Fire Safety Education for Children

Tori Martinez General Security

We’re observing Fire Prevention Month with a series of blogs about fire safety. Last week, we talked about the importance of regular fire drills. This week, we take a look at fire safety for children.

It’s easy to see why kids are fascinated with fire. It’s comprised of beautiful colors, its movement is mesmerizing, and at the proper distance, it provides warmth and comfort. But it’s also easy to see why kids sometimes get into trouble with it. Think about the fire safety education you received as a child. You probably had a visit to your school from a fireman or took a field trip to a fire department. You might have been told stories and shown pictures of huge flames and burned homes, and reminded never to play with matches. It is a fairly standard method of teaching children about fire safety, but is it really giving them an understanding of fire as they know it?

Read More

When Did You Stage Your Last Fire Drill?

Tori Martinez General Security

by guest blogger Security Central   care@securitycentralinc.com

If your first response was “Fire what?,” then this is a “must read” article. Home fires kill more people every year than all other natural disasters combined. If you wake up in the middle of the night and find your house in flames, would you and your family members be prepared to escape in time?

Most people think they could escape, but very few have a fire escape plan for the whole family. Here are some of the things you need to do to create a workable plan to help you and your family survive a home fire:

Read More

Corporate Health – Employee Performance Reviews

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

(This is the ninth in a monthly series about Corporate Health, where we examine different methods and ideas for improving efficiency, your company culture, and employee morale.)

Employee performance reviews. Depending on the employee and even the supervisor involved, the term can be met with enthusiasm, dread, or flat-out disdain. Even a good employee who knows their worth and contribution to their company can have mixed emotions when it comes to a performance review which offers them little meaningful feedback. Even a supervisor who enjoys engaging with their staff can become frustrated if the process of evaluating them is inefficient or inconsistent.

Read More

Preventing a Data Breach at Your Monitoring Center

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, General Security

by Josh Tafoya, Technical Trainer

We’ve seen the recent news about the data breach at Equifax. Half of the adults in America were affected by it through no fault of their own. How, or even if, Equifax makes good on its mistake remains to be seen. But similarly, we are all in the business (beyond responding to alarms) of protecting sensitive data. Whether it is implicit because we have a reputation for keeping our customer’s information private, or whether it is spelled out in our privacy policy, our customers expect that their personal information will not be made public.

There are the small monitoring centers who can’t afford for information to be leaked because any kind of data breach might have consequences too large from which to recover. There are proprietary customers (retail or private business) for whom a data breach might give others a competitive advantage. There are medium and large monitoring centers who might experience a mass exodus of dealers if private data were to get out. Finally, there are government customers who face far more serious consequences for data breaches.

Read More

7 FAQ’s About the Changes to UL

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

The changes to UL 1981 and UL 827 affect the monitoring industry in different ways. While a small or proprietary monitoring center may not be affected at all, larger centers monitoring thousands of accounts may need to make significant changes to comply with UL requirements. Here are seven things you should know about UL 1981 Revision 3 and UL 827 8th Edition:

Q) Why are these changes happening?
UL 1981 sets requirements for alarm monitoring software, while UL 827 places standards on physical buildings and hardware. Over the last decade, technology advances, including virtual machines, and overlaps between the two standards created ambiguity and conflicts that required addressing. UL 1981 Revision 3 and UL 827 8th Edition solve these conflicts and better define the separation between them.

Read More

Corporate Health – The Pros and Cons of Employee Relationships

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

(This is the eighth in a monthly series about Corporate Health, where we examine different methods and ideas for improving efficiency, your company culture, and employee morale.)

Employee relationships in the workplace is a polarized subject. For every article about the problems and issues that it causes, there are an equal number of articles praising the benefits of strong employee engagement and camaraderie.

Employee fraternization isn’t just romantic relationships; it also includes friendships that develop within the workplace. The first thing to understand is that friendships between colleagues cannot be avoided. Co-workers already have one thing in common, their employer, to build a relationship upon, and it doesn’t take long to find other commonalities in their personal lives.

Read More

How Monitoring Centers Can Reduce False Alarms

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

by Josh Tafoya, Technical Trainer

We are all in the alarm business. Here at Bold, we provide software and services to the monitoring center. There are commercial monitoring centers, from very small to very large. There are proprietary monitoring centers serving their own clients. There are governmental organizations and law enforcement agencies. The entire extended Bold family is over 590 monitoring centers strong.

The one issue we all must manage is false alarms. I can’t think of a monitoring center that doesn’t have to contend with them. To some, false alarms are a minor annoyance. For whatever reason, they have little impact on the monitoring center. This isn’t related to the size of the monitoring center or even necessarily to the type of customers.

Read More

Ten Do’s and Don’ts of Personal Safety on Campus

Tori Martinez General Security

For many young adults, this month marks either the first venture or a return to a college campus. While there is obvious excitement for this milestone towards adulthood and the freedoms associated with it, college students should also take time to plan for their personal safety on campus. Here are ten Do’s and Don’ts to keep in mind!

DON’T walk alone, especially at night. This is kind of the obvious one, but also one of the most important. According to RAINN, nearly a quarter of female undergraduates experience some form of sexual violence, but 11.2% of ALL college students become victims. There is strength in numbers. Walk with friends, or in highly populated areas, during the day, and never walk alone at night.

Read More

Corporate Health – Employee Perks That Won’t Break the Budget

Tori Martinez Alarm Monitoring, Central Station Software

(This is the seventh in a monthly series about Corporate Health, where we examine different methods and ideas for improving efficiency, your company culture, and employee morale.)

Employee perks. The words alone can strike a certain amount of dread into company owners and managers. After all, Fortune 500 companies have made the term synonymous with lavish business expenses, such as climbing walls, fitness rooms, daycare centers, full tuition reimbursement, and other costly effects.

While the employees who receive them appreciate these perks, they are certainly not an option for all companies to offer. The good news is, affordable perks are equally as appreciated by employees. Here are some things you can offer your staff at little or no cost to you:

Read More

When Disaster Strikes, What’s the Plan?

Tori Martinez General Security

The topic of campus safety often focuses on the preparation for violent attacks and active shooters. Because of high-profile incidents over the last 20 years, most schools have a strategic plan in place and actively educate students and faculty on the processes to take in the event of such an attack. However, less common are plans and strategies for disaster management.

The most common disasters are usually weather-related, such as a hurricane, earthquake, tornado or other acts of nature. But man-made incidents can also trigger the need for disaster response, including chemical spills, explosions and fire, gas leaks, and biological threats. Each of these can affect a school in different ways, requiring different responses. One disaster may necessitate evacuation efforts while another triggers “shelter in place” directives.

Read More