CSAA Signals
Vol. 9, No. 2 —March 5, 2003
440 Maple Avenue East, Suite 201, Vienna, VA 22180
703-242-4670; Fax 703-242-4675
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CSAA Signals |
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
CSAA Proprietary Central Station Council Holds First Meeting The first formal meeting of CSAA's Proprietary Central Station Council took place on January 23 and 24, 2003 at the offices of State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Illinois . A significant number of issues of concern were discussed by the members including disaster planning and recovery issues (e.g. the potential establishment of a back-up system for proprietary council member central stations); licensing and reciprocity; the CSAA On-Line Distance Learning Course for Central Station Operators; municipal "no-response issues;" and the next meeting at the CSAA NAMTSE meeting in Orlando on May 16. The meeting also included the election of Council officers and the development of Council membership parameters. Multiple representatives from companies such as John Deere & Company, Fleet Bank, State Farm, Target Corporation, the Boeing Company, Wal-Mart, AutoZone and others were present. CSAA/AICC lobbyist Bill Signer was also present to discuss in depth the legislative effort which will be required for the Licensing and Reciprocity Act to pass in Congress; licensing reciprocity is a key issue for most Proprietary Central Stations. Officers elected to serve on the Council for this year were:
In addition, Jimmie Richards of Boeing agreed to serve as Membership Chairman. According to CSAA Executive Vice President Steve Doyle, "this is a significant milestone in our effort to organize the Proprietary Central Station Council. We are in communication with over 100 proprietary central stations and the list is growing daily. Their issues are similar in most cases to those of the commercial central stations. However, many of them operate in unique ways that could be of benefit to commercial central stations." An issue that came to light during the meeting is that many of them can develop unique statistics which would be extremely helpful to our industry to be able to quantify (e.g. the dollar losses from burglaries in such places as Salt Lake City.) "We are hopeful that the other Proprietary Central Stations will join with us on the Council as it is evident from our first official meeting that we not only have much we can learn from each other, but that we can truly be of assistance to each other in many, many ways. We have been talking about this for many years and now it is a reality," said newly elected Council Chairman Joe Miskulin. "Our thanks go out to CSAA for its efforts to get us started and to James Beaty of AutoZone who has been so helpful in getting us philosophically to this point," added Miskulin. LAST CHANCE: UL Burglar Certificate Video Friday, March 7, is the last day to fax in your order form to purchase copies of the UL Burglar Certificate Video. This video enhances the understanding of UL Central Station Service by the local AHJ and by your customer. The next production run is in the early fall so order yours now! Click here to order your copies or visit www.csaaul.org/CSAAPublications.htm Electronic Verification Standard Meeting Scheduled In a previous CSAA Signals (Vol. 8, No. 22), we announced the formation of a new group to work on a Electronic Verification standard. This new standard should go a long way towards the reduction of false dispatches.
Lou Fiore, chairman of CSAA's Standards Committee is breaking up this effort into two tasks. The first is a "data gathering" phase to look at all possible technologies and identify those that will perform in an effective and efficient way. These technologies will include video, audio, biometrics and broadband transmission both on premises and to the central station, 911 center, and ultimately, to the responding officer's vehicle. The second task will be the actual process of writing an ANSI-certified standard, or standards, as required. The first meeting of this group will take place on March 28, 8:00am-9:30am at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada (Room 505), in conjunction with ISC West. Please contact Lou Fiore at ltfiore@aol.com if you are planning to attend or if you have any questions. LAST CHANCE: Audiotapes of Selected 2002 Annual Meeting Presentations Friday, March 7, is the last day to fax in your order form to purchase audiocassettes of some of the presentations given at the 2002 Annual Meeting in Cancun, Mexico. To hear a sample of Mac Anderson's presentation,
Below is a list of available cassettes
Prices (includes shipping & handling): Members: $35.00 per tape; Click here to access the publication order form or visit http://www.csaaul.org/puborder.htm. We are excited to learn that many of you have received the preliminary information on the Annual Meeting, October 17-22, 2003 at the Manele Bay Hotel in Lana'i, Hawaii. In the letter mailed with the hotel brochure, we misstated that Ocean Front rooms were $280.00 per night. The correct room type is Ocean View for $280.00 per night. Sorry for the typographical error. |