CSAA

VIENNA, Va.—Bob Bean, the new president of the Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA), learned the value of effective communication early in his career. Currently vice chairman and director of Honolulu-based Alert Holdings Group, he took a simple and direct approach to taking ownership of the company nearly 30 years ago: a lunchtime conversation and a handshake.

CAMAS, Wash. and FAIRFIELD, N.J.—The monitoring industry’s Automated Secure Alarm Protocol (ASAP) got a big boost recently when Underwriters Laboratories and Intertek both announced that the new program meets the requirements of the National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code (NFPA 72).

YARMOUTH, Maine—Industry members are mourning the death of John Mabry, who died Friday in a head-on vehicle collision in Georgia while en route to visit family in that state. Mabry, Central Station Alarm Association (CSAA) president from 1981-1983 and also a longtime ex-officio board member, is being remembered this week for his expertise and dedication to the industry, and for his warm personality.

VIENNA, Va.—Strict new federal regulations governing how companies inform consumers that their credit scores were used to reject them will result in higher labor costs and other problems for alarm companies, said a legal advisor to the Central Station Alarm Association, which is based here.
The new requirements took effect this summer, and are a part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a response to the economic recession. They essentially mean that security companies will have to spend more time and effort explaining to consumers why their poor credit ratings led to their being turned down as customers, said attorney John Prendergast, an advisor to the CSAA.

PITTSBURGH—Vector Security CEO Pam Petrow said recent natural disasters on the East Coast have provided a proof of concept for CSAA's ASAP-to-the-PSAP program.