Finding the Best MAST Class for You

HOW TO CHOOSE THE PERFECT MAST CLASS

Let’s face it, when the government tells you to do something, it’s probably not going to be fun.

Since getting a MAST permit is mandatory in the State of Washington, many people view it as a tedious obligation. For that reason, they tend to look for a MAST class that meets the following criteria:

1. The cheapest MAST class.
2. The fastest MAST class.
3. The easiest MAST class.

We get it. You have priorities. That is why our MAST class is affordable, concise and totally user friendly. But we encourage you to go one step further – consider your learning style when choosing a MAST class.

We weighed the pros and cons and decided to structure our course this way, but we also appreciate that there are many different learning styles. What works best for one person, might not be what works best for another. 

WHY CHOOSE CRAFT SERVING’S MAST CLASS?

In addition to the great reasons listed above, we want to give you MORE compelling perks for choosing us as your MAST class provider.

1. We are local!

Washington born and raised, baby! We live for mountains, breathe pine, eat morrels on toast, dream about cocktails and we absolutely LOVE Washington’s food and beverage scene.

When one of our favorite bars closes, a little piece of us dies (R.I.P. Lucky You Lounge), but when a new spot opens (Hello 👋 Donna’s), hope springs eternal and the cycle continues.

Our state’s local restaurants, bars, microbreweries and wineries are the heart and soul of each community. Because we truly believe that, we are here to raise the bar on responsible alcohol service.

2. We support the local bartending community.

You might not run into us at your local pub, but you will probably see us at a Bartenders’ Guild event or two. We also attend Seattle Cocktail Week each year.

Our mission at Craft Serving is to advocate for alcohol servers by connecting them with resources to help them learn and grow within the hospitality industry.

We do this by staying connected to the community, keeping up with trends and donating to organizations that that give back to workers within the food and beverage community.

3. We listen to our customers.

We love feedback! So, at the end of our course, we ask our students to let us know if there is anything we can improve on.

We take everyone’s concerns to heart and make changes when possible. For example, a few years ago, after one customer complained about the pronouns used in our course, we listened.

When we were in school, we were taught that he or she should be used in the third person (since our language lacks a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun). But thankfully, times have changed and so have the rules for technical writing.

We think copy editor Bill Walsh of the Washington Post said it best. Using he seems sexist, using she seems patronizing and “alternating he and she is silly,” he wrote, “as are he/she, (s)he and attempts at made-up pronouns.”

This is just one example of how listening to our customers has made us a better company. (Of course, we are only human, so we appreciate the occasional sprinkle of praise as well! 🙏)

4. Our course teaches to the final exam.

While we try to use our lesson quizzes to reinforce important aspects of the material, we also use them to train for the final exam.

The state writes and provides the questions for the final exam and we don’t have the ability to change those questions, even though we sometimes would like to. 

We want our students to pass the final exam with flying colors, so we try to prepare them for it with leading quiz questions. Sometimes this works towards our detriment, but we do it anyway to benefit our students. You might find a few of the questions to be ambiguous, but hopefully the explanations are helpful.

5. We advocate for the environment and YOU!

No offense to cows, but we have BEEF with the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB).

While many other states have embraced technology and gone paperless, the WSLCB has yet to modernize the MAST permit process.

As a provider of the online MAST permit course, we have seen the significant environmental impact that the current physical printed permits have. For example, each individual requires not only a printed paper permit, but the associated envelope, stamp, and subsequent cost and environmental impact associated with the actual delivery.

In addition to benefiting the planet 🌎, going digital would also have significant benefits for alcohol servers:

• Alcohol servers will have greater personal security. Currently, there are 20 different MAST providers that are each individually responsible for collecting sensitive user information from their students, such as SSN, DOB, address and physical identifiers. Upon course completion, MAST providers must submit that information to the WSLCB. By modernizing the MAST Permit process, users would only have to provide sensitive personal information on a state-managed online portal , such as the ones that exist in Oregon and California, and redundancy would be eliminated.
• Alcohol servers and their employers will have easy access to MAST Permit information. Some MAST Permits go missing in the mail, but even when they arrive at the correct destination, alcohol servers still must wait up to a month to receive them. Digital permits would arrive instantly and could be accessed online at any time by both alcohol servers and their employers through an account.
• Alcohol servers won’t have to pay a fee to replace lost or damaged MAST Permits. MAST Permits are valid for five years. Keeping a small piece of paper around that long can be challenging and many servers inevitably end up requiring a replacement.

MAST CLASS RED FLAGS

Okay, so you are finally ready to choose a MAST class. You go to the Washington State Liquor & Cannabis Board’s website and find the list of online MAST class providers.

You click on the first few listed at the top, but they all look kind of the same. Is one really better than another?

Keep in mind, if the website looks outdated, the MAST class will be too. If the website has typos, the course probably does too. These are indications of how much care has been taken by the MAST class instructor.

If you picked the wrong course here are some red flags that you will notice along the way:

How You Know You Picked the Wrong MAST Class:

• The course is corny as hell.
• The course starts quizzing you on topics that have not been covered yet.
• The course copies state laws verbatim and relies heavily on legalese without making any effort to simplify required course content.
• The course is too ambiguous and vague to actually be helpful. (Many MAST course writers are overly cautious to allow for interpretation in different situations, but this often leads to confusion.)
• The course blurts out random state laws in no particular order and without context just to “cross them off the list.”
• The course uses terminology that applies to other states or areas of the country (e.g. Dram Shop Liability).

At this point, it’s too late. Better luck next time! 😉

Did you enjoy this article? Check out our other related posts!

How to Get a MAST Permit

Do I Need a MAST Permit to Work an Event?

New Alcohol Delivery Laws in Washington