On July 11-14 the NFPA will be holding their Conference and Expo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas, NV. Several NFPA members of Acadian Monitoring Services will be in attendance to voice our opinion concerning this issue. During this convention, the NFPA will hold a technical meeting on July 14th to vote on several changes to NFPA 2019 edition, sections 26.5.3.1.3 and 26.5.3.1.4.
As per Rachel Slucki and the Board of the Illinois Electronic Security Association – “The Monitoring Association (TMA) (formerly the Central Station Alarm Association) has published a Call to Action on a threat to central station service that affects alarm companies across the entire country. Alarm contractors and agencies in the State of Illinois are already familiar with the practice: AHJs that designate a single remote station, often operated by the AHJ itself, eliminate private competition and the public is left with a government entity as the sole provider of fire alarm monitoring. Language authorizing this practice was incorporated into the 2016 edition of NFPA 72. Efforts to oppose the addition of this language at NFPA’s 2015 Technical Committee meeting in Chicago failed by a vote of 142-80, clearly illustrating why active participation by all alarm contractors and agencies is needed.”
To be eligible to vote, you must have been a member of NFPA by December 1, 2017. If you plan on attending this event, please look for an Acadian Monitoring staff member while you’re there. If not, remember this could affect your livelihood in the future.
