As many of you know by now, I've returned to the company on a full-time basis. What you may not know is why.

No, my golf swing didn't develop a permanent slice. And yes, Gil Ledesma was very effective as president, so much so that we doubled our sales during his three-year tenure.

I'm back to secure our legacy. The larger company that Gil helped to create has opened doors of opportunity that require his full attention to be realized.

I'm back to give him the time to enlarge our sales staff and to ensure that what we've built over the past 20 years is not diluted by greater sales success.

I'm just one member of the larger support staff now at JMG. As always, I insist that our service and installation efforts be the best in the industry.

Toward that goal, Mike and I have named new department heads and project and installation managers, who we will introduce in our next issue of Security Today.

Our goal is to be responsive to your needs and your expectations. We recognize that the availability and access to management is what has fueled our two decades of growth and success.

We're all very happy with the changes. They have been put in place to help us meet our greater goal of ultimate client satisfaction.

Thanks for your continued support as we make it happen. A special thanks goes out to Gil Ledesma for his unselfish leadership and loyalty.

As president during the company's largest growth spurt the past three years, JMG has prospered to the point where opportunities we thought were beyond our reach are now within our grasp. We need only to be available.

Ken is making it possible by returning to the company. His daily presence frees me to focus on sales and marketing, which I believe begins with our existing clients.

We know that your satisfaction comes before more growth is really possible. Our clients, old and new, count on us for attention to detail, meeting deadlines and being part of a business family that benefits from each others growth.

So you're my first priority. There are no shortcuts to earning the referrals and testimonials, which have proven to be our greatest marketing tool.

As with most families, the more contact we have, the better the relationship. Therefore, you can look for me to schedule more events that bring us together from "Client Appreciation" days to seminars and other non-sales mixers.

I'll also be adding experienced sales agents to the existing territories where we're stretched too thin; and to new areas where our reputation for unrivalled service, has preceded us and demands our presence.

I believe the result will be a JMG that more resembles its past than its present. That is, we'll be a larger company featuring the responsiveness of a much smaller JMG.

As life's lessons are best learned through experience, when the topic is teen fatalities caused by drinking and driving, experience is not the teacher of choice.

Thus The Every 15 Minutes Program was developed to offer real-life experience without the real-life risks on a national stage. This emotionally charged 2-day event came to Fountain Valley High School on April 10 and 11, to dramatically instill the Junior and Senior classes with the potentially dangerous consequences of driving anywhere after drinking alcohol.

JMG has been among the sponsors who financed the elaborate production for the past five years. On the first day, the "Grim Reaper" comes to the campus to remove one student from the student body every 15 minutes to dramatize the alarming statistic associated with teen's deadly inexperience with alcohol.

A police officer immediately enter the classroom after the student exits to read an obituary which has been written by the "dead" student's parent(s) - explaining the circumstances of their classmate's demise and the contributions the student has made to the school and the community.

Later that day, all students from the two classes view, from the bleachers set up on the street in front of the school, an eerie reenactment of the car accident that claimed their classmates' lives. Two victims are on the street having been thrown from their car in the crash. Their bodies, through expertly-applied makeup, appear to be grotesquely gashed from the high-speed impact with the asphalt.

The "driver," removed from the overturned car by the emergency medical team calld to the scene, is in good enough condition to be given a sobriety test by a police officer which she fails. She is then handcuffed and escorted to jail where she phones her disbelieving and stunned parents.

On the second day, the students assembled in the gym to hear the principal, police chief and parents of the "victims" describe the grief of losing loved ones.

Reservations and restaurants go together like barbequed ribs and a hearty appetite. Unless, of course, the "reservations" are about the dining establishment's security system.

That's because a well-designed security system can protect against fraud, often the biggest threat to a restaurant's profitability.

Paul Williamson, V.P of operations, for Hof's Hut, which operates the Lucille's Barbeque brand, is very confident in the customized CCTV security system JMG designed and installed in two of Lucille's locations since 2006.

The key to loss prevention at Lucille's, like most restaurants, is in keeping an "eye" on employees who handle the money transactions and to be able to watch where the food deliveries take place. High traffic areas, where slip and fall injury claims are likely to occur, are another critical observation point.

JMG's experience in providing security and alarm systems for such chains as Carrows, Coco's and Pasta Bravo, streamlined the process and impressed Williamson, who has been in operations at Hof's for more than 30 years.

"We're very pleased with the design and the bid that JMG provided us," Paul reported. "Both Gil Gonzales and Ken Jacobs kept in touch to make sure the installation and activation went smoothly."

Williamson is also pleased that the system has such clear images that are easy to retrieve by date and time. One of the biggest changes he has seen in security since taking on the responsibility in 1999, are the improvements in technology.

"We use the system almost as much for operations as we do for security," he said about the advances in recorders and cameras. "We can clearly see who is on camera and what they are doing at all times."

Such certainty, he observes, can eliminate disputes from overtime payments to Workman's Comp claims.

The first of JMG Security Systems' educational seminars will take place in August at JMG's Conference Center.

Featuring a presentation by representatives from a leading manufacturer of a security system, it will be one in a series of hands-on sessions presented by JMG this year in a non-sales environment. It will include a working lunch and run from 10 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

"Our presenters are experts in their field and give our audience the benefit of their considerable experience," says Gil Ledesma, V.P. of Sales and Marketing, who schedules the seminars for JMG. "Attendees will learn first hand about the advances in technology directly from the manufacturer."

A second seminar will be held in October. Information on it will be available in the next newsletter, as well as on JMG's website.

As the seating capacity at the JMG Conference Center is limited to 40, advance reservations to the seminar are recommended.