There's no doubt it’s been a really rough year for most. But there have been some bright spots. Looking back over the past 12 months, can you name a few “top” moments in your professional life?

Read my "Top 10" in Tuesday's blog on the ISS blog page. In the meantime, I'd love for all us to share a few good things that happened in our professional lives over the past year. What great things happened at your facility?

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Amy Campbell
Editor
Inside Self-Storage
acampbell@vpico.com

Wow John, not real memorable Top 10 list huh?

It's not posted up on the website yet... so we turkeys are still in suspense.

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Gina 6k
CochraneStorage dot com
Morgan Hill, California
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!

Gina - I think you meds are kicking in -- Amy posted that



We're having fun now!!!!

Forgot to add memorable moments

--- there was the day last summer when a Sheriff helicopter landed in the field nest to us and 4 "sharp shooters" (read snipers") got off for a hostage incident in the hood south of us.

--- Or the day the smoke was so thick form the Station Fire and the ash was falling like snow (had a auction that day - what a mistake!).

--- Or the day the phones never rang and no one came into the office (Opps -- way too many of those!)


I will be so glad when this year is over!

On the good side is all the fantastic people I have met (and all the ones I now consider friends) on this forum! I can't wait for Vegas to see you all again!

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Wayne
All American Self Storage
Palmdale, CA.


All arguments can be resolved ... with high explosives and Humor!!!

Memorable moments,
After eleven months of declining revenues, the owner asks, have any ideas? My reply, yes, but you've never listened before why waste my time.
Or the most memorable moment, do you think the economy has anything to do with the phone not ringing? He is convinced that we miss 75% of our phone calls, despite having a call center and phone call log from our service provider showing only one or two a day.

All is not doom and gloom though, we will still finish the year with record numbers, and it is starting to snow here in central Virginia just in time for Christmas. My grandkids have already called about spending the special day in the mountains of North Carolina where they already have snow. I only hope all of you will have as much fun as I do on Christmas morning. The looks on the children's faces are all I need for top 10 any year.

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The mountains are calling, so I must go.

hmmm....

1. Working w/tenants (payment plans) so they don't lose their things after they've lost jobs/house, etc.

2. Building rapport with tenants who are tired of manager turnover at my location. (I was part-time for 2 yrs, and full time mgr for 6 months now).

3. Reaching 100% occupancy twice since I took over as manager (which has never been done in this facility's 5 year history).

4. Getting my district manager to get maintenance work completed that I saw that needed to be done for almost 2 yrs while I was part-time.

5. Earning respect from my district mgr for hard work.

6. Earning my 1st year-end bonus as a manager!!!

Pat
Jamestown, NC

Okay I'm missing something... it's either the meds or toys that's made me lose my mind. I'm still not seeing anything on the ISS blog and I did a hard refresh. Sigh...

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Gina 6k
CochraneStorage dot com
Morgan Hill, California
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!

Hey Gina,

The blog won't post until next Tuesday, so you're not crazy. I should have been clear.

Pat: Congratulations! And thank you for sharing some good stuff. It's hard to be positive after the rough year we've all had. My hope with this thread was for all of us to see some good things that happened this past year.

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Amy Campbell
Editor
Inside Self-Storage
acampbell@vpico.com

OhMyGosh!

I get what Wayne said now... I thought it was John's blog when I was typing my smart aleck turkey remark.

Tuesday's blog... got it! Duh... dumb blond on drugs moments.

Great things Pat. I've got some things to add when there's time to READ thoroughly and breathe. Y'all have fun!

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Gina 6k
CochraneStorage dot com
Morgan Hill, California
You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough!

What a year it has been for my first full year in storage.

We have helped a lot of people get through a lot of hard times. It's hard to pick just one as memorable when there are so many sad stories right now.

We have dumped a few dead-beats and gotten a few more to clean up their act!

I hired the best maintenance man on the planet.

We won our corporate holiday lights decorating contest.

Occupancy up 10% Revenue up 10% for the year.

And finally, I won corporate's Manager of the Year.

Not bad for a "newbie" I guess!

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~Airport Super Storage~

Top moments of 2009 huh. So much happens around here that would be hard to judge so I'll give my top three.

1) I had to evict a crazy tenant who, when given his eviction notice, started running around yelling "communist china, communist china". The next time I heard from him, he called from the pycho ward asking me not to throw his stuff out untill he got out of the hospital. I've wondered since if I'm the one who pushed him over the edge.

2) A pair of stray dogs made their way into the building during the summer through the open loading doors. They weren't aggressive but would not be touched and ran away as you approached them. Then they slpit up and ran to different ends of the building and with four floors for them to run to it was much fun wrangling them. Not my best day.

3) A customer unknowingly handed me a bag of weed one day when he was paying his rent. I was expecting to be handed $70 but instead he gave me this bag so I said sorry this isn't a acceptible form of payment. Hah, you should have seen his face when he realised he didn't pass the money from his pocket, but his stash instead. Was quite the momment.