It's no secret that the ongoing consolidation of our industry is affecting its state, regional and national trade
associations. Assuming a one-location/one-vote ratio, many people believe the trade associations must be increasingly
dominated by the large public companies. But I've discovered a secret that probably makes the ICFA unique among
all of our industry trade associations: In the ICFA, independent members have a disproportionately large
voting strength over the public companies. It's actually planned that way.
I say this is a secret only sarcastically because the voting structure is stated very plainly in the ICFA bylaws-but,
honestly, whoever reads the bylaws? So to most people, it seems like a secret. Here's how it works.
The public companies have agreed to limit the number of their membership votes on a sliding scale. A company receives
a maximum of five votes for up to 50 properties it owns or controls. After that point, it receives one additional
vote for every 25 properties it has, up to 100 properties in total. After that, a company receives only one additional
vote for every 50 properties it has, up to 200. If a company owns or controls more than 200 properties, it receives
only one additional vote for every 100 properties it owns from that point on.
For example, the last time I checked, SCI, the largest of the public companies, has 23 or 24 votes in the ICFA.
That's right. Out of the hundreds of votes cast at the ICFA Annual Meeting of the Members, SCI has only 24 votes.
The other public companies have even fewer. This type of voting structure in effect gives the independent members
more voting clout, but they probably don't realize that. Like I said, who reads the bylaws?
Now about the Board of Directors. According to the bylaws, no member may be represented by more than three at-large
directors at any time. If the ICFA board had only 10 directors, this provision might be bad news for independent
members. However, the board is currently made up of 44 directors. So the three largest public companies may have
a total of only nine votes from the at-large board members, assuming the membership votes them into office in the
first place. Again, the independents wind up with a disproportionately large voting block on the board as well.
So why would the public companies, which contribute so much in dues and other forms of support, agree to limit
their votes? The answer has to do with the nature of a trade association, which, after all, is a coalition of competitors
who work together to solve their common problems. If the ICFA were to become just an "alter ego" of the
public companies, its work, testimony, positions on regulatory issues and so forth would be ignored. The reason
the ICFA's opinions count in the public and governmental forums is because the association can prove its
positions represent a consensus of an important cross-section of the industry that promote consumer choices, prearrangement
and open competition. And how does it prove that? By its voting structure. The public companies realize that and
support it.
This means that when an independent joins the ICFA, the vote it receives is actually weighted in greater proportion
than if the member were a public company. So regardless of size, the votes of ICFA's independent members will always
outweigh the votes of the public company members.
I hope this information will encourage independent cemeteries, funeral homes, memorial retailers and other industry
members to join the ICFA and to cast their votes at meetings. Your vote counts even more than you may realize,
so if youÕre not a member, you're missing out on playing a key role in the future direction of this association-big
time! Call today for a membership application at 1-800-645-7700.
Arlie T. Davenport Jr. is vice president at Greenwood-Mount Olivet Cemeteries
and Funeral Home in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a proud independent voting member of the ICFA.
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Copyright ICFA 1999.
Individual written contributions and advertisements appearing in International Cemetery & Funeral Management do not necessarily reflect either the opinion or the endorsement of the International Cemetery and Funeral Association.
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