Self-Storage Talk - View Single Post

Jeffrey Greenberger · #1 (**permalink**) 5th February 2010, 10:55 PM

Hi everyone, I wanted to remind you that the ISS Legal Learning with Jeffrey Greenberger webinar series kicks off again for 2010 on Tuesday February 9. We have four scheduled topics this year, the upcoming one addresses what you must do to avoid making mistakes in your lien sales and the risks of exposure you face if you make a mistake, based on several recent court decisions. Hopefully, the webinar will help answer some of tnsd’s and other member’s questions.
The official title is: Self-Storage Lien Sales, Do Them Right or Pay the Price. I know clever title right? Let me say this however, every operator can afford an hour this week to look at their lien sale procedures and try to improve them to avoid the risk of a lawsuit, don’t miss this important webinar.
While we are on the subject, if you really want to improve your lien sale procedures and other operational issues, join me at the ISS World Expo in Las Vegas at the end of the month for Legal Learning Live, a 4 hour intensive program with a 5th hour add on for California operators. This is really a great class and I know prior attendees who belong to this Forum endorse the class all the time as a great learning tool.
I have heard some confusion and grumbling about the webinar series this year; I thought it would help if I addressed it right away, unlike a certain car manufacturer. There is a modest $40 charge for the series of 4 webinars this year, of course people liked the webinars for free and think something is wrong, that in this economy we started charging for them.
For those of you who remember way back when no one had heard of a webinar, ISS and I really did the first in the industry, there was a legal conference call and a $25 charge per session to cover the conference call in number, when we moved to the webinar format, to get people to try it, we eliminated the charge with a warning that the charge would be back the next year. 5 years later we have had to bring back a modest charge. None of the money goes to me, the charge doesn’t even cover the cost of the webinar service, it just defrays it somewhat. I am in favor of the charge now that I have seen the 800 number charges that ISS pays each webinar for us to get together, I couldn’t believe the figure the first time I saw it.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the Legal Learning program is not a paid advertisement like some webinars, and no company is really excited about sponsoring the series because we never hit a defined target market, the topics are different each time. The costs need to be offset in some way so we compromised and added in the charge, see below.
So that’s the story, $40 gets you in for 4 webinars, you now can listen to them later if you want so you do not have to be on live and it is my understanding you will be able to replay the webinar as often as you want for 90 days after we deliver it. This addresses so many complaints we have heard over the years, so I view it as a compromise. I also believe you can now download the slides, another big complaint in the past. I know no one likes to pay for something they are used to getting for free, but the choice last year was to cancel the series or institute a small charge. I think we made the best decision for the industry. Many of you who have already registered seem to agree.
Ok, long post, have a good weekend and see many of you on Tuesday and I hope to meet many of you in Vegas in a few weeks.