I was invited back in June to speak at the The Sunbed Association of the UK and Ireland (TSA) 2018 Shine event to present how the JCTA oversees the Canadian market place and how the TSA and JCTA has worked together in conjunction with European Sunlight Association (ESA) and the American Sunbed Association (ASA) to unite our industry worldwide.

This all started in 2008 when New Sunshine paid for my travel expenses to meet with ESA in Germany. Gary Lipman (chairman of TSA) and myself became good friends and started an open dialog to create a World UV Library that would have any information of UV light – benefits and risk. The belief was by having this type of information at our fingertips would help us defend our industry at every level. The library has become more than just a research portal; we now have conference calls to stay up to date on what is happening around the world. We’re able to help each other when needed. For example, Joe Levy from the ASA and myself were asked to present rebuttals to the European Report (SCHEER) to the European Commission. We were 2 of 16 presenters from our industry (largest contingency from our industry ever assembled) at this meeting. My presentation was to refute the systematic review and meta-analysis by IARC, Boniol and Colantoni. Boniol was there, and I showed that these reviews used poor to mediocre research. Boniol, in a roundabout way, confirmed the research he used was poor to mediocre. The Burgard 2018 research confirmed my presentation. Cost sharing is another part of this untied group. Joe Levy went to Australia for the Skin Cancer Conference in 2016 and Joe Levy and myself attended the 2018 conference in Toronto in May. Interesting note for everyone: There was a press conference at the end of the event, but there was no press coverage.

Back to the Shine event by the TSA. This was the TSA’s 3^rd year doing the event and the largest attended event. We met salon owners from over the UK and Ireland, from single salon owners to salon owners that had 80 locations. They are a well-organized association. They have successfully defended the industry in the media and educated government to help stop a petition by a group to ban commercial indoor tanning just this month. My presentation was about uniting our industry, created an information highway between associations, how we keep our members informed, and our “Please Tan Responsibly” marketing campaign. The JCTA is very well known as an industry leader in the marketing of the sunbeds to both consumer, media and the government. Our cornerstone, marketing “Sunburn Prevention” by acclimatizing your skin (pretan) for high UV Index area, is catching the attention of not only other associations. The governments are now seeing us as a professional association – protecting our clients. My presentation was well received, and I was invited to sit with TSA Board Members on stage for their Q&A session. Salons owner were very interested in the sunburn prevention marketing strategy.

I flew home from Manchester, England where the Shine event was held to do the JCTA 2018 Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2 days later. This was the first virtual meeting for the JCTA held through GoToWebinar. Salons throughout Canada were able to login and listen live to Mat Rockey, the JCTA’s president, on the state of the industry and its future. The industry seems to be recovering from all the bad press it has gotten over the last 10 years on the myopic under-18 regulations. Salons again are purchasing equipment and renovating. 2018 has seen very little press about the industry in Canada, and we believe this is due in part to the behind the scenes work the JCTA has done and the proactive prevention message on social media, along with our government newsletters promoting professional standards – more on this later. There was a full review of the positive financials of the JCTA, showing, for the first time in years, funding and membership was up over the previous year.

At the AGM, the members voted on a very important Special Resolution to update the JCTA Constitution and Bylaws. After a full discussion and review, the special resolution was unanimously passed.

After the financial review for the 2017/2018 year, the budget for 2018/2019 was presented.

The biggest change was adding further funding to the Social Media Campaign (41% of the JCTA Budget) “Please Tan Responsibly” and reduced lobbying cost. The campaign included every member receiving the NEW book “Embrace the Sun” (great coffee book for your salon), starting the campaign in October instead of December, promoting moving indoor to maintain that summer glow, and preparing for that winter vacation. For the first time in the history of the Canadian industry, the JCTA will ask it members to survey tanners this January. We want our Canadian consumers to have a voice, and a full report of the survey will be available for members to use to better promote our industry. This will also be used as part of the Sunburn Prevention campaign. Here are some of the ads that are running or will be run.

This is just a small amount the JCTA has planned for this year. Please consider joining and help promote the industry in a positive light. You can only do so much as an individual.

Have a great season everyone!!