Chief Harlin McEwen is Recipient of 2016 CSAA Public Sector Award

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Chief Harlin McEwen is the recipient of CSAA’s 2016 Public Sector Award. This special honor is given by CSAA in recognition of a public sector individual’s contribution to the alarm industry. He will be presented with the award at the 2016 Electronic Security Expo (ESX) Public Sector Luncheon on Thursday, June 9, at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Harlin McEwen headshot June 2016

Chief Harlin McEwen at the June 2, 2016 meeting of the Alarm Industry Communications Committee at which he briefed members on FirstNet developments. Photo by Elizabeth Lasko.

“It is our pleasure to recognize Chief McEwen for his tireless efforts to advance the relationship between monitoring companies and our partners in the public sector,” said CSAA President Pamela J. Petrow.

Chief McEwen served for 13 years as the Chief of Police for the Cayuga Heights, New York Police Department before moving on to serve as the Deputy Commissioner for the NY State Division of Criminal Justice Services. He later returned to police work, serving as the Chief of Police for the City of Ithaca, NY, before taking the position of Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI.

In addition, he served for more than 37 years as the Chairman of the International Association of Chiefs  of Police (IACP) Communications & Technology Committee. During that time he was the principle representative and spokesperson for the IACP on matters relating to Communications & Technology. For this ongoing work, in 2000, the IACP honored him with a presentation of the first (and only) Lone Star Distinguished Award, and in 2006 he was elected as IACP Honorary President.

McEwen has also served as a distinguished Member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Global Advisory Committee, a Federal advisory group to the U.S. Attorney General. The GAC has been responsible for the development and implementation of numerous innovative justice information sharing standards and programs.

Since 2012 he has served as the Chair of the FirstNet Public Safety Advisory Committee. In this role he is leading the efforts of the 42-member PSAC to interact with the FirstNet Board and staff and the nationwide public safety community to develop and implement a new Nationwide Public Safety Broadband Wireless Network.

McEwen played a critical role in the launch of CSAA’s ASAP program and has worked tirelessly in its promotion.

“I am deeply honored with being selected for this prestigious award and have enjoyed working with the members of the Central Station Alarm Association for many years,” said McEwen.  “The continued close working relationship between the public safety community and CSAA is resulting in greatly improved public safety services to the public.”

 

The award recipient must be nominated by one or more CSAA members in good standing. Two CSAA Past Presidents, Lou Fiore and Jay Hauhn, put McEwen’s name forward for consideration. Fiore noted that, “An essential component of ASAP is its connection to the Nlets network. Chief McEwen was instrumental in bringing CSAA’s ASAP program together with Nlets.”

“Chief McEwen’s leadership of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet)’s Public Safety Advisory Committee, and his commitment to engaging the alarm industry in FirstNet’s activities, has been critical to the advancement of our relationship with FirstNet and our favorable positioning for the future,” said Hauhn.

For more information, contact Elizabeth Lasko at CSAA, 703-242-4670 or ewlasko@csaaintl.org.

 

 

CSAA’s Hauhn Joins ESA, ADT in Warning of Deceptive Alarm Sales Practices

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On May 25, CSAA Executive Director Jay Hauhn participated in a press event in Salt Lake City to raise awareness of deceptive home security sales practices. The event was co-hosted by the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and ADT. Merlin Gilbeau, executive director of ESA, also spoke at the event, which featured two individuals who had been the target of sales scams relating their stories to the media. Hauhn and Gilbeau both spoke about the deep integrity of the vast number of security companies.

In 2015, consumer complaints about home security sales ranked in the top 25 of the 3500 business categories BBB tracks. CSA members can share BBB tips about buying a home security system with their potential customers; visit www.bbb.org/homesecurity.

Check out media coverage of the event at the links below.

 

WS of Room

ESA’s Merlin Gilbeau, CSAA’s Jay Hauhn, and BBB CEO Jane Driggs address the media. Photo by Bob Tucker. 

Mark Baum to Head ASAP Outreach Committee

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Mark Baum headshotThe chair of the ASAP Outreach Committee plays a critical role in advancing the ASAP service by coordinating volunteers effort to unite PSAPs and alarm companies. CSAA is pleased to announce that Mark Baum, Program Manager, Information Technology for Protection One, assumed this role in May. Baum has been working in the security industry for fifteen years with much of this time spent as a project manager for data conversion and system integration projects.  He has been working with ASAP for the last 4 years.

As well as leading personal outreach to PSAPs around the country, the commASAP-Concept1Dittee members have coordinated resources such as training materials, videos, and data collection for PSAPs to spur program growth.

CSAA thanks past chairs Kathleen Schraufnagel and Joe Carr for their efforts on behalf of the committee for the last several years.

Find out more about ASAP at csaaintl.org/asap.

Public Sector Liaison Committee Aims to Increase Engagement

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CSAA’s Public Sector Liaison Committee (PSLC) “manages strategy for dealing with public sector/first responders, law enforcement, police, sheriffs, fire community, fire chiefs, and state fire marshals,” said Graham Westphal, Co-President of Bay Alarm Company and chair of the committee. “It’s important that we keep these responders informed of our technology and tools that benefit them. The committee also engages with the NRTLs, and coordinates with SIAC to complement its activities.”

The committee is in the process of launching several new engagement initiatives. “We are very fortunate that recently Shane Clary has volunteered to chair the subcommittee in fire matters and that Jon Sargent has assumed a similar role for burglary,” said Westphal.

Shane Clary headshotShane M. Clary, Ph.D., Vice President, Codes and Standards Compliance at Bay Alarm Company, has been in the alarm industry since 1974, with Bay Alarm Company since 1984, and a member of NFPA 72 since 1993.  He is a past president of the California Automatic Fire Alarm Association, a past chairman of the Automatic Fire Alarm Association and is currently the Co-Chair of the AFAA Codes and Standards Committee.

 

Jon Sargent, Corporate Industry Relations/Government Affairs Jon Sargent headshotManager at Tyco Integrated Security, has 43 years in the security industry. A Past President of the California Alarm Association, he is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the National Sheriff’s Association, and the North American False Alarm Reduction Association, among others. He is currently the Secretary of ESA and the Industry/Law Enforcement Liaison for SIAC.

 

For more information, contact membership@csaaintl.org.

 

 

Kylau, Butkovich Team to Lead New CSAA Technology Committee

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CSAA has launched a new CSAA Technology Committee. As noted by CSAA Executive Director Jay Hauhn in the spring 2016 issue of CSAA Dispatch, technology was identified at the 2016 CSAA Long Range Planning Meeting as one of the most important focus areas for the association. “The CSAA Technology Committee will be a resource for regular members to learn about technologies that impact their businesses, and a conduit for associate members to provide early awareness of technologically-innovative new products and services,” said Hauhn.

The committee’s co-chairs are Sascha Kylau, Vice President of Central Station Solutions & Service at Onetel and Steve Butkovich, Chief Technology Officer at CPI Security Systems.

The first project of the CSAA Technology Committee is the inaugural “Tech Talk” CSAA Signature Series Webinar, “Get Mobile. Get Paid!” on May 19. This webinar on new technology for collecting payments is offered at no charge to CSAA members.

The committee will hold its first in-person meeting at ESX 2016 at which time the members will confirm their mission and objectives and begin strategizing the development of future resources.

Sascha Kylau headshotKylau has 18 years of experience in the security field specializing in communication technologies.  Sascha started as an engineer with Sur-Gard and held various positions including sales engineer, global product manager and global sales manager. He recently joined Onetel Security, a services company which builds custom voice and data services for the central station market. He is a seasoned public speaker on such topics as central station receivers, VoIP, IP Technology and telecommunications. Kylau is keenly involved in the security industry and participates as an active member of AICC (Alarm Industry Communications Committee), SIA (Security Industry Association) and CSAA (Central Station Alarm Association). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering

Steve Butkovich headshotButkovich is a security and information technology leader working for CPI Security Systems headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.  As a 16-year veteran of the security industry and current CTO for CPI Security Systems, he has directly managed Service Operations, Customer Care, Central Station and Information Technology Teams during his tenure at CPI.  Today Butkovich works to manage technology service providers, vendors and manufacturers to identify, develop and maintain technology solutions allowing CPI to better serve its customers with superior service and high value security and home automation solutions for their homes and businesses. He understands the importance of technology to all facets of the business and works closely with CPI Leaders in Accounting, Marketing, Sales, Installation, Monitoring, Quality Control and Service to utilize and implement new technology tools and solutions to support the goals of the business.

 

For more information, contact membership@csaaintl.org.

CSAA Proposes Bylaws Changes for Vote at ESX

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Proposed bylaw changes will be put forth for discussion and vote during the  CSAA General Membership Meeting at ESX next month.

The meeting is scheduled for 2:00 PM, Tuesday, June 7, 2016 in Room 201A at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Proposed changes to the following articles will be discussed and voted upon:
Article I – Name; Article II – Purpose; and Article IV – Membership.

Changes to CSAA bylaws are governed by Article XIII of the association’s bylaws. Article XIII reads as follows:

ARTICLE XIII. AMENDMENT
These bylaws may be amended, altered or repealed by a majority vote of the North American members present at a regular or special meeting, for which said meeting there shall have been mailed to each North American member a notice in writing giving the substance of the proposed change not less than thirty (30) days prior to the date set for said meeting.

Please carefully review the proposed changes posted at:
http://csaaintl.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/May-2016-Bylaws-Action.pdf
to prepare for the meeting and vote.

Your association depends on your participation and input. If you represent a voting member company of CSAA, make your voice heard by attending and voting at the General Membership Meeting on June 7!

Finalists for 2016 CSAA Excellence Awards Announced

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Four “Phenomenal” Winners to Be Revealed at ESX on June 9

Once again, the nominees for CSAA’s annual Excellence Awards were, in the words of one of the judges, a “simply phenomenal” group of companies and individuals. CSCSAA-Excellence-AwardsAA is pleased to announce the twelve finalists for 2016. They are:

Central Station of the Year
ADT LLC; Rapid Response Monitoring Services, Inc.; Vector Security, Inc.

Central Station Manager of the Year
Ernie Cole, Doyle Security Systems; Michelle Lindus, Vivint Smart Home; Tom Tardiff, Kastle Systems

Central Station Operator of the Year
 Hollie Smith, Universal Atlantic Systems; Morgan Dieterle, Tyco (Fifth Third Bank); Amy Cerney, Vivint Smart Home

Central Station Support Person of the Year
David Carter, Vector Security, Inc.; William Sims, Kastle Systems; Dave Mann, Kings III

“Our finalists are to be congratulated for being recognized as the best of the best,” said Elizabeth Lasko, Vice President of Communications, CSAA. “Our judges related the extremely difficult time they had choosing not only the winners, but just the finalists from all the nominations. There were some amazing stories of customer relations, innovation, and corporate culture.”

The CSAA Central Station Excellence Awards recognize any FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL or UL-listed central station (CSAA members and non-members) and outstanding personnel who perform in the highest professional manner, thereby making a significant contribution to the betterment of the alarm industry and the alarm profession while demonstrating exceptional service to their customers and community.

The purpose of the awards program is to:

  • Establish and promote the inherent value of central station services in general.
  • Honor those who have made the most significant contributions to the service.
  • Promote the distinct level of professionalism attained by NRTL-approved central stations.

The CSAA Central Station Excellence Awards Program is sponsored by SDM Magazine.

Entries are judged by a blue-ribbon judging panel appointed by CSAA. The four winners will be announced at the 2016 Industry Excellence Awards Breakfast at ESX in Fort Worth on Thursday, June 9. For past winners and more information, visit csaa.org/csaa-excellence-awards.

 

Five Questions for Brivo’s Steve Van Till

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CSAA welcomed Brivo, Inc. as a new associate member earlier this year. Read on to learn a little about the company and CEO Steve Van Till.

What is your company’s mission and how does it intersect with the alarm industry?

Steve Van Till

Brivo CEO Steve Van Till

Our mission is to provide the best cloud-based hosted access control in the world. For the alarm industry, this means an opportunity for an RMR-based business model that is completely parallel to the way monitoring services have been delivered for many years.Both the technology and the financial model strengthen the relationship between central stations and their dealers and end users.

Share a personal experience you’ve had with alarm monitoring or public safety.
I was once working in a high-rise building on the weekend, and became trapped in an elevator when I was leaving to head out for lunch.  Had it not been for the emergency phone that dialed into a central station, I might have been stuck there all weekend.  As it turned out, they were able to dispatch someone to let me out, and fix the elevator so that it didn’t happen to anyone else.

Why did you join CSAA — what are your goals for your membership?
We joined CSAA because we see an increasing convergence between alarm, access and video surveillance services. Customers really want to have all three in a single package, from a single provider. As a cloud service provider, we also see many commonalities of interest between central stations and the work we do. We have many valuable “cloud lessons” to share, and look forward to more and more alarm services migrating to this type of platform.

What makes your company special?
Our company has always been known as the first Software-as-a-Service company in the physical security space. We actually launched our cloud-based access control services in 2001, which was long before anyone was talking about “the cloud.” We achieved another “first” in 2009 when we added fully integrated cloud-based video to this same offering.  Just this past year, we launched Brivo Mobile Pass, a cloud-based mobile credential that works with no change-out to existing field hardware, and was therefore immediately available to all 8,000,000 credentialed users in the Brivo system.

Tell us something about yourself that drives the way you do business.
I’ve always had a lot of outside interests, from running and cycling and music to photography and reading and motorcycles. I’m avid about acquiring new skills, and I learned something different from each one of these activities. The biggest thing, though, is getting to know and interact with the fairly different kinds of people that tend to surround each of these areas. The perspectives I’ve gained from that are useful every single day in thinking about how to shape our corporate culture for the best.

Steve Van Till is the Founder, President and CEO of Brivo Inc., the leading worldwide provider of cloud-based access control and Software-as-a-Service solutions for physical security. He has previously served in a variety of senior management roles in high technology companies spanning Web development, healthcare, and satellite communications. A Board Member of the Security Industry Association (SIA), he also currently serves as Chairman of the SIA Standards Committee. He is a frequent author and speaker, as well as the inventor of numerous patents.   Steve has been honored by Security Magazine as one of “The Top 25 Most Influential People in the Security Industry.

— Elizabeth Lasko, May 2, 2016

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FCC Announces New Requirements for FCC Registration Numbers – Effective Date is Sept. 1, 2016

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If you wish to conduct business with the FCC, you must first register through the FCC’s Commission Registration System (“CORES”). To register, you must create a username and password. This username will uniquely identify you in the CORES system. You will also use this username to access CORES to update your FRN information and reset/update your FRN Password. CORES will now require FRNs to have an Administrator(s). This user(s) will manage which users have access to the FRN and what user role they will have. IF YOU CURRENTLY HAVE AN FCC LICENSE, YOU HAVE ALREADY REGISTERED.

A filer, licensee, certificate holder, or any entity sending payments to the FCC is considered to be doing business with the FCC and must, therefore, have a registered username and FRN.

(Petitioners or non-feeable complainants are not required to have a registered username and FRN.)

 In an effort to ensure security of FCC registration numbers, the FCC is changing  CORES in order to implement several user-specific identification requirements. In addition to enhancing security, the FCC believes that these changes will also make the FCC’s CORES system more user friendly.

 These changes will:

  •  Implement a requirement for existing and new users to designate user-specific IDs (user names) for access to FCC Registration Numbers (FRNs) and related records.
  •  Allow registrants to establish multiple user names for each FRN with different levels of access. In this regard, the first user establishing access to an FRN will have administrator privileges with the capability to limit the level of access to all other users.

(By default, the first user establishing access to an existing FRN will be granted administrative responsibilities over the account and will have the ability to limit the level of access for future users, if desired.) 

  • Require users to provide a valid e-mail address for online access to the system.
  •  Establish password-recovery security questions specific to each user.

 Some of the changes being implemented by the FCC were proposed almost five and a half years ago in its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in MD Docket No. 10-234 (released December 7, 2010). Nonetheless, the FCC is making certain changes from the NPRM and others without notice and comment rulemaking since the changes are considered administrative in nature and not subject to the rulemaking process. The FCC believes that the changes are necessary to strengthen the security of its records (including social security numbers and federal Employer Identification Numbers) and make CORES more user friendly as well as strengthen the FCC’s ability to comply with various statutes and regulations governing debt collection activities and the collection of personal information.

The Commission will be implementing a pilot launch on April 29, 2016 for a four month period ending on August 31, 2016 in order to test its proposed system and obtain feedback from users of the CORES system. The pilot program will initially be targeted to users of the Commission’s Cable Operations and Licensing System (COALS) as well as business and governmental entities that have a significant number of registered FRNs associated with a single EIN as well as the top 100 Regulatory Fee payers by FRN. The pilot program initially will not be available for most. The FCC anticipates that the updated version of CORES will be available to the full FCC user community as of September 1, 2016  at https://www.fcc.gov/cores.The current version of CORES will remain available through September 30, 2016 at https://apps.fcc.gov/coresWeb/publicHome.do

Additional details about these modifications can be found on the CORES website at  https://apps.fcc.gov/cores/publicHome.do?help=true

CSAA Annual Meeting 2016 Keynote Speaker Dr. Tasha Eurich Will Share Strategies for “Bankable Leadership”

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2016 is Second Year of Multi-Year Reimagining of CSAA’s Signature Event;
Adjustments to Traditional Schedule Will Enable Full Participation in Fewer Days

VIENNA, VA (April 25, 2016) – With a sharp focus on technology and on business and performance management, along with the networking opportunities for which the event is famous, the 2016 CSAA Annual Meeting will give participants the kind of value in both content and engagement that is unmatched at any other industry eventMarco-Island-Logo_vert.

The 2016 meeting will be held at the Marriott Resort Marco Island, Marco Island, FL, on October 22-26. Last year’s Annual Meeting in Sonoma, where a revamped education program took center stage, garnered rave reviews from attendees. “CSAA is entering the second phase of the reimaging of its Annual Meeting,” said CSAA President Pamela J. Petrow. “In 2015 a new emphasis was placed on educational programming, and the General Sessions were a hit with attendees. CSAA intends to bolster that emphasis on fresh, meaningful education in 2016. In addition, we are changing the traditional scheduling by reversing the program for Saturday and Sunday. The schedule change will allow attendees who are not on the Board of Directors to shorten their stay at the meeting by one day — and still participate in all educational programming and committee meetings as well as the high-level networking opportunities that the Annual is known for.”

Tasha Eurich low resKeynote speaker Dr. Tasha Eurich is an organizational psychologist, speaker and New York Times best-selling author of Bankable Leadership — and a fresh, modern voice in the leadership world. By pairing her scientific grounding in human behavior with a pragmatic approach to business challenges, she has helped thousands of leaders over the last fifteen years. With a PhD in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from Colorado State University, Eurich serves on the adjunct faculty of the Center for Creative Leadership, one of the top ten executive development institutions in the world. She’s also the principal of The Eurich Group, an executive development firm that helps companies succeed by improving the effectiveness of their leaders and teams.

As a passionate, often humorous and always enlightening speaker, Eurich travels the world spreading her message. She contributes to Entrepreneur Magazine, has been featured in outlets like Forbes, The New York Times, CNBC, USA Today, INC. Magazine, Today.com, and CNN. She has been named one of Denver Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” as well as a “Top 100 Thought Leader” by Trust Across America, alongside Stephen Covey, Jim Kouzes, and Bill George. In 2015, she was named a “Leader to Watch” by the American Management Association along with notables including Patrick Lencioni, Ram Charan, and Chip Heath.

“We are pleased to feature a ‘next-generation’ speaker at the Annual Meeting,” said Petrow. “CSAA members are always looking toward the future, and Dr. Eurich is sure to provide them with new strategies to stay ahead of today’s leadership challenges.”

Education sessions (October 24-26) at the Annual Meeting will focus on how alarm industry leaders can address critical issues and challenges facing the monitoring industry, including workforce development, executive management, technology updates, and telecomm issues. The complete roster of speakers will be announced over the summer.

To further assist attendees, CSAA is offering a limited number of rooms at the headquarters hotel at rates as low as $185/night.  “2015 saw the largest attendance CSAA has had in recent years, and we are confident our reimaging of the meeting will top last year’s record when we convene this fall in Marco Island,” said Petrow.

To register for the CSAA Annual Meeting, visit csaaintl.org/2016am. The Marriott Resort Marco Island in southwest Florida is on the Gulf of Mexico, just 55 minutes from the Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW) or a short drive from Naples, FL. Visit csaaintl.org/2016am for the special reservations link, or call 1-800-GET-HERE (1-800-438-4373).

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 About CSAA International

The Central Station Alarm Association International (CSAA) is an internationally-recognized non-profit trade association that represents professional monitoring companies that are listed by a CSAA-approved Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory, such as FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL or UL. CSAA is legally entitled to represent its members before Congress and regulatory agencies on the local, state and federal levels, and other authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) over the industry. Since its incorporation in 1950, CSAA has served its members’ interests through education, online training, meetings and conventions, certification, insurance, and industry standards. www.csaaintl.org. For more information, contact Elizabeth Lasko at CSAA, 703-242-4670 x 16.