Let's Make 2021 Great!

Welcome to 2021!

Thank you for supporting me as CSSA’s Chair of the Board for this year. We had a tough year in 2020, but under Drew’s great leadership, the Board, Committees, and Office stepped up and we are starting out the year in good shape.

I know the first half of the year is going to be awkward as more and more are vaccinated and SOME of the restrictions are lifted. We have made some plans to accommodate this. We have moved Napa Conference from the original May 12 & 13 to October 4 & 5. We think by then travel and gathering will be more wide-spread and with pent-up desire to see one another, we should have a great turn out for Napa. We still have Terry Jones, founder of Kayak travel search engine and former CEO of Travelocity along with Noah Springer with Extra Space as our keynotes. We will have other timely education along with our networking events: Charity Golf Classic, Wine lunch & tasting, receptions with live music (closing one is in wine cave), etc. Mark your calendars and plan to attend!

The Annual Summit has been pushed back by a couple of weeks to July 29, 2021 to avoid conflict with rescheduled ISS World Expo. Again, being held at the extraordinary Balboa Bay Resort, look for another exceptional in-person event.

Our Education & Training Committee has rolled out a full schedule of virtual training events, including returning Avatar Immersive Experience – “Dealing with the Difficult Customer” and new “Interacting with the Homeless.” In addition we will be offering Lien Law Seminar in shorter consecutive segments with live Q & A. Our HR series, “Preparing for Disaster,” and popular Peer Power Hour discussions round out the schedule. Look on the CSSA website for dates and registrations.

We have had numerous members step up as volunteers to serve on our committees. More and more of you are using our Member Discussion board on the website to pose questions and get help from your peers. Many of our committee meetings are held via zoom video conference. Our Peer Power Hour discussions are designed to allow members to virtually meet and discuss topics of interest to you. And the traffic on our website has exploded as more of use that to get timely information about COVID, legislative/legal issues, industry news, and dates for upcoming events. It is important for us to continue to stay in touch, even if we cannot see one another face-to-face.

When asked what people like about this industry, inevitably, the comment is made, “It’s the people.” And it is – the self storage industry has some of the most gracious, genuine, charitable people. Let’s turn to one another, continue to share, and despite the challenges we face – let’s make 2021 great!