It's hard to believe that the year is almost over -- and the holidays are with us once again. This is a great time of year, when there's excitement everywhere and the Spirit of Giving is only outweighed by our desire to be with family and friends.

Thank you very much for working with Genesis Security this year. We have enjoyed the time immensely and truly appreciate all the clients that make our days more exciting and more interesting. We wish you and your family the very best for the holiday season and a year of health, happiness and prosperity.

Our entire organization joins in sending SEASON'S GREETINGS with every good wish for the New Year!

Once again, we are happy to be the winner of this award three years in a row. Thank you everyone!

The above video came to my attention today from one of the many Strata's that we manage security for and I was so impressed by its content that I felt it should just go up right away as a warning to other buildings that maintain secure parkades.

In this video you will clearly see a vehicle enter into the secure parkade and continue to drive forward before the gate fully closes. The consequence of this one very small inaction results in what you will view to be an unidentified individual stop the gate before it fully closes and enter into the parkade area. This particular parkade area is in a very exclusive setting and in my opinion a lot of damage could have been done by the perpetrator.

Fortunately, our Guard was conducting his patrols and encountered the individual seen in the tape approximately 7 seconds after this video ends. When confronted by the Genesis Guard, he stated that he was looking for recyclables and that the gate was open (yet on the video he is clearly shown reaching under and stopping it from fully closing).

I cannot stress how important it is to bring your vehicle to a complete stop once you have entered a secure parkade and ensure that the gate is fully closed before carrying on with parking.

When our Guard spoke to the driver of the vehicle, they stated that this was the very first time that they have ever NOT stopped before the gate fully closed, yet that is all it takes; just one time.

You should also be aware as well that the same individual in the tape who entered the parkade on foot also tried the same trick the day before with a water bottle, but thankfully due to the weight of the gate the bottle was crushed.

Be safe everyone and make sure you take the small amount of time that is necessary to ensure that no uninvited "guests" obtain access to your building.

Over the past couple of weeks our Mobile Patrol drivers have begun to report a rash of vehicle break-ins along the Robson corridor. These break-in’s have occurred right on the street as well as in underground parkades with the preferred entry method being that of simply smashing out the window of the vehicle.

Please remember, especially this time of year, to secure any and all valuables in the trunk of your car if you have to leave it unattended.

In one of the cases our Mobile arrived on scene seconds after one of the break-in’s had occurred and the Police were able to arrest an individual, however no valuables were recovered and the owner of the vehicle still has to worry about replacing the window.

Have fun this year with your Christmas shopping and remember to be safe!!!

Sunday has come and gone and I have to tell you that being in this year’s Rogers Santa Claus parade was one of the best times I’ve had in quite a long time.

There were an abundance of floats and participants entered this year that more than impressed the record crowd of over 300 000 people; people I might add who braved some fairly chilly weather in order to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus himself.A big thanks to all of our Ambassadors who came out this year and assisted in greeting the crowd while handing out Carol books; which were sponsored and printed by Rogers. More importantly than this though would be the HUGE thank-you to all those responsible for breaking the donation records for the past three years, collecting over 15, 000 lbs of food and $7500 in cash!!!

It was a great honor to be a part of this parade and to close I would like to thank the Community for coming out and supporting this very fun and meaningful event.

This past Wednesday I attended the Strathcona Business Improvement Association’s Christmas Social, which was held down on 304 Dunleavy St. inside a very nice venue named “The Chapel”. This place is a mixture of art, music and I must say has a fantastic atmosphere. (Attached is picture of myself, John VanLuven – Executive Director of the SBIA and Kevin Flynn, my Vice President of Operations and Advanced Services).

While I was only able to stay for a short period of time, I was able to meet some new people and talk about our SBIA Patrol, which is a service that patrols the Strathcona area for up to 16 hours a day throughout the year, seven days a week.

Basically this program is intended to protect property, assist the police and deter street activity within the district; but what I really like about it is the reporting functions that we have created to track all activity that our Guards encounter while on duty.

Accompanied the detailed reporting, which is managed by our HanDbase custom written program on Treo cellular phones, is an excellent mapping system that geographically plots all incidents by category for the SBIA Executive.

This program is one of the most exciting that I am involved in and I really look forward to what Genesis can do for the SBIA over the next couple of years.

Thanks to all the SBIA members who have supported our program thus far and a special thanks for inviting myself and Kevin to your special Holiday Festivities.