As of March 16, 2017, The Monitoring Association (TMA) is the new name of the 67-year-old Central Station Alarm Association. The name change reflects an adjustment in mission and focus necessitated by growth and changes in the alarm monitoring industry (find out more about this decision in a Q-and-A with SDM and Elizabeth Lasko, TMA vice president of communications).

In a letter to the CSAA membership, President Pamela J. Petrow said, “Our new name reflects our renewed commitment to our mission: to advance the professional monitoring industry through education, advocacy and public safety relationships. It also emphasizes our long range goals to grow the association beyond our traditional services to embrace the opportunities of our changing industry.” She added that the new name’s meaning “will be reflected in all future initiatives of [the] association.”

CSAA Executive Director Jay Hauhn said, “Monitoring life safety events in the traditional central station model remains our core business. That will not change. However, our demographics surveys show that members increasingly monitor more than traditional fire and burglar alarms — they monitor medical devices, access control and other non-emergency but meaningful events. Our new name allows room for the association to encompass all the areas our members are beginning to monitor and any into which they may move in the future.” 

The association’s new name was chosen by members at the June 2016 General Membership Meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. That vote was the result of more than a year’s work by leaders and members of the association, who found that members were quickly expanding into monitoring beyond security systems, and that the use of the term “monitoring center” was growing as a result.  

“The term ‘central station’ no longer has wide recognition outside of our industry,” said Elizabeth Lasko, CSAA vice president of marketing and communications. “Our new name will facilitate our efforts to educate the public about the critical role TMA members play in public safety.” 

This is the second time the organization’s name has been changed since incorporation in 1950 as the Central Station Electrical Protection Association; it was changed to CSAA in 1989. 

“Our new name change reflects our evolving association,” said Shannon Woodman, COO of Washington Alarm and a member of the TMA executive committee. “Under Pam’s and Jay’s leadership, our association has made many positive changes that will help ensure we continue to grow into the future. Many of our members are monitoring much more than security alarms and fire alarms. Along with the name change, we will be looking to expand our membership to companies who are monitoring things such as GPS monitoring, process event monitoring and network monitoring.”  

TMA’s website can be reached at www.tma.us. (The association also owns the domains www.tmaweb.org and www.themonitoringassociation.org.) Member ID numbers and login information for the website will not change. TMA staff will use the email suffix “@tma.us.” All emails to the previous “@csaaintl.org” address will be forwarded. 

Association programs including Five Diamond, Excellence Awards, Online Training, and the Annual Meeting and Fall Operations Management Seminar are also undergoing rebranding and will be re-launched under the new name. 

“Times change, and successful organizations need to change with them,” said Bud Wulforst, a past president (2007-2009) of the association. “The transition to the name The Monitoring Association reflects our willingness to understand and address the evolving realities of our industry.” 

Questions about the name change should be directed to Elizabeth Lasko, TMA vice president of communications, at elasko@tma.us.