NBFAA goes back to the drawing board

LAS VEGAS--Merlin Guilbeau announced at an ISC West press conference that the National Burglar & Fire Alarm Association will keep its name--for the time being. To recap: The NBFAA Board of Directors in January voted to recommend changing the name of the organization to Electronic Life Safety & Systems Association. NBFAA members were sent ballots to vote on the issue. A majority of voting members favored the name change, but NBFAA bylaws require a two-thirds majority to approve a name change. The yea votes were 13 votes shy of a two-thirds majority. Of 2,480 members, 569 cast ballots on the issue; 362 voted in favor of the name change, while 207 voted to retain the NBFAA name. "I've never seen an issue generate this many ballots," said Guilbeau, NBFAA executive director. "Many folks were in favor of the change," he said, "but many didn't like the name proposed." Marshall Maranice, president of Marshall Alarm Systems of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., and a member of the NBFAA Board of Directors, said he was disappointed by the outcome, but heartened that so many members voted. Noting that the words "burglar alarm" were difficult to find on the floor of the ISC West trade show, underway here at the time of the press conference, he said, "Everyone thinks the name should be changed, now it's time for us to go back and do our homework and come up with a name that's good for the group." The NBFAA executive committee meets once a month, so Maranice expects there may be a new name proposed within the next couple months. Dave Simon, spokesman for Brink's Home Security, said after the vote that he thought, as Guilbeau had suggested during the press conference, that many members would like to see a shorter name that still reflects what the organization does.