Montana Alcoholic Beverage Control Division

Award Year
2019-2020

Education Award $10,000
Focus Area Education | Awareness

Your Community Matters Online

In Montana, anyone who sells or serves alcohol must undergo responsible beverage service training—both after being hired and every three years thereafter. However, since Montana is a vast rural state, not everyone is able to travel to complete in-person training. As a result, many people take the training through an online partner. Recent alcohol compliance checks (which determine whether an outlet allows underage individuals to purchase alcohol) show an alarming trend throughout Montana where online-trained employees are failing compliance checks at an increasing rate. Currently, seven out of 10 people who fail a compliance check have received their certification from an online partner.

Through NABCA’s award, the Montana Alcoholic Beverage Control Division (ABCD) developed a new, pilot online curriculum to better prepare employees who take the online certification. This allows for ABCD to deliver uniform messaging to sellers and servers while also providing the ABCD an easier way to adjust and update curriculum when a new trend is discovered, or a new law or regulation is adopted. The latter point is especially important, as many of the online partners that developed their own curriculums do not frequently update them.

The pilot program delivered ABCD’s current in-person curriculum via Zoom. To adapt it for an online environment, a new learning management system was created. Three professional videos were contracted and produced for the curriculum, and more are planned. Thus far, more than 200
trainers have been introduced to the new, online curriculum, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from both trainers and trainees.

Expanding the reach of ABCD’s curriculum has shown tangible success as more servers and sellers who train with the state’s official curriculum are passing their compliance checks. The percentage who are failing the compliance checks has dropped dramatically, from a 45% failure rate to 16% in 2021, and is trending even lower in 2022 sitting at 6%.

“The combination of regular alcohol compliance checks and customized, state-specific server/seller training are key to preventing illegal alcohol sales to underage youth,” said Becky Schlauch, Administrator for the Montana Department of Revenue, ABCD. “We are committed to ensuring safe and legal alcohol sales in Montana and will continue to enhance our training offerings to support our licensees and to protect the citizens of Montana.”

To learn more about Montana ABCD’s training offerings, visit www.mtrevenue.gov/alcoholic-beverage-control/#Outreach.

 

Supplemental Award $50,000
Focus Area Capacity Building | Collaboration

Outreach Mini Summit

Compliance with alcohol laws and regulations requires continuing education for licensees. Historically, in Montana, licensees relied heavily on their trade associations and guilds to answer critical questions regarding their business operations. However, the Montana Alcoholic Beverage Control Division (ABCD) used a NABCA award to both support licensees and to foster communication between licensees, regulators, and law enforcement by conducting instructional sessions throughout the state.

Sixty (60) sessions were conducted with local officials, law enforcement, and licensees, including agency stores, which are privately-owned stores that contract with the state to sell package spirits. These sessions focused on licensees who had made changes to their contract (e.g., change of owner or location). During the sessions, the licensees were notified whether their changes had any regulatory implications, they received a booklet containing the top violations and how to avoid them along with a fact sheet specific to their license type and new laws and rules that could directly impact them. Ten (10) additional sessions were held with licensees who had received a violation and entered into a settlement agreement. These licensees received relevant booklets and fact sheets, and ABCD staff discussed their violations and how to avoid them in the future.

Finally, at the request of the Montana Law Enforcement Academy (MLEA), the ABCD partnered with the Gambling Control Division to train new cadets on gambling, alcohol,
and tobacco laws. ABCD was able to secure three days for the training, with each cadet attending two four-hour sessions in small groups of 10 cadets per session. The team developed a new hybrid curriculum for each session encompassing a classroom presentation with two live scenarios relating to alcohol and gambling at pseudo “bars” created at the MLEA. The cadets also received packets with laws to serve as a quick reference guide when they are in the field along with branded materials and contact information for the ABCD in case they have alcohol-related questions.

While it will take time to assess whether these outreach efforts are reducing violation rates, they have spurred more regular communication between the ABCD and licensees, and the
enforcement trainings have prompted law enforcement to submit reports and violation tickets to the ABCD more regularly. Next up for the Education and Outreach Unit is to co-host a large Alcohol Summit in the coming years with partners from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice.