Servers seeking training by Oct. 1
By Paul Tash
Montana Tavern Times
Trainers and servers alike are gearing up to meet the Oct. 1 implementation for the new law requiring servers and sellers of alcohol in Montana to be trained.
The Montana Legislature passed the server-training law in April. It requires all sellers and servers of alcohol in Montana to be trained within 60 days of hire and every three years thereafter. The measure does not apply to volunteer servers.
The program accepts all previously approved training programs, including TIPS, TAMS, ServSafe, and in-house programs. ServSafe and TIPS have on-line programs for individual servers. Those already trained within the last three years before Oct. 1, 2011, will not have to train again before three years is up. So, someone trained Jan. 1, 2011, must only be trained again by Jan. 1, 2014.
“Many of our alcohol-serving businesses have already voluntarily trained many of their employees over the years,” said Montana Tavern Association counsel Mark Staples. “And those remaining are working hard to get everybody trained to comply with the law.
The Liquor Control Division sent out a letter to 3,200 liquor licensees Aug. 1 detailing the law and its requirements. More information can be found at www.alcoholservertraining.mt.gov.
Cost for the training runs from free to $15 per person and up, depending on the program. On-line training is also available.
Trainers across the state are working to schedule training, either through pre-scheduled, classroom sessions or on-site training at the request of businesses.
“It's been a tremendous response,” said Lisa Scates, alcohol education coordinator for the state who's oversees the Let's Control It program.
“There's a lot of training going on,” she said, adding that licensees “are definitely” making the effort to comply with the new server-training regulations.
She said requests have kept many of the Let's Control It classes full, and that it's nice to have several approved training programs available. The on-line programs are valuable, she said, so that servers can fit the training into their schedules.
Scates said even veteran bartenders are often surprised on what they learn during training.
She said the main focus of the training is to educate servers on how alcohol affects the human body, so they know when to responsibility refuse to serve someone who's had too much to drink.
Scates said her program has 105 approved public trainers, all of whom are volunteers and most of whom are in the law enforcement and health care fields. But she said her program is looking for more, especially in Eastern Montana. To help satisfy the demand there, her office has scheduled a “train-the-trainer” workshop in Colstrip Sept. 22.
Lonie Hutchison, a state-certified trainer and the DUI Task Force coordinator in Missoula said the demand will ease greatly once all current employees who have not been trained receive their training, which will be good for three years. Then training will be more routinely focused on new hires.
Jeff Hainline, a certified trainer for ServSafe, said he's been “extremely busy.”
“It's really more than we can handle for onsite training, which makes the online program invaluable,” he said.
The response to the training has been positive, Hainline added.
“I do think the merits of training are becoming very clear. There are a whole lot of folks who didn't, or don't, have a very good idea of their potential exposure.”
He said the feedback has been “overwhelmingly supportive of what they learn.”
Lindsey Finch, a spokesperson for TIPS (Training for Intervention ProcedureS), said demand for training has been very strong.
“We have been experiencing a large increase in calls,” she said.
Those wanting to train, she added, can access www.gettips.com and check for training sessions in Montana. If no sessions are scheduled, then you can fill out a “request for training” on the website and “within 24-48 hours” they will receive a response to set up a session.
She said TIPS has been beefing up the number of its trainers, and has recently held train-the-trainer workshops in Butte and Missoula.
Staples and Gaming Industry Association Executive Director Neil Peterson testified in the Legislature that their members support the proposed statewide system because it would provide “one standard” for all jurisdictions in the state, thus avoiding a hodge-podge of rules that would result when each community developed its own mandatory training program, which was already happening.
Approved training programs will discuss such topics as:
• Effects of alcohol on the human body;
• Criminal, civil, and administrative penalties related to non-compliance with laws governing the sale and service of alcohol in Montana;
• Procedures for checking identification;
• Procedures for gathering proper documentation that may affect the licensee's liability;
• Training for skills to handle difficult situations and to learn evaluation techniques regarding intoxicated persons or others that pose potential liability
Participants must take a final test, and upon passage will receive a certificate of completion.
Under the new law, a licensee found during the annual license renewal to be out of compliance with the server training law will pay a $50 fine for a first offense, a $200 penalty for a second offense, and a $350 penalty for a third offense within a three-year period.
The mandatory server-training law came from Senate Bill 29, which was sponsored by Sen. Lynda Moss, D-Billings.
She said in legislative testimony that the server-training measure was the result of a “partnership” between the Department of Labor, the Department of Revenue, state convenience stores, restaurants, and taverns – all of whom worked together to devise a workable plan rather than have different ones imposed in every city and town.
Testimony throughout the legislative process was nearly unanimous in support of the measure.