Gerald Vento, CEO/ owner, Westec InterActive, Irvine, Calif.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WESTEC INTERACTIVE

Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) outgoing president Dick Sampson (CEO of American Alarm & Communications, Arlington, Mass.), turned over the CSAA leadership gavel to incoming president John Murphy (president of Vector Security Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.) at the CSAA business meeting in October in Hawaii.

Upon accepting the gavel from Sampson, Murphy indicated that the goal of CSAA for the next two years will be to create value for its members, in order to create value for its members’ customers.

CSAA is a very active association of 205 member companies, founded in 1950. It is a trade association for the professional alarm monitoring industry, representing the owners and operators of UL-listed and FMRC-approved central stations and their suppliers.

Peter Lowitt, president of Lowitt Alarms and Security, Hicksville, N.Y., told members at the general business meeting that CSAA is “solidly in the black and continuing to build programs.”

The association has many active committees and subcommittees that work on education, quality differentiation, false alarm reduction, legislation, technical issues, and standards.

For example, Lou Fiore, president of L.T. Fiore, Sparta, N.J., reported that the Alarm Industry Communications Committee, of which he is chairman, currently has seven active standards, including ANSI/CSAA CSV04, better known as Enhanced Call Verification, and is involved in developing a new voice over IP (VoIP) installation standard. It is also working on licensing reciprocity to help central station companies that do business in multiple states comply with licensing requirements.

At the President’s Dinner Dance, the 2005 Stanley C. Lott Award was presented to Fiore. The Lott Award recognizes individuals whose contributions to CSAA and the industry are exceptional.

“Lou has served not only as the president of CSAA, but as chairman of the Alarm Industry Communications Committee, which has been responsible for our industry’s representation before the FCC and Congress,” said CSAA executive vice president, Steve Doyle.

Also elected were:

  • First vice president: Bud Wulforst (president, A-1 Security, Las Vegas, Nev.)
  • Second vice president: Ed Bonifas (vice president, Alarm Detection Systems Inc., Aurora, Ill.)
  • Secretary: Robert Bean (president/ CEO, Alert Holdings Group Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii)
  • Assistant secretary: John Lombardi (president, Commercial Instruments and Alarm Systems Inc., Fishkill, N.Y.)
  • Treasurer: Daniel Demers (president and CEO, Protectron Inc., Montreal, Canada).

These individuals also were appointed to the CSAA Executive Committee:

  • Chairman of the Alarm Industry Communications Committee: Lou Fiore
  • Vice president of Industry Affairs: Ralph Sevinor (president, Wayne Alarm Systems Inc., Lynn, Mass.)
  • Security Industry Alarm Coalition representative: Mel Mahler (president and CEO, ADS Security, Nashville, Tenn.)