by Brianna Crandall — February 26, 2016—The Cleaning & Support Services Association (CSSA) celebrated its relaunch earlier this month in London, 50 years after its initial “official” launch in 1966. CSSA had merged with the Facilities Management Association (FMA) and Asset Skills to form the Building Futures Group trade association for the U.K. FM / cleaning industry in 2014.
The group notes that while many things about association membership have not changed, such as the opportunities for networking and friendship it provides, and the ability for the industry to speak with one voice and address industry issues collectively rather than as individual companies (i.e. from a position of strength), there are a great many new things planned.
These were outlined in Chairman Doug Cooke’s presentation at the ceremony, during which Cooke expressed his astonishment at the positive response to the relaunch, saying the group now has over 20 members, with a further dozen who have signaled their intention to join, but who have not yet completed the paperwork, and a further 10-15 organizations observing the process from the sidelines.
Cooke explained, “We agreed that rather than draw up an all-encompassing 3-5 year plan, we would set a simple, challenging and deliverable set of guiding principles which would ensure that we focused on them… Three enshrined ideals which would ensure that we would benefit the industry and members:
- To secure a vibrant and strong association
- To maintain the continuing growth of our industry
- To develop programs which effectively address the expectations of all our members.”
Chairman Cooke’s presentation is transcribed in a Cleanzine newsletter article.
