittee –availability, social
norms, harm minimization--to share their plans
with the rest of the coalition and ask for
feedback. My vision is that we will continue
meeting once a month with our committees and have
full coalition meetings every third month.
Thank
you to those who have been working hard on the
individual strategic planning for each committee:
Robin
Minick, Alan Warren, Julia Simmons, Cari
Robertson, Walter Turner, Sheryl Rudd, Bill
Haggard, Gene McAbee, Kurt Hennek, Rick
McClendon, Jason Kimenker, Hayley Petree, Lorna
Barnett, and Craig Lian.
I
would especially encourage Faculty, Athletics
Department, and University Center representatives
and any community members who have not joined a
committee to attend. Please contact me with any
questions.
Elizabeth
March
15, 2005
This
is a follow-up to the call for subcommittee
preferences I sent at the beginning of March. In
an attempt to get some of the meetings going to
plan details for each of our strategies, please
sign up soon. Here are the domain committees:
(the
corresponding strategies we voted on are in
parentheses next to each domain)
Availability
- (enforcement, landlords)
Social
Norms - (misperceptions, liability)
Harm
Minimization - (Safe Rides, assessments)
Price/Marketing
- (keg deposits)
Please
let me know what issue you prefer to work with as
soon as possible so we can develop the
implementation plans. These committees/ or teams
will be much more focused and relevant to action,
so it is imperative that we get started.
Thank you for all that you do!
March
10, 2005
As
some of you know WCU is developing a Safe
Ride program to transport students who
have been drinking in an effort to reduce driving
under the influence. I would like to have a
meeting to discuss the funding and logistics of
this initiative in the next week or two. If you
are interested in helping design the Safe Ride
program, please contact me with times that may be
good for you to meet as soon as possible. Also,
please announce this at your student organization
meetings. As we all know, the best route of
communication is by word of mouth!
If you have any questions, I would be happy to
meet with you. Looking forward to working with
you.
March
7, 2005
First
let me say thank you to all of you who voted on
the strategies that we will recommend for
implementation in and around our community. After
two weeks of advertising I received responses
from 19 people—11 campus and 8 community. I
believe we had a balanced group of folks who
voted, with administration, staff, students,
faculty, law enforcement, retailers, clergy,
human service organizations, elected officials,
and concerned citizens all weighing in. A lot of
thought, 12 meetings, and many months of
discussion preceded this point in the process.
Congratulations!!
Below
are the results, which indicate that 8 of the 10
have widespread support from you. Since #1 under
availability may happen only if the statewide
initiative is presented to the legislature, and
we have to get some clarification about how to go
about advocating for this as we receive federal
funds and cannot “lobby”, there are
seven remaining strategies that we can further
define with our strategic planning template.
AVAILABILITY:
( 13 ) #1 Support
statewide initiatives regarding keg
permitting/monitoring
( 3 ) #2 Set brown bag /
permitting limits
( 14 ) #3 Implement
more rigorous and consistent intervention
at both on and off campus parties (via party
patrol for instance)
( 11 ) #4 Promote
awareness and participation of
enforcement of landlord responsibilities
and liabilities
PRICE/MARKETING:
SOCIAL
NORMS:
( 13 ) #1 Increase student
accountability through awareness of
liability and enforceable consequences of
alcohol violations (providing, hosting,
etc)
( 14 ) #2 Enhance
the campaign to correct misperceptions of
alcohol use and promote activities and
values of acceptable positive behaviors
HARM
MINIMIZATION:
Since
the votes in some of these were very close, what
I would like to do as the next step is to meet in
teams by domains and have these teams decide on
whether to prioritize the higher vote getter
first or do a strategic plan for both items left.
(Price and Marketing only has one). Some of you
indicated your first and second choices for these
teams, which allows you to focus your energy on
something most meaningful for you. (For instance,
students may want to be on the safe ride team,
retailers on the price and marketing team, or law
enforcement on the availability team. Please let
me know in the next 2-3 days which domain you
would like to focus on so we can schedule
sub-committee meetings. Even if you did not vote,
please join a team.
……and, of course, you are welcome to be
on more than one!
Again thank you for your participation and any
comments or feedback you may have.
|
