Photos by Brandon Freedman and Elizabeth Lasko.
Morgan Hertel, vice president of Technology and Innovation for Rapid Response Monitoring Services, Inc. was awarded The Monitoring Association (TMA)’s highest honor, the Stanley C. Lott Memorial Award for Exemplary Service, at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ on October 11.
This award was created to honor the memory of Stanley C. Lott, a TMA (CSAA) past president renowned for his above-and-beyond efforts to lead and financially support the Association through difficult times.
Morgan Hertel (left) and Pam Petrow.
Hertel has been with Rapid Response since 2012. His work has led to many technological enhancements to the company’s infrastructure and the development of its west coast monitoring center in Corona, CA. He is well known throughout the industry, is a contributor to many industry publications and has served in various capacities in its education programs and in the development of standards. He is the chair of TMA’s Contract Monitoring Council and, in June 2017, was elected to the position of Vice President on the TMA Board of Directors.
Find out more about the Stanley C. Lott Award and view the list of recipients since 1991 at http://tma.us/stanley-c-lott-award/.
(October 19, 2017) – The Monitoring Association and Security Sales & Integration are pleased to announce “The Marvel” — the inaugural TMA/SSI Monitoring Technology “Marvel” Award. This new award will honor innovations in monitoring center technology. It will be co-sponsored by TMA and Security Sales & Integration (SSI) and coordinated by the TMA Technology Committee.
The purpose of the Marvel is to provide recognition for monitoring centers creating and/or using cutting-edge technology and to raise awareness of these new technologies. “We are pleased to team up with SSI to spotlight these innovators in our industry,” said TMA Technology Committee Co-Chair Steve Butkovich, who announced the award at the recent 2017 TMA Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ.
The winning monitoring center will be featured on the cover of the August 2018 Monitoring Issue of SSI; runners-up will receive mention inside the magazine as part of a feature article on the awards. The winner and runners-up will be recognized in front of their peers at ESX 2018 at one of the general sessions and featured on the TMA website and in TMA Dispatch. “Technology is consistently mentioned as one of the most important challenges our industry faces. The Marvel winner will receive recognition as a leader within the industry as well as to customers,” said Butkovich.
Criteria for the award will be posted in December 2017. Submissions will be accepted January 15 through March 15, 2018. The winner will be announced at ESX 2018 in June in Nashville.
Sascha Kylau, vice president of sales at OneTel Security, was awarded The Monitoring Association (TMA)’s President’s Award for service to the alarm industry on October 11 at the 2017 Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, AZ.
Sascha Kylau (left) and Pam Petrow.
Sascha Kylau is the VP of OneTel Security and a frequent speaker and educator at industry events. He started as an engineer for Sur-Gard 20 years ago and has worked in the monitoring industry for his whole career. He is the current co-chair of The Monitoring Association Technology committee and is an active participant of the Alarm Industry Communications Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics Engineering.
Loudoun County became the twenty-ninth PSAP (Public Safety Answering Point) in the United States and the second in the Washington, DC area to go live with the Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP), a technology that allows alarm companies to transmit alarms to both the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and Loudoun County Fire and Rescue communications centers without making a phone call.
This week data from residential and business alarms can now be transmitted electronically, allowing dispatchers to process an alarm in a fraction of the time it would normally take to process an alarm via telephone from an alarm monitoring company. “This new system will eliminate call volume from alarm companies and transmit alarm information to our emergency communications center in three seconds, ultimately reducing the response times of first responders,” said Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman.
ASAP will not only improve the accuracy and the speed of emergency response times, but eliminate potential human error and miscommunication between 911 dispatchers and alarm monitoring company operators. “In any emergency, response time and accuracy is critical,” said Chief Keith Brower with Loudoun County Fire and Rescue. “By directly transmitting the information all pertinent information goes directly to Loudoun’s first responders within seconds,” added Chief Brower.
Loudoun County went live with the ASAP program at 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, October 10, with Vector Security. By the end of the day, Affiliated Monitoring, Rapid Response, and Protection One were live, with Guardian, Vivint, Monitronics and ADT expected to quickly follow.
ASAP was created in partnership with The Monitoring Association (and the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO). Fore more information, visit ASAP.
TMA members participate on Standards Development Organization (SDO) committees in the development of standards that impact our industry. Despite our best efforts, SDOs occasionally adopt standards language that is harmful to TMA members. Such standards actions can also restrict the service provider preferences of fire and security practitioners, or, may not be in the public’s best interests. When onerous language is enacted, it is crucial that TMA has a strategy to work within established SDO processes to respond appropriately.
TMA members, your immediate attention to a current situation is requested. Three years ago the 2016 edition of NFPA 72, The National Fire Code, was modified to include language that negatively impacted NRTL-listed Central Stations. The language in the code was amended to support municipalities that prescribe through an alarm ordinance what monitoring entity is allowed to monitor fire alarm signals in their municipality. More often than not, that is a single monitoring facility owned or contracted by the municipality. Our effort to overturn this change to the 2016 National Fire Code was unsuccessful.
NFPA 72 is updated every three years. A proposal was submitted by a TMA member to amend the 2019 edition of NFPA 72 to allow NRTL-listed Central Stations to monitor fire alarms without unfair obstruction. The technical committees responsible for the 2019 edition of NFPA 72 have essentially completed their review of changes to the code, and our member’s proposal was rejected. TMA plans to contest this at the June 2018 NFPA event.
It is important to note that standards typically define a minimum requirement. Allowing a higher level of performance that exceeds the minimum requirement is the normal practice. It is unusual for language in a standard to require that a higher level of service require specific approval. This is particularly onerous given that NRTL-listed Central Stations are the gold standard of fire alarm monitoring.
If you are a NRTL-listed Central Station, this issue directly impacts the life safety services you provide your customers. TMA’s effort at the 2015 meeting was defeated as the issue was unfairly portrayed as usurping an AHJ’s authority. We must have sufficient TMA representation at the June 2018 NFPA meeting to contest this action. Our effort to amend the 2016 version of NFPA 72 failed because TMA did not have sufficient representation attend the 2015 meeting and vote.
If monitoring fire alarms is part of your business, you should consider your presence mandatory at the June 2018 annual meeting. Without your attendance, fire alarm monitoring by NRTL-listed Central Stations can be significantly curtailed!
TMA member companies need to send associates to the NFPA meeting in June of 2018. In order to vote at the June Technical Meeting, the attendee must have been a member of NFPA for six months. NFPA membership is an individual membership, not a company membership. The annual cost to belong to NFPA is $175 per individual.
While we know that our member companies all have employees that belong to NFPA, we do not have a database that reflects the names of the actual NFPA members. It is impossible at this time to determine how many members will attend. We will be working to compile that data.
To vote at the 2018 meeting, an attendee must have been a member of NFPA by December 1, 2017.
Please assure that your current employees who are NFPA members renew their membership for 2018 by December 1, 2017.
Please have additional employees join NFPA by the December 1, 2017 date. Joining does not mean the employees will be obligated to attend the June meeting. However, the six month membership requirement requires joining NFPA by December 1. Being proactive is only $175 per employee.
The 2018 NFPA meeting is in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay. Las Vegas is an inexpensive travel location if you plan ahead. Many attendees stay at Luxor and Excalibur where rates are typically under $75 a night. There is a tram between those hotels and Mandalay Bay. Most attendees there to attend the voting session will only need to stay one night.
TMA needs to track participation. Please provide Celia Besore, TMA’s vice president of membership, with information on your current NFPA members, as well as information on those who have joined as a result of this Call to Action. TMA will release updates frequently between now and December 1. You can reach Celia at 703-242-4670 x18 or cbesore@tma.us.
Thank you for your support and action.