Welcome To The 21st Century
Here we are at long last, in January 2001. I hope that each of you in the control state system and your families had a healthy and prosperous 2000 and I wish you a new year that is even more so. Whether you’re among the worldwide mass that celebrated the dawn of the millennium last year or the steadfast few who asserted that since the 20th Century began at midnight on January 1, 1901, it couldn’t end until 100 years had passed (which would be midnight December 31, 2000), there’s no denying that we’re in the 21st Century now. We have seen the future and this is it.
Though it was a product of the political and social climate of the early 20th Century, the control state system has evolved considerably in the 65 years since the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition. When you look at the various combinations of public and private, of state stores, agencies and private licensees that each state has arrived at, the differences between the various control jurisdictions sometimes seem greater than the similarities. Yet officials throughout the system, almost as one, invariably point to the control function as the most vital part of what they do. And that’s unlikely to change, whatever the date on the calendar, as the profile in this issue of the Washington State Liquor Control Board helps to illustrate. That feature story (see page 8), written by Editor Richard Brandes, focuses on the fresh ideas and rededication to basic principles that are helping that state’s system face the challenges of 21st Century.
At StateWays, our goal in the new year and the new century is unchanged. We want to give our primary audience, the retailers and administrators of the control state system, information that will help them operate their businesses more successfully. To help operate our own business more successfully we formed an alliance with Adams Business Research to form the Adams Beverage Group with now includes magazines, the Adams Handbook series and the research and tracking capabilities of ABR/AC Nielsen. We hope that this new organizational structure will allow us to be more competitive in the marketplace and more responsive to your informational needs.
As always, we look forward to your input as we go forward. If there’s something you don’t like or something you’d like more of, let us know. Our phone number and e-mail addresses are on this page, and we’d love to hear from you. Remember, we’re all in this together.
Cheers,
