With your support and participation, TMA has advanced the following initiatives so far this year:
- With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, TMA initiated many efforts to assist and protect our members:
- When members contacted TMA about the potential impact of stay-at-home orders and social distancing on their UL-listings if their operators worked from home, TMA quickly and actively engaged with UL on the creation of virtual work-from-home guidelines. TMA and UL continue to collaborate on the development of a permanent emergency work-from-home standard.
- As strict travel restrictions began to impact members’ capacity to provide service, TMA took immediate action to have Electronic Security and Life Safety Industry personnel declared as Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce. An appeal submitted to the White House and to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) by TMA and its Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) was successful and the industry was explicitly included in CISA’s “Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response.” TMA continued to work with other industry associations to advocate incorporating the CISA Guidelines in States’ Stay-at-Home Orders.
- TMA set up an expansive repository of COVID-related resources on our website in February 2020 to provide timely information and actionable tools to support TMA members in sustaining their businesses during these unprecedented times.
- We initiated weekly Virtual Town Hall Meetings on March 24, 2020. Critical topics included virtual workplace guidance, government loans, insurance, and legal issues, among others. Coming ahead is a series of six Town Halls on CO and fire codes.
- Almost 31,000 alarm professionals have now registered for the TMA Online Operator Courses. TMA launched six brand-new modules for the Online Operator Course Level 2, focusing on leadership, conflict resolution, advanced call handling, standards, enhanced technology, and cybersecurity. In production is a recruitment assessment tool to assist managers with screening operator candidates. After presenting a webinar on Demystifying AI: How it Works and the Benefits for Video Monitoring in February, the TMA series of regular webinars was put on hold due to COVID.
- The ASAP-to-PSAP service continued to surge with 72 active municipalities, 22 ready for implementation and 27 alarm companies connected with five more in testing. These alarm companies recognize the value of the service’s heightened efficiency and accuracy.
- TMA reviewed and updated TMA CS-V-01-2020 Alarm Confirmation, Verification and Notification Procedures standard which was then approved by
- TMA embarked on the development of a new ANSI standard, CS-AVS-01, Alarm Validation Standard, that will provide time-sensitive information to assist in determining the response level of a Call-for-Service and information that will support with real-time incident management through situational awareness.
- Five new companies have joined TMA’s distinguished Five Diamond Program so far this year, and is on track to surpass 2019’s total designated companies, showing overall growth in the program.
- TMA became the owner and administrator of the Installation Quality (IQ) Program at the end of December 2019. The newly-formed IQ Committee reviewed and updated the IQ Guidelines and other IQ materials and the program has just been relaunched.
- Since both organizations have complementary missions, TMA is exploring a closer collaboration with the Partnership for Priority Verified Alarm Response (PPVAR).
- With the support of TMA Committees and the Board, our staff converted the format of TMA’s Annual Meeting into a virtual event. TMA has also created OPS-TECH, a new event merging its Operations Management Seminar and Tech Summit. OPS-TECH will also be virtual and will include a first-time video surveillance day.
- The Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) continues to represent member interests on many issues on Capitol Hill and to the FCC, including Net Neutrality, TCPA, 3G Sunset, robocall legislation, and the FirstNet initiative.
- TMA continues to exercise its FirstNet certification role for the security industry, providing access to the FirstNet network to qualified alarm and monitoring companies.
- Working with TRG Associates, TMA published its Wage & Compensation survey, now available for purchase.
- TMA recognized Affiliated Monitoring for its technological innovation with our Marvel Award and Securitas Electronic Security with the Monitoring Center of the Year Excellence Award. Staff from AvantGuard Monitoring Centers and Alarm Detection Systems also received individual Excellence
- TMA Dispatch, our quarterly print publication, took on a whole new magazine-like look and feel. We expanded editorial content to provide a broader scope of topical and timely news for TMA members.
- TMA launched a new website in the summer of 2020, offering visitors an appealing new look and feel with streamlined navigation.
- TMA Signals e-newsletter provided weekly TMA and industry news updates, along with professional development articles.
- Our NextGen group continued to grow in numbers and increase its engagement, with a new column highlighting members in the TMA Dispatch, along with a dedicated webpage. One successful meet-up was held at an industry event earlier this year.
- Our relationships with Public Safety organizations have continued to thrive in 2020 through our joint engagement in the development of TMA-AVS-01 and an informational panel presentation delivered to TMA members as part of TMA’s Virtual Town Hall series. Organization leaders provided insights into how our industry can best support their members.
- TMA members re-elected four Board members whose terms were expiring — Justin Bailey, Brandon Niles, Joey Rao-Russell and Kevin Stone. Each will serve a second two-year term.
TMA would like to acknowledge and thank the many volunteers that allow us to succeed in elevating the professional monitoring industry. We look forward to another productive year with your continued support and engagement.