A new 732-unit Extra Space Storage facility in Miami is celebrating its grand opening on June 11, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., with free food, prizes and more. The public is invited to enjoy sandwiches from Tamiami subs, interact with exotic wildlife, listen to music from Mix 98.3 and tour the new facility at 11851 SW 147th Ave.

"We want to throw a 'get to know us' party for the neighbors, and by neighbors we mean everyone in the greater Miami area," said Kenny Speegle, divisional vice president for Extra Space. "We're excited to be here, and we're looking forward to being an asset to the community by providing valuable services to customers and being good neighbors to all."

Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Extra Space is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust that owns or operates 829 self-storage properties in 34 states and Washington, D.C. The company's properties comprise approximately 525,000 units and more than 57 million square feet of rentable storage space.

California self-storage operator A-1 Self Storage is donating monetary support to San Diego Hospice, which assists people who face life-limiting illnesses, providing comfort and relief from suffering.

Established in 1977, San Diego Hospice is one of the 10 largest not-for-profit hospices in the United States. According to SDHospice.org, the center has more palliative medicine specialists than any other hospice in the country. Together with its Institute for Palliative Medicine, it is the largest resource in the world for training palliative-medicine physicians and other specialists.

San Diego Hospice cares for almost 1,000 patients each day, in their own homes or other facilities throughout San Diego County.

 In the sunset season of life, it is comforting to have helpful, positive, and efficient friends with you, said Brian Caster, president and CEO of A-1 Self Storage. At San Diego Hospice, that is what you get: friends who walk with your loved one and with you during the most difficult of times.

A-1 Self Storage has 16 locations in the San Diego County area and more than 40 locations statewide. It is the self-storage division of the Caster Cos., a third-generation, family-owned company headquartered in South California since 1959. Caster Cos. develops and manages A-1 Self Storage, A-1 Car Storage and other commercial properties in California. Its portfolio includes more than 4 million square feet of real estate.

SmartStop, the self-storage brand of Strategic Capital Holdings LLC, has completed a rebranding campaign including a new company website, a mobile app and a new look at all SmartStop national and international retail locations. The campaign was created by integrated marketing agency INK, based in Irvine, Calif.

The new SmartStop website includes a content-management system that allows multiple parties to contribute content to the site. The site is also compliant with the latest search engine optimization practices and enabled tracking analytics, according to a press release by INK. It includes a space estimator, storage tips, a facility locator and information on truck rentals and moving supplies.

The new brand instills a confidence that SmartStop is safe, secure and friendly, said Michele Cataldo, director of self-storage marketing for Strategic Capital. The complete rebrand is an opportunity for SmartStop to use its new website and retail locations to communicate a clear brand position, with visual elements and a straightforward architecture that deliver a clean and professional customer experience.

The new SmartStop mobile app leverages proprietary inventory-management tools, Cataldo said.

About the SmartStop brand, INK founder and CEO Todd Henderson said, It's more than just a name, a logo and a website; it's something much bigger and more meaningful than that. It's something the entire organization has rallied behind, and it's absolutely wonderful to see it come to life.

The new website can be viewed at www.smartstopselfstorage.com.

INK is an integrated marketing agency serving brands such as Cisco, DirecTV, Legendary Pictures, Cox, UCLA and others.

The U-Haul Co. of Eastern Arizona is offering 30 days of free storage to residents of Northern Arizona who are being evacuated due to the ongoing wildfires. In addition, participants can participate in the U-Haul Take a Box, Leave a Box Program, which provides free use of recycled boxes for storage.

"These wild fires have caused a tremendous amount of damage and hardship to the communities we serve," said Jim Pena, president. "I hope this effort will help provide some assistance to the many families that need a helping hand. We will do our best to support our friends and neighbors in their time of need."

The Arizona Wallow Fire, named thus because the fire started near Bear Wallow Wilderness in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, started on May 29. Officials believe it ignited from an unattended camp fire. As of today, 11 structures have been lost to the fire, and 336,000 acres of land have been burned.

Established in 1945, U-Haul has a network of more than 16,300 locations throughout the United States and Canada. The company offers more than 36 million square feet of self-storage space at nearly 1,100 facilities throughout North America.

Williams & Williams Worldwide Real Estate Auction will auction several self-storage facilities, RV and boat storage yards, and commercial and residential rental properties on Friday, June 17, in Fort Collins, Colo. The live auction will take place 11 a.m. MDT at Academy Court Storage. Interested bidders can bid in person or online via AuctionNetwork.com.

All for-sale properties are located just north of Denver along the 1-25 corridor in the towns of Evans, Greeley, Fort Collins, Loveland and Wellington. The storage facilities are up to 96 percent occupied.

The potential for these investment properties is enhanced by the appealing economic mix of educational institutions, manufacturing and service-related businesses in the area, Dan Falls, vice president, told the SunHerald.

The properties will be sold in groups as Buyers Choice. The first property in each group will sell without reserve above a nominal opening bid.

Williams & Williams is a real estate auction and collateral risk management company that operates in all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The company deals in all types of real estate including residential, commercial, farms and ranches, and luxury estates.

Carol Krendl, owner and CEO of SkilCheck Services, will host a five-part webinar series for self-storage operators in June and July. Each webinar is geared to be specific to individual California lien-law topics and will guide operators through any type of auction procedure. Webinar topics and dates are:

• June 21: Understanding the California Lien Law Provisions. This webinar will take a closer look at the provisions within the updated California lien law.
• June 23: Processing the California Self Storage Lien. The second webinar will focus on how the California lien process works from start to finish.
• June 28: California Self Storage Auction Procedures. In this webinar, the focus will be showing operators how to legally prepare for their next self-storage auction.
• June 30: California Lien Sale Issues. This webinar will explain and discuss the different issues that arise when a self-storage customer goes into lien sales.
• July 1: Soldiers Civil Relief Act. The last webinar in the series takes a closer look at how the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act applies to the self-storage business. Operators will learn what they can and cannot do when it comes to service members' self-storage goods and how they can legally sell them.

All webinars begin at 10 a.m. PST. Attendees can register for individual webinars or for all. The cost for each webinar is $40. Those who register for all five can do so for $175. Krendl will also provide attendees with forms and materials after the webinars.

Registration for the webinar series can be completed at www.skilcheck.com/selfstoragewebinars.html.

Krendl has been involved with the self-storage industry since 1984. She currently serves as vice president of the California Self Storage Association. SkilCheck provides services for self-storage operators including mystery shopping, manager background checks, manager training, employment evaluations and more.

Olympia Steel Buildings of Canada will design, engineer and supply two pre-engineered self-storage metal buildings for a new facility in Cantley, Quebec, Canada.

The project consists of one 822-square-meter storage facility and another 125-square-meter building. Construction of the facility is scheduled to be completed this summer.

Olympia Steel Buildings are supplied by Universal Steel Buildings Corp., which has offered pre-engineered steel buildings for more than 40 years to commercial, industrial, agricultural, residential, government, military and civilian agencies.

Employees of LifeStorage Centers LLC, a Chicagoland self-storage operator, will participle June 25 in the 26^th Annual Hunger Walk hosted by the Greater Chicago Food Depository. The 5K walk will begin at Soldier Field, with registration at 7 a.m., and step off at 8:15 a.m.

LifeStorage, which has six facilities in Chicago and 11 in the suburbs, will also collect food donations year round for the Food Pantry of Rich Township.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository is a nonprofit food distribution and training center. The Food Depository distributes donated and purchased food through a network of 650 pantries, soup kitchens and shelters to 678,000 adults and children in Cook County every year.

By Jim Bain

People often say, "I don't have time, but the fact is we all have the same number of hours in each day, and we choose what to do with them. We choose whether to stay in bed, go to work or show up at our exercise class. We choose whether to write a letter, take out the trash, clean the garage or paint the house. We choose the kind of work we want to do, where we live, who we live with, and the hobbies we like to pursue. Our lives are a collection of choices.

As a result of the economic collapse of 2008, there are fewer people doing more work. Theres more competition, which means more proposals, sales calls and projects to be done by fewer employees. In short, many of those who still have jobs are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of things theyre expected to do. Since very few of us can do it all, we had better find some ways to make better choices.

Ben Franklin said, "Time is the stuff of which life is made." If thats true, time management is no more than self-management. While there are a lot of good habits you can develop to better manage your time, it's best to pick a few to get started. Master those, and then move on to another group.

Start with these five simple ideas to make your life a little easier. Remember, these are simple, not necessarily easy. Theyll require self-discipline, just as developing any good habit does.

1. Develop a set of goals and write them down. Consider short- and long-term goals. Establish goals that will help you balance these eight important areas of your life: professional, social, spiritual, financial, recreational, family, intellectual and physical. If that's too many, use the YMCA model of mind, body and spirit. Either way, you should be thinking in terms of life balance.

2. Analyze where you spend your time now. Develop a simple time log where you record what youre doing over the course of two weeks. You can use the same categories from step one if you like or create others. The important thing is to get an accurate picture of how you spend your time now. Where you spend your time is a direct reflection of your priorities. Are you spending your time on the things that will help you achieve your goals?

3. Plan or schedule your day. Whats the difference? Planning is deciding, in advance, what youll do in a given day, week or month. Scheduling is determining when youll do it. Too many people begin their day or week with no real idea of exactly what they want to accomplish and when.

Writing it down has two great benefits. First, it creates a sense of urgency in your subconscious. Because you've written it down, you believe you need to get it done. Second, it gives you a chance to pat yourself on the back when you cross it off the list. Are the things youre putting in your plan and schedule contributing to reaching your goals? If so, great! If not, you may want to consider eliminating them from your list.

4.  Make the most of slow time. There are at least two categories of slow time. The first is when youre not at your peak performance level. Maybe this occurs right after lunch or you're just not a morning person. Schedule easier tasks for these times. Its a good time to respond to e-mails, sort through mail or return phone calls. The really tough projects need to be scheduled when youre at your peak.

The second category of slow time includes waiting time. Waiting for a doctor's appointment or commuting on the train are examples. Always have something to dotrade journals to read, expense reports to complete or reports to review. Think of all the little but important things you can get done during this slow time. An interesting side benefit is, all of a sudden, it seems as if you never have to wait for a doctor or dentist. When you have something to do, they always seem to be running on time.

5. Create and maintain a controlled sense of urgency. Orchestra leaders, football quarterbacks and airline pilots all have it. They aren't in a hurry but are committed to everyone starting and stopping at the right time.

Theres a sense of urgency that everyone must buy in to. The people with whom you work and play will sense it and take their lead from you. You are someone whos in control of your time and in control of your life.

These are old rules, but they apply to today's new game. Doing more with less is not only possible, it's required in today's economy. As we learn to make better choices with our time, we achieve more control over our lives. We can better balance our work time, play time and rest time. We can relieve pressure and stress and maybe even go home from work on time. Youll have time to do the things you choose to do.

James S. Bain is an author, speaker, consultant and coach. Hes the founder of the Falcon Performance Institute, a consulting and corporate training firm focused on productive performance. He has been a featured speaker at numerous regional and national conventions. For more information, call 352.854.4015; visit www.fpiteam.com.

Nevada Senate Bill 150 (SB150), a bill that revises the self-storage lien law in the state, passed the Assembly on May 27 and now awaits the signature of Gov. Brian Sandoval. Sponsored by Senator Michael Schneider and championed by both the Nevada Self Storage Association and national Self Storage Association, SB 150 will create the following positive changes for self-storage operators:

• Lien notifications can be delivered via e-mail address, if the delinquent tenant has an e-mail address on record, or any form of verified mail. This will be less expensive for the states self-storage operators than the previously required Certified Mail.
• If a delinquent tenant  signs the Declaration in Opposition, it is the responsibility of the tenant, not the facility operator, to file suit within 21 days. The operator must wait 30 days to proceed with the lien.
• Operators are protected in situations involving abandoned property, including sensitive property such as pharmaceuticals and private records.
• If the self-storage rental agreement contains a limitation of value, stored property shall be deemed not to exceed that value.

SB150 was enrolled and delivered to the governor on June 6. Detailed bill information can be found at www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/76th2011/Reports/history.cfm?ID=363.