Having hosted a handful of conferences of college officials in the last year, DISCUS president Peter Cressy was ready to share some "best practices" and "helpful hints" about how to build coalitions of campus, community and industry members to prevent campus drinking problems with industry members and state liquor administrators recently. Several key concepts: 1) coalitions need both vertical integration (campus president down to individual students) and a broad horizontal base of community, academic and government officials, plus enforcement and industry representatives; 2) coalitions need to develop and sustain plans, specific goals, identify sources for financial support and create follow-up procedures. Cressy stressed the importance of building credibility with early, limited, "achievable" goals (i.e. a campus designated driver program) before tackling "tougher things like values" and how to change perceptions of the "college experience." He cited a half-dozen individual campus programs that have come out of the DISCUS regional conferences already, some funded in-part by $300,000-400,000 in matching grants provided by distributors: alcohol screening/brief intervention programs, interventions with high school/ middle school students; designated driver programs, peer programs with athletes; online education through fraternities/sororities; a comprehensive freshmen-year program. Among the helpful hints for building a "sustainable plan": get everyone at the table from the start; get "essential" support from the top (mayors, college presidents); adopt specific timelines to maintain focus and momentum; share credit to avoid turf battles; put someone in charge with "access, authority and recognition"; make commitments public so individuals can

Traffic safety officials, industry members and activists agree on one thing: to reduce drunk driving further will require a concerted focus on high-risk, hard-core drunk drivers. It

While industry members pursue traffic safety, social norms, education and other prevention initiatives, public health activists continue to advance other agendas. During a press conference in Washington, DC on June 18 to increase funding for traffic safety, MADD slipped in a call for higher taxes on beer and for tax equivalence. Indeed, one of MADD

While vintners and distillers have gone public in the past with programs that publicize the benefits of moderate drinking, beer industry executives have not aggressively broadcast the data. But the National Beer Wholesalers Association (NBWA) recently held a press conference in New York that included a "Here

Linkenbach

It turns out that it

Two mid-December reports on youth and alcohol received plenty of media coverage: 1) the continued decline in youth drinking rates as measured by the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) surveys; 2) claims by the advocacy group Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) that teens are "overexposed" to alcohol advertising on television. Some reported these stories together, and a CBS Marketwatch commentary blasted CAMY, noting the dropoff in teen drinking even while "big alcohol spent about $900 million" on television ads last year. But no one pointed out that underage drinking rates declined sharply in recent years even as alcohol suppliers substantially increased media spending to promote their products. That fact, together with the failure of even CAMY to claim research shows ads cause kids to drink, should give advocates and policymakers alike pause before considering CAMY

Tho AB share price back up to 64, value of top execs’ AB shares lower now than a year ago, even tho most increased holdings in 99. (On all stock values, don't know what execs paid for shares or what they might owe.) On the other hand, top execs got raises in 99 (after salary freeze in 98) and bigger bonuses. Look at August III. The 3,661 mil shares August "beneficially owns" worth about $234 mil at presstime; that‘s down about 14% from the $273 mil his 3.563 mil shares were worth last yr this time. Meanwhile, August’s 99 salary up 2% to $1.13 mil and his bonus jumped half-mil $$$, 29% to $2.25 mil. (August’s bonus more than tripled 97 to 99.) Other top execs got better raises than August. Prexy Pat Stokes got raise of $80,000, 12.3% to $730,000; also got 56% bigger bonus in 99, up $450,000 to $1.25 mil. (Pat’s 97 bonus only $300,000.) Pat picked up 150,000 AB shares in 99, so his 987,000 shares now worth about same $63 mil as his 839,000 shares worth this time last yr. Exec veep John Jacob hit half-mil mark in salary in 99, up 9.4%. John got $50,000 bump in bonus too, to $400,000. His 301,000 shares worth about $19 mil; had 313,000 shares at end of 98, worth $24 mil in Mar 99. Group veep Steve Lambright got 10% raise to $429,000; bonus bumped up $50,000 to $400,000. Steve’s got 457,000 AB shares worth $29 mil. Veep Randy Baker made $415,000 in 99, up 10.7%; bonus jumped 60% to $400,000. Randy’s got 445,000 AB shares, worth about $28 mil. These execs all granted new options too, but at $75.78, an option good ‘til 2010. August got options for 425,000 shares, Pat for 250,000, others got 100,000 each. In 98, they’d received options at just under $60 per share.

Data on distribs owned by board member relatives show August’s half-brother Peter Busch’s Ft Pierce, Fla operation purchased $26.4 mil of beer in 99, up 8.2%. Daughter Susie Busch Transou’s Jacksonville distrib increased beer purchases 3.3% to $21.8 mil. The Orthweins (August’s cousins in Deerfield Beach, Fla) bought about same $38 mil of beer last 3 yrs. (AB up 4% in Fla thru Sep 99.) Steve Knight, son of bd member Charles, bought $15.6 mil of beer from Kent, Wash distrib, up 5.4%. (In Wash, AB up 1% thru Nov.) Don’t know what happened to these firms’ inventories. One other family operation, co-owned by Steve Lambright’s son in Kans, bought $8 mil of beer last yr. No data for 98. At coming shareholder mtg, 6 nuisance proposals to interfere with AB board, stock options, etc. Each was defeated soundly last yr. No neo proposals this yr; each lost by huge margins last 3 yrs.

Oodles of interesting figures from 4-yr trend data and valuation of 60 distribs done by broker/advisor Andy Christon. Of these 60 distribs in 22 states, 38 were AB, 10 Miller (principal brand), 7 Coors, 5 All Others. Fact there were so many AB distribs pushed up avg profit/value. Andy