January 2019

MAGAZINE

ICCFA Magazine
CEMETERY CREMATION FUNERAL

Inside: Program
for the ICCFA 2019
Convention & Expo

Charlotte, North Carolina,

April 2-6, 2019
• speakers on every aspect
of the funeral, cemetery
& cremation profession
• 11 uninterrupted Expo hours
• Welcome Reception at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame

French mortuaries
and cemetery
Appealing to the next
generation, winning
back cremation clients

Also in this issue:
• Ceremonies for
witness cremations
• Stansbury: Breaking
the ‘just a’ curse
• Lemasters on funeral
crowdfunding basics
January 2019 • Test your online
marketing IQ
• Wolfelt on Australia’s
progressive cemeteries
• How to decide about
‘hiring’ a therapy dog
• Trust fund basics
• Getting feedback on
your communication
I C C FA W i d e Wo r l d o f S a l e s : J a n u a r y 2 3 - 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 , a t B a l l y ’ s L a s Ve g a s , N e v a d a
 Who Supplies
the Suppliers?
For funeral and cemetery suppliers, business
has never been more isolating. Often ideas
are done in a vacuum. What you know is only
what you know, which limits how far you can
go. IMSA membership can change that. We’ve
brought together some of the top industry
experts to offer our members free one-on-
one advice on marketing, business planning,
legal issues and more. We also bring to
our members insightful business-boosting
webinars, meaningful industry resources and
networking with other IMSA members. All this
smart phone scan Property in photo is Fairview Cemetery, Westfield, NJ, Merendino client since 2005
for just $175 a year. We’re the only association
serving all funeral and cemetery suppliers.
Because what’s good for the suppliers is
good for the providers and that’s good for the
families. IMSA. Supplying opportunity.

www.IMSA-Online.com

IMSA members now get free consultation with Dan Katz & Rolf Gutknecht of LA ads, Jake Johnson
of Johnson Consulting, Ryan Thogmartin of Disrupt Media and Poul Lemasters of Lemasters Consulting.

French Funerals & Cremation’s Rio
Rancho location is designed to appeal
to the surrounding area’s younger,
cremation-oriented population. French
Vice President Chris Keller talks about
the company’s approach to 21st century
management beginning on page 24.
ICCFA 2019 ANNUAL
CONVENTION & EXPO
83 Welcome
84 Special events
86 Keynote speakers
87 Breakout sessions
96 Registration form
8 President’s Letter
Belonging to & participating in the
ICCFA will help you learn and grow
Christine Toson Hentges, CCE
ICCFA officers
Christine Toson Hentges, CCE,
president
Jay D. Dodds, CFSP, president-elect
Andrés Aguilar, vice president
Paul Goldstein, vice president
Lee Longino, vice president
Mitch Rose, CCFE, CCrE, vice president
Gary M. Freytag, CCFE, treasurer
Robbie L. Pape, secretary
Nadira Baddeliyanage, executive director
Robert M. Fells, Esq., general counsel
Magazine staff
Susan Loving, managing editor
sloving@iccfa.com
Rick Platter, supplier relations manager
rplatter@iccfa.com; 1.800.645.7700, ext. 1213
4 ICCFA Magazine
January 2019
International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association®
Promoting consumer choices, prearrangement and open competition
Providing exceptional education, networking and legislative guidance and support
to progressive cemetery, funeral and cremation professionals worldwide
12 MANAGEMENT: FINANCES
Some things to consider when a family turns to crowdfunding
There have long been a number of ways for families to cover funeral
and burial costs: cash, check, credit card or insurance, for example.
Crowdfunding is a much newer option, and as with anything new, you
need to do your due diligence. by Poul Lemasters, Esq.
14 CELEBRANTS
The curse of ‘just-a’: Doing these services right will serve your
families and bring repeat business As cremation has increased, so
have “just-a” services. Just a cremation. Just a memorial service.
Just a graveside service. Just a family gathering. In other words, not
something the funeral director should spend time on. This kind of
thinking is a serious mistake that is seriously hurting both grieving
families and your bottom line. by Glenda Stansbury, CC, CFSP
20 SERVING CREMATION FAMILIES
A ceremony for witnessing the casket’s entry into the retort
“Witness cremations,” where the family watches their loved one’s
casket enter the retort, are becoming more common. Providing the
facilities to make them possible is just the first step. Funeral profession-
als also need to help families craft a ceremony that will make a witness
cremation a meaningful experience. by Amy Cunningham, CC.
24 MANAGEMENT
Tackling the challenges of 21st century management
French Funerals & Cremations is a family-owned firm with a long his-
tory and strong market share in Albuquerque, New Mexico. To build
on its success, the company has brought in executives, and therefore
ideas, from outside the funeral and cemetery profession.
interview of Chris Keller by Susan Loving
Cremation and Funeral Association. Subscription
January 2019 rates: In the United States, $39.95; in Canada,
VOLUME 79/NUMBER 1 $45.95; overseas: $75.95. One subscription is
included in annual membership dues. POST-
MASTER: Send address changes to ICCFA
Magazine, 107 Carpenter Drive, Suite 100,
Katherine Devins, communications manager; Daniel Osorio, subscription coordinator
Sterling, VA 20164-4468. Individual written
kd@iccfa.com; 1.800.645.7700, ext. 1224 (habla español)
contributions, commentary and advertisements
danielo@iccfa.com; 1.800.645.7700, ext. 1215
Jason Brown, communications assistant appearing in ICCFA Magazine do not necessarily
jason@iccfa.com; 1.800.645.7700, ext. 1218 reflect either the opinion or the endorsement
ICCFA Magazine (ISSN 1936-2099) is published
Nadira Baddeliyanage, executive director of the International Cemetery, Cremation and
by the International Cemetery, Cremation and
& publisher Funeral Association®.
Funeral Association®, 107 Carpenter Drive, Suite
nadira@iccfa.com ; 1.800.645.7700, ext. 1225 100, Sterling, VA 20164-4468; 703.391.8400;
FAX 703.391.8416; www.iccfa.com. Published
Robert M. Fells, Esq., general counsel
robertfells@iccfa.com 10 times per year, with combined issues in
March-April and August-September. Periodicals
Brenda Clough, office administrator postage paid at Sterling, VA, and other offices.
& association liaison; bclough@iccfa.com; Copyright 2019 by the International Cemetery,
1.800.645.7700, ext. 1214
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”

10 Washington Report
Industry’s big 3 trade associations
push for tax reform on trust funds
by Robert M. Fells, Esq.
72 Supply Line
76 Update
79 “Birth of a Cemetery,”
by John F. Llewellyn
97 Calendar
97 Classifieds
98 Ad Index
98 New Members
ICCFA news
80 Don’t start the year off with regrets:
Attend DEAD Talks 2019
WWS, January 23-25, 2019
80 Thank you to our 2019 sponsors
81 Become a Certified Celebrant
and offer more to families you serve
April 1-3, 2019, before the ICCFA convention
81 Membership benefit spotlight:
ICCFA Business Insurance Program
81 Get your 2019 music license
before price increases on February 1
81 Deadline February 18 to submit your
scholarship application for ICCFAU
82 Best in Show contest, cemetery tour
& more at ICCFA convention
April 2-6, 2019
Catch the WIRELESS newsletter in your
inbox for industry news, stories about colleagues
making headlines and updates on ICCFA
educational events & conferences
Follow the ICCFA’s LinkedIn
page to read breaking news about
colleagues, the profession and the
association
http://bit.ly/2du252P
Follow the ICCFA on Twitter
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& conferences
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Like and follow the ICCFA
to read up-to-date news on the
industry, ICCFA members making
headlines and ICCFA events &
promotions
6 ICCFA Magazine
TABLE OF CONTENTS
46 Scatter Day helps families, promotes memorialization and
builds heritage
50 MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY
Test your online marketing IQ How much do you know about mar-
keting your business over the internet? Take this fun quiz to find out.
You might be surprised by some of the answers. by Welton Hong
54 SERVICE TO FAMILIES
Transforming the power and purpose of cemeteries, part 2: More
lessons from Down Under Funeral directors are often urged to
evolve. What about cemeterians? Australia’s Southern Metropolitan
Cemeteries Trust has been listening to families and making sure it
meets the needs of today’s families.
by Alan Wolfelt, Ph.D.
60 GRIEF THERAPY DOGS
What to consider before adding a grief therapy dog Whether you’re
enthusiastic or wary about the idea of having a grief therapy dog at
your funeral home or cemetery, you first need know what you’d be
getting into. by Roberta Knauf, CPLP
66 MARKETING: FINANCES
Cemetery Impossible: Following state law on trusting won’t
secure cemetery’s future Cemeterians who wonder whether they
have enough money in their endowment care funds are right to be
concerned. by Daniel M. Isard, MSFS
68 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The 2 1/2 minute manager: How to get feedback about how well
you communicate No one starts out as a great communicator; it’s a
learned skill. It will be humbling process, but there are things you can
do to find out how well you communicate and how you can improve.
by Todd W. Van Beck, CFuE
70 MANAGEMENT
Then & now: How death care has changed (and how it’s stayed
the same) Many things about how things are done in the death care
profession have changed dramatically. Bill Williams has seen it from
both the funeral director and supplier side, and sees many benefits to
how things are today. by William H. “Bill” Williams Jr., LFD
ICCFA calendar
go to www.iccfa.com for program, registration & scholarship information
2019 ICCFA Wide World of Sales
January 23-25, Bally’s Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada
Co-chairs Tim Fish and Delana Pratt
2019 ICCFA Convention & Expo
April 2-6, Charlotte Convention Center & The Westin Charlotte,
Charlotte, North Carolina Co-chairs Mathew Forastiere and John Gouch Jr.
2019 ICCFA University
July 19-24, Fogelman Conference Center, University of Memphis,
Memphis, Tennessee,
Chancellor: Jeff Kidwiler, CCE, CSE
2019 Fall Management Conference
September 25-27, Hyatt Regency Tamaya, Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
President’s Letter
by ICCFA
2018-2019
President Christine
Toson Hentges, CCE
christieh@tributeinc.com
➤Hentges is president and
CEO of The Tribute Compa-
nies, Hartland, Wisconsin.
More about
the ICCFA
➤For membership infor-
mation, call the ICCFA at
1.00.645.7700 or go to
www.iccfa.com
➤The 2019 ICCFA Con-
vention & Expo will be in
Charlotte, North Carolina,
April 2-6. For more infor-
mation, go to iccfa.com/
events
Networking, sharing and helping each other succeed is what the ICCFA is all about. Christine Toson Hentges, CCE, partici-
pates in the annual state networking lunch (above left), reporting on what’s going on in Wisconsin; talks about the ICCFA
Women’s Forum (above center); and chats with fellow cemeterian Sadie Barran during a convention reception (above right).
8 ICCFA Magazine
Belonging to & participating in the
ICCFA will help you learn and grow
B
elonging to a larger group of people—
mentors, colleagues, rookies, whatever they
may be—is a natural way for us to thrive.
Being alone and working to figure things out by
yourself often doesn’t get you to the next level
of anything in life. Some people choose to live a
solitary life, but most of us want to learn from and
be inspired by each other.
I have always been able to learn and grow from
being a part of the ICCFA. I’ll never forget the first
annual meeting I attended, in the fall of 1997 in Las
Vegas. The exhibit hall was unlike anything I had
ever seen, filled with private estate mausoleums,
coaches, embalming machines and chemicals and
monuments larger than anything I was familiar with
in our cemetery at the time.
At that point, our company owned one cemetery,
Pinelawn Memorial Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
which has been in my family since my great-
grandfather purchased it in 1952. That was what I
knew. The first ICCFA meeting I attended showed
me there was a whole other world out there in the
end-of-life profession that I had never thought
about or imagined.
But the best part of that meeting was being
introduced to the fantastic people in attendance, the
leaders, the movers and the shakers, the experts, the
big-wigs. Their presence was powerful and their
willingness to share ideas and welcome me in was
touching. I was inspired by their vision and grateful
to them for being so willing to embrace newcomers
and teach us what this association is all about.
At that time, consolidation was fast and furious,
and I attended my first grand “wine and dine”
dinner given by a large conglomerate that was
interested in our operation. The powerhouses at
that time treated me with respect and left me with
a great feeling about the future of my career, which
was in its early developmental stages.
I came away from that 1997 conference
hooked—on the business, on the association, on the
desire to get involved and contribute to the overall
future of the end-of-life profession.
This inspiration was all I needed to make
whatever small contribution I could on a local,
state, national and international level. Giving back
my time to help improve our state and regional
associations in Wisconsin and the Midwest began
by recognizing that every person can make a
difference by working for legislative and consumer-
focused changes—something taught at that first
ICCFA meeting. It can feel like a long slog, but
every effort made every day by every single one of
us who are doing what’s right for this profession
helps bring value and dignity to what we do on a
daily basis.
Membership in the ICCFA surrounds you with
like-minded professionals striving to give back
and share with each other to help us all be the best
we can be. The ICCFA’s top-notch, progressive
educational programs help you learn what you
don’t know, never thought about or possibly did
think about but didn’t know how to implement.
This can be a great year for all of us, if we open
ourselves up to the possibilities, and the ICCFA will
help. Becoming stagnant and mediocre cannot be
part of your business plan. Being part of a world-
class association that helps you avoid stagnation
and mediocrity is a great New Year’s resolution.
I hope you’re already a member and reaping the
benefits of ICCFA membership, but if you’re not,
it’s never too late to join. The future is now! r
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
Washington Report
by ICCFA General Counsel
Robert M. Fells, Esq.
robertfells@iccfa.com
1.800.645.7700,
ext. 1212
direct line: 703.391.8401
➤Fells is ICCFA general
counsel, responsible for
maintaining and improv-
ing relationships with
federal and state govern-
ment agencies, the news
media and consumer organizations.
➤ Fells has worked on behalf of the ceme-
tery and funeral service profession on legal
and legislative issues since 1975 and joined
the ICCFA staff in 1983. He is retired from
his position as the association’s executive
director, which he held for six years.
➤ He has published
a number of books.
His latest, “The Curse
of the Tomb,” brings
back Maj. Alexander
Armstrong, who featured
in two previous books.
The discoveries of
the royal tomb of King
Tutankhamen creates a
huge black market in forgeries of antiquities
where the stakes include murder, and the
British government seeks assistance from
the Americans.
10 ICCFA Magazine
Industry’s big 3 trade associations
push for tax reform on trust funds
T
he year 2018 ended with the news The CANA-ICCFA-NFDA
that the big three funeral service
trade associations—the Cremation coalition stresses that the
Association of North America (CANA), sought-for tax relief is a
the International Cemetery, Cremation
and Funeral Association (ICCFA), and bipartisan issue and affects both
the National Funeral Directors Associa- the industry and the public.
tion (NFDA)—have jointly endorsed a
cemetery trusts to continue deducting
statement calling for remedial Congress-
investment advisory fees, as they can trust
ional legislation affecting funeral and
administration costs, would enable the trusts
cemetery trusts. The document explains:
to retain more income so funeral homes
“The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of
and cemeteries can meet their contractual
2017 added section 67(g) to the Internal
obligations and protect consumers and
Revenue Code (IRC) which completely
taxpayers.”
eliminates, starting in 2018 until 2026,
In order to obtain this goal, the three
the itemized deduction for miscellaneous
associations have proposed the following:
expenses for individuals and trusts
“The industry is seeking a legislative fix
under IRC section 67(a). Previously, that
relating to the tax treatment of investment
deduction could apply to miscellaneous
expenses incurred by cemetery and funeral
expenses in excess of two percent of a
trusts and is proposing that section 67(e)
taxpayer’s adjusted gross income (AGI).
of the Code be amended to include a new
One of the categories of expenses that
subsection (3), which would include the
is treated as a miscellaneous expense is
investment expenses of a trust. This would
any fee paid by a taxpayer for investment
allow investment expenses of a trust to
advice. As a result, investment advisory
become deductible in computing the
fees are no longer deductible either by an
AGI of a trust, to the same extent as trust
individual or by a trust.”
administration expenses. In order to be
The associations’ statement continues:
sensitive to the revenue implications, the
“The death care industry utilizes trusts
industry suggests that the proposed change
uniquely from traditional trusts. ... In
be limited in application to cemetery
1997, for the benefit of the customer,
and funeral preneed trusts for which an
Congress added IRC section 685, which
election is made pursuant to section 685
enabled cemeteries and funeral providers
of the Code and cemetery endowment care
to treat their pre-need trusts as separate
trusts governed by section 642(i).”
taxable entities rather than as grantor trusts,
Discussions with House and Senate
transferring tax reporting responsibilities
tax committee staffs are continuing, and
from the customer to the trustee.
individual senators and representatives
“In 1976, Congress, recognizing the
have also been contacted. Though the
need to be sensitive to the tax treatment of
House of Representatives now has a
cemetery endowment care trusts, allowed
Democratic Party majority due to the results
such trusts a $5 per gravesite distribution
of the November midterm elections, and
deduction for each gravesite purchased
the Senate continues with a Republican
prior to the start of the taxable year for
Party majority, the CANA-ICCFA-NFDA
which care and maintenance were provided
coalition stresses the that sought-for tax
(IRC Section 642(i)).”
relief is a bipartisan issue and affects
The statement then explains the problem
both the industry and the public. ICCFA
created by the Tax Reform Act: “… the two
members are urged to forward a copy
largest expenses of maintaining these trusts
of the statement to the attention of their
are trustee administration costs—which
Congressional delegation.
remain deductible under IRC section 67(e)
A copy of the associations’ statement can
(1)—and investment expenses incurred
be accessed at https://s3.amazonaws.com/
in connection with the investment of
iccfa-media/2018/11/ICCFA-CANA-NFDA-
the trust principal. Allowing funeral and
One-pager-on-Tax-reform-Nov-2018.pdf. r
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by Poul Lemasters, Esq.
513.407.8114
poul@lemastersconsulting.com
ICCFA Magazine spotlight
➤Lemasters is principal of Lemasters
Consulting, Cincinnati, Ohio.
www.lemastersconsulting.com
➤He is the ICCFA’s cremation program
coordinator and special cremation counsel,
and co-chairs the Government and Legal
Affairs Committee.
➤He is an attorney and funeral director,
graduated from the Cincinnati College of
Mortuary Science in 1996 and from North-
ern Kentucky University, Chase College of
Law, in 2003. He is licensed as a funeral
director and embalmer in Ohio and West
Virginia and admitted to practice law in
Ohio and Kentucky.
More from this author
➤Lemasters will present a “Cremation
authorization form pitstop” at the ICCFA
Convention & Expo in Charlotte, North
Carolina, April 2-6, 2019. He also will
moderate the first-ever legal & legislative
luncheon, which will combine the annual
legal & legislative update with the state
association leadership luncheon. He also
will provide a male perspective at the
Women in Leadership session.
iccfa.com/events
ICCFA membership benefit
➤Lemasters is the ICCFA’s cremation
program coordinator and special
cremation legal counsel. ICCFA mem-
bers in good standing may call him to
discuss cremation-related legal issues
for up to 20 minutes at no charge to the
member. The association pays for this
service via an exclusive retainer.
➤Lemasters also provides, to ICCFA mem-
bers in good standing, free GPL reviews to
check for Funeral Rule compliance.
12 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT: FINANCES
There have long been a number of ways for families
to cover funeral and burial costs: cash, check, credit card or
insurance, for example. Crowdfunding is a much newer option,
and as with anything new, you need to do your due diligence.
Some things to consider when
a family turns to crowdfunding
Editor’s note: This article is adapted communicating the fee that can get you into
from one that appeared in Parliament, trouble.
a quarterly publication by Lemasters You should know that it is now
Consulting. becoming common for crowdfunding sites,
Y
in particular ones for charitable donations,
ou’re not a bad person. You have to give donors the option to add the cost of
a family that has suffered a loss, any and all fees to their donation.
perhaps a tragic loss. (Though what Recently I donated to a friend’s cause.
loss isn’t tragic on some level?) In this case After making the donation, I got a pop-up
though, there is an issue. There is no money. window asking if I would like to add $4
There is no one who can pay for the funeral. to my donation to cover all fees associated
What can you do? with the donation, so that the charity would
You can tell them “no.” You can tell them get the entire amount.
to come back when they have the money. You It was an interesting push, and I
can tell them to “just cremate” and skip all ultimately did put in the additional $4. I
the memorialization and services (you know, mean, really, who is going to donate and
the things that make death care so important). then say, “No. To hell with you. I gave you
Seriously, what can you do? $100—you take care of the fees.” Just my
In today’s online world there is a new thought, anyway.
option: crowdfunding. It enables the family
to easily turn to extended family, other Where does the money go?
people, the community—anyone willing to It has been claimed that in some cases, the
make a donation to help pay for the funeral. charity listed as the recipient never receives
This is not an article about whether this the donation. If you are helping coordinate
is a good or bad option. I’m simply trying or are involved in a crowdfunding platform,
to bring to your attention a few things you how do you make sure that the funds get to
need to consider and understand when and where they are supposed to go?
if you have a family who decides to go An easy way is for the coordinator to
down the crowdfunding avenue. get an accounting of all donations made.
A good crowdfunding site will make sure
What about fees? that all donations are documented and
There’s a saying that there is no such that the donee as well as the donor receive
thing as a free lunch. In fact, nothing is confirmation of the donation.
free (including lunch). So when you use a A business relying on the donations
crowdfunding site, what does it charge for should get confirmation from the site about
this service? If you are helping the family all money raised and should have the
set this up, it is something you need to money raised paid/donated directly to the
know and understand. business.
I do not think anyone expects any Unfortunately, in addition to cases where
service for free, but is the fee 2 percent or the recipient never receives money from the
10 percent? Is there a fee on credit card donor, there are cases where the donee does
donations as well as a fee for handling receive the money, but the donee does not
the site? Again, the fee itself is not an turn over the funds to the stated recipient.
issue, it’s the not knowing about or not Sad to say, there have been cases where
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 MANAGEMENT: FINANCES

Consider stating a time-frame, perhaps 30 days, where the business will wait
for donations to be received. This form also could state that any amount not collected
through donations/ crowdfunding will be the responsibility of the purchaser(s).
people asked for money to bury a child, As a business, you need to follow all the purchaser(s).
place a monument or pay for a surgery and the same procedures you would for any Lastly, you could also include language
then kept the donations for some other use. account. This means that you should have indicating that your business makes no
Make sure you have an accounting of a Statement of Funeral Goods and Services claims and takes no responsibility for
funds donated and, again, if possible have a (SFGS) signed by the responsible party. any crowdfunding the family relies upon,
direct tie to the crowdfunding platform for Actually, I recommend that you have at and ultimately the purchaser(s) will be
distribution. least two people (responsible parties) sign responsible for any and all charges set
the SFGS—but hey, I’m a lawyer. forth in the SFGS. Again, this is coming
Legal responsibilities On your SFGS, you can indicate from an attorney.
There are stories of people who set a the total cost of all your services and Funeral homes should explore and
crowdfunding goal of say, $10,000, and merchandise and note that any amount due examine any and all methods they can
ultimately raised hundreds of thousands of is pending the crowdfunding or donations to help families handle the expense of
dollars. When it works, it’s wonderful, and being solicited by the family. However, funerals and burials. It is up to each
in a perfect world, crowdfunding would you also need to include language that business to do the risk management
help everyone who has nowhere else to limits the reliance on donations. assessment to determine if crowdfunding
turn. Consider stating a time-frame, perhaps (or anything else) is an option worth
But in the real world, not all crowd- 30 days, where the business will wait for offering, but whatever you do offer, make
funding campaigns meet—much less donations to be received. sure you understand the risks and cover
exceed—their goals. If enough money isn’t This form also could state that any yourself.
raised, who is responsible for the shorfall? amount not collected through donations/ Being nice is good, but you also need to
It depends. crowdfunding will be the responsibility of be responsible. r

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Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 13

by Glenda Stansbury, CC, CFSP

glenda@ CELEBRANTS
insightbooks.com
ICCFA As cremation has increased, so have “just-a” services.
Magazine
spotlight Just a cremation. Just a memorial service. Just a graveside
➤Stansbury is vice service. Just a family gathering. In other words,
president of market-
ing for InSight Books, not something the funeral director should spend time on.
Oklahoma City, Okla- This kind of thinking is a serious mistake that is seriously
homa.
www.insightbooks.com hurting both grieving families and your bottom line.

The curse of ‘just-a’

➤She is a licensed funeral director and em-
balmer and trains funeral directors, cemete-
rians and others as Certified Celebrants who
meet with families to talk about their loved
ones and plan personalized funeral services.
➤She is adjunct faculty with the funeral
service department at the University of
Doing these services right will serve
your families and bring repeat business

Central Oklahoma, where she teaches
courses in funeral service communication
and the psychology of grief and oversees
practicum students.
➤She and her father, Doug Manning, a
former Baptist minister who became a noted
author of books about grief, developed the
Certified Celebrant program and have added
a component to train celebrant trainers.
How to become a celebrant
Some of the participants in last year’s
pre-convention celebrant training.
➤Sign up for celebrant training April
1-3, Charlotte, North Carolina, immedi-
ately before the ICCFA Convention, April
2-6, 2019. Discounted rates apply for those
registering for both events.
iccfa.com/events
➤Attend ICCFA University’s Col-
lege of 21st Century Services,
led by Dean Glenda Stansbury.
ICCFAU 2019 will be held July 19-24 at
the University of Memphis Fogelman
Executive Center, Memphis, Tennessee.
➤Contact Stansbury (glenda@insightbooks.
com) or go to www.insightbooks.com,
the In-Sight Books website, for information
about celebrant training sessions scheduled
around North America.
O
ne of the classes I teach in the
University of Central Oklahoma
funeral service program is “The
History of Funeral Directing.” Ugh.
History? How boring. Now, of course,
when you look at history through the lens
of caring for the dead, there are some high
points: Egyptians. The U.S. Civil War. OK,
that’s about it.
So, my challenge in teaching this online
class is to find ways to make the dry facts a
little more interesting and engaging. After
all, these students don’t get the benefit
of my sparkling personality or quick-
witted repartee. (Of course, if you ask the
students who are in my live classes, I’m
not sure they’d admit to being dazzled by
said personality and repartee.)
At any rate, when I was given this
teaching assignment, I decided that I
would try to bring in some other elements
to enhance and expand the concept of
“history.” Therefore, each semester the
students are given videos to watch and a
book to read explaining death rituals of
diverse cultures and in other countries.
There are the typical presentations on
subjects such as Egyptian burial, Victorian
grave robbers and Civil War embalming.
But I want to stretch them at bit. I make
sure they see the sky burials in Tibet where
monks are laid out on a mountaintop for
vultures to devour (it’s on YouTube—go
watch it); the Philippine practices of living
with their departed loved ones in the home
for years; Natitas in Bolivia where the
families keep the skulls of their family
members; grave rentals in Spain; Day of
the Dead practices in Mexico and Central
and South America; the Asian practice of
using chopsticks to pick up the bones of
the loved one after cremation. You get the
idea.
The students post their thoughts in the
discussion boxes and it is fascinating to
read their reactions. Most of them can be
summed up in two words: “How weird.”
Some of them get pretty high and mighty
and judgmental. “Ewww—who could do
THAT?”
My hope is that they can learn to come
out of their little bubble, expand their
awareness and realize that death practices
common in North America are not the only
way to honor the dearly departed. That there
is a big, wide wonderful world out there,
and the tapestry of the living and dead can
be woven together in a myriad of ways, all
of which fit that particular group of people
at that particular time in their history. Your
box of experience does not necessarily
contain the only right way to do things. In
fact, I can assure you that it does not.
But, honestly, if you step back and look
at how things are here in your neck of the
woods, people in other countries, from
other cultures, might look at what we are
doing and say, “How weird. Who could do
THAT??”
A change of focus
Because the evolution of funeral practices
in the past 30 years has become less and
less about focusing on the reality of death
and the grief journey and the importance
of gathering and more and more about

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 CELEBRANTS

Touch their hearts, and they will come back.

When we show them how powerful ceremony and a custom-designed
experience can be, they will come back. They will come back.

Day of the Dead observances (above left, Los Parques, Guatemala City, and above right, a cemetery in Santiago, outside Gua-
temala City, Guatemala) are now common in some places in North America, but other death rituals and customs from coun-
tries around the world seem truly foreign to people in the United States—and vice versa.

convenience or cost, we are in the middle
of some interesting patterns. We have
abdicated our responsibility to the public
we serve to be guides and guardians and
have just shrugged our way to allowing
less service to become the norm.
When cremation became a defining
factor in funeral decisions, we gave
up (“It’s just a cremation,” “It’s just a
graveside,” “It’s just a memorial,” “It’s just
a family gathering”) rather than working
even harder to be sure that each of those
opportunities was packed with meaning
and healing. I call it the curse of just-a.
I got to watch this in person. When
I was given the incredible honor and
opportunity to speak to the staff of Grupos
Primaveras in Guarulhos, Brazil, last year,
some of the reactions were pretty close
to those of my students. In Brazil, the
emphasis is on speed. Most visitations and
burials or cremations happen within 24
hours of the death.
Within mere hours, the family
arrives for the visitation and the body is
embalmed, casketed and present for the
four to six hours of the family gathering.
Then, they either process to the gravesite
or to the cremation ceremony space.
They do not know the term “immediate
disposition” or “memorial service.” Every
body is embalmed. Every body is in a
casket. Every body is present for the entire
experience.
Part of my role was to offer ideas for
ceremony to enhance or slow down that
gathering experience, to get people to
focus more on the grief journey rather
than just getting it over with today and
expecting to feel better tomorrow.
Part of my role was to serve up a cau-
tionary tale: Do not do what North America
is doing. Do not lessen the importance of
viewing, of remembering, of being present.
I told the group that I had performed a
celebrant service the weekend of Mother’s
Day for a woman who had died before
Christmas because the family had decided
that’s when they could all get together. A
young woman gasped and asked, “Where
was the body that whole time?” I jokingly
said, “in her daughter’s closet,” which was
not really a joke. The urn had been in her
daughter’s closet.
The Brazilian staff just shook their
heads in amazement. You could hear them
thinking “How weird!” in Portuguese.
Why would you wait that long? Why
would you not have a viewing and a
ceremony with the body present? These
strange Americans and their messed up
funeral practices. When did convenience
become more important than honoring and
grieving?
Indeed, why would you wait that
long? When I met with that family for the
service, I said, “I bet the idea of waiting
until May to do this sounded a lot better
when you decided to do it than it was in
reality. That’s a long time to hold your
breath until saying goodbye and starting
your grieving journey.”
All three of this woman’s children
agreed completely.
Learn to create ceremonies
There is something within us that needs
that moment marked in time, that carving
out of a sacred space of goodbye, before
we can exhale and begin to lean in to what
this new reality is going to look like.
For those who opt to have nothing—no
funeral, no service—that starting point
never happens and, too often, their grief is
held in limbo. We, as funeral professionals,
should be explaining that to each and
every family.
I’ve long been an advocate for creating
ceremony at every step of the way with
families, especially with cremation fami-
lies who are often unwilling or unfamiliar
or untrusting of the options we have to
offer.
• Ceremony for the arrangement
conference. Begin the arrangement
conference by lighting a candle and
explaining that the time together will be
focused on a life lived and the special
ways we can create a tribute that honors
and commemorates every part of this
unique individual.
• Ceremony for the ID viewing. Clean
and dress the deceased and bring the
family in for a time of final goodbye rather
leaving their loved one on a cold dressing

16 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”

table with a sheet thrown over the body.
• Ceremony for processing and
recessing the urn into the chapel/church/
gathering space. If you don’t have an urn
ark, get one. If you have one and never use
it, why not?
• Ceremony for the family receiving
the urn after the cremation. As anyone
who has heard me speak can confirm, this
is one of my soap-box issues that I preach
about loudly and at length. Quit treating
the urn like a piece of furniture. Anything
that you would do with a casket, do with
an urn—especially the final moments of
receiving.
Why, oh why, do we think it is accep-
table for a family to walk in, sign some
papers and be handed an urn like it’s just
a plastic box or a vase we bought from the
hobby store? This is someone’s mother!
I honestly believe that we can change so
much about funeral service if we just stop
and reexamine all of these touch-points
and stop treating cremation customers like
second-class citizens.
I have an example. At one of the staff
trainings this year, I did my usual plea,
which is more like a stomping on the floor,
that we change the paradigm for receiving
the urn. I gave them sample words they
could use for a short ceremony.
The next day, one of the people in the
training went home and did it! Amazing.
Here was the email I received about it:
18 ICCFA Magazine
CELEBRANTS
We just had our first hand-off ceremony
this morning for DL. The daughter was a
bit confused when we discussed this over
the phone, and she did not want anything
done. We did it anyway, though. She came
in and we brought her to the chapel where
everything was set up for her
It was very touching; she was definitely
impacted by the presentation and space
dedicated to receive her loved one. What a
different reaction than what we have had
in the past, and what a great practice to
continue using!
Did you get the most important part
of that message? “We did it anyway.”
Either we believe in our profession and the
wisdom and guidance we provide, or it all
becomes just-a.
Too many of us feel that if the service
doesn’t fit our template of traditional
offerings, it’s not important. It’s “just a.”
But if we don’t understand that
regardless of what the family chooses to
do, this is still the only time in their lives
they must stop and face the reality of
that particular death and begin their grief
journey, we are doing a great disservice to
our families and to our businesses.
Why do we think that any gathering
calls for less than our best efforts and our
best offerings?
If the family wishes to gather for a
private family service, we should be
offering an officiant who can help lead that
Above, some funeral homes, use beds
and home-like settings for viewings.
(McDougald Funeral Home and Cremato-
rium, Laurinburg, North Carolina)
Left, an urn ark is a must-have to bring
more ceremony into cremation services.
(Senoriales/Los Parques, Guatemala
City, Guatemala)
time for them to tell stories, provide music,
candles—whatever it takes to create a
special moment.
Leaving families on their own to
navigate these unknown waters does not
create a safe space for their own grieving
and they usually leave feeling hollow,
untouched and ignored.
I’ve done countless graveside services
where that was the only gathering that
was going to happen. As a celebrant, I
meet with the family, create a life story,
and treat it just like a funeral for 400 in a
chapel. This is it. This is the only shot we
have. We should be providing our very
best. It is not just-a graveside.
‘Just-a’ can lead to more
Doing things this way also can pay
dividends. I did a sweet graveside service
for a 94-year-old lady 10 years ago. We
told her story. She had been married
several times and, before Alzheimer’s took
her memories, had a very interesting life.
We left rocks next to her urn, because
she was being buried in a Jewish cemetery
next to her first husband. The whole thing
took 10 minutes, but it captured what the
family was looking for.
Five years later, a woman called me
and said, “You did the service for my
husband’s grandmother. You told her life
story. You gave us rocks.” Five years later
she remembered everything about that
simple graveside service.
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 CELEBRANTS

Why, oh why, do we think it is acceptable for a family to walk in,

sign some papers and be handed an urn like it’s just a plastic box or a vase
we bought from the hobby store? This is someone’s mother!
Her husband had just been killed by
a tree falling on him. “You must do his
service. You must give away rocks like
you did for his grandmother.”
The chapel service drew more than 300
people—a standing-room-only crowd.
Since that time, we have done six more
services for her; every time anyone in her
extended family dies, she calls us.
Touch their hearts, and they will come
back.
Another time, I conducted a service for
a lady who had been ill for many years.
She and her husband had been married
only a short time, and he really didn’t have
much to offer in the way of stories. She
and a son from a previous marriage had
been semi-estranged. She had no other
family or friends; 12 people attended the
service. But we told her story, lit candles,
played music, displayed pictures. This is it. Instead of handing over the remains in a businesslike fashion, some funeral homes
This is the only shot we have. create a space where the transfer is ceremonial and reverent, giving the family time
for reflection. (Memphis Funeral Home & Memorial Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee)
The next day a young man died of
an overdose in that community. His best experience can be, they will come back. of trainings offered around the country to
friend’s mother happened to be one of They will come back. choose from.
the 12 people in attendance at that small In my world there is no such thing as But it doesn’t have to be just about
service the previous day. She immediately a just-a. Each and every time we have an celebrants. There should be weekly
told this family, “I know where you need opportunity to do something that is healing conversations and training for all of your
to go, and I know who needs to do the and life-changing, we should be doing it. staff around the idea of creating ceremony
service.” It was another standing-room- Celebrants are uniquely trained to be and being laser-focused on opportunities to
only service, with 400 people attending, ceremony specialists, so if you do not gather and heal people.
followed by burial. currently have one on staff or available And then, maybe, people in other
When we show them how powerful to you in the community, that should be countries won’t look at what we do when
ceremony and a custom-designed a priority for this year. There are plenty death occurs and think, “How weird.” r

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by Amy Cunningham, CC

ICCFA Magazine spotlight S E R V I N G C R E M AT I O N FA M I L I E S

Amy@FittingTribute
Funerals.com “Witness cremations,” where the family watches their loved
718.338.8080
one’s casket enter the retort, are becoming more common.
➤Cunningham is a
Brooklyn-based funeral Providing the facilities to make them possible is just the first step.
director and Certified
Celebrant.
Funeral professionals also need to help families craft a ceremony
➤She is owner of that will make a witness cremation a meaningful experience.
Fitting Tribute Funeral
Services LLC, Brook-
lyn, New York, and in 2015, was listed as
one of the “Nine Most Innovative” funeral
professionals in the country by funeralOne.
➤She regularly blogs with Seattle
funeral celebrant Kateyanne Unullisi
about funeral ideas and ceremonies at
TheInspiredFuneral.com.
➤Fitting Tribute Funeral Services
specializes in green burials in cemeter-
ies certified by the Green Burial Council,
home funerals, simple burials within the
New York City Metro area and crema-
tion services at Green-Wood Cemetery’s
crematory chapels.
www.fittingtributefunerals.com
Hillier Cremation Chapel, Bryan, Texas, features a cremation witnessing
room designed to make families feel comfortable.

A ceremony for witnessing the

casket’s entry into the retort
“There is love in holding, and there is An American crematory “witness” is a
love in letting go.” much softened version of what occurs in
–Elizabeth Berg India. No one in the United States, save a

T
crematory operator, is allowed to see the
o some Western eyes, the cremation body of a deceased person burn. American
ceremonies at Varanasi, on the gray crematories keep the casket closed, with the
shores of the Ganges River in India sights and sounds much more controlled.
seem brutally stark. Families gather to wrap But still, a family can watch the casket
their dead in a linen shroud and adorn them being raised to the level of the retort and
with strings of marigold blossoms. The oldest then guided in. There are sometimes
sibling might light the pyre, and later, gently accompanying noises of the crematory’s lift
prod bones deeper into the embers. rising to the proper height, sounds of the
But this jarring jolt of reality—stark as a casket going in and the small shrill sound of
witnessed cremation might initially seem— the door of the cremation chamber coming
can actually launch healing in some people. back down.
To the astonishment of many professionals Why would anyone elect to see and hear
in the funeral and cremation business (who all that, especially when grieving, you might
wish to spare families anything perceived ask? The reasons for requesting a witness
as “traumatic”), more Americans are asking cremation are poignant and interesting:
their local crematories if they can watch, 1. Families may not trust the funeral/
or witness, the closed casket’s entry into crematory personnel to cremate the deceased
the cremation chamber, or retort, where in a timely manner or on schedule (due to a
pressurized heat rising to 1,800 degrees small number of well-publicized crematory
Fahrenheit turns a human body to bone scandals), and the family members may want
fragment in three hours. to maintain the role of the deceased’s ultimate

20 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
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 S E R V I N G C R E M AT I O N FA M I L I E S

Witnessing a loved one’s casket enter the retort is an experience many people
will find completely unfamiliar, so it becomes the funeral director or celebrant’s role
to tenderly prepare and guide the family though the whole experience.
Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, where funeral director Amy Cunning-
ham has officiated at cremation ceremonies, has a beautiful retort area with room
to observe.
caretaker or custodian.
If they witness grandma’s entry into
the cremation chamber at 9:45 a.m.
Thursday, they know she went in at 9:45
a.m. Thursday. There’s no mystery to it, no
waiting for a funeral director’s call to say
“She’s over there now.”
2. Families electing to witness may feel
aligned with the notion that fire releases
the soul from the body, and it may feel
liberating to be in the proximity of the
casket at its exact time of incineration.
3. Families may wish to simply
accompany their loved one “the whole
way” and stay as close as they can until
they have to stay goodbye.
Witnessing a loved one’s casket enter
the retort may produce one of the most
profound realizations you’ve had in your
life: We must all physically separate.
It is also an experience many people will
find completely unfamiliar, so it becomes
the funeral director or celebrant’s role to
tenderly prepare and guide any family
though the whole experience, with detailed
descriptions of what is about to come to
pass and some poetry, scripture or words
to impart the conviction that difficult
experiences can become very meaningful
ones.
Not every crematory allows witnessing,
so those that do have a competitive advan-
tage and should market it.
Families coming to witness the crema-
tion may have just completed a crematory
chapel committal service, or may have just
come from a funeral home viewing with
subsequent ceremonial casket closing.
While the crematory staff is getting
things ready is a good time for the funeral
director or celebrant to remind the family
that not everyone in the group should feel
obligated to participate in the witnessing,
giving those who are now having doubts an
opportunity to say to the others, “You know,
I think I’ll just wait for you guys out here.”
At this moment, the funeral director or
celebrant might say, “I have something to
read that might be of comfort while we wait
for the crematory staff to get ready for us
back there and take (name of loved one)’s
cremation casket to the proper area.”
Readings for a witnessed
cremation service
The funeral director/celebrant should be
prepared with readings for the occasion.
Here are some things I suggest to families:
“For we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have
a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens.”
—2 Corinthians 5:1, King James version,
published 1834 by C. Alexander & Co.
The poem “Epitaph,” by Merrit Malloy,
which addresses love and loss (“love
doesn’t die, people do”), can be read in
whole or part. “Death is Not the End,”
by human rights activist Peter Tatchell, is
another great reading on everlasting life.
(“Death is not the end, but the beginning
of a metamorphosis ...”)
Another possibility is the poem “To
Those Whom I Love & Those Who Love
Me,” by Mary Alice Ramish, which speaks
of the need to let the beloved deceased
person go and to temper grief with the
knowledge that this parting is not forever.
“The one offered to you now proceed
to his/her destiny, putting on new life,
let him/her reunite with a new body ...”
—Rig Veda, the traditional Hindu scripture
for cremations, 1896 translation
Music
Tell families that it is fine to bring music,
drumming, singing and chanting into the
space where the witness cremation is taking
place. Bose speakers with an iPad mini
work beautifully, as they are small yet
resonant.
I’ve heard music of all sorts played for
the witnessing itself, from The Beatles “All
You Need is Love” to Mozart’s famous
choral “Requiem.” People I’ve worked with
have also made their own music. One time
a female shaman drummed. Another time,
Tibetan monks chanted.
Cremation and farewell
If you are offering witness cremations, I
hope you have created a beautiful space
where the family can see the retort,
whether through a window in an adjacent
room or in the crematory itself.
In the past, since families were not seeing
them, crematories often had an industrial feel,
but when crematory machines are upgraded,
redesigning the space to make viewing
possible should be considered.
In any case, when the cremation process

22 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 S E R V I N G C R E M AT I O N FA M I L I E S

Regardless of the constraints of the room, this is sacred space. Every group
creates their own kind of experience. Some families may stand in respectful silence.
Some may pray, or cry or wave goodbye. Many just stand in total silence.
is ready to begin, all eyes are generally relationship will continue; the body will of water at this point. Perhaps you have
on the casket—often cardboard or pine, come back in a different form. little cookies to offer the family (a really
sometimes decorated by family with photos, Stand there for another fifteen seconds, good idea).
letters, or with paint and magic markers. then indicate to the group that there’s If you’ve read one of the suggested
Regardless of the constraints of the nothing more to do. poems, you might try another if the group
room, this is sacred space. Every group Slowly, gently, lovingly, usher everyone seems to need something else. Give it a
creates its own kind of experience. Some out. They may be shaken but amazed by moment. No one should feel rushed, but
families may stand in respectful silence. their own resolve and courage. Some may it is truly time to think about a meal to be
Some may pray, or cry or wave goodbye. be wiping their eyes and blowing their shared, a home to go back to, a new phase
Many just stand in total silence. noses. Hugs will be exchanged. of grieving.
As the casket is lifted to the proper You’ll hear “Oh my God, I’ve never seen Remind the family that the box or urn
height, and the door of the retort is opened, anything like that. That was so shocking of remains will be ready for pick up or
prepare the family to hear a soft roar in some ways but also so amazing. It’s so delivery in two or three days, but that they
unless they are in a soundproofed room. strange, but I’m glad we did that.” can wait until they’re ready for it.
You may have prepared the family to You might remind them, “You accom- You can close with this little conversa-
push the button on the wall that lowers panied your loved one the whole way. You tional, optimistic benediction:
the crematory door to seal the retort and took it as far as you could, and you took “I will be in touch, and I am still
commence the cremation. Some families exquisite care. You did it all and saw it all.” here for you, but go in peace for now,
are interested in doing this, others aren’t. They may say, “Boy, we sure did.” everybody go in peace, and may the source
This is something like holding the They may feel devastated, separated, but of peace grant you each peace, and grant
torch at the shores of the Ganges. There also incredibly proud of themselves. peace to all who mourn. Please take care,
is no looking back, only forward. The You might guide everyone to find cups and goodbye, everyone.” r

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Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 23

interview by ICCFA Magazine
Managing Editor Susan Loving
sloving@iccfa.com MANAGEMENT
ICCFA Magazine spotlight
French Funerals & Cremations is a family-owned firm
with a long history and strong market share in Albuquerque,
New Mexico. To build on its success, the company
has brought in executives, and therefore ideas,
from outside the funeral and cemetery profession.

ChrisK@FrenchFunerals.org
➤Chris Keller is vice president of French
Funerals & Cremations, Albuquerque, New
Mexico, where he has worked since 2007.
He started with responsibility for the com-
pany’s non-mortuary operations, including
Sunset Memorial Park, and has at times
overseen mortuary operations, as well.
➤Before joining French, he spent more
than 20 years in business outside the
funeral and cemetery profession, work-
ing in financial services and managing
customer service call centers. He majored
in economics and history in college.
➤He is a graduate of ICCFA University
French’s Rio Rancho location features huge windows and an indoor floor plan that
and has served on the ICCFA Board of
can be reconfigured multiple ways to accommodate the wishes of each family.
Directors.
www.FrenchFunerals.com
➤French Funerals & Cremations
includes five funeral homes and the Crema-
Tackling the challenges of
tion Society of New Mexico, Sunset Memo-
21st century management
T
rial Park, Best Friends Pet Cremation Ser-
vices, Best Friends Forever pet cemetery
and an advance planning organization. he French family of companies is creative community outreach.
ubiquitous in Albuquerque, New French sponsored Doyenne of Death
➤ French is the largest and oldest family- Mexico. It includes five funeral Gail Rubin’s “A Good Goodbye” TV series
owned funeral and cremation firm in Albu-
homes; a separate organization to handle (available in DVD form), participated in the
querque, New Mexico. It was founded in
1907 by Chester T. French and today has advance planning; Sunset Memorial Park, Albuquerque Before I Die Festival and has
four owners, including Chairman Emeritus where its crematorium is located; a cremation hosted Death Cafés. When local “Breaking
Chester French Stewart and Robert H. society; a pet cremation service; and a pet Bad” fans wanted to organize a graveside
Stewart, grandsons of the founder; Chair- cemetery at Sunset. service for their favorite fictional character,
man D.F. “Duffy” Swan; and President and French handles approximately 2,200 French allowed it to be held at Sunset.
CEO Tom E. Antram. funeral cases per year, and about 775 French has won many accolades,
cemetery cases. Its cremation society handles including KIP Awards from the ICCFA for
More from Chris Keller
about 500 cases each year. The pet cremation its collaboration with the University of New
➤Keller will talk about “Creating connec- service handles about 7,000 cases annually. Mexico on UNM-themed funeral packages
tions” as part of the cremation program
French was founded in 1907, so it has and a cremation garden, its living history
at the 2019 ICCFA Wide World of Sales
conference, January 23-25, at Bally’s Las plenty of heritage to draw on, but like all Memorial Day observance featuring live
Vegas, Nevada. For more information, go funeral and cemetery organizations that plan “army green men” and its Scatter Day (see
to iccfa.com/events. to thrive in the age of cremation, French sidebar on page 46), which generated great
is not relying on its heritage or becoming publicity while bringing scores of people to
complacent because of its market share. To the cemetery and introducing them to the
the contrary, it’s known for innovation and myriad options available at Sunset for

24 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
Above, Sunset Memorial Park’s Kiva. (The Pueblo Native Americans of the
Southwest used sacred ceremonial spaces called kivas.) Right, the art glass
windows are decorative, but also have proven to be popular for memorialization.
French has been introducing new types of memorialization and incorporating
more Southwestern style to differentiate their offerings.

Above, the huge windows at

French’s Rio Rancho location
provide a view of the Sandia
Mountains.
Right, Rio Rancho’s chapel
and reception area without
dividers. The rooms can be
reconfigured numerous ways,
making the 6,000-square-foot
building flexible. This build-
ing is in an area with a young-
er population where French
expects its business to grow
in the future.

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 25


cremation memorialization.
ICCFA Magazine talked to French Vice
President Chris Keller about coming to
funeral and cemetery service after a career
outside the profession, what an outside
perspective can offer the profession and about
serving traditional families while preparing
an organization for a future dominated by
less-traditional customers.
You’ve been with French since 2007, and
before that, you were not in the cemetery/
funeral profession. You studied history and
economics and worked in financial services
and customer service call centers. What
made you interested in working at French
or in the cemetery/funeral profession, for
that matter?
Two things. My customer service work
involved outsourced call centers. Companies
would hire our organization to come in
and basically take over their whole HR
department, for instance, and become their
internal call center for all their health benefits
or defined contributions—you name it.
For example, one of my clients was
Home Depot, which has 250,000 employees,
so I would have a team of 50 people just
answering Home Depot calls.
The reason companies like Home Depot
would hire our firm to do this was because as
their business grew or contracted, they didn’t
have to either add or lay off people. They
could just have us handle it with our people.
This is part of the benefit to the organiza-
tion that’s hiring you, but part of the chal-
lenge you face. You’re constantly hiring and
laying off, hiring and laying off, based on
what’s happening to that company you’re
working for. That got old in a hurry, and I’d
been doing it for a long time.
But the second reason, the bigger issue,
was that helping someone—truly helping
someone, the customer service end of
everything I’ve ever done—is what excites
me. I had a connection to the profession
through my father-in-law, who had come
into this business after a career in telecom.
He indicated that funeral and cemetery
companies often look for somebody with
the right heart and also with some business
operations experience.
A lot of the leaders in our profession
have grown up in it, and don’t have outside
experience in business operations. They
know funeral service, or they know ceme-
teries, but they don’t necessarily have a
broader experience and skill set in business
26 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
Centennial Urn Garden’s feature honor-
ing the University of New Mexico Lobos.
operations.
He suggested the possibility of doing the
thing I loved—customer service and helping
families, in a profession that helps people in
the most profound and critical of ways when
no one else can help them, while leveraging
the experience and knowledge I had built
up over 20-plus years in outside business. It
seemed to be a perfect conjunction of those
two things.
I also loved the concept of moving from
a large corporate structure with 20,000 or
30,000 employees worldwide and call centers
in India and Mexico and Canada as well as
the U.S., to a small, local, family-owned,
100-year-old company. It was just the coolest
thing in the world. And I’ve never stopped
loving it; it gets better every day.
Do you know what made French interested
in hiring someone from outside the
profession?
French had grown to the point where the
founder’s grandson, who was only the
second CEO we ever had, realized he was
approaching retirement and could not take the
company any further.
So the organization began a concerted
effort to try to bring in a certain percentage
of middle and senior leadership from outside
the industry to broaden its impact, depth
and ability to grow further. French already
had really strong leaders in the funeral and
cemetery world, but needed more outside
points of view, experience sets and business
operations knowledge.
There were several of us hired into this
organization around the same time that
came in from completely outside the funeral
industry, but had the right kind of heart for it,
if you will. It was a concerted effort to bring
not only me, but several other people from
the outside for key positions so that together,
with that varied experience, we could be
stronger.
It resulted in French having an interesting
mix of people working together and hopefully
making each other sharper.
I still consider myself the outsider, even
though I’ve been here 11-12 years, because I
work in an organization that still has people
who have been here 30, 40, 45 years.
Is President and CEO Tom Antram from
inside or outside?
Tom Antram’s an inside guy, at least on the
funeral side of our business. He worked every
role from night janitor and answering phones
to funeral directing and managing on the
funeral side. But other than other jobs during
his college years, his career has been with
French.
He’s got a depth of knowledge about our
company and our industry I will never have.
But I can offset that deficit with a depth of
knowledge and experience in how different
organizations of different sizes tackle the
same problems or different problems, and
how they apply management principles.
Glen Rosenbaum, our other vice president,
also had some prior outside experience, but
has been in funeral service for 20 years. So
we’ve got a management team with both
perspectives, and I think it works well. That
is not to say that sometimes we don’t look
at each other and feel like we’re speaking
different languages, but at this point, we
understand each other pretty well.
Did you start at French in your current
position as vice president?
When I came in, we didn’t have any vice
presidents; I came in as a general manager.
We’ve changed our titles since then to what
we felt better represented our roles and better
aligned with other organizations not only
within our industry, but outside.
Did French buy Sunset Memorial Park or
start it themselves?
Chester French, the founder of the mortuary,
established the cemetery in 1929. It’s always
been part of the broader French family of
companies, we just never co-branded it until
recently. And even now it’s not really co-
branded—we’re still Sunset Memorial Park,
but we’ve aligned all our logos to have a
similar feel.
How big is the cemetery?
It’s only 40 acres, and about 3 1/2 to 4
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Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 27

Sunset Memorial Park’s Camino Encantado gives families a number of options, including ones highlighting Albuquerque’s
balloon festival (center) and patriotic themes.
acres is truly undeveloped. But there are
probably another 10 acres within the park
that can be either redeveloped or where infill
opportunities exist. It comes down to master
planning and design, and I’m all over that,
because with what we have left ,we have to
be very, very creative and plan well.
Nevertheless, I don’t foresee a time,
certainly not during my lifetime, when we’ll
run out of room. I would say we have another
50 to 75 years before our current footprint is
truly maxed out and we have no more new
property we can develop. That’s the beauty
of cremation. Our part of the country has a
high cremation rate, which works in our favor
from a development standpoint.
We’re landlocked, so I don’t anticipate
ever getting any more acreage attached to this
property. We do own other properties around
the metro area that are zoned for cemetery
use, so we could develop other cemeteries
elsewhere. We have chosen not to do that,
mainly from an economic standpoint and
because we don’t need to right now.
You mentioned branding, and I’ve noticed
you have a very bold, simple logo. It changes
color sometimes, but otherwise it’s the same.
It changes color from business unit to
business unit. That’s the tie, what looks kind
of like a slash, but is actually what we call
an uplift. Our goal, and everything we do
with our families in any part of our business,
is to ease people’s burdens, to help lift their
burdens. So that vertical slash, or that lift, is
consistent.
28 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
All parts of our company have that as their
logo. To identify the different parts of the
company just from a quick visual standpoint,
each company has a separate color, but it’s
all the same design. So the Sunset lift is red;
the French lift is light green; the Best Friends
Pet Cremation lift is yellow; the Cremation
Society of New Mexico lift is blue.
The logo is getting a lot of traction in the
community. People see any one of them and
they have started to realize that it’s part of the
French family of companies. It’s taken two
or three years to get there, but the marketing
firm warned us, “It’ll take two or three years
to get there.” And they were right.
What made y’all realize that this sort of
co-branding and branding in general was
important?
We started talking to our local marketing-
PR firm, McKee Wallwork—a phenomenal
firm—about it six or several years ago. Our
challenge at that point was, number one,
French’s logo and name were extremely well-
known in the Albuquerque community. We
have incredible market share and top-of-mind
awareness.
But the logo was very traditional, very
conservative; it had been around a long
time. It was very dated, and we felt we were
somewhat susceptible to becoming stale
in people’s minds, being tied to a certain
generation rather than staying relevant.
Also, we had never done anything
concerted to try to co-brand the different
parts of our business. We had that kind of
name recognition and trust and top-of-mind
awareness in the community for French, but
it didn’t translate to Sunset, to Best Friends,
to the cremation society. Why weren’t we
leveraging French more? We could just
call them all “French”—French Cremation
Society, French Cemetery, French Pets. But
we didn’t necessarily want to do that.
So McKee came up with this idea I
think is fairly common. AOL was one of the
first big organizations to do this, to have a
whole bunch of different logos immediately
recognizable as AOL logos. Even though they
were all different, they all tied back together.
They approached us with the idea of this
uplift, and we liked the feel and the sym-
bolism of it, number one. They suggested
identical logos but with different colors repre-
senting the different parts of the business.
Believe it or not, there’s actually some
science behind the colors. Psychologists have
done studies on what different colors evoke in
people, feeling-wise. McKee chose the colors
based on what they thought best fits the
“why” or the core function of that business.
My brain kind of exploded at that point, but
we trusted them and went forward with it.
All of our advertising and billboards
started to take on this new very minimalist,
modern and clean feel. We immediately
started getting huge accolades and media
attention, not only in the local community
but actually countrywide for some of our
advertising, a lot of which was centered on
the new color scheme and the new logos.
It’s been a great ride, and I don’t see the
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 MANAGEMENT

logo changing anytime soon. There’s no
need to—it’s still very fresh, very clean, very
updated and very modern.
It’s like the Nike swoosh, very simple—you
can see it in a milli-glance. And once you’ve
made the association with French, you
know what it is.
Yes. It rocks it right into your mind as to who
and what that is. And then, if you’ve done
a good job in building your reputation and
trust in the community, it immediately evokes
those feelings, too. The folks at McKee are
smarter than we are by a long way, and I’ve
really appreciated what they’ve done for us.
When you started, how did you educate
yourself about the profession?
I was brought in initially to run all the non-
mortuary parts of the business and the facili-
ties and maintenance across the operation. At
that point, we also had a monument company,
so we had a manufacturing business. The
cemetery involves not only sales and custo-
mer service, but also landscaping. The pet
business is more akin to a mini pet funeral
home than anything else. The advance
planning department is really insurance sales.
The only thing I wasn’t managing was
the operation of the mortuaries, which
Tom Antram, who has deep subject matter
expertise, ran.
Some of my earlier career opportunities
helped. In college, I ran a landscaping com-
pany for three years, so I knew a lot about
landscaping and irrigation and stuff like that
and enjoyed it. It was an easy transition to
pick up the mechanics of what our park folks
are doing at the cemetery and to learn the
quirks of what makes a cemetery different.
During my time in financial services and
business process outsourcing in all those
call centers, I was either in or managed sales
groups, so selling was not a huge challenge
for me conceptually. It was a matter of
learning all the details. Cemeteries are
complicated beasts as far as record keeping—
that took the longest to learn.
As far as the monument company, I’m
a woodworker, and I like working with my
hands. I spent several weeks having them
train me as a monument designer-sandblaster.
I worked out there in cold temperatures,
picking stencil and sandblasting things to get
comfortable with how that works.
That’s the kind of job-shadowing, boots-
on-the-ground type of learning I did fairly
intensely in each part of our business for a
few months.
For formal learning, the higher-level stuff
of what we do in the funeral and cemetery
industry other than make arrangements and
bury people, I went to ICCFA University.
I went to the sales college first, because
cemetery sales was a huge chunk of what
I needed to know, and cemetery sales is
different from other sales. It pulls in real
estate as well as funeral arrangements and
everything else.
Then I went to the land college, then
administration and finally funeral home
management, because by that point my role
within the organization had broadened a
bit and I was also managing the mortuary
locations. So I went to Todd Van Beck’s
college to learn about running a mortuary,
since I’m not a licensed funeral director.
I am the biggest fan of and advocate for
ICCFA University. I came into the industry
cold, and as my role within the industry
changed, I was able to craft a curriculum year
after year that met the greatest need I was

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The simple “uplift”
logo provides a
unifying element
while allowing the
French-owned
cemetery and pet
service to maintain
their original names.
Each unit has its
own color.
One of the eye-catching billboards de-
signed for French by its public relations-
advertising firm. The sleek modern design
is meant to make sure than the century-old
company is seen as up-to-date and ready to
meet the needs of today’s families. Some-
times the messages are designed to main-
tain top-of-mind awareness for French and
Sunset Memorial Park, as well as delivering
a subtle message emphasizing the impor-
tance of commemorating the end of a life.
After all, just as YOLO (you only live once),
YODO (you only die once).
Sometimes the billboards promote specific
events, such Memorial Day (above) and the
tradition of families placing luminaria at
their loved ones’ graves at Sunset (below).
30 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
We have incredible market share and top-of-mind awareness.
But the logo was very dated, and we felt we were somewhat
susceptible to becoming stale in people’s minds,
being tied to a certain generation rather than staying relevant.
facing right then. I’ve put four or five people
through the university, and I’m thinking of
sending someone who’s already graduated to
the event planning college, because their role
in the organization would really benefit.
So that was my formal industry training.
My mechanical, tactical, boots-on-the-ground
training was all just diving in and then doing
each of the roles to the extent that I could or
was licensed to do.
I got involved very quickly in new devel-
opment. We’ve been in almost a constant
state of building and developing, especially
cremation space, since I got here. I have a
passion for design and building, so I was able
to quickly get hip-deep into that area.
This job fits with my skill set and interests.
Look at my college major—history. I have
a passion for the past and the stories that
history tells. Walk through a cemetery and it’s
nothing but history and stories. I will walk
through our cemetery—or any cemetery—
and just love the stories I can pick up from
reading headstones.
And the overarching fact is that we
are truly in the ultimate customer service
role, which is my passion in life. I love this
industry.
Often you hear people critique the funeral
and cemetery industry as being too stuck
in the “We’ve always done it that way”
mentality. Have you run into that?
Yes, all the time, actually. If I’m going to
say anything even mildly negative about our
industry, this is where you’ll hear it. It’s one
of my ongoing frustrations, but it is getting
better. It is truly getting better.
I came out of a very conservative industry.
Financial services is a dark gray suit, white
shirt, dark tie type of conservative industry.
So I came from an industry that was very
risk-adverse and uber-conservative, but
funeral service is more so.
Around 2007, part of our problem nationally
was that a lot of financial people weren’t
being risk-aversive.
Yes, but the mindset of “We’ve always
done it this way” was there. And they have
the same type of arguments or excuses for
it, quite honestly, that the funeral service
industry has: “People are trusting us with
their most precious thing,” or, “We will
destroy a life if we screw something up
because it’s all their life savings,” versus, “It’s
their grandmother and we can’t screw that
up—we only get one chance at a funeral.”
I’ve heard that a million times, and it’s true.
The excuses are much the same. Especial-
ly 11 years ago when I came in, I’d never
encountered an industry or profession that
was so risk-adverse as to be almost paralyzed
when it came to change. They would not,
could not, change, but their hearts were in it
for the correct reasons. We were so afraid of
making an error with a family, because there
are no “do-overs” in funeral service.
I get that, I really do. There’s really not
another part of our economy or life where
there’s only one chance at it. You screw up a
wedding, and statistically people are going to
get married more than once. But you cannot
screw up a funeral; people only die once. So I
get the reasons behind it.
But too often, that aversion extends to
operational risks, as well. I understand not
wanting to take a service-related risk that’s
family-facing without really having all your
ducks in a row. I totally get that.
But changing the behind-the-scenes stuff
about how you operate, how you organize
it, the people you bring in, the roles you
have, how you pay people, you name it—
the behind-the-scenes operational changes
that I think are long overdue in a lot of our
businesses—people feel the same risk-
aversion to those things that would not really
immediately impact a family. It’s because
they’re just so conditioned and trained not
to do anything outside of how we’ve always
done it.
I do think that French as an organization
has been among a handful of firms in the
forefront of pushing that envelope a little
bit in its own way. I still feel we’re very
conservative as a company sometimes. But
in our own way, we’ve pushed the envelope
and we’ve pioneered a few things, not all of
which have worked.
We failed in some cases, but we’re starting
to get comfortable with a concept that’s very
prevalent in business outside of the funeral
industry: Take risks, fail fast, learn from
them and improve. That’s not a mantra you
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 VINCE AZZARO
& GARY BENITO
BENITO & AZZARO
PACIFIC GARDENS CHAPEL

“WE ALL TALK

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Benito and Azzaro has been a team effort from
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In our own way, we’ve pushed the envelope and we’ve pioneered a few things,
not all of which have worked. We failed in some cases, but we’re starting
to get comfortable with a concept that’s very prevalent in business outside of the
funeral industry: Take risks, fail fast, learn from them and improve. That’s not a mantra
you would have heard in many funeral homes, but you’re starting to hear more of it now.
would have heard in many funeral homes, but
you’re starting to hear more of it now.
Sometimes that comes across in a
willingness to step outside the classic design
for a cemetery or funeral home. I can go in
any city in this country, any region of the
country, and point out the mortuaries even if
you remove the signs from them. They all in
their own way look and feel the same—they
just scream “mortuary.”
They all look the same, feel the same,
smell the same, have the same feeling. Obvi-
ously, I’m over-simplifying. They’re not all
that way, but most are. Funeral practitioners
would tell you the same thing.
Our most recent mortuary, which we built
in Rio Rancho, a suburb of Albuquerque,
looks nothing like a mortuary. We didn’t
go to a mortuary design firm. We went to a
local architectural firm that’s never designed
a mortuary and we told them, “We want
you to build a beautiful building, and we’re
going to put a mortuary in it.”
So they came up with this building that
looks like it could be a law office or a library
or something else entirely—but it doesn’t
look anything like a mortuary. It’s got two-
story, floor-to-ceiling glass walls letting in
gorgeous views of the mountains and tons of
natural light. It’s very modern.
There are windows—oh, my gosh, are
there windows! There are even windows
in the selection room. Do you know what
heresy that is in our industry? Until recently,
none of our other selection rooms had any
windows in them, but this one does.
The behind-the-scenes private areas
where we’re moving bodies around and
we’re getting bodies into state rooms or
ID rooms—the key rooms are connected
through the back halls. We don’t have to do
what so many mortuaries do—take a peek
out there to see if any families are present.
No? Quick, move the body into the state
room.
Our other mortuaries are beautiful and
very well maintained, but at Rio Rancho we
don’t face the challenges we do in our other
mortuaries, because we essentially broke the
mold and tried a different design.
32 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
Above, French’s Lomas location, from
an era when the company’s mortuaries
were designed in what was considered
a classic style. Below, the Rio Rancho
location, deliberatedly designed to not
look like a funeral home.
Now, are there issues with having two-
story glass walls in your chapel when
you’re trying to show a video at 4 p.m. in
the afternoon? You betcha. So, that was
a learning experience. We didn’t take the
windows out. We tinted them and installed
motorized blinds. It’s not perfect, but people
love that building.
When I saw photos of Rio Rancho I
wondered if all of your funeral homes have
a different look.
No. Here we are in the Southwest, the
land of adobe. And what do most of our
mortuaries look like? Brick and columns.
Back in the ’70s and ’80s when we built
them, that was chic. You didn’t want your
buildings to look Southwestern, you wanted
them to look more “sophisticated.”
Now we’ve entered a period of time
when we want to feel relevant to the local
community. We want them to immediately
identify with what we’ve done and for it to
feel like their home.
In 2000, we built a location in a kind of
California mission style, a little bit more
Southwestern, and then when we built
this one in 2010-12, we went very, very
contemporary Southwestern. We just said, to
heck with it, we’re ripping the Band-Aid off,
we’re going to do it all the way—and it’s
been successful.
The Rio Rancho mortuary is a brand
new mortuary that’s only 6,000 square
feet. Most people in the industry are aghast
at that, because they’re still building
20,000-40,000-square-foot behemoths.
The reason we built this size is it’s
very efficient, and everything can be
reconfigured. You can turn the big chapel
into a smaller one, and just reconfigure it all
over the place.
In other words, the rooms aren’t strictly
defined: This is the chapel, this is the
reception area, etc.
Well, there is a chapel, but we can make the
chapel bigger or smaller, and the reception
area is right next to the chapel. We can either
segregate it into one big reception area or
cut it in half into two little ones, or one state
room and one little reception area or open up
the whole thing and have one giant chapel.
It’s a matter of building the space so it
can be almost immediately reconfigured
different ways, because increasingly,
particularly in a community like Rio
Rancho, which is 75 percent cremation, we
don’t need a lot of state rooms. State rooms
are one of the most underused rooms in a
lot of mortuaries. They sit there empty all
the time. As does, by the way, the selection
room, but state law requires us to have one.
New Mexico doesn’t require us to
have state rooms. We have the ability to
create a state room for families who want a
traditional viewing and visitation. We love
those families, but they’re the minority in
that community. So the same room that
can be used for them also can become part
of the bigger chapel or can be a separate
little reception area. We can reconfigure the
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building 18 different ways.
I’ve heard you talk about the need for
cemeteries, and I assume also funeral
homes, to be distinctive, to be local.
Yes; I think that’s more important than
people realize. People don’t want to go to
a mortuary. Why are you at the mortuary?
Because somebody died. It’s uncomfortable.
There’s a creep factor, an ick factor. We’ll
never get away from that. We in the industry
are totally used to it, so it doesn’t faze
us. But somebody who hasn’t been to a
mortuary but once in their life doesn’t want
to walk in.
If we can be comfortable and relevant
and people they feel comfortable when they
walk in, I think we’re good.
At the cemetery, I want more of our new
development that’s unique to be visible from
outside the cemetery, so people don’t have
to drive inside to see it. I want them to see
we’re not just grass and headstones.
The cremation rate in your area is 65
percent. Is that true at French?
Across our organization, we’re probably
closer to 60 percent, and that’s because our
“CROSSING BORDERS AND OCEANS SHOULD NEVER LEAVE
A FUNERAL HOME CROSSING ITS FINGERS”
- Dave McComb, Owner & Funeral Director
INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED
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MANAGEMENT
two biggest locations that have been here the
longest are in the part of the town where the
population is the oldest.
Towns tend to move in cycles. There’s a
part of town where the people are all hitting
their 60s—next up. Then there’s a part of
town where people primarily are in their
40s—20 years down the road. The funeral
homes that are still very busy are the ones
where the populations around them are in
their 60s, 70s, 80s, and they are still fairly
traditional. Also, more than 50 percent of
our community is Roman Catholic, and
there is a large Hispanic influence, so we
serve a lot of traditional families, but the
number continues to go down.
In some of our locations, particularly
west of the Rio Grande River (where
Rio Rancho is), which has a younger
professional population, the cremation rate
is 65 or 75 percent. But the volume’s not
there yet. The percentage is higher, but the
volume’s lower.
Do any of your funeral homes have
reception areas?
All of them do. We can do food service two
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different ways. We have several caterers
we can recommend and the family also can
bring in their own food. A lot of families
want to use our facility, but do a potluck.
There’s a different charge depending on
what they choose, but we’ll do whatever the
family wants. We can provide full catering,
a sit-down meal, if they want.
We do not carry liquor licenses. That’s
been an internal decision and an insurance
issue more than anything else.
Why do you have a separate facility for
advance planning? I’m not sure I’ve seen
that before.
For a while, the building that currently
houses our cremation society was a stand-
alone mortuary building that housed a
precursor to the society. We didn’t really
understand the concept of serving the “direct
cremation” segment, so we kept trying to do
what I jokingly refer to as “French Lite.”
Really, we were trying to get families
who wanted simpler services, direct
cremation-type services, to choose what I
would consider the traditional French range
of services, and we just couldn’t do it
©2018 MKJ Marketing
January 2019 33
 MANAGEMENT

Cenotaph walls in the Rose Garden scattering area at Sunset Memorial Park.

Of course, what we can’t track is how

The mobile version of the website for
French’s cremation society.
profitably. We stopped doing that and the
building was vacant for a year or so, until
we decided to move our advance planning
insurance group into it just to give them
more room. After we placed the cremation
society in that facility, we moved the advance
planning group, which is a separate group
with a separate management structure, onto
the cemetery campus. They take up basically inscriptions at Sunset Memorial Park.
the top floor of our administration building
The main location of our pet business is
also on the cemetery grounds, so we’ve got
three different business groups sharing that
campus, which is very efficient for us.
If people want to make pre-need funeral
arrangements, do they go to a funeral home well.
or to those offices at the cemetery?
Probably the majority of these arrangements
are actually done in the funeral homes, depen- ments in the family’s home. The arranger
ding on which one is most convenient for
people. If you live over on the west side and
you want to have the meeting at the Westside including all the merchandise options.
chapel, that’s great. We like that, because we
want to give you a tour of our facility.
If you don’t want to do that or if it’s more What percentage of society clients end up
convenient for you to go to the cemetery, the
advance planning people will handle your
pre-need arrangements at the cemetery, and
that’s fine, too. Then it becomes very easy
to introduce them you to our cemetery pre-
planning group, too, if they don’t already
Colored art glass niche plates with
There is room to memorialize with the
name, dates of birth and death and one what
line that gives the visitors a glimpse into many come from our locations, either our
the person’s life: “A palette, a brush, a
smile.” “A book, a beer & my dog.”
have cemetery property. So I like that, as
The other option we have, and something
we quite often do, is making funeral arrange-
has an iPad or a laptop and is fully connected
with access to everything in the system,
I see that on your cremation society
website, you promote memorialization.
choosing to memorialize with Sunset?
Probably between 15 to 20 percent a year—
an anemic number. That’s not unique to the
cremation society—it’s pretty consistent
across our whole organization, and it’s one of right now–a
the reasons Scatter Day exists.
many of our funeral and cremation society
clients choose to memorialize but not at
Sunset. Maybe the family plot is at another
cemetery and they’ve got six generations
over there. They might be choosing to
memorialize and we just don’t know about it.
We do ask, but sometimes they tell
us, sometimes they don’t. Or they might
have taken Dad home and put his urn on
the mantel and, two years later, taken him
somewhere else.
It’s tough to track how many of our clients
end up memorializing. It’s easier to track
I would call our capture rate: How
mortuaries or our cremation society, over to
our cemetery? That we do track, and we’re
typically between 15 percent and 20 percent.
That is our number one operational focus;
we have to get that number up. First of all,
we feel passionate that memorialization’s
important for a family from a healing
standpoint, a grief standpoint.
Secondly, we’re a for-profit business and
we have a beautiful cemetery that offers
things no one else does, certainly in this
city, but I would say even in this part of the
country. We feel we owe it to our families to
at least show them what’s possible.
That’s why Scatter Day exists. That’s
why we started giving every family we
work with who chooses cremation through
us—that’s approximately 1,700 a year
certificate valued at $300
for a scattering at no charge and free

34 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
FOCUS ON THE FAMILY.
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• Collect important data prior to an arrangement
• Allow families to upload images saved in their case file
• Collect signatures on documents online
• All done through a secure and private link!

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Above left, dried chiles in Sunset Memorial Park’s Centennial Urn Garden provide a regional touch to the park’s architecture.
Above right, a coloful and distinctive flower station available for families to use.
memorialization at Sunset.
They can have the memorialization at
Sunset even if they’re planning to take the
cremated remains somewhere else. The
reason we’re doing this is because we think
it’s important to encourage a legacy tie at our
cemetery even if, say, Dad’s being interred at
the national cemetery.
Because guess what? The rest of the
family isn’t going to be at the national ceme-
tery. They’re going to have to be somewhere
else. We want them at our cemetery. If Dad’s
name is already on the wall at our cemetery,
regardless of where his body is, that makes
it easier for that family to decide, “Sunset’s
where we need the rest of our family to be.”
I come from the newspaper business, which
has been decimated by the internet. So I
do sympathize when I see funeral directors
having a hard time coming to grips with the
idea that some people just want to do direct
cremation and don’t want a service, and
with cemeterians realizing that a 40 percent
capture rate from your crematory over to
your cemetery is darn good, even though it
doesn’t look good compared to a 100 percent
full-body/casket rate.
That’s correct. But we’ve done this to
ourselves. Every day we see people in our
industry refer to the act of cremation, the
reducing of the body from full size down
to six pounds of calcium carbonate, “final
disposition.” In some cases, the law considers
it final disposition. So we have ourselves to
blame that people don’t think they need to do
anything beyond the act of cremation.
Increasingly, those of us in the business,
especially on the cemetery side, are saying,
whoa—there is still a body after cremation. If
you’re going to scatter, that’s final disposition.
36 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
If you’re going to permanently leave Dad
on the mantelpiece, that’s final disposition.
You’re choosing where to put the body. The
body’s just in a different format.
You still have to do something with the
body. You still have a body that you need
to memorialize somewhere. If you want
to scatter up in the mountains, great. First,
make sure it’s legal, and second, arrange for
memorialization somewhere.
That’s where families are missing the boat,
and they’re coming back into our facilities
two, three, four years later emotionally
screwed up and saying, “We wish we hadn’t
scattered. We don’t have a place, and the
family needs a place.”
We tell them, “Let’s put Dad’s name
on a wall so at least his name’s in granite
somewhere or on a paver on the ground, and
your family has a place to gather.” It would
be better if we could have that conversation
at the time of arrangement versus four
years later after the family has already done
something irretrievable and are upset about it.
We in the industry have created this
situation. A lot of times funeral homes didn’t
much care about what happened after the
cremation took place—they were just mad
they didn’t get the casket sale. Those of us
who have both mortuaries and cemeteries
realize we can’t be that conflicted within our
own industry; we have to work together.
If you’re at a stand-alone funeral home,
what incentive do you have to encourage
permanent memorialization as opposed to
hoping the family will put all their time,
effort and money toward a big funeral
service or a celebration of life that you can
arrange for them?
Well, there is that, there is an implicit conflict
because in a certain, overly simplified way,
the two sides of our industry, the cemetery
side and the funeral side, are competing
for the same dollars. I totally get that. The
conflict will always kind of be there. I feel
it sometimes within myself, because I have
some responsibility for both sides, and I
want the contract averages to be as high as
possible on the funeral side, but I want to sell
cemetery space, too.
Maybe it’s a little too altruistic, but in
the end, I would hope our prime motivation
would be what’s best for that family, what’s
best for their healing process.
Even within the funeral side there’s
conflict, and it’s based on our own internal
biases. As far as getting them to see value
in the cemetery side, in memorialization,
particularly if they’re at a stand-alone funeral
home that doesn’t own a cemetery? I wish I
had the solution to that.
We don’t have a mortuary on our ceme-
tery grounds, but we are a combination
operation, as we have both in our organiza-
tion. We haven’t done nearly enough, but we
have done a lot of cross-training, though we
haven’t always been able to support it from a
staffing standpoint.
For a while, when we brought in a new
funeral director from outside our company,
we had them spend about three months
sitting in with someone for a couple of weeks
at a time in all the different roles in our
organization.
Say someone from New York was hired as
a funeral director. Before they started doing
the job they were hired to do, they learned
how our pet business worked, and they went
out and picked up at clinics and met with
families. They learned how our cemetery
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 MANAGEMENT

works, and they helped dig graves and make

cemetery arrangements. By the time they
sat down and started making arrangements
with families on the funeral side—the front
end of the equation—they had an implicit
knowledge of and appreciation for the value
of the other parts of the business. And guess
what? Their referrals over to our other parts
of the business were much better than for
people who had not been afforded that
opportunity.
There’s a huge investment involved in
doing that, and we haven’t always been able
to support it. I’m a big advocate for it, though,
because I think the results over time outweigh
the short-term cost of doing it, and it’s the
only thing I’ve ever found within our industry
that makes a great difference.
We have a lot of combined staff meetings.
We have a lot of tours over at the cemetery
to show funeral directors what’s new. Scatter
Day is a great example, actually. Most of the
people staffing Scatter Day for the hundreds
of families that come in are funeral directors.
That’s because it’s on a Saturday, which is
a busy day in the cemetery, so my cemetery
staff is busy doing their normal jobs. We free
up enough funeral directors to come over and
give them some quick training.
To a person, the funeral directors who
participated the first year came away saying
how their perspective of the cemetery and the
importance of memorialization of cremated
remains changed. That’s not something we
planned on happening, but it did, so now
we’re deliberately structuring future Scatter
Days to be handled by our funeral directors.
In other words, anything you can do to
make your people see the other side of the
equation is great.
You’ve said that you think cremation is great
for cemeteries because there’s so much
they can do in terms of memorialization
options, no matter how little land they have
left, but that it has caused a drop in revenue
for funeral homes. How are your funeral
homes addressing this?
It’s been an earthshaking change for funeral
homes because their revenue stream has
been completely upturned. For cemeteries,
especially smaller cemeteries or cemeteries
without a whole lot of undeveloped space,
cremation is the salvation. It’s turned a
dwindling future into, if not an eternal future,
then at least a long run of sellable space. And
you can do awesome things, very high-end,
profitable things, with cremation space.
➤to page 38
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 37

We do have cameras in all of our arrangement rooms—in all parts of our business.
It’s a health and safety and security issue. Death can bring out every fracture in a family and in
an individual’s personality. And the cameras also provide a phenomenal training opportunity.
➤from page 37
The challenge is getting people into your
cemetery. If we’ve done a good job and
people come into the cemetery, we’re very
confident we’ve got ’em. They are going
to want to stay, because we can offer them
things they’ve never even seen or imagined
before. You can’t do that with a grave. How
exciting and cutting-edge can you get with a
grave? But you certainly can with cremation
space, indoors and outdoors.
But what about the funeral side?
On the funeral home side, we’re doing two
things. We’re trying to train our people out
of the habit that many of them got into of
hearing “cremation” and immediately going
to, “Well, this family doesn’t have a lot of
money or doesn’t want to spend money, and
so they just want direct cremation.” In some
cases, we’ve essentially told them that’s all
they need.
We all come into our lives and careers
with our own internal biases. We’ve had
a lot of funeral directors who had terrible
cremation contract averages. We can track
averages by service type and everything else
in our system, and can see they’re terrible
on the cremation side and great on the non-
cremation side. Some of their peers are the
opposite, or do really well in both.
We’ll ask them why their averages for
cremation services are so much lower, and
when they finally get honest, they say, “I
really don’t agree with cremation,” or, “I
don’t see any value in it, so when I hear
‘cremation,’ I just immediately go to direct
cremation, no service.”
So we need to get the funeral directors
past that initial hurdle mentally.
The next thing we want to do is say, “Wait
a minute. Cremation isn’t final disposition.
It’s body prep, just like embalming and
casketing is.” If you treat it that way, all the
services, all the pageantry, all the ceremony,
all the bells and whistles, everything right
down to the funeral coach, is equally valuable
and applicable and healing to the family
choosing cremation.
The only thing you’re not selling is a
casket; you’re selling an urn. There is an
average revenue drop just because of that,
but if you illustrate correctly to families how
38 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
important ceremony still is, that can be the
same. When we do that, guess what? The
average contracts are not that divergent;
they’re very close.
Then we want to take it one step further
and realize that within our family of
companies we also have the best cemetery
in town, so let’s get people over to Sunset
and help them see that putting Dad on
the mantelpiece is not the best choice,
it’s not a final resting place or permanent
memorialization. Encourage them to at least
give Sunset a look before making a decision.
If that happens, we’re golden. We might
have lost some money from selling an urn
instead of a casket, but then again, maybe
not. If you do your job right, it’s not as earth-
shaking as it could be. But we have to get
people past their own internal biases, and then
we have to cross-train the heck out of them.
Do you train people to do arrangements
a particular way? Do you use a script? I
believe I’ve heard you say that you record
all arrangements.
Number one, we’re a Graystone client, so
we use Graystone’s Cycle of Excellence. All
parts of our business use Graystone as their
customer service metric. Graystone sends
surveys to all our families, and we have all
their data. It’s phenomenal data, and we can
compare against other companies.
This provides the rubric or matrix that
we train to as far as how you move through
an arrangement, whether it’s a cemetery
arrangement, a pre-planning arrangement, a
pet arrangement or a funeral arrangement.
We don’t use a script in the sense that
it says, “The next words you have to say
are this, and you have to say exactly this
sentence.” We give them a call guide or
an arrangement guide. “You need to make
sure you cover these steps, and ideally and
roughly this order. If you go out of order but
you still cover them all, that’s OK—just make
sure to address each of these topics.”
This allows the funeral director, family
service consultant or pet memorial consultant
to insert their own style and personality into
it, but still cover the same ground.
We do have cameras in all of our
arrangement rooms—in all parts of our
business. It’s a health and safety and security
issue. Death can bring out every fracture in
a family and in an individual’s personality.
We’ve had fistfights in arrangement rooms.
We’ve had threats to our staff—not because
we were doing anything wrong, but because
people were hurting and upset and angry, and
they didn’t know who else to lash out against.
Sometimes people walk into a location off the
streets and we don’t know why they’re there.
The cameras offer protection for our staff,
and they appreciate that.
The recordings also have protected us on
more than one occasion when a family has
come in and accused us of saying X, Y and Z
and demanded something. Sometimes people
back down right away once they’re reminded
everything is on tape.
And the cameras also provide a pheno-
menal training opportunity. Every single
arrangement is on live video. I can sit
at my desk, or at home, and watch live
arrangements happening in any of our
mortuaries, the pet business, the pre-planning
business or the cemetery. The only ones I
can’t see, obviously, are the ones happening
in somebody’s home.
The video is recorded, so we can play it
back for the consultant or the funeral director
in a one-on-one training session later and say,
“OK, you did this great; I love how you did
that. I’d actually like you to train the rest of
our staff on how you did that. But did you see
how you keep doing this and you don’t even
notice you’re doing it, but when you watch
yourself on tape, you see it?”
Too often, you train people to do
something, and your expectation is everyone
is going to cover it with every family. You
ask them afterward, “Are you covering
it? Because your numbers haven’t really
changed.” “Oh, yeah, I’m covering it.” And
you just have to take them at their word.
Or you sit in on some arrangements with
them. Guess what? They’re on stage at that
point. They’re going to cover it, because
you’re sitting in there with them. That’s
artificially induced compliance.
Going over the video, what I’ve found in
most cases is that people aren’t lying—they
desperately think they’ve covered what
they’ve been told to. They truly believe, “I
covered that. I covered the memorialization at
Sunset, Chris. I do it with every family.” But
then I watch a video or two or three of their
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arrangements, and they might ask, “Have
you decided where you’re going to place
the cremated remains? Oh, OK.” And then
they move on. That’s not covering it, but
they feel they’re being honest when they
tell me, “I addressed the issue.”
So the videos are fantastic training and
development tools.
I assume you have notices up, but people
tend to forget the cameras are there, as
we’ve seen with reality TV.
We have signage upon entering the
building, and also in all arrangement
rooms. “These premises are videotaped
for your protection and ours.” These days, and pet cremations.
every business you walk into has cameras.
It’s not a legal issue per se, but we want
people to know.
A lot of people get twitchy in our
industry and say, “There are private things
being discussed and we can’t videotape
that.” That’s bunk, because the same thing
happens in banks, schools, hospitals—there
are private things being discussed and they
have cameras. The video is protected and
confidential.
We also have cameras in our crematory
and our care center. God forbid if there’s ever
a mistake made in that crematory, we want to
be able to look back and see how and when
and where it happened and who did it.
Or what if somebody breaks into the
building at night? If there’s one place we
want a security camera, it’s the crematory—
and the care center, where the loved ones in
our care are housed temporarily.
So we have cameras everywhere. Our
staff got twitchy about them for about the
first month and then forgot they were there.
We did have to remind them not to change
clothes in the arrangement rooms: “Remem-
ber, you’re on camera.” That happened more
than once, but other than that, we’ve never
had issues with it, despite predictions to the
contrary from people both within and without
our company.
I think it must be tough to be in that position
of making arrangements day in and day out revenue drain on the mortuary side, this is
and constantly second-guessing yourself
about what to say, how to say it, what order
to say it in when you’re trying to make a
connection with cremation families.
Yes, and I think how to do it varies. Number
one, it varies from family to family how you
approach it, so I don’t think there’s a set piece nicely finished room with a full retort in it.
way to do it. Number two, I think it varies
from one region of the country to another.
40 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
Two of the seven retorts at Sunset Memorial
Park, which has separate facilities for human
And number three, it varies from company
to company based on how comfortable they
are and how immersed into the cremation
world they are. And do they have their own
crematory? We do all of our own cremations,
and we don’t do any trade work.
If you’re an owner of or a funeral director
at a facility that does not have its own crema-
tory, I can understand you not really liking
crema tion very much, because it’s not only
cutting into your revenue stream, it’s also
adding to your liability, because that body has
to leave your chain of custody. If something
goes south down the chain, you’re going to
be in the accountability loop and get sued as
well, which is why we won’t do trade work.
From the minute we pick that loved one
up at a hospital or at a nursing home or in
somebody’s home, until the minute they’re
in a niche, in the ground or handed back to
the family to take home, they never leave our
care. They are in our chain of custody the
entire way.
That’s a distinct value-add, and some-
times we forget how important something as
simple as that is, how unique it is, in some
cases. One of the things we train our funeral
directors on is mentioning value statements
that are differentiators. This makes working
with cremation families easier, more robust.
Going back to your question about
something that doesn’t come up much. Not
every company has the ability to do this,
but 12-13 years ago, we invested in having
another crematory retort placed immediately
off the front of our chapel. So at the front of
our chapel, behind double doors, there’s a
We offer cremation witnessing as one of our
core services.
This gives us a wonderful ability to
capture back some of that revenue lost
due to cremation if we can help a family
understand the beauty and value of
cremation witnessing.
When I started 12 years ago, we
probably did one witnessing every two
weeks, and we felt OK about that. My
biggest challenge at that point was putting
enough cremation cases through that retort
to keep the core temperature up but not
thermal shock the floor.
Today, we’re doing at least four a week,
sometimes two in a day. In those cases, we
have to do one fairly early in the morning,
hustle, cool that machine down as best we
can and warn the family who comes late in
the afternoon, “The machine’s going to be
warm, because it had a case earlier today.”
Every time we do a cremation witnessing,
there’s a significant service that’s being
added—those are really powerful services.
And the beauty of it is, where is it happening?
It’s happening at Sunset Memorial Park,
because that’s where the crematories are, in
our chapel mausoleum. So in order to have
their cremation witnessing, they have to
come into the cemetery, and while they’re
there, they can see a lot of the incredible
memorialization we’re offering.
The other thing it allows us to do is we
serve the marjority of the Hindu and Buddhist
population in Albuquerque, because most
of them are cremations and we’re the only
organization in town that offers a place where
they can have a full service with the monks
chanting and the incense burning for hours.
Then, at the prescribed time—it is very
prescribed—we open the doors and take the
body into the retort.
So it’s allowed us to serve the immigrant
community in a very profound way, and
many of them end up memorializing at
Sunset. Some people send the cremated
remains back to India or Vietnam or
wherever, but typically, at least in our
communities, they want an in-ground
burial for the cremated remains and they do
memorialize.
I could walk you through the cemetery
and point out clamshell containers that
each contain a piece of fried chicken and an
orange, all over the cemetery. Every one of
those is a Buddhist family.
How many retorts do you have?
We have four human retorts and three pet
retorts, and one of them is a big five-chamber
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 MANAGEMENT
pet machine. We handle about 6,500 to
7,000 pets a year. They’re all located on the
cemetery campus, but they’re in separate
facilities; they not connected at all.
When did French start adding pet services?
We’d been talking about it for several years;
there had been a lot of noise about it in the
industry. We were approached by a mom
and pop pet cremation business. They were
working themselves to death and didn’t want
to do it anymore. So they sold us the whole
book of business and the name, which was
Best Friends Pet Cremations.
The pet business has a section of our
administration building, its own arrangement
rooms and a small selection room. We built a
pet retort facility, because their machine was
really old. We invested a lot of money to get
the business up to our standards.
One thing I’ll tell anyone who’s consider-
ing opening a pet business is don’t start from
scratch; buy somebody out, if you can. The
reality is, in most cases, the majority of your
business is going to come through vet clinics,
and they have no desire to change—you can’t
get past the gatekeepers. They’re all about
keeping the pet alive, and once it’s dead, they
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just want disposal. They also don’t want to be and I asked about the profitability. We had to
sold to. develop the data, and it turned out the more
Because we bought an existing business, pet cremations we did, the lower our profits.
we were probably serving 3,000 to 4,000 We were losing money.
families immediately. There was a problem, We had seven staff members on the pet
though. Most of the cases were coming from side; I cut it down to three, and we fired some
one specific client, a huge marquee name— clients. By fired, I mean we priced ourselves
what a great client to have, we thought. But out of their business. I told them, “We can’t
they do nothing but communal disposal. do this profitably on what we’re charging
There is no memorialization. No one gets you, so this is the new price.” They took their
remains back. business elsewhere, which was fine, because
We were doing more and more pet that was my intent.
cremations—the number of cremations was We rebuilt the pet side of the business. We
going through the roof. When I came in, we dropped down to about 2,500 cases about six
were two or three years into the pet business, or seven years ago, and since then it’s been
January 2019 41

The transfer van for French’s Best Friends
pet service features the uplift logo promi-
nently.
The separate pet section at French’s Sun-
set Memorial Park also features colorful
cremation memorialization options as well
as ground burial. Above, the entrance. Be-
low, a niche wall. People who are cremated
can choose to be placed with their pets.
42 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
growing by double-digits every year. We’ll did have, it was tough to make an argument
probably handle close to 7,000 pets in 2018. that we were making any money with the
Is most of your pet business still from monument business, and some years we flat-
veterinarians? out lost money.
We kind of considered it an internal
More than half. Sixty to 70 percent of the pets
service we needed for our own families, but
in our cities die at a vet clinic—that’s just a
we weren’t even charging them appropriately.
fact. However, we’re increasingly developing
We were producing custom granite memori-
relationships with some of the clinics. Their
als and having them at graveside three days
people are learning to really trust us and
after the cemetery arrangements, so at the
realize that we will serve our mutual client in
time of the graveside service that brand
this part of the business better than they can.
new marker was already on display, which
In a lot of vet clinics, they basically make
is unheard of. Most of the time it’s a matter
the arrangement. They say, “Here are the
of weeks or months before that monument
options you have with cremation. You can
is ready, so we were providing phenomenal
have a communal, a private or a private with
service, but we never charged a premium for
witnessing. And here are the three customized
it. No wonder we were losing money.
urns you can choose from.” And that’s it.
We pared down the staff and got it to the
I’d rather have that family come into our
point where we were breaking even, but we
offices and talk to our staff, who can show
were never going to make much money. It’s
them or tell them more about what we can
a fundamentally different kind of business.
do for them. And invariably, our contract
Inventory control alone is a nightmare when
averages will be higher, because if the
you’re getting your stone from India and
families see what we can do, they want it.
China. What’s “just-in-time” ordering when
Some of vet clinics are realizing that if
you’re talking about a rock shipment from
they refer their client to us, Best Friends
India? That’s a year’s worth.
will come free of charge and pick up the
We also worked with a local monument
pet. And if the family contacts us directly or
company, so we approached them about
even makes arrangements with us online,
handling all of our monument business. We
the family is better served. The feedback
told them what we expected as far as service
we get from families is that they’re happier.
and worked out an arrangement. They took
Increasingly we’re getting clinics to do
over all of the monument business, and I’ve
that, and we work out different kinds of
never been happier.
compensation arrangements.
Literally the month after we shut down
Most cases still come through the vets, but
our monument company, we started making
we do have more and more people coming
money on every monument we sold. And
to us directly, having heard about us through
they turn them around fast. They take care of
word-of-mouth. Some people come to us at
us—we’re their biggest client. So it’s been a
Best Friends because French has handled
great partnership.
three generations of their human needs, and
I know some people who have monument
once they learned we have a pet crematory,
companies and make money doing it—I’m
where else would they go?
not saying it can’t be done. I’m just saying
And a lot of people come to French for
that was never going to be something our
human arrangements because we’ve helped
organization was going to be able to do well.
them with three or four pets. So for us, that
angle to why you need to add a pet business I do know of some companies that have a
in our industry is absolutely true. Regardless, monument business. There are also some
as a stand-alone business, it’s profitable now, that sell flowers, and others that say, “I
and growing faster than any other part of our do not want the headache of dealing with
business. flowers, and we have a great relationship
with our local florists.”
What about the memorial business?
I don’t know of an organization that makes
We closed our monument company. It was
money on selling flowers. I’m not saying
a hard thing for us to do, but we came to the
they’re not out there, but I’m not aware
realization that we’re not a manufacturing
of them. Some think providing them is an
business; we’re a service business.
important service for families, even if they
The financial data we kept, as is the case
don’t make any money doing it.
in many businesses in our industry, was not
very good. But based on the financials we Some companies want to diversify, get into
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A Facebook posting for one of French’s
Wine & Peace of Mind seminars. These
seminars generally result in all attend-
ees setting appointments with a pre-
arrangement counselor.
A visitor with one of the actors dressed
as life-sized green army men for the
Memorial Day living history observance
at Sunset Memorial Park. The French
companies advertised the event by
having some of the green army men
deployed in temporary displays around
Albuquerque.
44 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT
related businesses.
Or they might not have any other options in
their community, so having their own flower
shop allows them to make money because
they can offer things that wouldn’t otherwise
be available. I get the mechanics of how it
can work. But I think in more cases than not,
it’s almost a loss leader they feel they have
to continue.
We used to make our own vaults for
the cemetery. We lost money; we’re not a
manufacturing business. We closed down
our concrete shop and started buying them,
and our profits at the cemetery went up.
I do know of a funeral business that has
a monument company, a flower shop and a
concrete shop, and I think they’re making
money on at least some of it. It can be done,
but it’s a lot of work, and in some cases, it
detracts from your core business and your
“why,” which is helping people through
grief and memorializing. That’s what we do,
and the rest of it’s just tangential.
For these other things, we can partner
with somebody who’s better at it, and serve
families even better by focusing on our core
competencies and not trying to be a jack of
all trades.
One thing that is key for the success of
both funeral homes and cemeteries is
community outreach. You’ve done a lot
at the cemetery, with your Memorial Day
program and Scatter Day, for example.
What about at the funeral homes?
Our pre-need seminars, “Wine and Peace of
Mind,” have been hugely successful. Nobody
wants to go to a mortuary. We partner with
some places to provide different venues
where people can gather and hear a pre-need
funeral presentations. We offer a wine and
cheese tasting while they listen, and people
love it. Almost every event ends up having
a 100 percent appointment-setting rate.
Everybody who attends sets an appointment
to meet with our pre-need counselor.
The mortuaries tend to try to connect
into their local communities, and we also
do things Albuquerque-wide or New
Mexico-wide through French Funerals and
Cremations as a corporation. We give a lot
of money away.
I love how philanthropic this organization
is, not only in treasure, but also in time. All of
our senior leadership serves on multiple non-
profit boards and in organizations like Rotary.
That’s pretty common in our industry, but I
have never seen an organization that does as
much of it or expects as much of their people
as we do.
Our local mortuary managers get really
close to the churches, community groups,
nursing homes in their area. They offer lunch
and learns and trainings and tours. We do the
same thing in the pet business, offering lunch
and learns and training opportunities and
tours for vet clinic staffs.
Community involvement in all parts of
our business, not only events at Sunset but
targeted outreach, helps us make sure we’re
the trusted name in this community. We have
by far the greatest top-of-mind awareness,
and we don’t want to lose any of that. Our
competition does good things, too, and
they’re going to do everything they can to
erode our market advantage, so we’ve got to
stay ahead of that.
Your Scatter Day event is so interesting.
When I started at the ICCFA (1999), it
seemed like cemeterians didn’t really
want to think about scattering, scattering
gardens, anything that would encourage
scattering in any way, shape or form. That
mindset does seem to be changing.
Not fast enough. And the reason they didn’t
want to encourage scattering is because they
saw it as a zero-sum game: If I mention
the possibility of scattering and the family
chooses it, that means I’ve lost an in-ground
burial space, or a niche. So why would I
shoot myself in the foot by mentioning
something where the profit is so much less?
But the reality is—and it hit us between
the eyes like a 2 x 4 on Scatter Day—it’s
not that equation at all. More often than
not, people are taking cremated remains
home. Sometimes it’s because they just
aren’t ready to let go yet. Sometimes they
don’t have the money right then to purchase
cemetery space. Sometimes they want
to scatter somewhere, because that was
important to Dad.
All those things are legitimate, and they
were the reasons cited by people telling us
that Scatter Day wouldn’t work. But we
found that by talking to the people who
came to our cemetery for Scatter Day, the
vast majority—it would say 80 percent of
them—explicitly said their reason for taking
the cremated remains home and not doing
anything with them was that they didn’t
know what else to do. They didn’t know
about the options.
Cemeterians have to realize that they’re
missing out on talking to the cremation
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 MANAGEMENT

Our first Scatter Day added 400 names, 400 families who now have a legacy connection to Sunset.
That’s 400 we didn’t have the previous month. Tell me how that’s not absolutely beneficial.
families—the majority of them—who walk
out of the mortuary and never even talk to
a cemeterian. You’re never hearing from
them; you don’t know they exist. And guess
what? They don’t know you exist, either.
So if we have to give away free cemetery
scatterings to get the tens of thousands
of people in Albuquerque with cremated
remains at home on the mantel or in the
basement or wherever to come to the
cemetery, we’ll do it to get a connection
with those families.
If a family comes to the cemetery, gets
their free scattering of Dad’s remains and his
name inscribed for free on the wall, doesn’t
buy anything, what do we now have? We
have their contact information in our system.
They now have a loved one with a final
resting place and memorialization at Sunset.
When another family member dies, they’re
not going to keep those remains at home
for years. They’re going to come to Sunset,
because Dad is there.
Our first Scatter Day added 400 names,
400 families who now have a legacy
connection to Sunset. That’s 400 we didn’t
have the previous month. Tell me how that’s
not absolutely beneficial.
I’ve been hearing more about the need for
post-need marketing to cremation families
who haven’t memorialized, and this sounds
like an effective way to address that.
That is exactly what this is. We still want
to work with funeral directors to encourage
families during the at-need arrangement to
go to Sunset and look at what’s available,
but for the majority of people who walk
out of the mortuary and never go to the
cemetery, the only way to reach them is
through post-need marketing or a post-need
event, which is Scatter Day.
Do you anticipate Scatter Day being an
annual event?
Yes, for the foreseeable future, until it be-
comes no longer relevant. The first year
(2017), it was new; it was revolutionary;
it freaked everybody out. There was a lot
of buzz about it—we got a lot of media
attention.
In 2018, once we began advertising it, we
started getting a lot of calls. We encouraged
people to set an appointment and come in on
any day. We didn’t push everyone to come
on our official Scatter Day, because we
knew there would be enough people coming
to keep us busy. So we decided to spread out
the volume and honor the free scattering and
memorialization offer the month prior to the
official day.
In fact, we honor Scatter Day almost
all year long. If somebody calls me in
December and says, “Remember that Scatter
Day thing? I was going to go, but then I
was out of town that day. When is the next
one?” We won’t make them wait till next
year. We’ll tell them to come in and we’ll
honor the offer, because we want to make
the connection.
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A Facebook ad (top) and billboard (above) promoting Scatter Day followed
the formula of lots of white space and a short, punchy message.
Scatter Day helps families, promotes
memorialization and builds heritage
Editor’s note: Sunset Memorial Park/French
Funerals & Cremations’ Scatter Day received
a first place ICCFA KIP Award in the event
category. Vice President Chris French
provided information about the event.
I
n 2017, French Funerals-Cremations &
Sunset Memorial Park decided to begin
the process of actively changing the
conversation in the culture with regards to
cremated remains. We wanted an event that
we could “own,” that would be exclusive to
us, and on a day where it was not competing
for air time and attention with other events.
Saturday, August 26, 2017, was chosen to be
the first Scatter Day at Sunset.
Scatter Day was designed and advertised
as a day when anyone in the community with
cremated remains at home could bring them
to Sunset Memorial Park and scatter them for
free. What’s more, every individual scattered
on Scatter Day would be memorialized in
stone or brick at the cemetery, at no charge.
Two different scattering options were
offered to each family, the Rose Garden
scattering area, or the Kiva Ossuary. Three
different memorialization options were
offered at no charge to families—a brick
paver near the Kiva Ossuary, a name
46 ICCFA Magazine
The ossuary in Sunset’s kiva (below) was
one of two options offered to families for
free final disposition of cremated remains.
The other was scattering in the Rose
Garden section (above). Both options
included a memorialization inscription.
Some families, seeing the other cremation
options available at Sunset, opted to pay
for an upgrade, with the value of the Scat-
ter Day offering applied to their purchase.
MANAGEMENT
way down, we might not even give up on it
then. Maybe we’d just try to find a different
way to advertise it.
Keep in mind that every single French
family already gets the opportunity to come
to Sunset and scatter and memorialize for
free. Every one of them receives a coupon.
I know our funeral directors are giving out
the coupons, because the crematory won’t
accept a case unless paperwork is attached
showing that the coupon was delivered.
They have to attach a copy of the signed
certificate that they gave the family.
So we’re offering this all year long. But
Scatter Day is an attempt to clear a backlog,
in effect.
Where do you think the best hope lies for
the profession thriving in the future?
This sounds like shameless kissing up, but I
do think that the ICCFA as an organization
has the most impact on the industry as a
whole. It provides a forum for people to
talk about all these issues that the other
organizations don’t.
I think somebody is going create the
secret sauce or figure out a little bit better
way to connect the funeral and cemetery
sides of cremation, and when that happens,
our world will get a little easier.
But I also think the picture’s not as
gloom and doom as it was 10 years ago.
Most mortuaries have had to reconstruct
their revenue stream. The survivors that are
still standing are starting to figure it out, and
those that didn’t survive sold out.
The other interesting thing is certain
communities or areas of the country where
the cremation rate is still not that high are
learning these things at an earlier point than
we did. They have the advantage of our pain
and can make changes ahead of the curve.
Some of the guys I know in Salt Lake
City, where they’re still maybe only 35
percent cremation, are building cremation
gardens. We didn’t even think about doing
that until we were at 50 percent. They can
be proactive. The rest of us were too late
and had to be reactive. They have the ability
to go in and own cremation in their market.
We’re having to claw it back.
I guess this is another one of those “Is
it a challenge or is it an opportunity?”
moments.
Oh, it’s an opportunity. I’m not trying to
be Pollyanna, but there are nothing but
opportunities. The pain’s already been felt.
There’s nothing but upside now, I think. r
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Free scatterings include memorializa-
tion on a cenotaph panel in the Centen-
nial Urn Garden (above) or one of two
other places in the cemetery.
One reason for offering free scatter-
ings on Scatter Day was to give French
employees the chance to show people
the many options for memorialization
available to cremation families, includ-
ing photo plates (above and below).
48 ICCFA Magazine
S C AT T E R D AY
Far more families that we expected chose to upgrade
and pay for a more elaborate inscription,
a cremation niche or some other type of property option.
inscribed on the Rose Garden cenotaph wall,
or a name inscribed on the cenotaph panels
in the Centennial Urn Garden. For families
bringing in pet cremated remains, we offered
free scattering in our Best Friends Forever pet
ossuary, and engraving on the granite pavers
surrounding it.
To show families the free options being
offered to them, we would be taking them
on a grand tour of the park, showing them
the beauty and variety of what was available
to them. We informed every family that we
could answer any questions they had about
anything else that they saw, and that if they
were interested in other types of property, that
we would apply the $300 value of what they
were being given for free against the cost of
that other option.
Far more families that we expected did
just that, and chose to upgrade and pay for a
more elaborate inscription, a cremation niche
or some other type of property option.
Covering legal bases
To mirror our current cremation scattering
process as closely as possible, and to
guard against incurring additional legal
liability, all families coming in to scatter
remains on Scatter Day were required to
complete and sign our standard cremation
scatter authorization form stating that they
were authorized to permanently place the
cremated remains at Sunset.
In any instance where there was any
indication of potential discord or disagree-
ment within the family as to the final disposi-
tion of the cremated remains in question, we
would respectfully decline to allow them to
scatter the remains until those issues were
resolved to our satisfaction. In the two instan-
ces where this issue came up, the cremated
remains were placed into a common crypt at
the cemetery so that they could be retrieved
later if necessary. Both families were thrilled
with that solution.
We also addressed the issue of what to do
with the urns left after the scatterings. About
95 percent of the families chose to leave the
urns with us for disposal. Our commitment
to them was that all biodegradable containers
would be incinerated in one of our retorts,
and all the remains of those containers would
be gathered and placed in the Kiva Ossuary.
All non-biodegradable containers would
be thoroughly cleaned, sterilized, destroyed
and rendered unrecognizable. Any non-
biodegradable urns made of recyclable metals
would be thoroughly cleaned and sent to
our crematory implant recycling partner,
and 100 percent of those proceeds would be
sent directly to a local 501C(3), the Grief
Resource Center, as are all of our implant
recycling proceeds.
Goals
Though we hoped for some of that “upgrade”
business, the priorities of Scatter Day were:
1. Begin to change the conversation in the
culture with regards to cremated remains.
2. Create and own an event and a day in
the community’s mind—build awareness of
the park.
3. Establish ourselves as the experts on
cremation and cremation memorialization.
4. Establish tangible ties to hundreds of
families that we would otherwise have no
tie to. Each is a white-hot lead for future
cemetery sales.
5. Hopefully upgrade enough families to
cover the cost of advertising the event.
6. Do all of this without incurring undue
liability or cost.
Results
The results greatly exceeded expectations.
• We spent a total of about $20,000 to
place three billboards for the month prior, and
to rent three large golf carts to tour families
around the park. Those were our only hard
costs to put on the event.
• The total new revenue directly generated
by this event was approximately $50,000.
• We had over 300 calls about the event
prior to Scatter Day.
• Most individuals showing up for Scatter
Day had multiple family members with them.
We estimate nearly 1,000 people participated.
• More importantly, roughly 400 families
Sunset would otherwise not have served now
have a direct connection to the park, are in
our database and have loved ones’ names
inscribed in stone at the park. We view these
families as 400+ guaranteed future at-need
sales, and every at-need sale carries the
potential for multiple pre-need sales.
The tendrils of this event will extend for
a long time in this community and with our
company. r
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 If crypt flies don’t keep you
up at night, maybe this will.
It’s bad enough that crypt flies are probably inhabit-
ing your mausoleums right now. (Those little guys
love to breed and feed in these sacred spaces.) But it
can go from unsightly to completely unimaginable for
your business. Just see what happened at one location
in an actual newscast at www.ZontecSolution.com.
Zontec is your best defense against crypt flies: safe,
effective, odor-free and operates year-round, used by
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Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 49

by Welton Hong
ICCFA Magazine spotlight MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY
408.982.6096
welton@RingRing How much do you know about marketing
Marketing.com
your business over the internet? Take this fun quiz to find out.
➤Hong is the
founder of Ring You might be surprised by some of the answers.
Ring Marketing, Las
Vegas, Nevada. He
Test your online marketing IQ
W
is an expert in case
generation from
online platforms ith online marketing becoming A) 30 percent
to the phone line. such a critical aspect of pro- B) 90 percent
He is the author of “Making Your Phone moting a death-care business, I C) 50 percent
Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral wanted to find a fun way to point out some D) 75 percent
Homes.”
important facts and statistics about the
www.funeralhomeprofits.com 5. Which of these is not a good way to
industry.
respond to a negative (but generally fair)
➤Ring Ring Marketing offers a Try out this quiz and see how well
review?
comprehensive suite of marketing you do. It’s a little tricky, so if you can
A) Leave a public comment
services, from broad techniques such as correctly answer 20 of the 25 questions,
thoughtfully addressing the reviewer’s
reputation management, pay-per-click consider that an A: Great job! If you get 15
advertising, local search optimization, concerns.
of the 25, we’ll call that a B.
email marketing and website content B) Publicly criticize the reviewer for
If your final score is under 15 … well,
generation, to more surgical tools such being nitpicky.
I’d recommend you study up, because
as geotargeting, remarketing and social C) Reach out privately to the reviewer,
knowing these facts can greatly help your
media marketing. asking if there’s anything you can do to
business in this digital age.
address the issue.
You’ll also find more information about
More from this author D) Sincerely apologize to the reviewer.
each of these questions in the answer key.
about this topic
Good luck! 6. The number of voice queries—
1. What percentage of mobile search searches on mobile devices created
traffic is driven specifically by Google (as specifically by speaking rather than typing
➤Hong will speak about “The three online opposed to Yahoo, Bing or other search the search—increased how much from
marketing fundamentals you must master” engines)? 2008 to 2017?
at the ICCFA Convention in Charlotte,
A) 50 percent A) 250 percent
North Carolina, April 2-6, 2019.
B) 28 percent B) 80 percent
iccfa.com/events C) 1,500 percent
C) 77 percent
D) 96 percent D) 3,400 percent

2. Which was the first social media 7. You now see 15 percent fewer
website to reach over 1 billion unique ________ on a Google search results page
accounts? than you did just a couple of years ago.
A) Facebook A) Paid ads
B) Twitter B) Organic (unpaid) search results
C) Instagram C) Display ads
D) Google Plus D) Cat videos

3. What percentage of American 8. What percentage of total clicks do

consumers now say they trust the top five results on a Google search
online reviews as much as personal results page receive?
recommendations? A) 30 percent
A) 15 percent B) 55 percent
B) 80 percent C) 75 percent
C) 45 percent D) 15 percent
D) 100 percent
9. How quickly do users now expect a
4. By 2021, according to comprehensive web page to load?
surveys, how much of an overall marketing A) In less than two seconds
budget will be dedicated specifically to B) In less than five seconds
digital marketing, as opposed to traditional C) In less than seven seconds
channels? D) Sometime in the next 15 minutes or so
➤to page 52
50 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 ONLY YOUR ACCOUNTANT CAN TELL THE DIFFERENCE.

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 MARKETING & TECHNOLOGY

➤from page 50 driven by Google? 21. About 70 percent of companies have

10. When considering results on the A) 95 percent incorporated __________ into their overall
first page of a Google search, how many B) 50 percent marketing strategy.
words does the content in the average C) 35 percent A) Facebook ads
result comprise? D) 100 percent B) YouTube videos
A) About 425 words C) Mobile marketing
16. Of every 100 people who follow
B) About 1,500 words D) Mobile homes
your business on Facebook, how many
C) About 200 words typically see your organic posts (not paid/ 22. Consumers typically spend
D) About 1,000 words not boosted)? ________ more than the average on a
11. How many Americans check their A) More than 80 business that has stellar reviews.
smartphone before getting out of bed? B) More than 40 A) 30 percent
A) About one-third C) Fewer than 25 B) 10 percent
B) About three-quarters D) Fewer than 10 C) 5 percent
C) About two-thirds 17. Using ________ on landing pages D) 25 percent
D) About half will increase conversions by 86 percent. 23. The three most critical letters to
A) Your business logo power website conversions are:
12. Google says the accuracy of its
B) Videos A) CTR
_______________ is now over 92 percent.
C) Spanish translations B) CTA
A) Local search relevance
D) Pictures of puppies C) PPC
B) Online reviews quality
C) Voice recognition 18. How many Yelp reviews are either D) OMG
D) Answers for online trivia four stars or five stars?
24. In a comprehensive survey, 42
A) About one-quarter
13. About half of all consumers start percent of consumers said they wouldn’t
B) About half
mobile research of business services by contract with a business that had an overall
C) About two-thirds
_________. review rating of less than:
D) About three-quarters
A) Using a search engine A) Five stars
B) Going straight to a recommended 19. Videos as short as _______ of your B) Four stars
business website facility and staff can massively increase C) Three stars
C) Checking social media conversions on your funeral home website. D) Two stars
D) Calling a friend for advice A) Thirty seconds
B) One minute 25. How many Americans now
14. How many users said they wouldn’t C) Five minutes commonly access their email accounts on a
recommend a business with a poorly D) Ten minutes mobile device?
designed mobile site? A) 10 percent
A) 36 percent 20. Which of these social media B) 40 percent
B) 14 percent interactions on your platform eventually C) 60 percent
C) 88 percent results in more traffic for your website? D) 80 percent
D) 57 percent A) Likes
B) Shares
15. When considering all clicks on C) Comments
mobile paid search ads, how many are D) All of the above

Answer key to online marketing quiz

1. D: Google drives a whopping 96
percent of mobile search traffic. Yahoo’s
share is only 2 percent, Bing only 1
percent.
2. A: Facebook was the first to 1 billion
users and had now has over 2.2 billion
users worldwide.
3. B: Four out of five surveyed
consumers say they trust online reviews
just as much as personal recommendations.
4. D: Digital marketing rapidly
continues to increase its share of overall
marketing budgets and likely will eclipse
75 percent in a few years.
5. B: Never take a review personally;
be understanding and never critical,
especially on publicly viewable areas of
the platform.
6. D: Voice queries increased 3,600
percent from 2008 to 2017. Voice is
now one of the most popular ways to do
searches.
7. B: The search results page has fewer
organic listings now, which is why ranking
highly is even more important—along with
adding some pay-per-click ads for better
exposure.
8. C: The top five results get 75 percent
of the clicks—that’s why it’s so important
to be ranked highly against your local
competitors.
9. A: If a web page takes longer than
two seconds to load, the visitor might
“bounce out” and go elsewhere. We live
in an instant gratification world, especially
when it comes to tech.
10. B: It’s about 1,500 words. Google
rewards rich, detailed content, so if you
want to be ranked on the first page, don’t

52 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 MARKETING &
TECHNOLOGY
be afraid to get into the nitty-gritty.
11. D: It was just under 50 percent
according to a 2017 analysis, and given
rising trends in mobile device use, it’s
likely a little over half by now.
12. C: Google keeps improving its
ability to understand voice queries.
13. A: Ranking well in your local
market is also a huge help on mobile,
which is how many people are now
searching.
14. D: It’s critical today to ensure you
have a well-designed mobile site, because
modern consumers expect a smooth
experience on mobile devices.
15. A: That’s not quite 100 percent,
but it’s awfully close: Google crushes
everyone else when it comes to mobile
paid ads.
16. D: In fact, the latest studies indicate
that as few as 2 percent or 3 percent of
organic posts are seen by your followers.
To reach your audience on Facebook,
you need to boost posts or look into paid
advertising.
17. B: Video is rapidly becoming a
massive conversion generator.
18. C: It might seem like a lot of Yelp
reviews are negative, but in reality, 68
percent are positive. In fact, almost half
(48 percent) are five stars.
19. B: Videos only need to be one
minute to greatly increase conversions. In
fact, you don’t want them to be too long,
because people are used to short videos
these days. Better to have several short
videos than one or two long ones.
20. D: All these interaction types can lead
to more website traffic. If you’re promoting
your business on social media, focus on
content people want to interact with.
21. C: Mobile marketing is one of the
biggest current trends, and its influence
continues to grow.
22. A: Excellent reviews can make a
big difference for your bottom line.
23. B: Putting a clear call to action
(CTA) on every page of your website helps
ensure an excellent conversion rate.
24. C: If your business has a lower
overall rating than three stars, you’re
losing out on more than 40 percent of
potential clientele.
25. D: Eight of 10 commonly use email
on a smartphone or tablet—one reason Apply for a scholarship to attend ICCFA University
why it’s important to focus on the mobile fill in an application at www.iccfa.com/scholarships.
experience. r Deadline: February 18, 2019

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 53

by Alan Wolfelt, Ph.D.
drwolfelt@centerforloss.com
ICCFA Magazine spotlight
➤ Dr. Wolfelt is a respected author,
educator and consultant to funeral service.
He advocates for the value of meaningful
funeral experiences in his death education
workshops across North America each
year.
➤ He conducts an annual training for
funeral directors on creating meaningful
funeral ceremonies.
More from this author
➤ Dr. Wolfelt’s annual training program on
creating meaningful funeral ceremonies
will be February 4-7, 2019, in Scottsdale,
Arizona. For more information or to receive
a descriptive brochure, call the Center for
Loss at 970.226.6050, email Dr. Wolfelt
directly or go to the website for information
about this program or others being held at
different locations.
www.centerforloss.com
54 ICCFA Magazine
S E R V I C E T O FA M I L I E S
Funeral directors are often urged to evolve.
What about cemeterians? Australia’s Southern
Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust has been listening to families
and making sure it meets the needs of today’s families.
Transforming the power and
purpose of cemeteries, part 2:
More lessons from Down Under
I
n the May 2018 issue of ICCFA
Magazine, I presented an interview with
Jane Grover, CEO of Australia’s Southern
Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust (SMCT), in
which I sought to find out how her cemetery
organization is reinventing itself to exceed
contemporary families’ expectations, meet
their essential mourning needs and thrive.
I received many responses to the article,
and it was clear readers wanted more
information. So I asked Jane some additional
questions and am happy to share her answers
with you here. Let’s listen and learn.
Where do you find the right staff members
to offer more customized and meaningful
service experiences?
We deliberately recruit for values and look
for team members who display empathy and
have a service orientation.
We look for talent broadly and don’t focus
on hiring from within. We then develop
and train new team members on “the way
things are done around here.” However, team
members’ personal values are also central to
providing care and compassion.
You stated you wish to create a “bespoke,”
or customized, experience for the families
you serve. What sort of employee orientation
and training do you use to achieve this
result?
SMCT always starts with our operating
philosophy: The customer is at the heart of
everything we do. We take an enterprise
approach, understanding that every touch
point in the process impacts the customer
experience.
In our trainings, we focus on all the major
touch points, getting the basics right. Our
people must be aligned to the right roles.
Our processes must support the employees
and customers. Our employee values must
be clearly articulated. It all boils down to
keeping the customer front and center.
However, the tone and the leadership
of any organization is central to lifting
the service, setting a new horizon and
sustainability. Without the fundamentals of
leadership, any organization will drift.
How do you measure client-family
satisfaction, and what do you learn from
this process?
We collect data from two significant touch
points, and this is used to improve and
enhance service.
We use iPads throughout our locations
to capture around 500 customer surveys a
month. We have very good data to identify
trends, make decisions and target feedback
that needs more exploration.
Our latest Net Promoter Score (NPS),
which measures how likely a family is to
recommend the services of this organization,
is 78.
Twice yearly we also conduct a Net Easy
Score, which asks partner funeral directors
how easy it is to do business with SMCT. Our
latest score was 83.
Funeral directors in communities you serve
rely wholly or in part on SMCT to provide
facilities and cremation services. Why don’t
these funeral directors perceive you as a
competitor?
Some funeral directors may see our services
as competition, but most see them as
complementary. There is definitely a clear
delineation between the services that a funeral
director can provide and what SMCT is
allowed to provide.
As a purposed organization, we provide
free pauper burials, children’s graves at cost
and free interment of veterans’ ashes as well
as many more services that commercial
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 S E R V I C E T O FA M I L I E S

Our culture is now customer-driven, not product-driven. This was a major change.
Importantly, we looked outwardly, listened, harvested ideas and challenged
our beliefs of what a 21st century memorial park should be.
—Jane Grover, CEO of Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, Victoria, Australia

Left, Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries

organizations would not provide.
There must always be a balance about
the kind of society we want and providing
for those in our community who are less
fortunate.
In the US, I have witnessed that many
people in funeral service are slow to change
and meet the needs of today’s families, who
are questioning the value of funerals. Are
some folks in death care threatened by how
progressive you are in making changes and
adapting to the new customer?
The training that you facilitated in Scottsdale,
Arizona, reinforced the importance of
change. As has been said of evolution, it is
not the strongest species that survive nor the
most intelligent, but the most responsive to
change.
When it comes to innovation, SMCT
looks externally, not internally. We challenge
our dominant logic about the sector and who
we are as an organization.
Cutting prices is a clear race to the bottom,
and no one benefits. When you cut costs
and services, the community is impacted
by unreconciled grief, the funeral directors
devalue the services they provide and the
suppliers suffer from lower revenue.
Our increased visitation, favorable
feedback from our customers, strong NPS
and significant increase in revenue offer
powerful evidence that we are on the right
track. These measures clearly indicate that
the community values the changes we have
made, and they are demonstrably responding.
Please tell me more about your food and
beverage service. How important do you
think the food and beverage element is to
your overall strategy of bringing people into
the cemetery?
Customized, licensed food and beverage is a
critical component of our brand experience
and an expression of care, love and cultural
identity. All of our service offerings are
available 365 days a year.
We operate in the experience economy, so
this is one of our platforms to connect with
our multicultural communities’ customs and
traditions. Funeral directors appreciate the
range of menu options because the families
they serve have so many choices.
Our cafés connect families, providing a
Trust’s function team. Above, some of
the food served at the cemetery café.
place to rest, reflect and share stories. They
also help us build long-term relationships
with the community.
Many people come to our cafés regularly
just to dine. Our facilities are also used
by local businesses during non-core
operating hours, building relationships and
demystifying the cemetery and funeral sector,
which has long been steeped in secrecy.
Please tell me more about the “solace
rooms” in your facilities.
The solace rooms at Bunurong Memorial
Park offer a quiet place for contemplation,
meditation and prayer. With the global
increase in spirituality versus religion, they
are spaces to pause, reflect and reorder one’s
thoughts and emotions.
We observed that many people would
sit and reflect on the loss of a loved one, so
we wanted to ensure that we offered choice,
care and compassion. The solace rooms also
have facilities for hand- and feet-washing, so
customs and traditions are preserved.
I’m honored that you have taken a number
of quotes from my writings and placed them

56 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”

The solace rooms at Bunurong Memorial Park offer a quiet place for contemplation,
meditation and prayer. With the global increase in spirituality versus religion,
they are spaces to pause, reflect and reorder one’s thoughts and emotions.
—Jane Grover, CEO of Southern Metropolitan Cemeteries Trust, Victoria, Australia
Solace rooms where people can go for quiet reflection.
on the walls in your arrangement rooms.
Can you help my readers understand the
purpose of this and what the response has
been?
“Death ends a life but only alters a
relationship, moving it from one of presence
to one of remembrance.” This is one of my
favorites.
Your quotes emotionally connect the
family to our organization, and this underpins
our philosophy of care, compassion and
companionship. It is a clear message to the
family that we are here for them and this is
their journey.
We also have many of your books in our
library at the Centre for Care and Wellbeing,
and they are always checked out.
In the space of only three years you have
increased revenue by 50 percent. Tell me
more, please!
Our narrative is that we are here to support
the living. This is a significant pivot from
“burying the dead.”
Springvale, our flagship cemetery, has
more than two million visitors a year. There
has been fantastic support for the change
from Trust Chair Sue Renkin.
58 ICCFA Magazine
S E R V I C E T O FA M I L I E S
We have invested in people and infra-
structure, developing multi-use assets
(shared platforms) in line with the
global conditions reflecting the shared
and experience global economy. The
organization is now working as an
enterprise, so we are getting amazing results.
Our people and capabilities underpin our
Funeral directors at Bunurong Memorial Park.
growth and service philosophy.
The organization is clearly focused
on our purpose and on enhancing the
service experience. We understand that the
community’s expectations have changed.
Service and experiences are valued.
We have been working tirelessly with
the multi-cultural communities, developing
reflection spaces, tailoring cultural food
and beverage offerings, adding florists and
more. We continue to review and improve
our products.
Our culture is now customer-driven, not
product-driven. This was a major change.
Importantly, we looked outwardly, listened,
harvested ideas and challenged our beliefs of
what a 21st century memorial park should be.
Where do your ideas come from for your
various initiatives? Consumer focus groups?
Internal staff? Outside of death care?
Our strategies and initiates are from
multiple sources. We have a community
advisory committee composed of a broad
spectrum of the people.
We also look externally. The entire
organisation contributes; we do a lot of
listening and harvesting of ideas. And
we are currently working with Monash
University for the next two years on some
very exciting consumer insights projects.
Looking back on the changes you have
made in the last four years, are there
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 S E R V I C E T O FA M I L I E S

lessons learned, and is there anything you

would have done differently?
Words can be misinterpreted. Always check
for clarification and understand that change
in a traditional sector is hard. If you do not
explain your strategy or direction clearly, then
maybe someone else will fill that vacuum and
may misrepresent your purpose or intentions.
Second, it’s essential to educate the
community in understanding the “whys” of
funerals. They underpin our purpose, and
focusing on the whys earlier in our journey
would have made our road easier to navigate.
But when you are forging a new path,
there are always challenges that go with
the territory of leadership.
Where do you see SMCT five years from
now?
Our new vision statement gives us direction:
“Our beautiful, iconic locations empower
The witness cremation viewing room at Bunurong Memorial Park, one of the rooms
all communities to honor and celebrate life.
where the cemetery has included a quote from Dr. Wolfelt on the wall.
We support the living throughout their grief
journeys through our innovative approach of to my questions and informing my readers future as you provide leadership to other
personalized care and compassion.” as you look to the future. I’m honored organizations who choose to innovate, not
Jane, thank you very much for responding to provide consulting to you and SMCT. evaporate. I look forward to returning to
I admire your strategic approach to the Australia in the near future. r

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by Roberta Knauf, CPLP
ICCFA Magazine spotlight GRIEF THERAPY DOGS
dogguru@gmail.com
➤Knauf chairs Whether you’re enthusiastic or wary about the idea
the ICCFA’s Pet
of having a grief therapy dog at your funeral home or cemetery,
Loss Professional
Alliance, and you first need to know what you’d be getting into.
formerly co-chaired

What to consider before

the PLPA Education
Committee.
➤She is a
consultant for
funeral homes
getting into the pet
adding a grief therapy dog
loss industry or (Editor’s note: This article is excerpted
considering adding a grief therapy dog to
from a presentation Knauf gave at the
their business. She has run pet funeral
2018 ICCFA Convention & Expo.)

businesses for funeral homes and has
worked with trained grief therapy dogs.
➤She has been in the retail pet industry
since 1982, owning and operating retail
stores as well as a boarding kennel,
day care and training facility. She is
accredited to give the AKC Canine Good
Citizen exam, and is an evaluator for
Therapy Dog International Inc.
More about this topic
➤Therapy dog organizations that can certify/
recertify dogs and provide insurance:
http://deltasociety.org
http://tdi-dog.org
http://therapydogs.com
T
his is a very passionate subject for
me. My entire life, I’ve had dogs,
trained dogs, worked with dogs. I
lost Tara, a black Labrador, more than two
years ago. She helped me train Willow, who
works at Schoedinger Funeral Home in
Columbus, Ohio.
Before you decide to introduce a therapy
dog at your funeral home or cemetery, I
think it’s important to know about the pros
and cons, to know exactly what you’d be
getting into if you do it.
I’m going to start by giving you a little
bit of history about therapy dogs. Dogs have
had many, many jobs over the years. They
were used for hunting. They helped farmers.
They became companions. In other words,
dogs have a lot history of being important
to people.
Dr. Boris Levinson, the man who Knauf has had several grief therapy dogs
became known as the father of pet therapy, over the years, including (clockwise from
had his office at his home. One day, top left) McKenzie, Nika, Tara and “Re-
his patient was a 9-year-old who was mie” (Remington), her current dog.
uncommunicative. He left the room for a But the validation eventually came
few minutes, and when he came back, he from Alan Beck and Aaron Kushner, a
found his dog, Jingles, was there with the psychologist and a psychiatrist. They
boy, and they were communicating. did more research and followed up with
Levinson started using Jingles in his medical studies.
practice, documenting what he did. He sent They found that a dog’s presence
the information to the American Psychology could lower a person’s blood pressure. It
Association and they laughed at him. They calms the person’s breathing and releases
asked, “What percentage of your fee is oxytocin, the “happy hormone” drug in our
going to the dog?” But he didn’t give up. brain that makes us feel good.
Levinson started Delta Society, a very well-
known therapy dog group. Basic questions
Years earlier, Sigmund Freud had said There are a number of different types of
he believed dogs have a special sense that working dogs, including police dogs, bomb-
enable them to judge a person’s character, and sniffing dogs, service dogs trained to work
he used his dog, Jofi, in his work. Florence with people with certain disabilities and grief
Nightingale had also recognized the healing therapy dogs.
power an animal companion could have. Service dogs are defined as dogs that are

60 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
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 GRIEF THERAPY DOGS

You’ll need a full-time person to handle the schedule, because you should be taking that dog
to every hospice, every nursing home, to reading programs for children. You should be using that dog.
individually trained to do Every one of your
work or perform tasks for employees needs to know
people with disabilities. what rules are, and what
The tasks an individual commands to use. It’s not
dog does are geared to the fair to the dog to have
type of disability. There one person say “sit,”
are guide dogs, which while another person
most people think of as says, “sit down.” The
seeing-eye dogs; hearing- dog is thinking, “Do you
assistance dogs; seizure- want me to sit, or do you
alert dogs; dogs that want me to lie down?”
help diabetics; mobility- Everyone needs to use the
assistance dogs; dogs exact same commands.
for people on the autism How will you handle
spectrum. The late Derek Flynn, who attended many ICCFA meetings, shows his ability liability?
What is a therapy to resist a treat, even one balanced on his nose, until told by his handler it’s You need liability
dog? OK to eat it. Like all well-trained therapy dogs, Derek also remained calm coverage. You need to
A therapy dog might when handled by people of all ages, coming at him from all directions. contact your insurance
be trained to provide company and let them
affection and comfort to people in hospitals, walking with a cane. know what you’re doing. In recent years,
retirement homes, nursing homes, hospice, They have to be able to be hugged. They some companies have been started that do
schools, airports and funeral homes. These have to be able to be bumped from behind. nothing but insure dogs.
are dogs whose sole purpose is to provide To a dog, being bumped from behind means Should you get a puppy or a rescue
comfort and emotional support. that someone wants a fight, so they have to dog?
How will the dog be trained? be taught that a bump from behind is not As I said before, temperament is the most
Therapy dogs need to have a very threatening. important thing when you’re looking for a
specific temperament, or personality. If They have to be able to tolerate being therapy dog. The fact is that while puppies are
we’re helping someone get a therapy dog, petted by several people at the same time. wonderful—they’re cute, they’re loving—
the first thing I tell them is they have to The advantage of having your dog you can’t guarantee what their temperament
know the dog’s personality. certified is that they carry insurance on your is going to be.
They have to be calm. Therapy dogs dog and they require you to be reevaluated Puppies go through what we call a fear
usually can be certified at a year of age, but as the dog gets older. My dogs have to be imprint stage at about five months of age.
if you’ve got a Lab, as I do, you know that recertified every two years. One time I was training a puppy for a funeral
at a year old, he’s still going to be jumping Some organizations that do certifications home. The puppy was about five and a half
around. are TDI, Therapy Dogs and Pet Partners months old and came from a breeder who
They have to have a gentle temperament. (originally Delta Society). had produced a long line of service dogs and
They have to be well-trained and obedient. Where will the dog stay? therapy dogs.
They have to obey commands such as “sit,” Will your therapy dog go home with you, I was in the funeral home with the puppy
“down,” “stay,” “come to me” and “leave stay at the funeral home or live with one of and a gentleman came in wearing a hat and
it,” and they have to be able to walk nicely your employees? If with an employee, what a big, long overcoat. The puppy approached
on a leash. happens if that person leaves? You’ll need to him to greet him and the man started making
One of the most important commands put something in writing to make sure that dog sounds.
I want my dogs to know is “leave it.” If employee does not take your therapy dog That was the end of that puppy’s future as
someone drops something on the ground, with them if they leave. a therapy dog. He never got over it—anytime
such as an aspirin or another pill, you want How will you handle the dog’s work a man with a hat or coat walked in, the dog
the dog to leave it alone. They have to be schedule? turned and ran.
trained to leave food alone, as well as to If you have multiple facilities, how are I know puppies are adorable, but they’re a
accept a treat without biting. We teach the you going to transport the dog back and lot of work—it’s like having a child.
dogs to very gently accept a treat. forth, and who’s going to do it? You’ll need There are several advantages to going
Therapy dogs have to tolerate clumsy to keep a schedule, because you’ll find that with a rescue dog. Number one, if you want
handling. They have to remain calm if people your therapy dog is going to be in demand, a purebred Labrador or golden retriever
are yelling—you know that’s something that not only in your funeral home but also in the or whatever, there are rescue groups that
can happen at your funeral home. community. specialize in that breed.
They have to stay calm if approached Who will make sure your employees are Number two, a rescue is usually past that
by someone whose gait is a bit off, who’s trained? fear imprint stage. A dog trainer can evaluate

62 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 GRIEF THERAPY DOGS

routine visits to the veterinarian.

Knauf’s dog Tara helps out in the mer-
chandise selection room. Therapy dogs
can “take the edge off” not only during
services and visitations but also during
the arrangement process.
the dog and help you decide, along with the
shelter workers, if he would be a good fit as a
therapy animal. They’ll be able to tell you if
he’s a fearful dog, if he guards his food.
Can you afford a canine employee?
In addition to insurance, you need to plan
for the other costs of maintaining a dog.
I got this number from the American Pet
Products Institute, and I thought it was kind
of funny. I didn’t let my husband see this,
because we spend a lot more than this every
year on my dog, but they say that annual
expenditures are $4,300. Food, toys, dog
bed, collars, leashes, preventative medicine,
If you have to go to the emergency vet
clinic on a Saturday or Sunday, before that
vet even sees that dog, it’s going to be $400
or $500.
At least now health insurance is available
for dogs, which didn’t exist when I first
started with therapy dogs. Pet insurance is
well worth it.
Benefits and liabilities
A therapy dog not only is a great comfort to
at-need families, she can help with pre-need,
too. Some of our pre-need people mention
when they’re making an appointment to talk
to a family that we have a therapy dog, and
are asked to bring the dog with them.
A therapy dog is an ambassador for your
company. You’ll find that if you add one to
your staff you’ll need a full-time person to
handle the schedule, because you should
be taking that dog to every hospice, every
nursing home, to reading programs for
children. You should be using that dog.
Your dog has been trained to work,
and she wants to work. We have the grief
therapy dog in the funeral home office,
available to be there for people when they
come in to make arrangements.
You can hold an event at your funeral
home or cemetery designed to draw pets
with their owners, including people who
maybe would not come to your property for
any other reason.
If you have a cemetery, you can start a
club and invite people to bring their dogs
with them to go for walks in the cemetery
with your cemetery’s dog. Grief therapy
dogs are also phenomenal to have with you
Therapy dog musts:
• Has a calm demeanor
• Has a gentle temperament
• Has an affectionate personality
• Is well-trained and obedient
• Enjoys being around people
• Obeys basic commands (sit,
down, stay, come)
• Walks nicely on a loose leash
• Responds politely to distrac-
tions
at the grave site.
We had a “Howloween party” at one
funeral home. A funeral home might not
have the property that a cemetery does, but
it does have a parking lot.
The one objection I always get to having
a therapy dog at a funeral home or cemetery
is that some people are allergic to dogs. But
people aren’t allergic to dog fur, they’re
allergic to the saliva. So if the dog is well
groomed, and the dog is trained not to lick
you, you’re not going to have a problem.
Our dogs are well trained and
maintained, and they go into hospitals
and hospices. At Children’s Hospital in
Pittsburgh, we put a t-shirt on our dog.
Liability is a huge issue, and it was the
main reason I wanted to address this topic. I
see more and more facilities adding therapy
dogs, and I wonder if they’re aware of the
potential liability.
A colleague recently told me this story,
and gave me permission to share it. They
have a pet funeral home, and their dog had

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been going in for years. One day, he was
sleeping in his bed and a woman came in
who perhaps was intoxicated—she was
weaving back and forth. She saw the dog,
ran over to him, got down and hugged him.
The dog reached up and bit her—seven
stitches. Their insurance company paid the
woman $30,000—and then canceled their
coverage.
This is why I worry about the dogs that
are going into funeral homes.
We love them, but dogs are dogs. This was
a perfect case of a dog doing something he’d
never done before. Who knows—maybe he
had a sore spot and she happened to touch it.
What if your dog has an ear infection and a
child reaches down to pet him?
We recommend that you take your grief
therapy dog in to your veterinarian for a
wellness checkup every six months.
The impact dogs can have
I’m going to tell you a couple of stories that
illustrate why I think these animals are so
important to our industry.
I had my black Labrador, Tara, at a funeral
where there were two boys, about 14 and 10.
Every once in a while, the 14-year-old would
come over and say, “I think Tara needs to go
for a walk,” and I would say “OK.” He would
take Tara out and they’d walk around the
funeral home for a few minutes. He did that
about three times.
His father told me that the deceased was
the boy’s mother and said he hoped I was
OK with the boy taking the dog out. I said,
“absolutely.” He said he had realized that
every time his son started to get choked up
and feeling he was going to cry, he would
get the dog and go outside, because he
didn’t want to cry in front of all his friends
and family.
Another time, I was with Willow at her
first outing as a therapy dog. She’d done
beautifully in our funeral homes, but this
funeral was going to be held in a church,
and I was very nervous.
The funeral was for a man who had been
in his early 40s and who left a 5-year-old son.
As soon as we entered the church, the little
boy ran over and started hugging and pulling
on Willow, and she did great. Willow and I
sat down and the boy came over to ask if he
could take her up to see his daddy.
I said yes, but let me go with you. So
we all went up to the casket, but he wasn’t
talking to me, he was talking to the dog.
He told Willow about all the things in his
64 ICCFA Magazine
GRIEF THERAPY DOGS
Robert Knauf’s late grief therapy dog
Tara helped her train Willow (above) for
Schoedinger Funeral Home and its pet
division. A grief therapy dog can be an
ambassador for your organization, and
is a sure-fire attention-getter at events.
daddy’s casket—the hunting knife, a picture
of him—and about his daddy.
Then when his preschool teacher came
in, he ran up to her and dragged her over
to Willow and said, “You have to see the
special friend who came to my daddy’s
funeral—this is Willow.”
I originally thought Willow and I would
be there for maybe 15-20 minutes, but we
ended up staying for the entire funeral,
because this little boy wasn’t about to let
Willow go.
He asked his teacher if Willow could
come to school so he could show all his
friends “Daddy’s special friend.” About two
weeks later, I called the school and asked
if they’d like Willow go come in, and they
said, yes, “that’s all he talks about.” So we
went to the school and he told all his friends
about his father’s funeral and this doggie
who was there.
It gets even better, because a few weeks
later I received a beautiful card in the mail
from the boy’s mother telling me that her son
constantly talks about his special friend that
came to his daddy’s funeral. And she said,
“Roberta, his entire life, when he thinks about
his father’s funeral, he’ll think of Willow.”
Grief therapy dogs do make an impact.
They are so loving, so giving, that they just
take the edge off.
One time I had a strange request: The
funeral director told me the family wanted
me and Tara to be in the receiving line with
them. Normally, we just mingle. I asked
why they made the request, and he said it
was because it was a case of suicide, and
the parents wanted Tara and me to provide a
distraction.
People don’t know what to say, especially
in this type of tragedy. So we were there with
the family members and people would say,
“So sorry for your loss” and then start asking
about the dog. It was amazing.
The funeral director was so smart to do
this—people wanted to move quickly through
the line and find out about me and the dog.
Choosing, certifying a dog
When I evaluate a shelter dog, I take a trainer
with me, or I get whoever has been working
with the dog at the shelter, and we take the
dog outside.
I set down a bowl of food and reach
for it to see how the dog reacts. I have a
noisemaker I use to see how the dog reacts to
a strange noise. He can jump, but I don’t want
him to flee. I usually try it more than once.
I take my grandchildren to see how the
rescue dogs react to children.
Sometimes shelters call me and say
they have a rescue that would make a great
therapy dog—I keep a list of people who
are looking for one.
The therapy dog organizations have
annual dues, usually only $20-$25 a
year, and usually do the reevaluations at
a discount. It’s not expensive to have a
therapy dog organization certify your dog.
The training for a therapy dog usually
involves an eight-week course, if you’ve
got a dog with a good temperament who is
obedient—responds to commands such as
“sit,” “down” and “stay” and can walk on
a leash.
The course training includes practical
experience. We take the dogs out into
public areas to make sure of how they’ll
respond. That eight-week course will run
you about $150.
The certifying organization you choose
will generally have an evaluator in your area,
and a couple of them now offer video courses
online. After your dog is evaluated, he gets
his patch and vest.
Grief therapy dogs can do a lot of
wonderful things—they’re here to stay. But
before adding one, you’ve got to give a lot of
thought to what’s involved. You’ve got to be
willing to do the training, invest the money
and invest the time. r
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by Daniel M. Isard, MSFS
1.800.426.0165
danisard@theforesight
companies.com
ICCFA
Magazine
spotlight
➤Isard is president of
The Foresight Compa-
nies LLC, a Phoenix-
based business and
management consulting firm specializing
in mergers and acquisitions, valuations,
accounting, financing and customer
surveys.
➤He is the author of several books,
and frequently speaks at industry conven-
tions.
More from this author
➤Educational information, including
copies of this article, can be found at
www.theforesightcompanies.com
➤You can follow Isard on Twitter at
@f4sight, LinkedIn and “like” The Fore-
sight Companies on Facebook.
Editor’s note
The Cemetery Impossible column is
written by the staff of The Foresight
Companies. If you have a question
you want to be featured in this
column, please send it to danisard@
theforesightcompanies.com. Dan
Isard or a member of his staff will call
you to get more information and a
recommendation will be provided via this
column, helping not only you but also
others who are facing similar challenges.
66 ICCFA Magazine
MANAGEMENT: FINANCES
Cemeterians who wonder whether they have enough money
in their endowment care funds are right to be concerned.
Following state law on trusting
won’t secure cemetery’s future
Dear Dan,
I have a lot of questions about the perpetual
care (aka endowment) trust funding for
my cemetery. My cemetery is a 100-year-
old cemetery with about 80 percent of the
available land sold. The trust funds are
invested in an income-focused trust, trying to
protect the corpus of the trust. It seems like
this fund would not be sufficient to fund my
cemetery maintenance and care by itself. Am
I doing something wrong?
Worried
Dear Worried,
The simple answer is, no. Understanding
perpetual care trusts (PCTs) involves complex
math. Each state created its own cemetery
law. As part of the rules and regulations,
cemeteries that are mandated to be or have
chosen to be perpetual care ones take some of
their sales revenue from interment rights and
contribute it to a trust.
The requirement for the deposit could be a
percentage of the sale or a flat dollar amount
per square foot. Different states have different
requirements for the amount of the deposit.
The PCT is separate and apart from the
owner’s assets. However, the owner/operator
of the cemetery has the right to manage the
PCT. The only limitation might be state rules
or regulations on the investments. With that
being recognized, the problem is not your
management. The problem is each of the
items I mentioned above.
The single greatest issue is the state
depository requirement. This amount is
arrived at by legislative compromise, not
by analytical calculation. This is the same
problem we have nationally with Social
Security, where we arrived at a deposit
amount without regard to the cost of
benefits.
Compounding the issue is the interest
rate assumed. When the market credits an 8
percent interest rate for simple investments, a
trust provides much more income than when
interest rates (as we have seen from 2008 to
2018) were in the 2 percent range.
Another common issue is the trust’s
investment advisor. How competent are they
to make recommendations for this type of
investment result? In my mind, PCT money
should be invested to protect principal and
provide income. Any growth of the principal
is a secondary issue.
Remember, the interest income will come
out of the trust to the operator. So the trust
corpus grows primarily by new deposits,
not from the investments. We don’t want the
principal to decrease due to under-performing
investments.
Remember the PCT’s purpose: providing
an investment base to cover the costs of
maintaining the cemetery after there is no
longer income from sales. If the trust is
not sufficient to provide the income for the
maintenance, bankruptcy is a possibility.
The costs the income from the trust must
cover include:
• Care and maintenance
• Staffing to provide the care, including
benefits and insurance for the staff, or fees for
staffing provided by contractors
• Staffing for customer service, as needed
• Property insurance
• Repairs to assets, including roads, water
systems and other utilities, including water
• Maintenance and replacement of
any equipment that is going to be used to
maintain the property
Try this exercise: Add up the costs of
these expenses (the ones I just listed) in your
current operations. Assume two grounds
people, one office person. This could add
up to $200,000 a year in minimal overhead
expenses. How much principal would you
need to earn this amount of income?
What makes this a more difficult funding
exercise is the fact that costs increase over
time. What might be $200,000 in 2020
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 MANAGEMENT: FINANCES
could be $300,000 in 2050. Yet once active today and do the analysis shown above. Then
sales cease, there is no chance of having plan out for the date in the future that your
the trust principal grow to cover these cost trust will be fully subscribed. Ideally, the PCT
increases. must be overfunded when sales end. This will
allow the income earnings from the trust to
Interest Principal cover the costs described above. Any excess
rate required earnings are retained by the PCT, increasing
1% $ 20.0 million the corpus or principal of the trust
There will come a time when the income
2% $ 6.7 million
provided by the trust will be inadequate to
5% $ 4.0 million cover the expenses of maintaining the ceme-
7% $ 2.9 million tery, requiring you to invade principal. But in
many states, an invasion of principal is not
How can you possibly plan to have allowed or is subject to severe scrutiny. Ulti-
the right amount of money in the PCT? mately, the cemetery will be turned over to
Depending on whether your rate of return is the sovereign as set forth in that state’s laws.
very high, very low or somewhere between, I predict that in the future, long after
the amount of money you need in your trust I’m gone, every state will own countless
can vary by 900 percent. cemeteries and not know what to do with
The first thing this profession must agree them. States will be burdened with cemeteries
on is that if you follow state law as far as they don’t have the budget to manage.
how much you place in trust, you’re doing I have been involved in more than 100
the minimum required, not what is realistic in sales, purchases or financings of cemetery
terms of what will be needed to maintain your acquisitions. Not one of them involved a
cemetery in perpetuity. cemetery with only a few years of active
Maybe we should all look at our trusts selling remaining. No one wants to be left
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com
holding a cemetery with less than 40 years of
inventory remaining. No one wants to own
a cemetery with no active sales taking place.
The PCT will be inadequate to meet future
needs. People don’t buy a liability.
What needs to be done
The cure is a tough one.
1. Change the laws in each state and
make the deposit requirement to the PCT be
mathematically computed.
2. Require every perpetual care cemetery
to demonstrate that their trust is funded
beyond the state minimum, to cover the
future costs.
I realize that with cremation rates rising
and the interment/inurnment rate of cremated
remains still at less than 50 percent (meaning
fewer sales), this is a tough time to increase
the cost of cemetery space. But the longer this
adjustment is put off, the bigger the problem
will be in the future.
As I said, you didn’t do anything wrong.
Interest rates, state trusting requirements and
a host of other factors are conspiring against
your future. r
January 2019 67
by ICCFA Magazine columnist
Todd W. Van Beck, CFuE
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
vanbeck@
guptoncollege.edu;
toddvanbeck@ No one starts out as a great communicator; it’s a learned skill.
gmail.com
It will be humbling process, but there are things you can do
ICCFA
Magazine to find out how well you communicate and how you can improve.
spotlight
➤Van Beck is one The 2 1/2-minute manager
How to get feedback about
of the most sought-
after speakers and
educators in funeral
service. He is the director of continuing
how well you communicate
I
education for John A. Gupton College,
Nashville, Tennessee.
t seems safe to conclude that, as the enough to you to be able to observe
www.guptoncollege.edu
great Alvin Toffler once said, “As your communication skills, or the lack
➤Van Beck is dean of ICCFA University’s technology skills go up, people skills thereof, on a regular basis, and who will
College of Funeral Home Management
go down.” be truthful. This takes guts to do, but the
and received the ICCFA Educational
The college where I am located payoff is tremendous.
Foundation’s first ever Lasting Impact
Award in 2014. in Nashville has hired a new English Years ago, I was giving a seminar, and
professor. This young man is a good the audience looked like I was making
More about this subject fellow, with a sincere spirit and, clearly, them sit through an insurance seminar—
➤Previous articles in this series can be a deep interest in the well-being of his you know, bored to death.
read online by members in good stand- students. After the seminar was completed, I
ing. Go to www.iccfa.com under ICCFA I know he has a deep interest in his asked a trusted buddy who was with me
Magazine. students because he admitted to them in what the problem was. He blurted out,
class that he didn’t know anything about “You talk too fast—slow it down!” I was
More from this author funeral service, and asked the students stunned. I had never realized that I was
➤In Van Beck’s new what they thought would be important in rambling on at lightning speed in my
book, “Exploring the an English class in a mortuary college. presentations.
Heart of Funeral Ser- It was excellent question, and for this I took this feedback seriously and
vice,” he explores topics reason: I have observed that the skills intentionally slowed down my delivery.
pertinent to funeral com
and abilities that up-and-coming funeral The change did have a positive impact on
munications and funeral
service counseling.
students possess concerning basic human how I was received.
www.amazon.com communication has changed over my Ask three people you trust how well
career, and not always for the better. they think you are doing. Chances are they
I remember making hires in my will have stored up several observations
➤Van Beck’s book cemetery work of pre-need counselors who they will share, just for the asking.
“Reverence for the Dead: simply could not keep eye contact with the The key here is in the asking. Be
The Unavoidable Link,” client when the important presentation of specific with your feedback requests so
addresses in detail the final arrangements was being made. your friends will be the same with their
ethical standards of car- Certainly there are those naturally feedback. This might be hard to handle;
ing for the dead and the gifted communicators who just breeze don’t react defensively when you hear
ethical consequences of through the day with one conversation what they have to say.
not doing so. after another, but those gifted individuals Look for feedback by observing your
www.amazon.com
are not what this series is about. audience. Most good communicators
develop into highly observant people
➤Van Beck’s book Ways to improve who care deeply what the people they’re
“The Genius of Frank
your communication communicating with are actually getting
E. Campbell,” is the first
biography of the famed In pondering this topic of human out of what they say.
funeral director, probably communication, I have arrived at several If you are a keen observer of your staff,
the most famous and fa- suggestions that might prove useful in our your family, your audience—whomever
miliar name in the history continued quest to relate with other human you are trying to communicate with—
of the funeral profession. beings, create meaningful relationships you will rarely have to ask for feedback.
www.amazon.com and, yes, even close a sale! Here they are, You will get it loud and clear through
in no particular order. non-verbal communication, minimal
Have the courage to ask for feedback. encouragers (shaking the head, etc.) and,
Hopefully you have several people close if your listeners get up and leave while

68 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 PROFESSIONAL
DEVELOPMENT

Be specific with your feedback

requests so your friends will be
the same with their feedback.
This might be hard to handle;
don’t react defensively when
you hear what they have to say.
you’re talking, that’s the most honest
and direct feedback about how your
communication is being received.
Many people are afraid to acknowledge
such feedback for fear of what they will
see and experience. The truth is, all human
communication involves a calculated risk.
Recording your voice is an
excellent method of improving your
communication. This is a great way to
check your pronunciation, speed, tone
and vocal variations of your speech.
Experiment with your voice to achieve
new effects.
Also try to use the powerful effect of
silence. A pregnant pause almost always
recaptures a dozing audience’s attention.
One word of caution. When I first heard
my own voice, I was so depressed—I
sounded like second cousin to Dr.
Frankenstein’s monster. You’re been
warned. Be prepared; you’re almost certain
to be dissatisfied when you hear your voice
played back to you for the first time.
Videotape yourself. Almost as great
as the fear of speaking in public is the fear
of seeing yourself on the silver screen—
having yourself videotaped and seeing
yourself on videotape.
To this very day, whenever I see a
recording of myself, particularly when I
am standing up without a suit coat on, I
immediately plan to start on my 10,000th
diet. You might well see mannerisms and
hear speech patterns you never knew you
had!

In conclusion
There is little you can to do change the
communication abilities or lack thereof
of other people, but such is not the case
with ourselves. Every human being has the
ability to be a great communicator.
No one started out in life as a commu-
nication pro. We all had to learn, and
sometimes the learning can be difficult and
humbling, but the effort is well worth it. r

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 69

by William H.
“Bill” Williams
MANAGEMENT
Jr., LFD
ICCFA
Magazine Many things about how things are done in the death care profession
spotlight have changed dramatically. Bill Williams has seen it from both the funeral director
and supplier side, and sees many benefits to how things are today.

Then & now: How death care has

changed (and how it’s stayed the same)
W
ith nearly four decades of experience of friends to celebrate a life well-lived. They may be
Bill Williams then ... in every aspect of the funeral service catered, tailored to the individual’s likes and feature
and now. profession, including ownership and pictures and memorabilia.
Bill.Williams@ management of funeral homes and cemeteries, Bill Another big change has been cremation rates. Today
fsitrust.com Williams, president and CEO of Funeral Services Inc., in Florida, cremation rates are above 50 percent. When
➤Williams is has seen firsthand how dramatically the landscape I started, cremation rates were below 10 percent, and
president and CEO of of death care has changed. He offered to address, in the closest crematory to our home in Pensacola was
Funeral Services Inc. a question-and-answer format, how the industry has Jacksonville—you had to drive five hours away to have
and is vice chairman changed from his perspective and the many strides the a cremation performed. Over the years, more and more
of the FSI Board of Di- death care profession has made over the years. crematories began to open, including my family’s.
rectors. He joined FSI
Tell us about your start in the death care industry. In terms of revenues, today, death care professionals
in 2001 as vice presi-
need to offer new options for families planning their
dent. He was named My career began with operating my father and
loved one’s services. Celebration services open an
president in 2003. grandfather’s funeral home. When I started, I was not
entirely new revenue stream for many funeral homes,
Under his leadership, committed to following in their footsteps; I was still
FSI has expanded to and can be customized to suit the needs of any family,
figuring out what I wanted to do. But I had fun learning
offer services in more providing consumers the additional options they want.
the business side of the operations, and loved being in
than two dozen states
such a personal industry, with all the unique people you When you owned and managed funeral homes and
across the country. cemeteries, what did your day-to-day responsibilities
meet. I’ve been in the business ever since.
➤Williams has experi- look like? How have day-to-day responsibilities evolved
What were the most important skills for a young
ence in every aspect and changed since then?
of the funeral service professional to have then? Are these the same skills
needed today? When I started, my day-to-day mostly consisted of
profession, including
managing staff, and making sure the right people were
ownership and man- Funerals today may be completely different, but the
in the right place at the right time. Another responsibility
agement of funeral same skills you needed 40 years ago are still important.
was being seen by the public and being the face of our
homes and cemeter- That starts with communication. It’s important to present
ies. He began his ca- funeral home. Since then, technology has evolved to
each family with all options, and to guide the family,
reer in the death-care allow you to instantly talk to your employees, giving
based on their input, to make the best choices for their
profession when he you more time to spend with clients.
circumstances.
became a licensed fu- But the biggest change I’ve seen is that back then,
Organization is also very important. When
neral director in 1980. you didn’t have to be a great businessperson to be
organizing a funeral, you have to get the right people
He is a graduate of profitable. You just had to be a great person, to bring
Gupton-Jones College lined up and everything has to be timed perfectly. The
people in the door. You were a funeral director first,
of Mortuary Science in family has to be taken care of, and you must ensure the
who just happened to be in business. Now, you must
Atlanta, Georgia. entire event is on time. No matter how much funerals
be a businessperson first, who just happens to be in the
www.FSITrust.com have changed, you still have to bring people together
funeral business.
and move forward while managing that whole process.
➤Funeral Services Profit margins used to be much higher, and there
Inc., Tallahassee, How have funerals changed, and how has that affected wasn’t nearly as much competition. Today, you have to
Florida, is a trust ad- revenues for death care professionals? differentiate yourself and provide more value than your
ministrator and record- The traditional funeral used to be the most commonly competition.
keeping company with chosen service. That included a visitation, a funeral Tell us more about the changes you’ve seen in
more than 40 years service at a funeral home or church and then a
of experience in the technology.
procession to the cemetery.
death-care profession, Technology has changed the industry tremendously.
Fewer people select that option today. It’s becoming
serving funeral homes, When I first came to work for FSI in December 2000,
more common for families to have celebration of life
cemeteries, asso- less than 10 percent of our clients had a desktop
services instead, which might take place anywhere other
ciations and financial computer. Today, they all have computers.
institutions. than the church or funeral home. These are a gathering
In the past, we spent a lot of time handling logistics

70 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”

But the biggest change I’ve seen is that back then, you didn’t have to be a great businessperson to be
profitable. Now, you must be a businessperson first, who just happens to be in the funeral business.
and paperwork. For example, to obtain the
death certificate, you’d meet with a family,
gather the deceased’s vital statistics, type
everything onto a form issued by the state,
hand deliver the form to the physician’s office
for certification, hand deliver it to the health
department, file it and order copies to give
back to the family. Today, you do all of that
online, and everything is filed electronically.
The concept of pre-need sales has become
electronic as well. Consumers can now do
everything online, and the behind-the-scenes
aspects of managing those contracts can
be completely automated. With the right
technology, death care firms can easily
monitor their pre-need contracts by reviewing
payments, outstanding balances and images
of their actual contracts at any time.
Technology allows death care firms to
more easily provide excellent service during
a time of discomfort and plays a big role in
achieving and exceeding client expectations.
They should be investing in these digital
Gra veliner
S t a n d a r d U r n Va u l t
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com
MANAGEMENT
services, whether it be in-house or with a starting to listen to the consumer. In the
third party. beginning, we absolutely denied cremation
What’s one change you’d like to see the and did everything as a profession to make
industry make in the future? it go away, even though that’s what the
consumer wanted. With celebration of life
I’d like to see the laws that govern our
services, we’re finally listening to what
profession brought up to date. Most of the
consumers want and helping them get it.
laws that control death care in each state are
Another accomplishment that has been
antiquated, written before the internet was
absolutely vital is the unitrust distribution
invented. It’s time we reevaluate the laws and
method, which was officially adopted in the
rules that regulate the profession.
state of Florida for the death-care profession
The laws should recognize the way the
in 2017. FSI worked very hard to promote the
profession operates today, allowing funeral
unitrust, also known as the total return trust,
directors to take advantage of the many
for cemeteries.
benefits stemming from modern communi-
While unitrust was adopted a relatively
cation via email and other means. Instead,
short time ago, we have seen the financial
the current laws, which fail to recognize the
capabilities and performances of many ceme-
validity of electronic communication, often
teries, not just in Florida, increase signifi-
create an environment inconvenient to the
cantly because of it. Unitrust is providing
bereaved.
more money for cemetery maintenance,
What is the greatest accomplishment you and that’s a very promising sign for our
have seen the death care industry achieve? profession and the clients we serve. r
The most important thing is that we’re finally
Ultima Standard
January 2019 71
Supply Line
Cherokee Casket’s new website.
One of Kubota’s new EFI models in its
zero-turn Z700 series of mowers.
READERS: To find the products and
services you need online, go to
www.iccfa.com for the Supply
Link Search Engine, the fastest
way to find the products and
services you need at your funeral home,
cemetery or crematory.
SUPPLIERS: Send your press releases
about your new products and services,
and about awards, personnel changes
and other news to sloving@iccfa.com for
inclusion in Supply Line.
72 ICCFA Magazine
n CHEROKEE CHILD CASKETS,
Griffin, Georgia, has launched a new
website, from which the company’s new
catalogs can be downloaded. The catalogs
available are Volume #10, the child product
catalog; Infant & Child Funeral Supplies
Volume #2, for funeral professionals; and
Cherokee Personalization, complete with
a guide and order forms that can be used
either by the funeral professional or the
family. Thee three catalogs will be updated
throughout the year, with the website offer-
ing easy access to the latest versions. The
highlight of the new catalogs and website
are the personalization options. Embroidery
and vinyl work are being handled in house,
so personalization can be completed in
hours instead of days. Panels and blankets
can be embroidered with names, mono-
grams or with images from Cherokee’s
library. Vinyl lettering or images can be
added to the metal and hardwood caskets or
some styles of vaults and combos.
info@cherokeechildcaskets.com;
1.800.535.8667;
www.cherokeechildcaskets.com
n KUBOTA, Torrance, California, has
added three new EFI models to its Z700
series zero-turn mowers. Kubota has
added the Z751KWi with 48-inch deck,
Z781KWi with 54-inch deck and the
Z781KWTi with a 60-inch deck. The new
EFI models boast a sophisticated electronic
fuel injection system that adjusts the high-
pressure fuel delivery for optimum power
and fuel efficiency, ideal for challenging
conditions and uneven terrain.
The new mowers are equipped with
Kawasaki EFI engines that combine all the
advantages of a fully-integrated electronic
governor (E-Gov) and open-loop technol-
ogy, which contributes to high performance
without experiencing power loss even when
confronted by heavy workloads or uneven
terrain. Other features on the new models
include 24-inch low profile tires for reduced
ground pressure and tire roll, a 3.5 inch
LCD engine monitor and a dial throttle
control for precise engine management.
1.888.458.2682, ext. 900; www.kubota.com
n NATIONAL GUARDIAN LIFE,
Madison, Wisconsin, is offering a new
product, We Remember pages, in col-
laboration with Ancestry. We Remember
is a free webpage that NGL partner funeral
homes can offer the families they serve.
Each funeral home is able to personalize the
We Remember page with their branding and
contact information. it can be used for both
pre-need and at-need families. All families
who are preplanning a funeral will receive
an email to confirm the We Remember
page. Once they complete the confirmation,
they can begin adding stories and photos
about their loved one and share the page
with others to add their own memories. If
the individual is preplanning, they can add
their own stories about their life and com-
ment on what their loved ones are saying.
1.877.402.5900; www.nglic.com
n ARGENT TRUST CO.,
New Orleans, Louisiana,
has added Steve Jackson
and James Breaux to its
executive team as part of
its purchase of Live Oak
Bank’s trust business.
Jackson, based in Wilm-
Jackson ington, North Carolina,
joins Argent as senior vice
president of the company’s
funeral and cemetery division
and will be responsible for
overall management of the
division. Breaux, based in
New Orleans, joins as senior
vice president and national
Breaux
sales executive. Jackson
and Breaux report to Mark Milton, senior
vice president of institutional services, also
based in New Orleans.
Jackson is a Certified Trust and Financial
Advisor, Certified Financial Planner and
Certified Public Accountant and has more
than 30 years of banking, trust and funeral
services experience. Before joining Argent,
Jackson was CEO of Live Oak Trust, a
division of Live Oak Bank. Before that, he
was senior vice president and regional trust
manager for Regions Bank. Jackson earned
his bachelor’s degree in business adminis-
tration from Southern Arkansas University.
Breaux, who has more than 20 years of
banking and trust industry experience, will
be responsible for business development for
institutional trust services, retirement plans
and funeral and cemetery trust services.
Before joining Argent, he was head of trust
sales for Live Oak Bank. Before that, he
was senior vice president and national sales
executive for Regions Bank. Breaux earned
his bachelor’s degree in finance from the
University of New Orleans.
www.ArgentTrust.com
“Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”

n R&S DESIGN GALLERY, Indianapo-
lis, Indiana, has donated a display detail-
ing marble urn design and production to
the National Museum of Funeral History,
Houston, Texas. After R&S President
Rahila Robinson decided to respond to
the museum’s call for supporters, the firm
spent six months designing and revising the
exhibit. The resulting exhibit is a product
showcase that demonstrates to visitors how
a raw material (marble) is transformed into
a jewel-like finished product (keepsake).
The museum display starts with a rough
cut of a marble block and progresses in
stages to a highly-polished work of art.
Text and photos document the process from
start to finish. NMFH President Genevieve
Keeney selected the adult-size Carpel King
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com
S U P P LY L I N E
Gold urn with its distinctive “stripes” for
the niche wall display. For the display case,
four production versions of the Red Onyx
stone keepsake were featured at different
stages of completion. 1.866.763.0485;
www.RSMemorialProducts.com
n HOMESTEADERS, Des Moines,
Iowa, has hired Nicole Henderson as an
account executive. She served for several
years as a customer service representative
and brings extensive financial services
experience to her new role. She will work
with funeral professionals in Alabama, Ken-
tucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia
and West Virginia.
Also Homesteaders recently announced
the winners of its annual peer-nominated
Homesteaders Heroes program. The win-
Above, the R&S Designs urn chosen for the
National Museum of Funeral History niche
wall display.
Left, the R&S display (far right in the photo)
that is part of the NMFH exhibit.
ners were: Sarah Loghry, communications
specialist, Rising Star Award; Kyle Nodurft,
actuarial modeling specialist, Innovation
Award; Lucretia Oakes, assistant manager-
administrative services, Outstanding
Teamwork Award; Dan Lodermeier, vice
president-field sales, Inspiring Leadership
Award; and Tum Buckhouse, technical sup-
port specialist, Enduring Impact Award.
1.800.477.3633;
www.homesteaderslife.com
n UNITY FINANCIAL LIFE INSUR-
ANCE CO., Cincinnati, Ohio, has intro-
duced Unity Rewards. Unity Rewards
is offered free-of-charge to all clients and
their staff members, pre-need insurance
and funeral trust agents. It provides access
to special benefits and features on services
January 2019 73

The first designs in Terrybear’s new
Filigree Cloisonné collection, the Lily
Dragonfly and the Floral Pink.
Terrybear’s new urns in its floral series,
Magnolia Lovebirds and Waterlily Drag-
onflies.
An example of the new seasonal market-
ing images being offered to wholesale
partners by New Memorials Direct.
Funeral Directors Life Insurance Com-
pany was recently named to two lists of
the best companies to work for.
74 ICCFA Magazine
S U P P LY L I N E
like hotels, office supplies, rental cars,
apparel, promotional items and entertain-
ment. 1.877.523.3231; www.uflife.com
n TERRYBEAR, St. Paul, Minnesota,
has launched its new patent-pending
Filigree Cloisonné collection. The urns
are handcrafted with designer wiring to
create beautiful texture and dimension
which is very different from traditional
smooth, polished cloisonné. The first two
designs are Floral Pink, featuring a floral
pattern in shades of pink and violet over
a black background, and Lily Dragonfly,
designed to mimic the peace of a calm
pond with lily pads, flowers, and fluttering
dragonflies over a cerulean background.
Each ensemble is completed with a match-
ing keepsake.
Also, Terrybear has introduced two
new urns to its Floral Urn series, Magnolia
Lovebirds and Waterlily Dragonflies, both
inspired by home décor. The Magnolia
Lovebirds features blooming magnolias
with lovebirds perched on the stems; the
sky-blue background compliments the pink
flowers. The Waterlily Dragonflies features
dragonflies fluttering over waterlilies with
a deep blue background. Both pieces have
gold accents. The hand-painted urns are
made of resin and engrave beautifully.
1.888.588.8767; www.terrybear.com
n NEW MEMORIALS DIRECT, Gig
Harbor, Washington is offering new mar-
keting options for their wholesale part-
ners in the form of seasonal marketing
images. The images are high resolution
and ready for in-house printing. They can
be added to a company’s website or social
media accounts, and options are available
for companies that want to brand them for
their locations. The first images available
were for Christmas. 1.877.995.8767;
service@newmemorialsdirect.com;
www.newmemorialsdirect.com
n FUNERAL DIRECTORS LIFE
INSURANCE CO., Abilene, Texas, has
been named as one of the 2019 best com-
panies to work for in Texas. The awards
program is a project of Texas Monthly,
the Texas Association of Business, Texas
SHRM and Best Companies Group. Com-
panies from across the state entered the
two-part survey process to determine the
winners. The first part consisted of evaluat-
ing each nominated company’s workplace
policies, systems, philosophies, prac-
tices and demographics, and the second
part consisted of an employee survey to
measure the employee experience, worth
approximately 75 percent of the total
evaluation.
The firm was also named by Great
Place to Work and FORTUNE as one of
the 2018 best small and medium work-
places. Great Place to Work, a global
people analytics and consulting firm,
evaluated more than 60 elements of team
members’ experience on the job. These
included the extent to which employees
trust leaders, the respect with which people
are treated, the fairness of workplace deci-
sions, and how much camaraderie there is
among the team.
Also, FDLIC has ap-
pointed Dwayne McGraw
as chief actuary. He earned
a bachelor’s degree in
mathematics and an MBA
from Virginia Tech. He also
holds a master’s degree in
mathematics from North-
McGraw
eastern University, and he is
currently working toward earning a Ph.D.
in business administration from Virginia
Tech. He is a fellow of the Society of Ac-
tuaries, a member of the American Acad-
emy of Actuaries and has completed the
qualification standards to sign prescribed
statements of actuarial opinion.
www.funeraldirectorslife.com
n THE DOMANI GROUP, Orem,
Utah, has chosen INMAN SHIPPING
WORLDWIDE, Cleveland, Ohio, as
their travel plan provider. The Domani
Group is a pre-need firm serving funeral
homes across the U.S.
www.thedomanigroup.com
1.800.321.0566;
www.inmanshippingworldwide.com
n The NATIONAL CONCRETE
BURIAL VAULT ASSOCIATION,
Greenville, South Carolina, recently chose
its executive team for 2019: President
Steve Handley, Handley Pre-cast Systems,
Phoenix, Arizona; Vice President/Secretary
Jeffrey Hardy, Hardy Doric Inc., Chelms-
ford, Massachusetts; and Treasurer Paul
Cooper, Cooper Wilbert Vault, Middle-
town, Delaware. In addition to the execu-
tive team, the board of directors includes:
Mark Bates, Norwalk Vault; Ed Bruns,
Bruns Doric; Brian DeMoss, Chesapeake
Vault; Brett Henery, Wilbert Vault of
Houston; Dave Long, Eagle Burial Vault;
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NCBVA 2018 President Mark Bates
hands over the gavel to 2019 President
Steve Handley.
Blake Swinford, Trigard Vaults; Greg
Tilley, Ideal Burial Vault; Terry Whitlock,
Wilbert Funeral Services; and Jim Wiens,
Doric Products.
1.888.88-NCBVA; www.ncbva.org
n BOGATI URN CO., Sarasota, Florida,
is soliciting recipies for a cookbook be-
ing written by company owner Andrea
Bogard LeBlanc. In early 2018, LeBlanc
attended the funeral for her nephew, a
young college-age student, she learned his
close-knit group of friends had done some-
thing special. As they drove his cremains
back home to California, they picked up
all his favorite foods from his college town
in Tucson, Arizona, and then stopped at
Burger King, his favorite fast food restau-
rant, on the way to the service. His family
prepared his other favorite foods, and that
day guests enjoyed everything from Philly
cheesesteaks to barbeque, baked potatoes,
and key lime pie. This is when LeBlanc be-
gan thinking about how foods bring people
comfort and togetherness in times of grief.
Her book will highlight this phenomenon,
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com
S U P P LY L I N E
and LeBlanc is requesting submissions from
members of the funeral profession. Recipes,
including regional and cultural specialties;
feel-good food stories; tips on preparing
foods for services and/or grieving families;
and any other information related to food
and loss/grieving, are welcome.
“I think the role food plays in grieving
is a special, touching story to tell, and who
better to help me tell it than those working
with grieving families every day?” she said.
“I welcome any information someone feels
compelled to share on this topic and look
forward to reading the emails to come.”
Submissions can be made by email-
ing sales@bogatiurns.com by March 31,
2019. Submissions are not guaranteed for
inclusion, but those that are included will
be attributed to the person or persons who
submit them. By sending a submission it
is understood that Bogati Urn Company
is authorized to use them in the book and/
or for marketing purposes without any
compensation in perpetuity. Entries must
be original, not subject to third-party rights
such as trademarks, trade names or other
intellectual property rights. Entries previ-
ously published or pending publication,
or that violate or infringe upon another
person’s or company’s copyright or other
intellectual property rights are not eligible
for consideration. sales@bogatiurns.com;
www.bogatiurns.com
n The CASKET & FUNERAL SUP-
PLY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA,
Lake Bluff, Illinois, awarded 2018
Lifetime Recognition Awards to Michael
Beardlsey and Bob York at its 2018 con-
vention. Beardsley worked with Thacker
Caskets and Marsellus
Casket Co., and York, who
received the award posthu-
mously, was with StarCorp.
The CFSA also elected
new officers: President
Christopher J. Boots, presi-
dent of C.J. Boots Casket
Co., Anderson, Indiana;
Vice President Michael
Mims, Cherokee Casket
Co., Griffin, Georgia;
Treasurer Jeanette Hiems-
tra, Keith M. Merrick Co.,
Sibley, Iowa; and Immedi-
New CFSA ate Past President Rodney
President Robinson, president of
Christopher
Southern Craft Manufactur-
J. Boots.
ing, Loretto, Tennessee.
Newly-elected directors are Jeanie Turner,
Astral Industries, Lynn, Indi-
ana; Matt Hockett, Prepaint-
ed Metals LLC, Plainfield,
Illinois; and Wayne McIntire,
Dixline Corp., Galva, Il-
linois.
They join returning direc-
tors Kim Graham, Nomis
Publications, Youngstown, Turner
Ohio; Craig Warner, Paragon
Casket, Richmond, Indiana; Scott Jones
Jr., Service Casket Co., Columbus, Geor-
gia; Shannon Robinson, Matthews Aurora
Funeral Solutions, Richmond, Indiana;
Greg Beavers, Wise Products Inc., Honey
Grove, Texas; and Bill Jones, Tiedemann-
Bevs Industries, Richmond, Indiana.
gbuckley@cfsaa.org; 847.295.6630;
www.cfsaa.org r
January 2019 75
Update Send in news about your cemetery, funeral home, crematory or association to sloving@iccfa.com. If you publish a newsletter,
please email a copy to sloving@iccfa.com or mail to: Susan Loving, ICCFA, 107 Carpenter Drive, Suite 100, Sterling, VA 20164.
n PARK LAWN CORP., Toronto, Ontario,
has made a $6.2 million secured debt
investment in Humphrey Funeral Home
A.W. Miles-Newbigging Chapel Ltd.,
Toronto, Ontario. Humphrey has been in
business for more than 135 years. Humphrey
owner and President Kim Hunter sought out
Park Lawn to finance purchase of the busi-
ness when Bruce Humphrey decided to retire.
A licensed funeral director since 1976, Hunter
has been with Humphrey since 1992.
n FOUNDATION PARTNERS GROUP,
Orlando, Florida, has purchased funeral
homes in Idaho, Oregon and Georgia. Her-
itage Memorial Funeral Home & Crematory,
Warner Robins, Georgia, is the second Foun-
dation Partners location in that state, joining
Glen Haven Memorial Gardens in Macon.
Founded in 1994 by Rabun O. Smith, it has
been owned and managed since his death in
2008 by his daughter, Kim Harris. Founda-
tion also acquired Lienkaemper Funeral
Chapels and Thomason Funeral Home and
Crematory, purchased 10 years ago by Gary
and Debby Trick. This acquisition expands
the company’s network in southern Idaho and
eastern Oregon from five to nine locations.
n ROLLINGS FUNERAL SERVICE
INC., Peachtree, Georgia, has acquired
Olthof Funeral Home Inc., Elmira, New
York. Olthof, which was owned by Robert
Olthof, who plans to continue with Rollings,
has served families in New York and Penn-
sylvania for more than 70 years. Rollings
now has more than 25 locations.
n Elizabeth Foss has joined
FINE MORTUARY COL-
LEGE, Norwood, Massachu-
setts, as director of student on the National
services. She has worked in
education since 1996. She
earned her master’s degree
in management from Mount
Foss
Ida College, bachelor’s degree in elementary
education and psychology from Rhode Island
College and associate’s degree from Com-
munity College of Rhode Island. She most
recently spent more than three years as assis- where more improvement could be made.
tant to the department and department chair
of funeral service education while at Mount
Ida College. Additionally, she had co-taught
first-year seminar courses for freshmen at the
college level each fall from 2015 to 2017. She
has received a staff excellence award and an
educational grant from the Bryant University
StarTalk Summer Institute program.
76 ICCFA Magazine
Bruce Buchanan (third from right), owner of Flanner Buchanan, Indianapolis,
Indiana, and the company’s vice president of marketing, Maureen Lindley (left)
present a check to members of the Indy Metropolitan Military Honor Guard,
a nonprofit organization that renders final military honors to all veterans.
IMMHG staff, left to right, are Commander Walt Sherman, Senior Trustee Dick
Braun, Deputy Commander Wes Anderson and Adjutant Ron Montague. The
check presentation at Flanner Buchanan’s Community Life Center as part of
IMMHG’s Annual Gala resulted from Flanner Buchanan’s recent “Day of Giv-
ing” event that raised $15,000 to purchase new honor guard uniforms.
n Angela Hopper, program She worked as triage coordinator, manager
director of the funeral of the communications center and triage coor-
service technology program dinator for Mid-America Transplant Services
at NORTHWEST MIS- in St. Louis, Missouri and donor coordinator/
SISSIPPI COMMUNITY funeral service liaison at the Mid-South Tis-
COLLEGE’S DESOTO sue Bank in Memphis and as funeral director/
CENTER, Southaven, Mis- embalmer and manager of Forest Hill Funeral
Hopper sissippi, has been awarded Home in Memphis.
a doctorate in education Hopper began her educational at North-
with an emphais in higher education from west, graduating with a certificate from
the University of Mississippi. Her disserta- the funeral service technology program at
tion was entitled “Armatures of Success: DeSoto Center. She earned her associate’s de-
Advancing Racial Equity for Funeral Service gree from Northwest and a bachelor’s degree
Technology Students.” in mortuary management and a master of arts
In her job at Northwest, Hopper discov- degree in communications from Lindenwood
ered a disparity between the pass rates of University in St. Charles, Missouri. Her
African-American students and other students professional certifications include the ICCFA
Board Examination stu- Cremation Arranger and Cremation Operator
dents are required to take after finishing the certifications.
program. She noticed that the problem was n David I. Jacobson, founder of CHI-
not just at Northwest, but appeared to be a CAGO JEWISH FUNERALS, Chicago,
national problem. She discovered ways she Illinois, and his wife, Iris, were recognized
hopes will improve students’ experiences at by the Board of Jewish Education at its
Northwest and help them succeed in the fu- annual celebration.
ture. She noted that interviewing students for
her dissertation also helped her identify areas n ALLEGHENY and HOMEWOOD
CEMETERIES, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
participated in the Bells of Peace, a na-
“I have to also recognize my colleagues, Dr.
Keith Reed, Dr. Tonyalle Rush, and Ebone’ tional remembrance of the 100th anniver-
sary of Armistice Day, which brought World
Dukes for giving me valuable feedback on
my work,” Hopper said. War I to a close at the 11th hour on the 11th
day in the 11th month of 1918. The tolling of
Hopper came to Northwest as an instructor
in 2012 and was named program director in the bells honored the memory of those who
served. Several hundred of Pittsburgh’s fallen
2016. Before coming to Northwest, she was
a supervisor in tissue recovery at the Mid- WWI soldiers rest at Allegheny and Home-
wood.
South Transplant Foundation in Memphis.
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 Some jobs require Industry
Knowledge and Experience

Optimized.

TAP INTO the dynamic online supplier network of the ICCFA with the Preneed & Cemetery Care
Fund Management
ICCFA Supply Link. Powered by MultiView, the ICCFA Supply Link is
the premier search tool for your industry. All the products and services
you need, all within the supplier network of the associaton you trust.
is one of them
Start your search at our homepage www.iccfa.com.
CooperativeFuneralFund.com
800-336-1102
Information contained herein should not be treated as investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. This adver-
tisement does not offer or promise to offer tax advice, and as such investors should be advised to consult their own tax advisers regard-
ing the tax consequences of their investment activities. Investment return and principal will fluctuate, so that a client’s initial investment
may increase or decrease. Any investment is speculative and involves a high degree of risk, including the risk of principal loss.

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 77

 UPDATE

HISTORY, Houston, Texas .The event will

be held May 20, 2019, at the Kingwood
Country Club, Kingwood, Texas. The
tournament brings together business execu-
tives and funeral industry professionals
from across the country, all who take to the
greens to raise funds that ensure the growth
and preservation of the museum and its
programs. Go to www.nmfh.org to register.
The National Museum of Funeral His-
tory houses the country’s largest collection
Above left, a double rainbow arcs above the jagged cliffs and dense vegetation of funeral service artifacts and features
of Kalalau, the largest valley on Na Pali (photo by Diane Cook and Len Jenshel). renowned exhibits on one of the oldest
Above right, Nujood Ali stunned the world in 2008 by obtaining a divorce at age 10 cultural customs. Visitors can discover the
in Yemen, striking a blow against forced marriage (photo by Stephanie Sinclair).
mourning rituals of ancient civilizations,
n “Women of Vision: National Geo- Also, Forest Lawn held its 59th annual see up-close the authentic items used in the
graphic Photographers on Assignment” Veterans Day event at its Hollywood Hills funerals of popes and U.S. presidents and
is on display at FOREST LAWN ME- location featuring parachute jumpers, a explore the rich heritage of the profession
MORIAL—PARKS & MORTUARIES, flyover, patriotic music, a rifle salute, an in- that cares for the dead.
Glendale, California. Highlighting the vocation, a color guard and a wreath-laying. n The CATHOLIC CEMETERY CON-
influential photography of 11 award-win- Refreshments were served. The event fol- FERENCE, Hillside, Illinois, recently
ning female photojournalists, the traveling lowed celebrations at Forest Lawn—Cathe- announced its new Board of Directors.
exhibition is on view in Glendale until April dral City amd Douglass & Zook Mortuary. They are: 2018-20 President Richard P. Pe-
7, 2019. The exhibit features nearly 100 Flags were placed around the memorial terson, CCE, CCCE, director
photographs, including moving depictions park by the American Heritage Girls Groop of cemeteries, Archdiocese
of far-flung cultures; compelling illustra- #1212 before sunrise as well as distributed of Seattle; 2018-20 Vice
tions of conceptual topics, such as memory to guests and paraded during the color President the Rev. Msgr.
and teenage brain chemistry; and arresting guard. Each guest was given a commemora- William F. Baver, Th.M.,
images of social issues, such as child mar- tive pin. M.Div., KCHS, CCCE, di-
riage and twenty-first-century slavery. The n Registration is open for the 25th rector of cemeteries, Diocese
exhibit is at Forest Lawn Museum, Forest Annual Charity Golf Classic held by the of Allentown, Pennsylvania;
Lawn—Glendale. Peterson
NATIONAL MUSEUM OF FUNERAL 2018-20 Treasurer Mary J.
Frick, CCCE, executive director, Catholic
Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Miami,
Florida; 2018-20 Secretary Roman F. Sza-
belski, CCCE, executive director, Catholic
Cemeteries of the Archdiocese of Chicago,
Illinois; Immediate Past President Stephen
E. Bittner, CCE, CCCE, president, Cincin-
nati Catholic Cemetery Society, Ohio; Epis-
copal Moderator (2016-19) the Most Rev.
Gerald F. Kicanas, D.D.; Director-at-Large
Eastern U.S. and Eastern Canada (2017-
20) Thomas J. Jordan, CCCE, administra-
tor of Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic
Cemetery of the Diocese of Palm Beach,
Florida; Director-at-Large Midwestern U.S.
(2018-2021) Michael P. Welsh, CCCE,
COO of three diocesan cemeteries in Gary,
Indiana; Director-at-Large Eastern U.S. and
Eastern Canada (2018-2021) Joseph M.
Heckel, CCCE, director of sales, Archdio-
cese of Newark Catholic Cemeteries; and
Director-at-Large Western U.S. and Western
Canada and Oceana, including Australia
A drone photo, courtesy of Rob Winter, of the tour of Gate of Heaven Cemetery,
(2016-2019) Monica J. Williams, CCCE,
Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, which was part of the Catholic Cem-
etery Conference convention. Four different tours and a lunch were provided. director of cemeteries, Archdiocese of San
Francisco, California. r

78 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 BOOKS
Llwellyn tells the story of
Forest Lawn’s early struggles
F
orest Lawn, one of the most famous
cemeteries in the U.S., began its life a
number of years before Hubert Eaton
rechristened it as a memorial park. John F.
Llewellyn, whose father followed Eaton as
CEO of Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks and
who served as CEO himself for more than
20 years, has gone back to the company’s
beginnings to tell the story of its start in
Glendale as a typical upright-monument
cemetery and its difficult early years.
The result, Llewellyn says in the intro-
duction, is “an unvarnished account of the
struggles before Hubert Eaton, as well as
how he gained control.” His research into
that period from 1906 to the 1920s, when
Forest Lawn finally became stable and
financially viable, uncovered an interesting
cast of characters and stories of intrigue,
manipulation and litigation. The story
Llewellyn tells is thoroughly documented
with dates, facts, figures, maps, drawings
and photos and extensive appendices, but it
unfolds less like a corporate history than like
a series of investigative magazine articles.
He takes the reader back to Southern
California at the beginning of the 20th
century and places the beginnings of Forest
Lawn in the context of cemetery development
at that time. Forest Lawn is known for
starting the memorial-park concept, but it did
not start out as one.
Everyone’s heard of the stock market
crash of 1929, but did you know the stock
market dropped by half in 1907 (the year
after Forest Lawn was started)? “An investor
tried to manipulate the copper market and
the Knickerbocker Trust Company failed,”
Llwellyn writes. A recession and lean times
followed, with constant cash-flow problems
as the cemetery struggled to compete with
existing Los Angeles cemeteries and to get
local undertakers to recommend Forest Lawn
to their families.
Charles Blackburn Sims, a pre-need
sales pioneer of pre-need “scientific sales
campaigns,” and Eaton enter the story several
years later. Sims and Eaton contracted to sell
cemetery land for Forest Lawn in 1912.
Eaton stayed after he and Sims split some
time later, and he worked to promote sales by
doing things such as getting testimonials from
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com
“Birth of a
Cemetery: Forest
Lawn Memorial-
Park” by John F.
Llewellyn,
Tropico Press
ISBN:
9780966580174
(trade paperback).
prominent people who had purchased pre-
need at Forest Lawn. Those testimonials were
gathered into a booklet, “The Reasons Why.”
Eaton also proposed sending newslet-
ters to lot owners to let them know how the
cemetery was being improved and beautified,
but gave up the idea when he learned it would
cost $30 to send out 500 newletters.
The latter part of the book covers Eaton’s
increasing involvement in Forest Lawn, as he
developed The Builder’s Creed—his vision
for Forest Lawn, and became more and more
involved with the organization that would
eventually include six cemeteries. Forest
Lawn Cemetery would become Forest Lawn
Memorial-Park and, ultimately, Eaton’s
vision changed the way cemeteries were
designed across the U.S. Forest Lawn is the
resting place for many celebrities and draws
visitors interested in seeing the reproductions
the company has commissioned of many of
Michelangelo’s major sculptural works; many
original sculptures created for Forest Lawn;
a vast reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s
“The Last Supper” in stained glass; a free
museum; a 195-foot-wide panoramic painting
of Christ’s crucifixion, the world’s largest
permanently-mounted religious painting;
and three churches modeled after European
landmarks.
Llewellyn, who chairs the company’s
board of directors, is a past president of the
ICCFA and the Cemetery and Mortuary
Association of California as well as being an
officer and director of the Western Cemetery
Alliance. He is also the author of “A Ceme-
tery Should Be Forever: The challenge to
managers and directors,” a text about endow-
ment care, and “Saying Goodbye Your Way:
Planning or buying a funeral or cremation for
yourself or someone you love.” r
January 2019 79
 ICCFA News

Don’t start the year off with regrets: Attend DEAD Talks 2019
S
tart your year of sales with the ICCFA ing process, and how best to set up your new ers, both at-need and pre-need. Lee Longino
at DEAD Talks during the Wide World hire for success. Giddens will also share how of Service Corporation International, presents
of Sales, January 23-25, 2019. Hosted an effective hiring and training program will “3 Ways to Create Value and Increase
at Bally’s Las Vegas, DEAD Talks is a thrill- motivate your existing counselors and lead Revenue With the Cremation Customer,”
ing program that features industry profession- to reduced turnover, increased revenue and a talk that will help you address the full
als eager to share their most actionable advice program success. cremation story with your customers so you
in engaging 18-minute presentations. Here’s a can grow your revenues and re-establish your
Cremation
glimpse of what’s in store at DEAD Talks: relevance in the communities you serve.
Opportunities: Don’t Let
Them Go Up in Smoke
Sales: Killing It Engagement: Unearth
People have connections to
Are you looking for ways to Your Customers
family, job, town, friends,
generate more leads? Global Have you been getting
companies, even to prod-
Atlantic Financial Group’s leads online and
Chris Keller ucts. Those connections
Gayla Meilleur helps agents wondering why they aren’t
are ever-changing and becoming more tran-
and funeral home owners turning into business?
sient, short-term and largely emotion-based.
Gayla Meilleur through ongoing train- Alex McCracken In “Why Your Online
On the flipside, there is lack of connection to
ing and business strategy while educating Leads Won’t Close,” you will learn from
religion, tradition, ceremony and permanence.
families about the value of advance planning. Funeral Innovations’ Alex McCracken
What effects are these changing connections
In her “Breathe New Life Into Your Group about the online sale process, how to identify
having in our profession, and are we doing
Presentations” talk, learn the how-tos of what type of lead you have and how and
anything to address them? In “Creating
group presentations that are easily ranked as when to approach the lead to end in a close.
Connections,” with Chris Keller of Sunset
one of the top three lead sources. Group pre-
Memorial Park & French Funerals and
sentations allow you to build a positive firm Your registration to the Wide World of
Cremations, learn positive strategies you can
image, see more people in a non-threatening Sales Conference includes:
take to address these cultural changes, and
environment and ultimately increase sales. • Wednesday Fireside Chat with Gary
find new ways to re-establish connections
O’Sullivan, CCE, and Welcome
and relevance in an ever-changing world and
Self Management: Reception
consumer base.
Bury the Bad Habits • Breakfast, coffee breaks and
“We just need to find the Cremation: Thursday luncheon
right person.” In his talk Heat Up Your Sales • Networking opportunities and a take-
titled, “New Folks: Your There are a few simple home notebook
Life Blood,” Harold Gid- steps that can be taken to
Harold Giddens dens of Park Lawn Corp. change direct cremation For the full program schedule,
will share the characteristics of the ideal customers into cremation registration, hotel lodging and more, visit
candidate, outline the onboarding and train- Lee Longino “with something” custom- www.wideworldofsales.com. r

Thank you to our 2019 sponsors!

Assurant
Biondan North America Inc.
Blackstone Cemetery Development
Coldspring
Davey Tree
Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Mortuaries
Funeral Decisions
Funeral Directors Life Insurance Co.
Global Atlantic Financial Group
Great Western Insurance Co.
Guerra & Gutierrez Mortuary Park Lawn Corp.
Hillside Memorial Park & Mortuary Plotbox
Homesteaders Life Co. Ring Ring Marketing
Inglewood Park Cemetery Security National Life Insurance
Johnson Consulting Group Service Corporation International
Live Oak Bank The Bancorp
Matthews Memorialization The Travel Plan by Inman
Merendino Cemetery Care The Woodlawn Cemetery
National Guardian Life Insurance Co. Tukios
NOMIS Publications WebCemeteries.com

80 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 ICCFA News

Become a certified celebrant and offer more to families you serve

A
Certified Celebrant offers alternative services to families who are not
affiliated with a church or who do not wish to have a traditional religious
funeral service. They are trained to design services that are personalized
and individualized to define families’ loved ones, meaning every service is a meaningful and personal experience for the family.
Partnered with In-Sight Books, the ICCFA is offering a three-day celebrant training. This celebrant training is an invaluable
resource that aligns with the ICCFA’s mission to help our members continue to thrive in today and tomorrow’s marketplace. Each
attendee will be trained in the following areas: value of the funeral, family visits, listening skills, presentation skills, elements of
funeral planning and code of ethics.
Celebrant training will be held at the Hilton Charlotte Center City on April 1-3, 2019, prior to the ICCFA Annual Convention
& Expo. If you are interested in attending the convention as well, there is a discounted rate on registrations for both celebrant train-
ing and the convention. For more information on celebrant training and to register, visit www.iccfa.com/celebrants. r

Membership benefit spotlight: ICCFA Business Insurance Program

D
id you know that as an ICCFA member, you have access to exclusive business insurance solutions that have been tailored to
the needs and exposures of the funeral industry? Offered through Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., it provides competitive pricing,
outstanding customer service and a sales team that truly understands your business needs with the ICCFA Business
Insurance Program. Business insurance products include:
• general and cyber liability
• property
• workers compensation
• commercial auto and more
For more information and to join the ICCFA Business Insurance Program, visit www.iccfa.ajg.com. r

Get your 2019 music license before price increases on February 1

T
ime is running out to get your 2019 music licensing with the ICCFA at the low rate of only
$276 per property. This is a pass-through of the combined annual fees from ASCAP, BMI and
SESAC. Act today, because the rate increases to $290 per property on February 1. There is no
additional membership required to purchase your music license, making this the best value in the profes-
sion.
Music licensing is required for all copyrighted music, and failure to obtain a license can result in
damages similar to fines up to $30,000 for each song infringed. You can also purchase webcast licensing for $48, which allows you
to broadcast services via the internet throughout the world. Please note: You must have a music license before you purchase a webcast-
ing license. For more information and to purchase a music and webcasting license, visit www.iccfa.com/legal/music. r

Deadline February 18 to submit your scholarship application for ICCFAU

D
on’t miss your chance to apply for a scholarship to attend
ICCFA University, July 19-24, 2019, at the Fogelman
Executive Center in Memphis, Tennessee. At ICCFAU, you will
have the ultimate educational opportunity to learn, network and share ideas
with your industry peers.
Scholarships to attend ICCFA educational programs are provided through the ICCFA Educational Foundation, a tax-exempt 501(c)
(3) charity whose sole purpose is to make education accessible to future leaders in the death care profession.
The deadline to submit your ICCFAU scholarship application online is February 18, 2019. Applicants must be current ICCFA
members and employed for a minimum of two years in the cemetery, cremation or funeral profession.
More information on the ICCFA Educational Foundation can be found at www.iccfa.education. For information on scholarships
and to submit your online scholarship application, visit www.iccfa.com/scholarships. 

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 81

 ICCFA News

Best in Show contest, cemetery tour & more at ICCFA convention

S
et in the heart of NASCAR country, the ICCFA’s 2019 Annual Convention and Expo will provide the fast-paced and heart-
stopping excitement found at a race track! Hosted at the Charlotte Convention Center, April 2-6, in Charlotte, North Car-
olina, the action-packed program will feature not only three keynote speakers, 30+ educational breakout sessions, a 500+
booth Expo Hall and networking opportunities, but also additional events and activities to make you feel a part of the action.
Get a head start on the fun by attending the Welcome Reception at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame on Tuesday, April 2, 6:30-9:30 p.m. For only
$20, this special reception will feature food, friends and all the NASCAR
excitement the museum has to offer!
Attend the association’s Annual Meeting of Members on Thursday,
April 4, at 8 a.m. All ICCFA members are encouraged to attend and vote
for the candidates to represent them on the Board of Directors, listen to
officer reports on the state of the ICCFA and engage in the running of the
association.
Join us on Saturday, April 6, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., for Voices
from the Past, a walking tour of Charlotte’s oldest historic cemeteries:
Old Settlers’ Cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery and Pinewood Cemetery.
At the NASCAR Hall of Fame, where a special Tour at your own pace in this free event while learning about their 50
Welcome Reception will be held. “residents” who have come back to life to share their stories at the site
of their graves. Beau-
tifully costumed portrayers will transport you to the 18th, 19th, and 20th
centuries as they tell personal stories of Charlotte’s founding fathers, civic
leaders, pioneering women and many others who helped make Charlotte
what it is today. Pack your walking shoes for this extraordinary event and
be sure to enjoy the live music and local food trucks.
New to this year’s Annual Convention, the ICCFA will have a Best in
Show contest that will recognize exhibitors who use their booth space
to best represent their brand, product and services. These booths will be
judged during Expo Hall hours by anonymous non-industry judges. Two
winners will be chosen: one for island booths and one non-islands. The
winners will be announced on Friday, April 5, and recognized at the Clos- During a cemetery tour, Mr. Oates tells visi-
ing Dinner on Saturday, April 6, as well as featured in the July 2019 issue tors about the cotton mill he built in 1880.
of ICCFA Magazine.
Are you looking for your company to boost exposure to professionals in the death-care industry? The ICCFA offers many
sponsorship opportunities that will give you exposure to over 1,000 cemetery, cremation and funeral service owners and manag-
ers from around the world. Contact Kelly Spann at kspann@iccfa.com for more information. The ICCFA would like to thank
the following 2019 Annual Convention sponsors:
• Batesville • Cypress Lawn • National Guardian Life
• Blackstone Cemetery • Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks & Insurance Co.
Development Mortuaries • NOMIS Publications Inc.
• C&J Financial • Guerra & Gutierrez Mortuary • Park Lawn Corp.
• Carrier Mausoleums • Homesteaders Life Co. • Service Corporation International
Contructions Inc. • Lending USA • The Woodlawn Cemetery
• Cherokee Casket Co. • Madelyn Co. • Tukios
• Coldspring • Matthews Memorialization • UPD Urns
For more information on the program schedule, registration and hotel lodging, visit www.iccfaconvention.com. r

82 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
q Bob q Kirsten December 4, 2018
I C C FA 2 0 1 9 C O N V E N T I O N & E X P O I N C H A R L O T T E

Do you need inspiration? How about some ideas

you can put into action right away?
Do you want to talk to suppliers face-to-face?
You’ll find ever ything here, at the ...

ICCFA ANNUAL CONVENTION & EXPO

Charlotte, North Carolina, April 2-6, 2019
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLOTTESGOTALOT.COM

Welcome from the 2019 ICCFA Annual Convention co-chairs

W
e are honored and proud to be named co-chairs for the
2019 Annual Convention & Exposition in Charlotte, North
Carolina. Each year the co-chairs are challenged to provide
an exceptional experience and surpass everyone’s expectations, and
that’s exactly what we aim to do! The new Welcome Reception at the
NASCAR Hall of Fame is sure to start your convention week off on the
right track. With the opportunity to race friends and colleagues in the
simulator, try your hand at being on a pit crew, or sip your way through
Mathew Forastiere
a moonshine tasting, it’s sure to be an event to remember.
Park Lawn Corp. We have three phenomenal keynote speakers lined up who are sure to
make us think, as well as over 30 breakout sessions that will challenge
the status quo, giving everyone something to fill up their educational
tank. And don’t forget about the Expo Hall, where you can learn about
new products and services and grab a drink, lunch or both! On Saturday,
we’ll cross the finish line at our Closing Banquet, which will include the
annual memorial service.
All these events will take place in Charlotte, one of the fastest-
growing cities in America. With its walkability, vibrant restaurant scene
John Gouch Jr. and multitude of transportation options, it’s easy to see why Charlotte’s
Gethsemane “got a lot.” This year’s convention is sure to be one-of-a-kind, and we
Cemetery & Racing simulators at the NASCAR
Memorial Gardens can’t wait to see you there! Hall of Fame.

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 83

 I C C FA 2 0 1 9 C O N V E N T I O N & E X P O I N C H A R L O T T E
PHOTOS COURTESY OF CHARLOTTESGOTALOT.COM
Welcome Reception at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame
Tuesday, April 2, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
Jumpstart your time at this year’s convention with
this special reception at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
A ticket to this event gives you access to all of the
museum’s exhibits and interactive activities, plus
food and drink, including a moonshine tasting.
You will also receive a free keepsake picture as a
souvenir. Tickets are $20 and are available on the
registration form (page 96).
At the NASCAR Hall of Fame: top, Race Week;
above, participating in the pit crew challenge.
84 ICCFA Magazine
Special Events
First-Timers Reception
Thursday, April 4, 5-6 p.m.
Will this be your ÿrst time attend-
ing the ICCFA Annual Convention &
Exposition? Come meet others who
are also new to the convention, as
well as ICCFA volunteers and leaders
at this special reception dedicated
to welcoming you. Admission to the
reception is included with every full registration.
ICCFA Educational Foundation Reception
Thursday, April 4, 6-7 p.m.
Join us for a reception to honor donors and scholarship recipients, and to
present the ICCFA Educational Foundation Lasting Impact Award to Ernie
He˜ ner, CFuE, president of He˜ ner Funeral Chapel & Crematory in York,
Pennsylvania. The award is presented each year to an individual who has
made signiÿcant contributions to our profession in education and me-
morialization. He˜ ner is a past chancellor of ICCFA University and an early
adaptor of Certiÿed Celebrants and has provided education for hospice
nurses and volunteers for many years. Admission to the reception is in-
cluded with every full registration; additional tickets for non-registrants
can be purchased. Light snacks and an open bar will be available.
PLPA Reception
Thursday, April 4, 5-6
p.m. Join pet loss professionals from around the world as they meet to
kick o˜ a week full of festivities. Hors d’oeuvres and drinks will be served.
Admission to the reception is included with every full registration.
5th Annual Pet Memorial Service
Friday, April 5, 8:30-8:40 a.m.
Join us as we honor ICCFA members’ service animals and family pets
who have died in the past year. If you have an animal you’d like honored,
ÿll out the submission form found at www.iccfaconvention.com.
The deadline for submission is February 25, 2019.
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q Bob q Kirsten December 4, 2018
I C C FA 2 0 1 9 C O N V E N T I O N & E X P O I N C H A R L O T T E

ICCFA Annual KIP Awards Presentation

Meeting of Members Friday, April 5, 8:40-9 a.m.
Thursday, April 4, 8-10 a.m. Winners of 2018 KIP (Keeping It Personal) Awards will be
All ICCFA members are honored during a ceremony on the general session stage. The
encouraged to attend KIP Awards recognize the best in personalization. The awards were created by
the association’s Annual the ICCFA’s Personalization Committee to recognize outstanding examples of
Meeting of Members. Vote personalization of services or products in the death care profession.
for members to represent
you on the Board of ICCFA Prayer Breakfast (tickets limited)
Directors and fully Friday, April 5, 7:30-8:30 a.m. Come join us for breakfast and fellowship at
engage in the running of the Prayer Breakfast, made possible through sponsorships. It is open to the
your association. ÿrst 60 individuals who show up to the breakfast—ÿrst-come, ÿrst-served.

Re-enactors tell visitors about the people buried at Charlotte’s oldest historic cemeteries. Center, Mr. Harry of Harry and Bry-
ant Funeral Home, Voices of the Past sponsor and ICCFA member, talks about the founding of his company in 1883.

Historic cemetery tour Saturday, April 6, 1:30-4 p.m.

Visit Charlotte’s oldest historic cemeteries, Old Settlers’ Cemetery, Elmwood Cemetery and Pinewood Cemetery, and learn about
their 50 “residents” on the Voices from the Past tour. Costumed re-enactors will tell share their stories. Tour at your own pace while
enjoying live music and food trucks. This event is free, but a ticket is required.

Saturday night
Closing Banquet
Saturday, April 6, 6-11 p.m.
Come enjoy food and entertainment as we close the 2019
ICCFA Annual Convention. The ICCFA presidential transfer
from Christine Toson Hentges, CCE, to Jay Dodds, CFSP, will
ICCFA 2018-2019 take place during this event, as will the exchange of gifts with
President Christine other international associations. Tickets are included with full attendee and spouse registrations. All others may
Hentges, CCE, and
President-elect Jay
purchase a ticket on the registration form.
Dodds, CFSP.
The Closing Banquet also includes the ICCFA Memorial Service. Tribute and memorialization are at the heart
of what we do. Join us as we remember colleagues and loved ones who have died this past year. If you would like to remember a
loved one who has died, please send us a profile and photos for inclusion in the service. Instructions and a PDF form can be found at
www.iccfaconvention.com. The deadline for submission is February 25, 2019.

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General session keynote speakers

Managing
your
business
through
a tragedy
Thursday,
April 4, 10 a.m.
Mindy Corporon
Former CEO
and now activist Mindy Corporon
took action after her son and father
were murdered in a religious hate
crime. She started the Faith Always
Wins Foundation and a community-
wide event, SevenDays Make a
Ripple, Change the World.
She developed high school
programming for productive
interfaith dialogue and now helps
companies create healthy workplace
environments so healing can occur
after life’s tragedies.
In her talk, Corporon will tell
her story and share how to manage
through a tragedy, how you can
address fear in a comfortable setting,
whom you can count on in the midst
of chaos and how to engage your
team to promote healing and build
resiliency.
Creating cultures of leadership
and the power of lollipop moments
Thursday, April 4, 11 a.m.
Drew Dudley
What if we believed that leadership isn’t just for those in charge? What
if we all embraced our ability to lead, no matter our school grades or pay
grade? The most impactful leaders focus on “everyday leadership” and
ensure that it’s fostered, acknowledged and rewarded. Dudley’s keynote
address will make you laugh, think and reconsider the ways you evaluate
leadership in your life and workplace.
Dudley is founder and chief catalyst of Day One Leadership and works with organizations
around the world to empower people to increase their leadership capacity. He has spoken
to over 250,000 people on five continents, been featured on The Huffington Post, Radio
America, Forbes.com and TED.com, where his TED talk was voted one of the 15 most
inspirational TED talks of all time and has been viewed millions of times online.
FINISH: The surprising truth
about accomplishing goals
Friday, April 5, 9 a.m.
Jon Acuff
According to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, 92 percent
of resolutions fail. That’s a staggering number considering how important
goals are to companies. At every point in your work, goals matter. What
if we could do some simple things to improve how often we finished
what we started? What if we could complete the incomplete projects and
tasks? What if we could get more done in a world of bottomless opportunities and endless
distractions?
In his keynote address, New York Times bestselling author and speaker Jon Acuff will share
easy changes you can make to your corporate culture to make sure everyone hits their goals.
Some of the ideas are obvious. Some are counterintuitive. Some will surprise you. All will work.

11 hours to meet with exhibitors

No educational sessions are held during Expo Hall hours to maximize the time you can
spend talking to suppliers about their products and services and examining the product
displays. Free food and beverage service is available during all expo hours.

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Tuesday, April 2
Special Welcome Reception at the NASCAR Hall of Fame,
6:30-9:30 p.m. (Buy tickets on the registration form on page 96
or when you register online at www.iccfaconvention.com.)

Wednesday, April 3 JFDA coffee talk

Come nosh and enjoy catching
DIY Facebook and social media marketing up with fellow members
Robin Heppell, CFSP, CC, Funeral Gurus of the Jewish Funeral
As Facebook and other social networks have matured and been adopted by death care Directors of America
firms for communications and networking, it is important to understand when and how before the start of JFDA’s
to use these tools. Heppell will dive into the impact of social media, how it affects the Annual Meeting. Everyone
reputation and promotion of your firm, how to collect and analyze results and how to welcome.
compare your social media marketing with other, more traditional, marketing initiatives.
Through his digital marketing agency, Funeral Results Marketing, Heppell helps funeral directors Change and
and cemeterians embrace and incorporate innovative strategies, marketing plans and technologies. tradition in
contemporary
Goal-setting for success America
Jodie Dupree, SCI North Carolina Rabbi Morton Kaplan
Everyone thinks they are goal-setters, but few people properly use personal goal- Join Rabbi Morton Kaplan as he
setting to drive for results. Often, we mistake the things our employer has asked us discusses the changing nature of
to do for goals, when only we can set goals for ourselves. What our employers create the Jewish community in America
are expectations. Dupree will share how to correctly set goals for yourself and how to over the last several decades and
help those who work for you set goals. how that change affects their
Dupree is a licensed funeral director and has been in the profession for 20 years. He has customs and rituals. The ability to
served as a pre-arrangment funeral counselor, cemetery counselor, sales manager, regional sales adjust and accommodate change
manager, funeral director, cemetery and funeral general manager and market director for SCI. is nothing new in Jewish history,
and in fact is what remains truly
“traditional” about the Jewish
From clicks to cases start investing wisely on everything from experience.
Andy Lopez, The Gaffney Group Adwords campaigns to SEO optimizing. Rabbi Kaplan grew up in
Lopez will discuss the intent Lopez has been in the funeral profession Western North Carolina. He
of a marketing strategy and the since he was 15, starting at Fred Hunter’s in graduated from the University
proven processes to effectively Florida. He has worked with Triad Caskets, of Cincinnati and was ordained
capture and convert your digital owned Affinity Caskets and created products at the Hebrew Union College in
visitors. He will look at ways to increase to memorialize and personalize services for Cincinnati in 1967. He served as
profits by knowing what to look for in a digital veterans and their families. For over 15 years a chaplain in the army and held
marketing partner and how to combine your he was involved in pre-need sales for SCI. He pulpits in New York, New Jersey
marketing strategy with your sales process to is the vice president of sales in the state of and Maryland. He and his late
increase business. Quit wasting money and Washington for the Gaffney Group. wife Joan have three sons and 14
grandchildren (11 in Israel). He is
enjoying retirement in Charlotte
Serving the community through the doors of the funeral home with his wife Mary watching three
Jill Lazar, Hoffman Funeral Home and Crematory of those grandchildren grow up.
Lazar will outline how to prepare for an event hosted at your funeral home, from
catering to staffing and scheduling. She will share proven marketing methods to
JFDA business
promote events, the ever-changing marketing tools at your disposal, what events meeting and
provide the best lead sources and how to effectively follow up and close sales. memorial service
Lazar is a licensed funeral director, certified pre-planning consultant and licensed
insurance agent. She has been in the funeral industry for over 25 years and has been
a guest speaker for attorneys, financial advisers, referral groups, hospice and clergy.

Expo Grand Opening: 4-7 p.m. (Open bar & heavy hors d’oeuvres)

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Thursday, April 4
Lunch with exhibitors
Spend the morning
with keynote speakers (noon-2 p.m.) followed
Mindy Corporon, “Managing your by IMSA Happy Hour
business through a tragedy,”
and Drew Dudley, “Creating (2-5 p.m.). Spend the af-
cultures of leadership and the
power of lollipop moments.” ternoon in the Expo Hall
Free coffee service will be
available in the Expo Hall, where the checking out the booths.
keynoters will be on stage.

Friday, April 5 Final Expo Hall session:

Spend the morning
with keynote speaker lunch 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Jon Acuff, “The surprising truth about
accomplishing goals.”

Cremation authorization form pitstop Engaging your people

Poul Lemasters, Esq., Lemasters Consulting
It’s time to fix your cremation authorization form – not just
talk about it. Despite this form being the cornerstone of your
cremation practice, hardly anyone reviews or changes it. But
cremation has changed over the years and so should your form!
Imagine if you raced a stock car from 1970 against a stock car from today.
Guess who wins? In this cremation authorization form pitstop we will make
repairs, adjustments, and even add some new parts so that your form is
running perfectly. This is a hands-on workshop where you will bring your
cremation authorization form and we will walk through it. You will have
the opportunity to see examples; discuss issues; review new language;
and learn how to make your cremation form a sales tool, not just a legal
document.
Lemasters began his career in death care more than 22 years ago as
a funeral director and embalmer. He advises funeral homes, crematories,
cemeteries and trade associations across the United States. He also shares
his know-how with those in the field by serving as cremation coordinator
and advisor for ICCFA’s Cremation Education Program. He is co-chair of
ICCFA’s Government & Legal Affairs Committee.
to serve more families
Gino Merendino,
Merendino Cemetery Care
Executing your strategy to serve more
families requires that you engage all your employees,
from the president to the part-time intern pulling
weeds. The million-dollar question: How do you do
it? Hear lessons learned from 92 cemeteries about
how their people work together.
Merendino is chief gardener for Merendino
Cemetery Care. He is also dean of the ICCFA
University College of Land Management & Grounds
Operations. He holds a BS in business management
from Rutgers University and is a Rutgers Coopera-
tive Extension Master Gardener. As the chief
gardener at Merendino, he is responsible for the
mowing and trimming of 2,500 acres of cemetery
property weekly as well as the outsourcing of one out
of every 600 burials in the U.S.

Women in Leadership: Defining your impact

Moderator: Jennifer Olvera, CCE, Green Hills Memorial Park
Panelists: Shawna de la Cruz, Forest Lawn Memorial-Park & Mortuary; Gwen
Mooney, CCFE, Cave Hill Cemetery; Lori Salberg, Johnson Consulting Group;
and Poul Lemasters, Esq., Lemasters Consulting (for our male perspective)
With more women stepping into leadership roles in the death care profession,
it is important that they identify their talents and understand what they bring to their work environment to best enable the success of the
business and make sure their voices are heard. Join the ICCFA’s Women in Leadership committee as they recognize several leaders in the
profession and ask questions about their role models and the obstacles they faced as they forged their own leadership styles.

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Friday, April 5, continued

Follow the money: How death care businesses are investing in the new future
Doug Gober Jr., The Foresight Companies
In seven years of lending to progressive funeral homes and cemeteries in America, we’re starting to see some patterns emerge.
Successful small and mid-sized firms are making investments and embracing strategies that would have been out of reach
seven years ago. This presentation looks at trends that are emerging in death care capital investments, what they mean both for
individual firms and for the industry, as well as the impacts on those who chose to remain in the status quo.
Gober began his funeral service career 40 years ago as a sales representative in the casket industry. He has earned numerous national
awards from death care organizations and served as a consultant on marketing and merchandising projects conducted on an international
scale. In October 2018, Gober became a partner in The Foresight Companies.

Raising $3,000 every
day: How Congressional
Cemetery brings in $1.1
million a year
Paul Williams, Historic
Congressional Cemetery
Maintaining and preserving
Historic Congressional
Cemetery requires a $1.1
million yearly income, and the cemetery
has a multilayered approach that makes
that possible. Williams will explain the
creative methods used to raise funds
through their innovative dog-walking
program, Halloween tours, 5k races,
gift shop, honey harvests, lecture series,
Santa pics, wreath sales and even by
hosting a herd of goats. The ways
Congressional has doubled its income
in just five years can be applied at
almost any historic cemetery.
Williams has served as the president
and CFO of the non-profit Historic
Congressional Cemetery since July
2012. His background is in historic
preservation and planning, having
attended both Roger Williams and
Cornell Universities.
The pains and gains of entering the Hispanic market
Salvador Perches, Grupo Perches
The Hispanic population in the United States reached nearly 58 million in
2016, making it the nation’s second-fastest-growing racial or ethnic group, and
according to the Pew Research Center, it is estimated to reach 128 million by
2050. Is the funeral profession doing enough to meet the needs of this growing
population? Do you know the customs, traditions and necessities for Hispanic funerals?
Does anyone on your staff speak Spanish? There are many products and services that can
help you create value in your relationship with your local Hispanic market, and specific
growth engines that will establish you as the funeral home or cemetery of choice.
Perches was born into funeral service. His family started in this profession in 1958 in
Juarez, Mexico. In 1990, he received his funeral directing license and currently has 15
funeral homes in Juarez, Mexico; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and El Paso and Odessa, Texas.
A place to go: Why ceremonies matter
Linda Stuart, life-cycle celebrant
People want their end-of-life ceremony to be transformative. They want a
creative ceremony that focuses on their life story, not their death story. Too
many times families walk through the doors of a funeral home and say, “we
don’t want anything.” Whether families have no ceremony or a cookie-cutter
one that leaves them feeling empty, an opportunity has been missed to create a valuable
and healing experience. Stuart will outline how to help families appreciate why ceremonies
and rituals are important in our lives and help create heartfelt, rich and meaningful
ceremonies that allow hope and healing to enter their lives.
Stuart is a certified life-cycle celebrant who creates and performs one-of-a-kind
ceremonies for life’s milestone occasions. Since childhood, she has been immersed in
the bereavement sector through her father’s company, Century Wilbert. She founded the
Toronto Death Café.

Recruit, train and retain veterans

Panel Moderator: Gino Merendino, Merendino Cemetery Care
Looking for a hard-working, motivated, ethical employee? Try hiring a veteran. Veterans share a common set of characteristics
that make them great employees, including leadership, initiative, self-discipline, teamwork and an excellent work ethic. Join a
panel of industry professionals as they analyze key hiring factors from the perspective employers, who may wonder what type
of military job would translate well into the death care profession, and of veterans, many of whom struggle with meaningfulness in their
work after their career transitions. The panel will explore the skills veterans typically exhibit in the workplace, ways to help a veteran
employee assimilate into your business, how to get involved with veteran organizations in your community and more.
Merendino is chief gardener for Merendino Cemetery Care. He is the architect of the VA-approved GI Bill apprenticeship training
program for cemetery care managers. He also serves as an active member of the ICCFA Veterans Committee.

C h e c k w w w.i cc fa . com for m ore d e tai ls, informati on ab out CE cre dits, pro g r am up d ates an d h otel opti ons.

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Friday, April 5, continued

Youth and funerals
Moderator: Mathew Forastiere, Park Lawn Corp.
Panel: Brad Speaks, Speaks Family Legacy Chapels; Vicki Jay, National Alliance for
Grieving Children, and Joe Primo, Good Grief
The Youth & Funerals initiative has sparked meaningful conversations across the country
about the importance of including young people in the funeral and, ultimately, the value
of the funeral in helping participants begin their healing journey. This panel of experts with real-world experience in supporting young
people through the loss of a loved one will share their experiences and help attendees better understand how the Youth & Funerals
initiative can help them serve the families in their care. In addition, the panel will discuss the opportunities to share the Youth & Funerals
initiative with other end-of-life care providers in your community. The Youth & Funerals initiative and toolkit is provided by the Funeral
Service Foundation thanks to the generous support of donors throughout funeral service.

Employee Management of cemetery trees

empowerment:
Profitability, culture
and satisfaction
Tim Bridgers,
Live Oak Bank
In a market of
merging generations,
business owners
must lead their
people. Energized employees
who believe in their mission
and understand how to achieve
it are the ones who bring their
hearts to work every day. Cash
flow, marketing and financial
metrics are crucial in operating
a successful business, but
empowering your employees
is the fuel that makes your
business move. Bridgers will
share the most productive way
to increase call volume, benefit
from changing market trends
and remain successful for many
years to come.
Bridgers joined Live Oak
Bank in 2014 with over 10
years of business and entrepre-
neurial experience. He studied
mechanical engineering at the
University of North Carolina at
Charlotte and business at the
University of North Carolina
at Wilmington, and completed
his finance degree at Liberty
University. He is a former
business owner and developed
two successful companies, so
understands the challenges
business owners face.
Anne Fenkner, Davey Resource Group Inc.
Through the ages and all around the role of trees in the legacy environment, best
the globe, people look to trees management considerations and monitoring
for healing, comfort and solace. recommendations to optimize tree management.
Cemetery landscapes use trees as Fenkner is a project developer for Davey.
monuments, markers, buffers and as symbols She is an International Society of Arboriculture
of life and strength. Given the significance of Certified Arborist, municipal specialist with TRQ
trees, a tree management plan is an essential tool certification, a lifetime UC Master Gardener, a
for cemetery professionals who oversee these Green Gardener instructor and a 2016 graduate
valuable assets. This presentation will discuss of the Municipal Forestry Institute.
Addressing sexual and other harassment in your funeral business
Stephanie Ramsey, The Foresight Companies
The EEOC reports that 75 percent of workplace harassment incidents go unreported.
The “Me Too” social media campaign has presented staggering data about the
number of both men and women who have suffered abuse while on the job.
This session will educate owners/managers on defined types of sexual and other
harassment currently recognized by law, show them how to recognize the behavior
that constitutes harassment and explain ways to limit their business liability.
Ramsey is director of HR services/senior business analyst for Foresight. She has managed
small staffs and those with over 200 employees with more than 25 supervisors directly reporting
to her. She has run an 800-call regional combination funeral home and cemetery with a pet
business. She has written employee handbooks and other employee specific documents for her
funeral clients nationwide and continues to write articles on HR matters for the funeral press.
Your comprehensive pre-need program:
Insurance, trust or a little of both?
Elizabeth Kmiec & Ashlee Theising, Clearpoint Federal Bank & Trust
This session will review the benefits and drawbacks of using both trust
and insurance in a pre-need sales program and how to put together a
program that covers and meets all the needs of the families who are
wanting to preplan. Kmiec and Theising will discuss how the landscape has changed with the
shift toward more cremation, more people wanting to pay over time and the rapidly rising cost of
caskets above standard inflation.
Kmiec joined the death care industry in 2013, coming from personal trust at JPMorgan in
Chicago. Theising joined ClearPoint Federal Bank & Trust in January 2006 as an assistant trust
administrator. She is vice president, COO.

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Friday, April 5,
continued
Marketing workshop 101:
The definitive guide
to best practices in
the modern world
Neil Sherrin, PlotBox
This presentation will include
a gold mine of actionable
tips, tactics, programs and success stories
every death care facility manager needs
to know. Discover the enormous untapped
potential of modern marketing that will
help grow your business. See the life cycle
of your clients’ buying process from their
point of view. Learn inbound and content
marketing fundamentals and winning
examples from inside and outside the
profession.
Sherrin is head of marketing at PlotBox.
He has over 10 years of senior marketing
and sales experience in both the B2B and
B2C sectors.
When your day ends
Jeffrey Chancellor, CFSP
HS Eckels & Co.
This presentation will explore
the process of decedent care
management with special
emphasis on strategies to
empower employers to attract
and retain the best embalmers and safely
and effectively treat today’s most difficult
cases, to explore nuclear medicine and
nanoparticles in health care and to offer
practical clinical care offerings without
breaking the bank.
Chancellor serves as director of
education, training and research for HS
Eckels & Co. He is a qualified embalmer,
funeral director, crematory operator
and celebrant. His experience includes
pre-need sales, managing a high-volume
mortuary, instructing at Mount Royal
College in Calgary, Canada, and the
Pacific Center in Cebu, Philippines, and
serving as an embalming lecturer and
demonstrator, as an international disaster
response team member and as a consultant
to funeral service on four continents.
Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com
Saturday, April 6
Embracing the customer experience revolution
Jake Johnson & Lori Salberg, Johnson Consulting Group
How do you provide every customer with a consistent world-
class experience? How can you improve customer and employee
loyalty? Using Johnson Consulting Group’s combined 600+
years of experience and statistics from 10 years of surveying
customers from over 1,000 businesses, Johnson and Salberg
will share a specific step-by-step program for gaining competitive advantage, improving
customer satisfaction, increasing sales value and improving employee retention.
As president & CEO of Johnson Consulting, Johnson provides the strategic direction
and marketing innovations that laid the groundwork for the company’s rapid growth and
recognition as a total solutions provider within the funeral industry. He previously was
executive vice president and general manager at Palm Mortuaries and Cemeteries.
Salberg is director of business development for Johnson Consulting Group. She
also owns a final expense pre-planning agency in California. She has over 18 years
of combined experience in cemetery, funeral and crematory management, developing
marketing and outreach programs and recruiting and training and retaining highly
effective cemetery sales teams. She has overseen the development of two proprietary
software programs for the management of cemetery and funeral home operations.
Purpose-filled selling: Winning in sales by celebrating life
Justin Baxley, Foundation Partners Group LLC
We continue to see consumer preferences trend away from the “traditional”
mores which have sustained the value and profitability of funeral service
and pre-need funeral sales toward creative memorialization and personalized
services. The challenge for funeral service is to remain relevant to families amid
these changing preferences. The opportunity for advance planning advisors is to
grow sales and shape the future of our profession by adopting an event-planning
mindset and serving as a catalyst to create impactful life celebration funeral events. Baxley
will share real-life examples and walk attendees through a process which moves consumers
beyond cost toward a conversation about memorable, experiential services. Attendees
will leave with a list of questions to help facilitate storytelling during the pre-arrangement
conversation, as well as a clear understanding of why those stories matter in the sales process.
Baxley is a second-generation funeral director with more than 20 years of
experience in funeral service. He was owner and president of Hiers-Baxley Funeral
Services and Highland Memorial Park, served as regional director of strategic markets
at Homesteaders Life Co. and is now vice president of business integration and
assimilation for Foundation Partners.
The digital world: Using mobile technologies
to create better family experiences
Rob Shane, Batesville Casket Co. Inc.
Following a death, the family’s grief is compounded by the notifications, plans
and decisions required in a short timeframe. They may gravitate to technology
as a source of information and a channel for communication, often before
ever meeting with a funeral director. Learn how to use mobile technology to stay at the
center of that conversation by connecting with families earlier in the process and capturing
information that allows you to provide a more seamless, personalized experience.
Shane is director of technology solutions at Batesville, where he is responsible for
delivering the latest advances in websites, business management software and digital
tools designed to help funeral homes improve the efficiency of their operations and
provide positive experiences with the families they serve.
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Saturday, April 6, continued

Communication is a two-way street
Carolyn C. Shadle, PHD & John L. Meyer, PHD, Interpersonal Communication Services Inc.
Listening, and demonstrating that you have heard and feel empathy, is an art and a skill. Families do not care what you
know or what services you provide until they know you care. In addition to your professional knowledge, you need
interpersonal skills. This presentation will outline five ways you can let others know they’ve been heard by using the
power of active listening and provide you with strategies for expressing yourself effectively and with care.
Shadle and Meyer work as a team to help employees improve their workplace communication. Veterinarians know them as the authors of
the “Communication Case Studies” series in Trends magazine, and the recently published book, “Communication Case Studies: Improving
Interpersonal Communication Skills in the Veterinary Practice.” Meyer earned his PhD from the University of Minnesota in communication
studies. Shadle earned her PhD from the State University of New York at Buffalo in interpersonal and organizational communication.

Pet disaster recovery Riding the millennial cycle: Better strap in

Jodi Clock, CPLP,
Clock Funeral Home
On March 30, 2018, Storms Ahead
Kennel burned to the ground. The
facility was at capacity with 33
dogs, all of which died in the fire. Hear first-hand
from Clock about how her company stepped in
to offer their expertise and was instrumental in
putting together a disaster plan that enabled all
pets to be successfully identified, cremated and
returned to their owners. When tragedy strikes,
as a death care professional you need to be able
to coach, lead, communicate and build a strong
team quickly. Clock will share tips on how to
handle television reporters so they become your
friends, offer suggestions on ways to protect
yourself and your business from liability, outline
how to conduct a community service that includes
hospice and provide a white paper about what to
do should a disaster occur.
Clock has more than 25 years’ experience
in the profession, including advance funeral
planning companies, casket manufacturers and
insurance agencies. She and her husband, Dale,
run Clock Funeral Homes in western Michigan.
She also owns and operates Clock Timeless Pets.
Chris Burke, FLMI, AGIA Affinity
If you’re a history buff, you can’t help but think when you read or hear the
morning news headlines that you’ve “seen this movie before.” What if you
have? What if the rhythm of how four different generational archetypes
repeat and align over time actually helps forecast future behavior? Many
of the most sophisticated marketers believe it, and have been blending generational
marketing theory with segmentation and cohort modeling for nearly 30 years to instruct
their marketing and influence product design. The marketing insights of this presentation
are fascinating, and might just help you develop the competitive advantage necessary to
enjoy how this movie ends.
Burke is president and CEO of AGIA Affinity, a marketer and administrator of
insurance and non-insurance benefit programs for associations, affinity groups and
unions. He was previously an executive with Forethought Financial Services.
‘Should I bring the ashes with me?’:
Better support for those who have lost pets
Jehanne Gheith, MSW, LCSW, PHD
Social workers understand the important role animals play in people’s
lives and can be an invaluable source of comfort and assistance for those
who have experienced a loss. Gheith will discuss the shape of pet loss today, the loss
of animals for veterinary staff and how to handle it and the importance of continuing
bonds for those who have lost animals, including ways to help foster those bonds.
Gheith is a tenured professor of Russian literature at Duke University and a
licensed clinical social worker with a focus on pet loss.

Sessions on this page are open to all, but of special interest to those offering pet services

Charlotte, NC 28202; 704.375.2600 this block is February 28, 2019.

The ICCFA has secured a discounted
room rate of $215 per night plus taxes.
Guests must identify themselves as
being an ICCFA Annual Convention
attendee to obtain the discounted rate. A
Where to stay first night, non-refundable deposit will
The official host hotel: be charged at the time of booking. The
The Westin Charlotte, 601 S. College St., cut-off date for making reservations in
The 2019 ICCFA Annual Convention has
an additional room block at:
The Hilton Charlotte City Center
222 E. 3rd St., Charlotte, NC 28202;
704.377.1500
$215 plus taxes per night. The cut-off
date for making reservations in this
block is February 28, 2019.

92 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 • CEMETERIES • CREMATORIES • FUNERAL HOMES • SUPPLIERS • PET LOSS PROFESSIONALS

Submit your news to ICCFA Magazine

Have you held a groundbreaking or grand opening for a new facility? Hired or promoted someone? Is your com-
pany offering a new or updated product to cemeteries and/or funeral homes? Have you recently held an unusual
service or a successful seminar at your location? Added a grief therapy dog to your staff? Share your news with
colleagues all over the world—send it in to ICCFA Magazine! It’s a simple way to receive some well-deserved
publicity for you and your staff and to share ideas with peers. Here’s how to get your news in ICCFA Magazine:

n Write it down. It doesn’t have to be written perfectly (that’s why we have editors)—it just needs to include the
facts. Remember the basics: Who, What, Where, When & How (and sometimes Why).

n Send it in:
➤ Email your Word document as an attachment to sloving@iccfa.com, or write your release in the body
of your email. Please include your full name and title and the company’s name and location in the body of
your email.
➤ Photos—high-resolution jpgs—can be emailed or Dropboxed. Remember, you must have your digital
camera set to take high-resolution images before taking the photos! (If you’re scanning in glossies, they
must be scanned in at a minimum of 300 dpi at the size they are to be printed.)

Questions? Need some guidance?

Email ICCFA Magazine Managing Editor Susan Loving at sloving@iccfa.com.

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 93

 I C C FA 2 0 1 9 C O N V E N T I O N & E X P O I N C H A R L O T T E

Saturday, April 6, continued

Be the extra support your families need and get more media attention, too!
Allison Gilbert, author
Taking intentional steps to remember loved ones is key to healing. Individuals who honor family and friends, who proactively
keep them present in their lives, almost always fare better emotionally than those who don’t. In this session, author and
nationally recognized grief expert Gilbert reveals new, innovative ways to help families remember and celebrate the family
and friends they never want to forget. The strategies you learn will enable death care and bereavement professionals to
generate widespread radio, print and online media attention. Gilbert has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The
Washington Post and on CNN, FOX and MSNBC.
A previous ICCFA presenter, Gilbert is one of the most thought-provoking and influential writers on grief and resilience today. She is
the author of numerous books, including the groundbreaking “Passed and Present: Keeping Memories of Loved Ones Alive.”

The three online marketing Donor family celebration of life

fundamentals
you must master
Welton Hong,
Ring Ring Marketing
Search, website conversions and
reviews: These three terms sound
simple enough on the surface, but mastering
these essentials is another story altogether.
Silicon Valley veteran Hong specializes in
helping death care firms generate business
online. In this session, he explains in clear,
practical terms how to generate traffic from
internet searches and turn website visitors into
clientele by mastering conversions. He also
breaks down how generating a large quantity
of positive reviews benefits every step of the
marketing process. Attendees will leave with
an understanding of several tools they can put
to use immediately.
Ring Ring Marketing founder Hong is the
author of “Making Your Phone Ring with
Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes” and
a contributor to numerous death care industry
publications, including ICCFA Magazine. He
was a senior technologist at R&D facilities for
Intel, Sun Microsystems and Oracle, and has
spoken at several industry conferences.
Dorman H. Caudle, Carolina Donor Services
People attending this presentation will receive 12 ideas that can
immediately add value to a celebration service. With organ and tissue
donation registration rising across the nation, funeral directors will
ultimately serve more families who choose to donate and are willing to
share their experience with family and friends. Funeral directors will learn who their
Organ Procurement Organization (OPO) is and how to work with the OPO, eye bank
and tissue recovery agencies.
Caudle is a second-generation funeral director. He is a past president of the North
Carolina Funeral Directors Association, has chaired multiple state committees, has
presented CEU programs across North Carolina and is currently the funeral home
liaison for Carolina Donor Services.
Art of selling the ‘big deal’: How to maximize
family mausoleum sales opportunities
Michael Harens, Coldspring
In this presentation, you will learn how to develop a successful family
mausoleum program for your cemetery property. This session will focus
on effective property planning, appropriate pricing, building a confident
sales staff and the art of prospecting.
As a national account manager, Harens leads Coldspring’s efforts to maintain
and enhance relationships with key customers who have a national presence. Harens
brings a strong sense of business acumen and experience to his sales process,
including business development, sales leadership and sales training. His training
programs provided to both regional and national cemetery groups have helped
increase their overall revenue stream in cemetery merchandise.

How to build a 21st century workplace

Tyler Anderson, Precoa
In today’s landscape, the employee experience can make or break your success in any business. Since its founding in 2004,
Precoa has experienced dramatic growth in the pre-need sector, powered, in part, by its commitment to developing a modern
and meaningful workplace. Precoa consistently ranks among the most desirable companies to work for in one of the nation’s
most vibrant markets (Portland, Oregon), earning Top Workplace honors every year since 2012. In this talk, you’ll learn why
a 21st century workplace is critical to future success and enhanced results; how a 21st century workplace impacts owners, employees and,
most importantly, customers; and how to define and reinforce your core purpose, values and competencies.
Raised in the funeral profession, Anderson grew up with an appreciation for the importance of ceremony and ritual. He began his
pre-need career as an advance planner, then became regional sales manager with The Outlook Group. As CEO and president, Anderson
united Outlook with Precoa in 2017.

94 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
q Bob q Kirsten December 4, 2018
I C C FA 2 0 1 9 C O N V E N T I O N & E X P O I N C H A R L O T T E

Saturday, April 6, continued

It’s more than money: Non-financial incentives
to attract and retain the best talent
Mark Jorgensen, Global Recruiters of Cincinnati
In a survey of 1,047 CEOs, C-level executives and corporate directors
conducted by McKinsey and Co., three non-financial incentives were rated
higher for effectiveness than three financial incentives. Increased base pay, The state leadership luncheon ...
performance-based cash bonuses and stock grants/options actually trailed praise and
commendation from the immediate manager, attention from leaders and opportunities to
lead projects or task forces. This session will explore how owners and managers in the
cemetery, cremation and funeral professions might more effectively use non-financial
incentives to attract and retain the best talent in their workplaces.
Jorgensen is president of Global Recruiters of Cincinnati, a management search
and recruiting firm serving cemetery, cremation and funeral professionals nationwide.
Jorgensen’s familiarity with the profession comes from eight years owning and operating ... and the goverment and legal
update have been combined into one
Global Recruiters and 13 years at Forethought Financial Services/Hillenbrand
new & improved convention session,
Industries, where he served in a succession of sales and marketing leadership roles, which will include a free lunch!
including vice president/general manager.
Legal & Legislative
Luncheon:
Repeat families:
A regulatory update
You can’t stay in business without them
Ellery Bowker, Aftercare.com
everyone needs to hear
Acquiring new customers is important for any business, but what’s even Poul Lemasters, Esq., moderator
more important is keeping the ones you have. In this session, learn why Who said there’s no
customer retention is the most overlooked way to grow your business and such thing as a free
how to build loyalty so families will choose you the next time they have a need. Learn lunch? Join us for a
what makes a customer use a business once and never return, as well as proven steps you
the first-ever Legal &
can take to prevent that from happening at your funeral home or cemetery.
Bowker is founder and CEO of Aftercare.com, which helps funeral homes and Legislative Luncheon.
cemeteries follow up with families and build loyalty. Since 2005, he has provided This is THE place to
technology and marketing insights to help his customers differentiate themselves. be if you want to hear what is hap-
pening on the federal and state
level concerning death care. We
People with disabilities: will talk about taxes, OSHA, em-
Involvement, inclusion and healing ployment and the FTC, plus state
Marc Markell, PhD, St. Cloud State University & University of Minnesota
Often people with cognitive disabilities have minimal if any involvement in
issues and changes in funeral,
the funeral planning process. Some people with cognitive disabilities are not cemetery and crematory regula-
even told about the death of a significant person in their life. The reasons for tions across North America.
not involving them in the funeral process include care providers being afraid that they In addition to hearing about
will not understand or will act out in a way that will be difficult for others to deal with. legislation that might affect you,
This session will address issues of people with cognitive disabilities and their unique
needs as they grieve the death of a loved one. It will also address issues of what a funeral
this is also the place to share the
director can do to make sure that all mourners are included and able to benefit from the issues currently affecting you.
memorial. With a roomful of those in the
Markell teaches at St. Cloud State University in the school of education, and in know, you will want to make sure
the program of mortuary science at the University of Minnesota. At UM, he teaches to put this session on your calen-
death, dying and bereavement across cultures and religions and co-teaches funeral
arrangements. He is a certified thanatologist and certified in death and grief studies
dar. Oh, and did we mention the
from Colorado State University through the Center for Loss and Life Transition. He has FREE lunch?
presented on grief and loss locally, nationally and internationally.

C h e c k w w w.i cc fa . com for m ore d e tai ls, informati on ab out CE cre dits, pro g r am up d ates an d h otel opti ons.

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 95

 ANNUAL CONVENTION & EXPO REGISTRATION FORM
April 2–6, 2019 • ChArlotte Convention Center
ChArlotte, nC • www.iCCfAConvention.Com
Full Name Nickname for Badge

Spouse Name* Nickname for Spouse

Company

Address

City State/Prov Zip/Postal Code

Phone Cell Phone (for text messages)

Email

Emergency Contact Name Emergency Contact Phone

Is this your first time attending the ICCFA Annual Convention & Expo? … Yes … No Are you a graduate of ICCFA University? … Yes … No

Indicate if you have served in: … Air Force … Army … Coast Guard … Marine Corps … Navy … Other/National Guard

Indicate if you are a: … CCE … CCrE … CFuE … CCFE … CSE … CPLP … CCCE

Are you a: … Owner … Manager … Staff Check if you are a member of: … JFDA … PLPA

What level of authority do you hold for making purchasing decisions? … Make recommendations … Final authority … None

… If you require a special accommodation, please check this box and attach a statement of your needs.

REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT

REGISTRATION RATES
… Check
By 02.28.19 After 02.28.19 Amount Due
… Discover … Visa … MasterCard … AmEx
ICCFA Member $595 $645 $
Cemetery/Crematory/Funeral Home
Credit card #
Non-Member
$900 $950 $
Cemetery/Crematory/Funeral Home

Exp. date * Security ID #

Spouse * $325 $325 $

ICCFA Supplier Member Name on credit card

Supplier/Vendor/Industry Personnel
$800 $850 $

Supplier Non-Member $1,100 $1,150 $ Card’s billing address (required)

Supplier/Vendor/Industry Personnel

Ticketed Events

Welcome Reception $20 each $

Email receipt to:
Voices from the Past Cemetery Tour Free
Signature
Additional Tickets for Non-Registered Attendees
* 3-digit number on back of card or 4-digit number on front of AmEx card
Educational Foundation Reception † $50 each $
Registration and Optional Events Cancellation Policy: Cancellations
Closing Banquet † $150 each $ must be received in writing via fax, email to jaclyn@iccfa.com or mail
to ICCFA no later than February 28, 2019 to receive a refund. Full
Total Due $ registrations are subject to a $100 cancellation fee per registration.
Optional events are subject to a $10 cancellation fee per ticket. No-shows
will not receive a refund. No refunds will be given after February 28, 2019.
* A spouse must be someone who does NOT work in the industry
† An Educational Foundation Reception and Closing Banquet ticket is
included in each full registration you purchase, including Spouse

Please return this form with payment to: ICCFA Meetings Department • 107 Carpenter Drive, Suite 100 • Sterling, VA 20164 • Fax 703.391.8416

96 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 ➤E-mail calendar listings, additions or corrections to bclough@iccfa.com and sloving@iccfa.com. Calendar
2019 February 5-7: CANA’s Annual Cremation Cruise, Caribbean. 1.866.748.3625
January 23-25: ICCFA Wide World of Symposium, Paris Las Vegas (Nevada) February 25-27: MKJ Marketing Ski
Sales, Bally’s Las Vegas, Nevada. Hotel. www.gocana.org/CANAheroes Summit, The Arrabelle at Vail Square, Vail,
www.iccfa.com February 8-10: Monument Builders of Colorado. 1.888.655.1566
February 4-7: Dr. Alan Wolfelt’s training North America Industry Show, Marriot St. March 10-11: The International Order of
session for funeral directors, “Creating Lous Grande & St. Louis Convention Cen- the Golden Rule Annual Young Profes-
Meaningful Funeral Ceremonies,” Scotts- ter, Missouri. www.monumentbuilders.org sionals Event, Nashville, Tennessee.
dale, Arizona. www.centerforloss.com February 16-23: Frontrunner Workshop www.ogr.org r

Check the classified announcements at www.iccfa.com/employment.htm

To place a classified, contact Rick Platter, rplatter@iccfa.com Classifieds
• a superb reputation in a
desirable town with an excellent
quality-to-cost-of-living ratio.
• centralized location/market
in one of the country’s fastest
Karen Richards, CFP®, CIMA®, MBA Family aervices pre- growing metropolitan areas,
First Vice President - Investment Officer need sales professional within an hour of Washington,
(Maryland) D.C., and Baltimore.
Direct: (360) 527-2136 We are an iIndependent and Strong pre-need sales
thriving cemetery and funeral experience is expected. Some
74127-v4 A1695

karen.richards@wellsfargoadvisors.com
home combination seeking an
Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, engaged, motivated and compas-
Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & sionate sales professional. Be part
0718-01772
Company. © 2011, 2013, 2016 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. All rights reserved. of an all-professional team in a
forward-thinking culture!
We offer:
• a thriving marketing and
lead program
licensing is required, which we
assist in obtaining. Please submit
resume to the following address:
info@resthaven.us
9501 Catoctin Mountain HWY,
Frederick, MD 21701;
301.898.7177;
www.resthaven.us r

Sandra Wheeler
for
Also TS
Vice President - Investment Officer
Equipment and Supplies PE
Direct: (805) 783-7942
Aquamation
q = Water Cremation
74127-v4 A1695

sandra.wheeler@wellsfargoadvisors.com

Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC, Zero pollution.. Easier to get planning permit
Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo &
Company. © 2011, 2013, 2016 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. All rights reserved. 0718-01772
co
G r e e n /Ev e to
World First
r n a ti
a lt e
f ir e Alkaline Hydrolysis funeral
on
c r e m a ti
Phone John on 317 451 5221
from 2 pm - midnight PT
www.aquamationindustries.com Email : john@aquamation.com.au

Vickie Kozuck
Senior Vice President - Investment Officer

Office: (425) 670-2757

74127-v4 A1695

vickie.kozuck@wellsfargoadvisors.com

Wells Fargo Advisors is a trade name used by Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC,
Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo &
Company. © 2011, 2013, 2016 Wells Fargo Clearing Services, LLC. All rights reserved. 0718-01772

Contact RIck Platter for all

your advertising needs: rplatter@iccfa.com

Visit the new and improved www.iccfa.com January 2019 97

 AD INDEX

27 American Cemetery/Mortuary 31 Foundation Partners Group 69 Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell &

Consultants 27 Funeral Call Answering Service Hippel
75 American Funeral & Cemetery 100 funeralOne 3 Paradise Pictures
Trust Services 73 Quick & Simple Imports Inc.
47 Great Western Insurance Co.
27 American Memory Craft 13 Regions Bank Funeral & Cemetery
67 Heritage Flower Co.
41 Argent Trust Co. Trust Services
99 IMSA
65 ASD—Answering Service for 23 River Valley Bank
33 Inman Shipping Worldwide
Directors 45 Security National Life Insurance Co.
53 J. Stuart Todd Inc.
5 Biondan North America Inc. 41 SEP Technologies
21 Johnson Consulting
37 Blackstone Cemetery Development 51 Sich Caskets
59 Kryprotek
29 C&J Financial 35 SRS Computing
53 Madelyn Co.
17 Carrier Mausoleums Construction 77 Supply Link
15 Matthews Cemetery Products
65 Cherokee Casket 69 The Foresight Companies LLC
2 Merendino Cemetery Care
55 Coldspring 49 THE SYSTEM
39 MKJ Marketing
27 Columbarium by Design LLC 11 Trigard
19 MooneyTunCo Inc. Merry Christmas
9 Continental Computer Corp. 61 Triple H Co.
From Heaven
77 Cooperative Funeral Fund 7 U.S. Metalcraft
77 Mortuary Lift Co.
57 Doric Products 71 Vantage Products Corp.
77 National Mortuary Shipping &
63 Ensure-A-Seal Cremation 79 VKM International
43 Express Funeral Funding 93 National Museum of Funeral History 65 WithumSmith + Brown
65 Flowers for Cemeteries 61 Nomis Publications 49 Zontec Ozone r

New Members
Providing exceptional education, networking and leg-
islative guidance and support to progressive cemetery,
funeral and cremation professionals worldwide
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE ICCFA AND MEMBERSHIP
• Go to www.iccfa.com/membership to download a benefits
brochure and an application form.
• Call 1.800.645.7700 to have membership information faxed or
mailed to you.
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATIONS Admission to ICCFA member-
ship normally requires a majority vote of those present and voting at
any meeting of the executive committee. The names of all applicants
must be published in this magazine. ICCFA members objecting to an
application must do so in writing to the ICCFA executive director within
45 days of publication. In the event of an objection, the executive com-
mittee will conduct an inquiry. If an applicant is rejected, they will be
granted an appeal upon written request. The decision of the Board of
Directors shall be final.

Regular Metroplex Crematory Professional: Ogden, Utah

Angelus Chapel Funeral Direc- Arlington, Texas Pet Loss Services Icons in Ash
tors Inc. Montelena Complejo Funerario Always Faithful Pet Memorial New York, New York
Colorado Springs, Colorado La Libertad, El Salvador Service Outside the Pine Box
Fredregill Family Funeral Perches Funeral Home Carlstadt, New Jersey Columbus, Ohio
Home El Paso, Texas Cherished Memories Pet Resmony
Baxter, Iowa Serenite Killeen, Texas Montreal, Quebec
Ideal Tributes Mexico City, Mexico Professional/Supplier Salesgenie—City Directories
Manchester, Connecticut Seyler & Associates LLC A.W. Rich Funeral Home & Papillion, Nebraska
Knight Walter Emersom Steelton, Pennsylvania Direct Cremation Services Tell me Your Story LLC
West Palm Beach, Florida Turlock Funeral Home Fairfax, Vermont Snohomish, Washington
Lancaster Cemetery (Antelope Turlock, California Advanced Audio Systems TribuCast
Valley Cemetery District) Walker Funeral Home & Cre- Fairfield, Ohio Wilton, Connecticut
Lancaster, California matory Domani Group Wenzhou Filta Hardware Co.
McNeill Mackie Funeral Home Toledo, Ohio Orem, Utah Ltd.
Saint Pauls, North Carolina Great Western Insurance Tondren Hengjiu Mansion,
China r

98 ICCFA Magazine “Like” the ICCFA on Facebook & friend “ICCFA Staff ”
 Who Supplies
the Suppliers?
For funeral and cemetery suppliers, business
has never been more isolating. Often ideas
are done in a vacuum. What you know is only
what you know, which limits how far you can
go. IMSA membership can change that. We’ve
brought together some of the top industry
experts to offer our members free one-on-
one advice on marketing, business planning,
legal issues and more. We also bring to
our members insightful business-boosting
webinars, meaningful industry resources and
networking with other IMSA members. All this
smart phone scan Property in photo is Fairview Cemetery, Westfield, NJ, Merendino client since 2005
for just $175 a year. We’re the only association
serving all funeral and cemetery suppliers.
Because what’s good for the suppliers is
good for the providers and that’s good for the
families. IMSA. Supplying opportunity.

www.IMSA-Online.com

IMSA members now get free consultation with Dan Katz & Rolf Gutknecht of LA ads, Jake Johnson
of Johnson Consulting, Ryan Thogmartin of Disrupt Media and Poul Lemasters of Lemasters Consulting.

 January 2019

MAGAZINE

ICCFA Magazine
CEMETERY CREMATION FUNERAL

Inside: Program
for the ICCFA 2019
Convention & Expo

Charlotte, North Carolina,

April 2-6, 2019
• speakers on every aspect
of the funeral, cemetery
& cremation profession
• 11 uninterrupted Expo hours
• Welcome Reception at
the NASCAR Hall of Fame

French mortuaries
and cemetery
Appealing to the next
generation, winning
back cremation clients

Also in this issue:
• Ceremonies for
witness cremations
• Stansbury: Breaking
the ‘just a’ curse
• Lemasters on funeral
crowdfunding basics
January 2019 • Test your online
marketing IQ
• Wolfelt on Australia’s
progressive cemeteries
• How to decide about
‘hiring’ a therapy dog
• Trust fund basics
• Getting feedback on
your communication
I C C FA W i d e Wo r l d o f S a l e s : J a n u a r y 2 3 - 2 5 , 2 0 1 9 , a t B a l l y ’ s L a s Ve g a s , N e v a d a