What makes a company successful? Vision, patience, and the adherence to a good business plan. Most important, there also must be an excellent management team.

Patty Hartman will be the 2012 recipient of the George A. Weinstock Award for lifetime achievement and service to the security industry. But most notably, Hartman, a former two-term president of CAA, is the first female to receive the award.

California is the most populous state — by far, and it is the third-largest by land area (after Alaska and Texas). That creates a vast territory and an incredible amount of end users for the California Alarm Association (CAA) to cover. Like California, the CAA is huge, but the CAA is also small, built upon camaraderie and close-knit relationships between all its active members.

The California Alarm Association's (CAA) Board of Directors held its meeting at the Winter Convention being held December 8-10 in San Francisco. I arrived a few minutes early to grab a "good seat" from a journalist's perspective - a seat with a good view of everything going on in the room.

Today I took the quick flight from Los Angeles (L.A.) up to San Francisco to attend the California Alarm Association’s (CAA) Winter Convention held December 8-10.

At the 2010 California Alarm Association (CAA) Winter Convention held in San Francisco, Dec. 9-11, 2010, there was a lot of business accomplished and some very clear challenges issued.