Web Channel Shows How To Be A Good Host

Media Release From ALAC

New Zealanders like a good night with a few friends. The Alcohol Advisory Council (ALAC) has developed a channel on its website to make sure that a good night doesn’t turn horribly wrong.

How to ensure that people have a good night around alcohol whether they’re at your house or in your bar is a feature of the new channel, according to ALAC’s Manager Communications Jennifer Harris.

ALAC launched the new channel in Wellington today at its national “Working Together” conference for people involved in the liquor licensing industry.

The channel will offer information on host responsibility and liquor licensing and has two main sections – one aimed at the general public, the other for people involved in the area of liquor licensing.

Ms Harris says the channel is a unique way to connect people involved in different sectors of the liquor licensing industry and to allow them to be in touch with each other. These include managers in the hospitality industry, licensing inspectors, health workers and police.

“One of the problems in the liquor licensing area is that there is no one organisation that is responsible for coordinating what goes on in the different areas,” Ms Harris says.
“The new channel will provide a one-stop resource centre for people involved in the industry. This medium provides a great potential for exchange of information that’s independent of any one organisation.”

While ALAC will host the channel, it is important that people in the industry feed into it, Ms Harris says. “ We’ve included a great ideas section where people can share what has worked for them, with others. It’s a way of offering support to people in the industry who are working in isolation in more remote places in the country.”

The channel features a wide range of information on host responsibility – including a sample host responsibility checklist for licensed premises and a model host responsibility policy. There’s also information on training for pub managers. Bar managers can download signage for use in their premises. The channel will also feature news flash items.

The public section on the channel includes information on the drinking age and a guide to the law - a useful resource for parents of teenagers wanting to know what the drinking age is, what the law says and the penalties for not obeying it. There are also “great suggestions for how anyone thinking of throwing a party or having a few friends over can ensure they are being a responsible host,” says Ms Harris.

The channel can be found at www.alcohol.org.nz/host
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