KEEP THE MOMENTUM

The good news was more than 200 people showed up for the crystal meth
and crack cocaine forum a couple of weeks ago.

The better news was more than 30 people showed up for last week's
drug and alcohol task force planning meeting.

Almost all of them had been at the forum, and said they would be
willing to help determine a strategy for Vanderhoof and the area to
combat drugs.

Now, the trick is to keep the ball rolling.

Too often, groups start off well when it comes to tackling a problem
in their community, then find themselves losing momentum almost as quickly.

Sometimes it's because they try to tackle too much at once, nothing
gets really finished and people get frustrated.

Other times, they go after a big target right away, find themselves
mired in details, and get frustrated.

The best thing the task force can do at this point is to take a look
at what came out of the meeting last week and draw up a list of objectives.

Some of them can probably be accomplished quickly - call them the A list.

Others will take longer to accomplish - call them the B list.

Still others will require objectives from one of the other lists to
be met before the larger one can be tackled - call them the C list.

Don't spend a lot of time debating what list an item should be on.
Get the lists made and keep moving.

Pinpoint a couple of the A list items for the task force members to
go after immediately. Maybe it's making up a list of government and
non-government funding possibilities. Maybe it's trying to find a
location for a rehabilitation house. Maybe it's talking to the RCMP
about how to handle known drug houses.

Get people working on these right away. These are items where results
can be seen quickly, which will keep people willing to work with the
task force.

While working on those A-list items, start working on a couple of the
B-list items. It may be talking to schools about getting the message
out to the students. It may be getting more of the community involved.

These will take a bit longer to accomplish, but the results are
wider-ranging and more visible. People now on the task force and
those who join later will want to be kept up to date on what's
happening with these items, but will understand if progress is slow.

Finally, look at the C list. Figure out which of the A-list or B-list
items need to be accomplished to get a C-list item going.

This could be looking at the funding list and possible rehabilitation
house locations and determining what funding and how much needs to be
applied for to get the rehabilitation house up and running.

The need is here in the community right now for something to be done.

The desire to do something is here as well.

The trick now is to keep that desire up until the need is met.