Page 4 - INDEX Spring 2025

CHAIRMAN ' S

S AY

We did it! The first session of our significantly updated Commissioning Management – Core Concepts
training course was successfully completed in the middle of February. There has been an immense
effort put in by our own Tony Anderson and Neil Burdess (I did help a little bit!) to complete the revamp
and it is already starting to show benefits. Initial feedback confirms that it provides more technical
information and explains not only what to do, but also how to do it. The next course in March is already
sold out and dates in April and May have been announced and are filling up quickly.

I can also report that our CSA Awards has become so successful that we are having to consider bigger
venues to accommodate the growth. Our media partners – Touchwave Media – are busily scouting
potential places and we hope to have some definite news in the very near future. I can also confirm
that we will be presenting some Water Treatment awards alongside our usual Commissioning awards.
This reflects the number of water treatment companies that have joined the CSA and the success of our
Water Treatment Distance Learning Courses – Part A has been available since the autumn of 2024; Part
B is now starting to be released and Part C will be around by the spring of this year.

We continue to publish articles in MBS and other magazines. There is another one in the March edition
of MBS on Factory Testing that should get a few people talking.

Elsewhere in this Index you will find news about the new CSA Chapter in Australia / New Zealand. A big
‘Hello’ and ‘Welcome’ to Jake Eyre of ECS as Chair and Lee White of Microsoft as Vice-Chair. This, along
with our chapter in the Middle East and our members distributed across many other countries, just goes
to show that the CSA is truly international.

Of course, all this success creates a few issues. I know that there has recently been a backlog of membership
applications. We did take on an additional staff member in the Horsham office, but even with that we
haven’t been able to quite keep pace with the flood. We can only apologise and promise that we are doing
our utmost to catch up. What’s the in phrase that everyone uses? Oh yes; we are working at pace.

OK, so now I need to bring you all down to earth with a bit of a bump.

Firstly, CSA staff are still getting applicants who insist that a) they must be given the commissioning
grade they want b) don’t have to follow the prescribed application process because they’ve been
commissioning for years or c) know X or Y in the CSA so can short circuit the system. Sorry people, it
isn’t going to happen. There is a set process and it cannot be varied. Please don’t waste your time (and
ours – see above re delays) trying.

Secondly, it has always been in the CSA’s constitution that Corporate Members must register their
commissioning (and commissioning management) staff with the CSA. I know that it hasn’t been
rigorously enforced previously, but things have changed. Since many of you are now using the CSA’s
training material to obtain CSCS cards for your people and we have to certify that training has been / is
being undertaken as part of that process, you can’t expect the CSA to do so if the person concerned isn’t
registered with us. Do please take note and take the necessary steps to register your people without
delay. There is a short grace period before we have to impose restrictions – how short? Probably best if
you don’t find out…

But let’s finish on the up. The miserable weather must end soon, there seems to be plenty of work out
there and we will continue to promote our members and our industry with all our might!

Keith Barker – CSA Chairman