Category Archives: Alcohol Awareness

May 21, 2013 · 6:44 am

NTSB Recommends Lowering Legal Limit on Drunk Driving from .08 to .05

drunk-drivingDrunk driving continues to be a serious problem that results in over 10,000 deaths each year on U.S. roads; that accounts for one-third of all traffic-related fatalities (CDC). In fact, The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police department reported that drinking and driving arrests were up 18% in 2012 over 2011. That works out to approximately 30 DUI arrests every day in Las Vegas. Police, beverage service professionals, and community agencies work together each year to combat the problem through a mix of education, safe beverage service, sobriety checkpoints, decoy operations and more. But, could more be done to keep impaired drivers off of the road?

On Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board made a recommendation that states lower the legal blood alcohol concentration limit from .08 to .05 for driving a vehicle in an effort to further reduce crashes (Las Vegas Sun). In 2000, Congress passed a measure that required states to lower the legal limit to .08 by 2003 to avoid losing a portion of their federal highway construction funding. The legal limit for intoxication in Nevada has been set at .08 since 2003.

The new NTSB recommendation is drawing mixed reviews from various groups and individuals across Nevada (Action News 13) but it does get people talking about the issue and draws attention to the dangers of buzzed and drunk driving. Arguments have also been made that the focus should instead be placed on tougher restrictions for repeat DUI offenders and those with BAC’s of .10 or higher.

No matter where you stand on the issue of a change to the legal BAC limit for driving a vehicle, it is important to always practice the Techniques of Alcohol Management®. Do your part to serve responsibly and monitor your patrons closely for signs of intoxication. For more tips on how to help prevent impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel, check out our blog post “Are You Doing All You Can to Prevent Drunk Driving?”

Do you think a lower legal BAC limit would help to reduce drunken driving-related crashes? What tips would you give someone else to help prevent intoxicated individuals from getting behind the wheel of a car?

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© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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April 30, 2013 · 10:47 am

Meet Our Instructors: Mike Barden

mikebardenWelcome back for the next in our “Meet Our Instructors” series of blog posts. Before we profile another one of our instructors, we’d like to give a warm welcome to the newest TAM® of Nevada employee, Manuel. Manuel will be working at our front desk, so make sure to say “hello” when you come in for your alcohol awareness class or proctored exam. This week, let’s meet another one of our instructors, a true beverage industry expert, Mr. Mike Barden.

Before becoming a certified TAM® Instructor, Mike worked at Nevada Beverage Co. for nearly 28 years, holding many roles, including merchandiser, salesman, supervisor of P.O.S department and sales supervisor. For 12 years, Mike was head of training at Nevada Beverage Co., with the responsibility of training everyone in the sales and merchandising department for their positions and making sure existing employees stayed current with company training.

Now, Mike brings his real-world experience to students at the TAM of Nevada office.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to a TAM Card holder?

Mike: Remember to ID everyone under the age of 30 and watch for fake ID’s.

What originally attracted you to work in the hospitality industry?

Mike: Interesting people, and the knowledge they have of gaming and hotels.

What’s your favorite thing about living and working in Las Vegas?

Mike: I love the climate, and get to play golf more often. I also love the variety of people here in Vegas; it’s truly a 24-hour town.

If you’d like to attend a TAM® Class taught by Mike, register for a class on our website. Mike’s teaching schedule varies by week, but you can normally find him teaching students on Mondays and Wednesdays. Or, visit us for one of our regularly scheduled classes with any of our talented instructors.

© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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April 25, 2013 · 6:26 am

Every 15 Minutes: Henderson Area School is Showcasing Alcohol Awareness Education with a Powerful Program

drunk-drivingApril is Alcohol Awareness Month, and that is followed closely by Prom and Graduation season. At a time when teenagers are more likely than ever to be tempted with chances to participate in underage drinking, a local area high school has chosen to send a powerful message to their students with the Every 15 Minutes program. Every 15 minutes, a driver, passenger, or an innocent bystander dies from an alcohol-related car crash. Every weekend, a teenager dies in a car crash and half of those accidents involve alcohol. This message about the dangers of drinking and driving was brought to local teens in a unique way.

Late last week, local Henderson Liberty High School juniors and seniors learned a tough lesson about the dangers of driving while impaired. Participants were guided through a powerful two-day event complete with student and parent involvement, guest speakers, and even a chance to tour what looked like an active fatal accident scene involving friends and peers.

By giving teens a close-up look at the real and tragic consequences of driving while impaired, there is hope that students will take the lessons to heart and make safe choices for themselves in the future. The Henderson Police Department has partnered with other area agencies since 2001 to create this unique learning experience for over 40,000 Henderson teens.

Teens often have feelings of invincibility about dangerous choices and feel like nothing bad could possibly happen to them. By launching an interactive program to demonstrate the dangers of what could happen to them and other teens like them, it drives the point home.

As a TAM® Card holder or hospitality worker, are you doing all you can to help bring the number of drunk-driving related accidents even lower?

Remember to remain vigilant:

  • Display signage in your store or bar announcing that purchasers of alcohol will be carded and ALWAYS check identification carefully, especially for anyone who appears to be under the age of 30.
  • Report any suspicious behavior or activity among patrons to your supervisor or manager.
  • Be an example to others by promoting safe beverage policies and keep up-to-date with your TAM® training.

Do you think the Every Fifteen Minutes program is a useful tool in reducing teen drinking and driving?

Resources

© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

 

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April 16, 2013 · 6:34 am

Announcing Our Quarterly Customer Satisfaction Survey Winner

Have you recently completed a TAM® class with us? Let us know about it! We are always happy to hear from our customers about their experiences with our alcohol awareness training program. If you’ve completed your alcohol awareness training with us in the past, you know that at the conclusion of the course we invite students to complete a short survey about their experience with TAM® of Nevada. And, as a token of thanks for their participation, we enter survey respondents into a drawing for a $100 Amazon.com gift card prize.

We’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of our students for their survey comments and feedback. We’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mari S., the most recent winner of our quarterly drawing. If you’ve recently completed your TAM® course and haven’t yet completed the customer satisfaction survey, we invite you to visit us on Facebook to access the survey and submit your responses. While you are there, write on our Wall! Let us know your favorite part of the training, what you learned, or ask us any questions you might have.

Our customer satisfaction survey is available to both online and classroom students. Thank you again to all of our customers for your patronage and helpful responses. Remember to visit us on Facebook and keep the conversation going.

© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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April 3, 2013 · 1:07 pm

Meet Our Instructors: Ed Prinz

ed_prinzWelcome back for the next in our “Meet Our Instructors” series of blog posts introducing our amazing set of teachers. This week, meet Mr. Ed Prinz. Ed is a veteran Certified TAM® Instructor and has been teaching TAM® in the Las Vegas community for over 20 years.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ed moved to Las Vegas in 1977 and purchased the first of three bars/lounges, which he owned and operated. Ed worked in the title insurance industry for thirty years as the marketing vice president for Stewart Title Co. and First American Title.

When he’s not teaching at the TAM® office, Ed’s hobbies include golfing, hunting, fishing, photography, and reading spy and adventure novels. His favorite authors are Daniel Silva, Vince Flynn, Tom Clancy, and Clive Cussler.

What’s the most important piece of advice you’d give to a TAM® Card holder?

Ed: Use your common sense!

What’s your favorite thing about living and working in Las Vegas?

Ed: The people are really great!

If you’d like to attend a TAM® Class taught by Ed, you can register on our website. Ed’s teaching schedule varies by week, but you can call or e-mail us for his availability. Or, visit us for one of our regularly scheduled classes with any of our talented instructors.

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March 12, 2013 · 6:59 am

Meet Our Instructors: Sherry Cummings

Sherry_CummingsYou can tell a lot about a company by the people that work there, and here at TAM® of Nevada we have an amazing set of knowledgeable, professional, and fun instructors. Whether you complete your TAM® training online or in the classroom, you can expect to meet some of our staff members. We’d like to introduce you to our staff in a new blog segment: Meet Our Instructors. I had the opportunity to interview each of our instructors, and this is a great bunch.

Let’s kick off this week by getting to know our General Manager and TAM Instructor, Sherry Cummings. Originally from New Jersey, Sherry has lived and traveled extensively throughout the USA, Mexico and the Caribbean.

Hotel marketing in Mexico led her to owning multiple restaurants in Puerto Vallarta. Sherry’s later tenure as Food & Beverage Manager at Pegasus, a Mobile Four Star dining room inspired her to explore and hone her service skills, food knowledge and wine expertise.

The Court of Master Sommeliers certified Sherry and she continues to attend sommelier seminars and training programs. Sherry attended the Sterling School of Hospitality and was also certified by London’s Wine & Spirit Trust.

Later, Sherry worked at the Rio Hotel & Casino, Gatsby’s at the MGM and Southern Wine and Spirits in a variety of roles alongside wine directors, sommeliers and chefs up and down the strip! Now, Sherry brings her unique experience to the classroom and is in a fantastic position to teach responsible beverage service based on real-world examples.

If you’d like to attend a TAM Class taught by Sherry, register for a class on our website. The schedule varies by week, but you can normally find Sherry teaching students on Mondays and Wednesdays at 2:00pm.

© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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February 28, 2013 · 6:31 am

Four Loko Will Now Label Beverages with “Alcohol Facts”

The ban on caffeinated alcoholic beverages, also called alcopop, was one of the biggest stories in the beverage service and sales industry in 2010. Popular beverages such as Four Loko were called dangerous, a binge in a can, and worse. The Food and Drug Administration declared alcoholic energy drinks to be a public health concern and concluded that caffeine added to malt alcoholic beverages was an unsafe food additive (U.S. Food and Drug Administration). Four Loko removed the caffeine from their beverages to comply with new regulations. Now, the FTC has reached a settlement with Phusion Products, the makers of Four Loko, to take it a step further.

In an effort keep drinkers safe and well informed about how much alcohol they are consuming, cans of Four Loko will now display an “Alcohol Facts” label, similar to a nutritional label, to make it clear they pack a potent punch.

These facts will include the container size, percentage alcohol by volume, number of servings in the container and serving size in fluid ounces (NPR). Additionally, all cans of Four Loko containing more than two-and-a-half servings will also have to be re-sealable. The intent is to help consumers realize that they should not consume the entire can in one sitting. A can of Four Loko contains up to 12% alcohol, and a 23.5 ounce can is equivalent to about four or five standard beers (San Francisco Chronicle). Binge drinking means drinking so much within about 2 hours that blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels reach 0.08g/dL. For women, this usually occurs after about 4 drinks, and for men, after about 5. (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism).

This should serve as a reminder to all beverage service professionals to always serve responsibly. Alcopops with colorful packaging and fruity flavors are especially popular with teen drinkers, so servers and sellers should be extra vigilant in checking identification and observing guests.

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© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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January 31, 2013 · 10:11 am

Caution – New Device Allows Users to Inhale Alcohol for Quick and Powerful Effects on the Body

Hospitality JobsAlcohol sales professionals have an obligation to serve alcohol responsibly. As such, any responsible seller of alcoholic beverages should be aware of a new product which hit the shelves in December, the Vaportini™. Working like a traditional vaporizer, this new product heats up alcohol with a votive candle, and releases the vapors into a small chamber which the user inhales through a straw.

There is an increased risk of serious intoxication with this device, especially if used irresponsibly. The Vaportini works by bypassing the digestive system and causing alcohol to be absorbed directly to the bloodstream through the lungs. Normally, when a person consumes an alcoholic beverage, the alcohol is absorbed primarily through the stomach and small intestine. The presence of food slows this process further. Food in the stomach keeps alcohol in the stomach for a longer period of time which means that it will be absorbed into the bloodstream at a much slower rate. This is why it’s advisable to offer your patrons a snack or a meal while they are imbibing. However, when alcohol is inhaled, it enters the lungs and goes directly into the bloodstream, causing effects much more quickly and inducing a powerful buzz.

Worth nothing is that the Vaportini shares some similarities with the Alcohol Without Liquid (AWOL) device, a nebulizer which mixes alcohol with pure oxygen. The AWOL device debuted in 2004 and was quickly banned in over 20 states, including Nevada (Nevada Revised Statutes). All alcohol vaporizers are illegal in Nevada including the Vaportini, so make sure you are up to date with your TAM® training, and maintain a thorough knowledge of applicable local and state laws.

The novelty of inhaled alcohol is especially attractive to young adults and teens, especially when the Vaptorini retails at a price of only about $35. Peer pressure is a constant concern among young people. Teens want to fit in, and alcohol is not only easily accessible to many, it can also contribute to the party atmosphere at celebratory events. For additional tips to help combat alcohol consumption among teen drinkers, check out our blog post, “Teen Drinking is a Dangerous Business.”

Are you concerned about the potential dangers of alcohol vaporizers such as the Vaportini?

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© 2013 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

 

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December 18, 2012 · 7:02 am

Wishes for Safe and Happy Holidays from TAM of Nevada

TAM CardLas Vegas is a city that knows how to throw a party. Bars and restaurants all across town are preparing for a week of successful and festive holidays promotions. With everyone getting revved up for the holiday season and big holiday parties, what does that mean to you as a server, seller, security officer, operator or establishment owner? You need to be prepared.

  • Servers and sellers should be extra vigilant in checking identification and observing guests. Be sure that your guests are not over-served and are getting enough food and water while they are enjoying their alcoholic beverages. If one of the guests in a group you are serving becomes intoxicated, check with other guests in their group to make sure that they have a safe ride home. If necessary, let any guests know that AAA will offer Tipsy Tow service with a one-way ride to drivers and their vehicles, up to 5 miles, at no cost on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. Rest assured that tow service will only be provided to a driver’s home and not to any other drinking establishment or similar location, so you know your patrons will get home safely.
  • Security Professionals should note that big party nights equal higher energy levels, increased levels of excitement and overindulgence. Be visible and interact with your establishment’s guests to defuse potential issues. Be extra diligent when checking IDs to ensure that you keep the underage out of your 21 and over establishment! A recent decoy operation during a “Santa Pub Crawl” in Reno resulted in a 91% compliance rate for establishments checked for selling alcohol to minors, which is great. But, regardless of the impressive compliance rate, there were still establishments which failed the check. Don’t let your guard down this holiday season (KOLO 8 News).

We would love to hear from you! What other recommendations do you have for keeping the holiday celebrations fun and safe for your guests?

TAM® of Nevada is wishing all of our students a safe and happy holiday season and New Year. If you could like to come in for a TAM® Class or proctored exam next week, our holiday hours are as follows:

  • Monday 12/24 and Tuesday 12/25 – CLOSED.
  • Wednesday 12/26 through Friday 12/28 – Open 8:30am-5:00pm. Classes at 9:00am and 2:00pm.
  • Saturday 12/29 – Open 8:30am-5:00pm. Class at 9:00am only.
  • Monday 12/31 – Open 8:30am-5:00pm. Class at 9:00am only.
  • Tuesday 1/1 –CLOSED. We will reopen for regular business hours beginning Wednesday, January 2nd at 8:30am.

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© 2012 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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December 11, 2012 · 9:49 am

Teen Drinking: National Survey Shows That about 75% of Underage Nevadans Do Not Drink

teen-drinkingA new survey from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says Nevada comes in just below the national average for underage drinking with roughly 1 in 4 teens admitting to illegally imbibing. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found 24.5% of Nevada residents between the ages of 12 and 20 drank liquor in the previous month.

While Nevada numbers fall below the national underage drinking rate of 26.6%, and give the state the 13th lowest rate in the country, this is still an alarming trend. As a service professional, what can you do to reinforce the message that underage drinking is not OK and the majority of underage people do not drink? What more can you do to help prevent underage drinking and keep things safe?

It only takes a minute to check an ID and prevent a minor from entering a bar and buying a drink. Additionally, gas stations, grocery stores and liquor stores are all places that teens turn to in order to purchase liquor, and staffers at those establishments should also take steps to ensure they are doing all they can to prevent illegal sales.

The first defense for sales professionals is a thorough knowledge of local and state laws, and mandatory alcohol awareness training. Alcohol awareness training from TAM of Nevada will teach you how to spot fake, altered and borrowed identification, which is popular with teen drinkers. Also remember that TAM Cards expire after four years, contact TAM® of Nevada if you need to renew your training. Officials may ask to see your alcohol awareness card during an alcohol compliance check.

Resources

  • State Estimates of Underage Alcohol Use and Self-Purchase of Alcohol: 2008 to 2010 – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

© 2012 National Hospitality Institute®, TAM® of Nevada

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