The Georgia Electronic Life Safety and Security Association (GELSSA) came out of its recent Savannah, Ga. meeting with several new announcements and initiatives to help increase its positive impact on the Georgia security community and get its members involved once again. GELSSA saw more than a 60 percent decline in the membership over the last five years.

John Loud, 2011 president of GELSSA, presented the association’s new executive director, Agnes Murner. Agnes has been involved in the security industry for more than 10 years. “We are excited to have the opportunity to work with and welcome onboard someone with such industry knowledge and care for both the independent security dealer and the associate members. Agnes’ attention to detail, ability to communicate and move projects from an initial thought to complete implementation will prove to be the new foundation GELSSA can begin to build a strong chartered state association as part of the Electronic Security Association (ESA),” Loud said.

Loud met with four past GELSSA presidents and discussed the plans for the months ahead. Loud noted, “Brad Glore, GELSSA president for 2009 and 2010, has done a tremendous job as he stabilized our financials as they were plummeting out of control.”

John Loud and the GELSSA board of directors, with the strong support of its new executive director, will be making some big changes in and for the state of Georgia. These include a GELSSA-led legislative initiative, a new alarm dispatch ratio false alarm committee, a state expo show and golf tournament along with a few other newly developing internal state programs. GELSSA is calling for the management of all security companies doing business in the state of Georgia as well as supporting product manufacturers and independent representative to “get involved and stay informed.”

GELSSA worked closely for several years with Glenn Mowery from the Security Industry Alarm Coalition (SIAC) in developing the Georgia Model False Alarm Ordinance. Loud informed the members in attendance that, “We (GELSSA) have begun a cooperative effort between SIAC, ESA and GACP (Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police) and are in the process of getting a piece of legislation passed in the 2012 Georgia Legislative Assembly.”