The Monitoring Association (TMA) has announced the finalists for its 2021 Excellence Awards. This year, the awards competition received a total 39 entries across the four categories.

Listed in alphabetical order by company within each category, the finalists are:

Monitoring Center of the Year – Enterprise Level:

• COPS Monitoring
• NMC
• Vivint Smart Home

Monitoring Center of the Year – Small‐to‐Medium Business Level:

• Engineered Protection Systems Inc. (EPS)
• Universal Atlantic Systems (UAS)
• Wayne Alarm Systems

Monitoring Center Manager of the Year:

• Shelley McQuigge, Alarm Systems
• Jonathan Rainbow, Rapid Response Monitoring Services Inc.
• Josh Sanders, EPS

Monitoring Center Operator of the Year:

• Diandra Dean, Affiliated Monitoring Inc.
• Latisha Jenkins, UAS
• Jonathan Spruill, CPI Security

Monitoring Center Support Person of the Year:

• Deepak Bysani, Affiliated Monitoring, Inc.
• Michelle Quattrini, Rapid Response Monitoring Services Inc.
• Nick Salmond, AvantGuard Monitoring

“This past year was an exceptionally challenging year for many monitoring centers within our membership community,” said TMA President Don Young. “The companies and the professionals in their employ demonstrated amazing courage, determination, and passion for their work and those in their care. Their commitment to excellence was never more evident. This year we welcomed an outstanding pool of entrants to the awards competition — both in terms of the quantity and quality of the applicants. And, once again, their achievements challenge and inspire all of us to renew our own commitment to excellence in our work.”

New in 2021, TMA introduced a newly restructured Monitoring Center of the Year category for application, which segments entrants based on the size of their business. The new Enterprise Level category welcomed applicants with more than 40,000 subscribers, while the Small‐to‐Medium Business (SMB) Level category was established for those with 40,000 or less subscribers. In all, the Monitoring Center of the Year Award categories accepted 16 entries (Enterprise‐9; SMB‐7).

A specially‐appointed task force thoroughly reviewed the TMA Excellence Awards competition earlier this year to evaluate all aspects of the application, judging and awards process. The goal of the task force was to assess each individual portion of the competition to confirm that the criteria and valuation was in line with current monitoring center business, operations, and technical best practices. In terms of judging, the task force sought to increase transparency and broaden the number and expertise of its judging panel. The task force also sought input and validation directly from TMA members as part of the overall evaluation process.

TMA’s Monitoring Center Excellence Awards recognize any FM Approvals, Intertek/ETL or UL‐listed monitoring center (TMA members and non‐members) and outstanding personnel who perform in the highest professional manner, thereby making a significant contribution to the betterment of the alarm industry and the alarm profession while demonstrating exceptional service to their customers and community.

The purpose of the awards program is to:

• Establish and promote the inherent value of professional monitoring services in general.
• Honor those who have made the most significant contributions to the service.
• Promote the distinct level of professionalism attained by NRTL‐approved monitoring centers.

TMA’s Monitoring Center Excellence Awards are co‐sponsored by SDM, which will publish a feature story on the winners later this summer. Entries are judged by a volunteer judging panel appointed by TMA. The four winners will be announced at a virtual award ceremony presented on Thursday, April 15, 2021, at 3:30 p.m.

For past winners and more information, visit www.tma.us.