Montgomery County Hospitality Resource Panel (MC HRP)

Kathie Durbin, Coordinator Montgomery County Department of Liquor Control Community Outreach Office 16650 Crabbs Branch Way Rockville, MD   20855 Telephone:   240-777-1917 Fax:              240-777-1962 Email:           kathie.durbin@montgomerycountymd.gov

The Montgomery County Hospitality Resource Panel (MC HRP) was established in the Spring of 2000 through grant funding obtained by Montgomery County Health and Human Resources and from grant funding obtained by the Department of Liquor Control from the National Alcoholic Beverages Control Association.

Run by Community Outreach Manager Kathie Durbin, the MC HRP is modeled after a process developed by the Responsible Hospitality Institute, and is a community organizing framework for creating an alliance of businesses, associations, agencies, educators and suppliers dedicated to developing safe communities and healthy businesses through the promotion of responsible hospitality principles and practices.

As its name implies, an HRP is a "resource" to the hospitality industry, as well as everyone else involved. Rather than creating new programs, new projects or new materials, the HRP works to enhance the availability and participation in those programs that currently exist.

The MC HRP

• Assists people before they open a hospitality business

• Nurtures a trained and professional workforce

• Facilitates the role of government as a resource and partner in business development

• Creates a business-friendly helping hand to anyone moving off-track of a professionally managed establishment

Historically, programs to combat underage drinking and abuse by adults have focused directly on the individual by attempting to alter their behavior through a combination of information, persuasion, and threat. More recently, the focus has been expanded to include the behavior of the people who serve them. The various situations in which beer, wine and spirits are sold or served can be divided into five main categories:

• Commercial on-sale: Businesses obtain a license to serve or sell for consumption on the premise, such as restaurants, bars, taverns, and nightclubs

• Commercial off-sale: Businesses obtain a license to serve or sell for consumption off the premise, such as convenience stores, groceries and markets

• Special events: Community organizations obtain a temporary license for consumption on premise for an event such as a fair or festival

• Employer hosts: non-licensed situations in which companies host events for their employees or clients

• Social hosts: non-licensed situations in which people provide alcoholic beverages to their family or friends in their home or at a public park

Public health and safety costs to the community will be substantially reduced through the collective reduction or elimination of sales, service, or provision of beer, wine or distilled spirits to persons under 21, those providing to underage persons, and to intoxicated persons. Seeking out, consulting with and assessing high-risk establishments, hosts and servers of alcohol have proven to be very successful in creating a safe community.

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