John Murphy (right), outgoing CSAA president, congratulates new president Bud Wulforst of A-1 Security, Las Vegas, at the CSAA’s annual meeting in Hawaii.
The theme running through the annual meeting of the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) this past October on the Big Island of Hawaii was the future of central stations and their technology.
Following through on that theme, Steve Doyle, the CSAA’s executive vice president, expressed optimism about the CSAA’s future. “2007 has been an exceptional year,” he asserted.
Doyle reported that non-dues income is now two-thirds of the association’s annual budget. “Non-dues revenue growth is a good indicator of the health of the association,” he emphasized.
He also reported that international interest has been expressed in the association’s online courses that are part of the CSAA’s Five Diamond certification program. That interest is from Australia, China, and Brazil, where 2,000 central stations are located. The CSAA plans to update its Web site with multilingual capability.
Outgoing treasurer Bob Bean reported that 39 new members have joined the association and new dues income has reached $250,000. The association is progressing toward its goal of gaining 75 new members by June 2008, while the CSAA currently is conducting a “member-get-a-member” campaign.
Russ Gager, senior editor ofSDM, participated on a panel discussion with other editors and Christopher Hasbrook, vice president and general manager global fire and security sector for Underwriters Laboratories, Northbrook, Ill., about the future of the central station industry and trends in its technology.
Many educational sessions at the meeting focused on trends and technologies. In a presentation by Underwriters’ Laboratories (UL), Charlie Abounader, senior vice president and chief operations officer for the operations group, promised they have added employees to speed UL certifications of manufacturers’ equipment.
As part of a presentation on updates in standards of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Shane Clary, senior vice president of Bay Alarm Co., urged CSAA members to become involved in the standards-writing process.
New officers were installed at the president’s reception. The CSAA’s newly elected officers are:
President— Bud Wulforst, A-1 Security;
First vice president— Ed Bonifas, Alarm Detection Systems;
Second vice president— Robert Bean, Alert Alarm of Hawaii;
Secretary— John Lombardi, CIA Security;
Treasurer— Daniel Demers, Reliance Protectron Inc.; and
Assistant secretary— Pam Petrow, Vector Security.
Incoming directors are Peter Lowitt, Stan Oppenheim, Chester Donati, Mike Meredith, Wayne Beck, Irv Riklis and Steve Walker. For more information about CSAA, visitwww.csaaul.org.
