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General Assembly : Report of the first CertAlarm General Assembly

In spring 2009 some of the Industry Members of Euralarm granted loans to finance the working capital and the start-up costs for the operational phase of CertAlarm. The success of CertAlarm is dependent upon the acceptance of the CA Mark in the various countries of Europe and local partners (certification bodies and test laboratories executing the certification scheme) are very important to obtain such acceptance, priority was therefore given to increasing the number of partners.
The discussions with three major potential partners (VdS, BRE & AFNOR/CNPP) led a few months ago to CertAlarm’s conclusion that there were no insurmountable issues for them to become partners and/or members of CertAlarm. However all three decided not to become involved in CertAlarm for the time being.
The business plan of CertAlarm was adapted to cope with a start of operations without these major certifiers as partners. At the moment six test laboratories and/or certification bodies have applied to become partners of CertAlarm. So in the CertAlarm Scheme open competition between test laboratories and certification bodies is ensured from the beginning. Discussions with more organisations about becoming partner of CertAlarm are still on going.
On 18 September 2009 the first General Assembly of CertAlarm took place at the Representation of Baden Württemberg in Brussels. Four of the five members were present. The formal GA had 16 and the informal presentations in the afternoon had 24 attendees. The main GA decisions were:
  • The replacement of Jos van Kampen (ASB/VEBON) as member of the Board of Directors on behalf of Euralarm (representing the Industry Group) by Dominique Taudin (UTC). Jos, one of the founding fathers of CertAlarm, resigned for personal reasons. Hansjürg Mahler and Derek Harrington remain members of the Board on behalf of Euralarm;
  • The election of Daniel Demuth (ANPI) and Wouter Blom (Telefication) as members of the Board representing the Group of Certification Bodies, Test laboratories & Inspection Bodies;
  • The appointment of the Policy Council. During (at least) the next year the members of the Board of Directors will be the members of the Policy Council too. The composition of the Technical Advisory Group was announced and no change was proposed. Michèle Vandendoren (ANPI) is appointed as Chair and Brian Harrington (Euralarm) as Vice-chair;
  • The business plan was adopted. The supplied start-up capital covers the initial costs of operation until break-even. Nevertheless the Board announced to be in search for additional financial resources to enable speeding up the acceptance of the CA Mark all over Europe. The founding capital supplied by Euralarm and its members in the period before start of operations will be refunded out of the cash flow as soon as the start-up loans are redeemed.
  • The fees were set (see registration fees) .
The new Board of Directors decided to appoint Wouter Blom as President, Dominique Taudin as Vice President and Derek Harrington as Finance and Legal Secretary.

   Derek Harrington (UK),
   Certalarm Finance and Legal Secretary