Happy January, I hope that your year is off to a great start! As this month officially launches campaign season both throughout the state and across the country, I felt it appropriate to focus on CALSAGA’s political advocacy efforts with the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) in January’s edition of Competive Edge.  

CALSAGA staff attended the BSIS Advisory Committee meeting on Tuesday, January 10th at the Department of Consumer Affairs; these bi-annual events are open to the public and future meeting dates can be found on the BSIS website. The CALSAGA Board of Directors is well represented on the Advisory Committee; in addition to Bryon Bayer and Dennis Sebenick, who serving as committee members, Jim Diaz serves as the committee chairman and David Chandler as the acting co-chairman.

Look for a full recap of the meeting in this month’s CALSAGA e-newsletter.

If you’ve ever called the BSIS with a question, you have probably experienced a hold time longer than you would like. At the recent Advisory Committee meeting BSIS Chief Jeff Mason acknowledged this concern and noted that, while he is aware of the need for improvement, without the funding for additional staff he is unable to offer an immediate solution to the hold time issue. In the meantime, I would like to remind you that the CALSAGA staff is available as a resource to our members, and are happy to work with you to answer the topical problems you may encounter. Having trouble getting through to the BSIS on questions about licensing or training? If we don’t know the answer, we’ll find out for you. In doing so, we hope to save you valuable time and, by saving you time, saving you money!

Have you noticed the new feature on the CALSAGA homepage? CALSAGA has worked with the BSIS to add a new guard card revoke notification element to our website. PPOs can now enter a guard card number into the widget and will receive an alert if the card has been revoked or has expired. While it is in the early stages, the goal is to eventually have an alert system that will go out to CALSAGA member companies when an officer in their roster has his or her guard card revoked. We’ll keep you up to date on the progress of what is sure to be a substantial asset in securing your business against potential enforcement from the BSIS.

As always, if you have any questions on how to receive the maximum benefits from your membership, please don’t hesitate to contact me at (916) 930-0552 and KWallace@calsaga.org.