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INDUSTRY NEWS Pandemic Flu Conference's Four White Papers Conclude: We're Not Prepared for Mass Fatality Management The two-day "Fatality Management Pandemic Influenza Working Group Conference," held in March at Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, recently published four white papers that are available on the ICFA web page. Each of the four papers covers a separate aspect in coping with a pandemic influenza attack in the U.S. The fourth paper in the series, "Funeral Services and Final Disposition," may be of the most interest to funeral homes, cemeteries, and crematories in that it explores several key issues such as, "What are the overall limitations of the disposition system; are regulatory systems equipped to handle the demands of interstate licensure; what is the extent of this comprehensive economic impact; is there a clear distinction of key stakeholders and their respective roles; and how are the respect and dignity of the deceased and surviving families maintained?" Among the top concerns expressed by the white paper in managing mass fatalities is the following observation: "Funeral service personnel, suppliers and other mortuary service operations do not have priority access to resources. The ability to respond effectively to a pandemic event is completely dependent upon the availability of critical resources (vaccine, fuel, utilities, labor, raw materials, transportation, security, communication bandwidth, etc.)." The paper recommends: "State pandemic influenza plans must be adapted and/or modified to classify mortuary services personnel as 'first responders' and address resource, logistics, and funding concerns." The white papers will be discussed in an upcoming "Washington Report" column in the special August-September issue of the ICFA magazine, International Cemetery & Funeral Management. To view or download the four white papers on the ICFA web page, visit http://www.icfa.org/government.htm. Ohio Funeral Director Seeks Election to U.S. House of Representatives Ohio funeral director Charlie Wilson recently won the Democratic Party primary contest with 66 percent of the vote and hopes to represent Ohio's 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives by winning this Fall's election on November 7. The seat is currently held by a six term incumbent, Ted Strickland (D), who has decided not to seek re-election but who has endorsed the funeral director. Wilson, who serves in the state Senate, is the owner of Wilson Funeral and Furniture Company. Although funeral directors have frequently served in Congress, there has been no representation by the funeral profession among the 535 members of Congress during the last few years. To learn more about Wilson, visit his web page at www.charliewilson.com. SBA Study Finds Households Owning Small Businesses Are Wealthier Than Households That Don't The U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy released a study of household wealth from 1992 to 2001 and found that "households owning small businesses were more likely to be found in the top echelons of income and wealth than those that did not own a business." The study also found that "in 2001 small business-owning households were more than twice as likely as non-business owning households (57.1 percent to 25.5 percent) to be high income, and over eight times more likely (21.2 percent to 2.5 percent) to be high wealth households." However, the study also found a decline in the share of aggregate household wealth from 42.5 percent in 1992 to 40.6 percent in 2001. The full report, How Did Small Business-Owning Households Fare During the Longest U.S. Economic Expansion?, can be viewed on the SBA web page at http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs276tot.pdf. A research summary can also be viewed at http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/rs276.pdf. ICFA NEWS Call for Presentations for the 2007 Annual Convention & Exposition The ICFA will host its 2007 Convention & Exposition, "Expanding Your Horizons," March 20-23 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Convention Planning Committee invites individuals who are interested in presenting workshops to contact the ICFA with their proposals by August 11, 2006. In particular, the committee is looking for speakers on topics related to cemetery, funeral home and crematory management; new technologies/hardware of the future; and funeral customs of other cultures. Complete guidelines for proposal submissions can be found at www.icfa.org/docs/ac07_proposals.doc. Questions? Call Linda Budzinski at 1.800.645.7700. Call for Applications to ICFA Board of Directors Service on the ICFA Board of Directors offers members a chance to learn about and participate in the leadership of the association, and is a meaningful way to give back to the organization and to the cemetery and funeral service profession as a whole. The ICFA's Nominating and Elections Committee is currently inviting members to apply to run for the ICFA Board of Directors. The committee will narrow all applications received to 12 nominees, which will be reviewed and approved by the board at the ICFA Fall Management Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on October 4. Information on the 12 candidates will then be distributed to the membership, which will vote during the ICFA Annual Convention & Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 21. The top eight vote recipients will serve three-year terms. To apply, you must be a designated representative of a Regular (Cemetery, Funeral Home or Allied) Member in good standing or you must be an Individual Regular Member in good standing. The deadline to apply is September 1, 2006. Applications can be obtained by calling 1.800.645.7700 or by downloading the file at www.icfa.org/pdf/2007_icfa_board_application.doc. ICFA, McQuaig Offer Tools to Optimize Staff Hiring and Development The ICFA has teamed up with The McQuaig Institute in Toronto, Canada, to offer members a deeply discounted price on staff hiring and development tools through the McQuaig Job Survey, the McQuaig Word Survey and the McQuaig Self-Development Survey. Each survey is available to ICFA members for just $100 per assessment, a savings of up to 50 percent off the regular price. The member discount offer expires June 1, 2007. Companies assessing more than 100 candidates per year are eligible for additional discounts. The following tools are available for purchase by ICFA Members:
ICFA University—Just Weeks Away! With only two weeks remaining until the start of ICFA University, July 21-26 at the University of Memphis in Memphis, Tennessee, registration forms continue to be accepted and space remains available on campus. ICFAU brings together cemetery and funeral service professionals from across North America and abroad for five days of networking and valuable educational experiences. Whether you are new to the profession or looking for new ideas to help improve your business, ICFAU has something to offer everyone. Choose from five colleges encompassing every area of the funeral and service profession: Cemetery Administration & Management, Cremation Services, Funeral Home Management, Land Management & Grounds Operations and Sales & Marketing. More than 130 students and faculty have already signed up. To ensure the housing and class placement of your choice, register today! To see the complete program schedule for ICFAU and to download a registration form, visit www.icfa.org/icfau06.htm; or call 1.800.645.7700. 2006 Fall Management Conference: Hotel Update Join your colleagues October 4-7 at the luxurious Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for the 2006 Fall Management Conference. Geared for CEOs and executives in the cemetery and funeral service profession, the program addresses important topics in management, technology, sales and more. In addition, there will be plenty of time to take in the beautiful New Mexico scenery, experience the rich culture of Albuquerque and golf at some of the highest-rated golf courses in America. The ICFA has also organized a bus trip to the world-famous Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta on Saturday, October 7. Tickets must be purchased by September 1 to reserve your seat! Important: Make your travel reservations as soon as possible. An estimated 780,000 guests will be traveling to Albuquerque for the International Balloon Fiesta. This means that everything from hotels to plane reservations to dining reservations will book up quickly. The ICFA has reserved a room block at the Hyatt Regency Tamaya Resort & Spa; the suites in this block have already sold out, and the remainder of rooms are more than half filled. Call 1.800.233.1234 today to reserve your room, and refer to code G-ICFA. To register for the Fall Management Conference or to view the conference schedule, visit www.icfa.org/fall06.htm; or call the ICFA at 1.800.645.7700. Funeral Care Seminar Coming to Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., will be the site of the next Advanced Seminar on Quality Funeral Care, September 15-17 at the Hyatt Dulles Hotel in Herndon, Virginia. The first three Seminars in Chicago, Atlanta and Portland were well-received, with 100 percent "excellent" and "very good" ratings for the overall seminar on the post-conference evaluation forms. Among attendee comments:
Two seminars remain in 2006:
2006 Annual Convention Audio CDs Now Available Sixteen of the presentations from the 2006 Convention & Exposition are now available for purchase as audio CDs from the ICFA. To order, call 1.800.645.7700. If you attended the 2006 ICFA Convention, you will receive a 30 percent discount. (Discount offer is good until September 1.) The following presentations are $18 for members and $28 for non-members:
CLASSIFIED ADS Mortuary Manager Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary located in the Los Angeles, California area is searching for a Mortuary Manager. The ideal candidate will possess a minimum of five years experience as a Manager/Assistant Manager including a minimum of three years of staff management. Must be computer literate and be a licensed Funeral Director. Licensed Embalmer preferred. We offer competitive salary and benefits. Please email your resume to hr@hillsidememorial.org or fax your resume to (310)342-0467. Computer Software Do you know where all your information is? Are you tired of the same old options out there? Are you looking for more from your computer system? MACCSTM, from FPA Software, is the complete mortuary and cemetery solution, providing all the functionality and features needed to effectively manage and operate a memorial park and mortuary today. From pre-need sales prospecting all the way through interment (and everything in between!), MACCSTM provides an easy to use, flexible, and completely integrated system for a memorial park and mortuary providing funeral services. Consistent with our approach of providing a completely integrated solution, the MACCSTM Mapping module provides GIS mapping capabilities integrated in real-time with information in the MACCSTM cemetery property database. Mortuary case management, service tracking, cemetery property management, integrated mapping, accounts receivable, pre-need trusts, serialized casket inventory, complete reporting and forms management - MACCS has it all. Please feel free to contact us at 818-501-3390 or visit our website at www.fpasoftware.com/maccs to learn more about MACCSTM. Reach Thousands of Cemeteries and Funeral Homes With Your Classified Ad!
And more ... For a limited time, ICFA members can purchase the McQuaig Job Survey, the McQuaig Word Survey and the McQuaig Self-Development Survey for just $100 per assessment, a savings of up to 50 percent off the regular price. The member discount offer expires December 31, 2006. Companies assessing more than 100 candidates per year are eligible for additional discounts. For additional information, visit http://www.icfa.org/pdf/mcquaig2.pdf and http://www.icfa.org/pdf/mcquaig.pdf. For questions and to sign up for the program, contact Michael Gravelle at The McQuaig Institute at 1.800.387.5455, ext. 361, or mgravelle@mcquaig.com. Join today! The 2006 Music Licenses are available for just $220, no additional fees. Covers ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. Any U.S. funeral home, cemetery or related business is eligible for membership as a Music License Member. Join today! The ICFA Store allows members to purchase the latest ICFA resources and training products online. Some products are available for immediate direct download, including the newly released Wirthlin Report on consumer attitudes and article packages on cremation, cemetery and funeral home valuations and trust funds. The ICFA News Page takes you to sources throughout the world for industry news and updates. It brings you the most comprehensive selection of funeral service and cemetery news available anywhere, along with frequently updated general news items related to national and world events. The News Page reports the news before anyone else and is one of the most visited page on the ICFA Web site. Stop in each day and you'll see why. The Network is an online e-mail service that offers ICFA members an easy, free way to share questions and answers to everyday on-the-job challenges. Recent discussions have examined issues such as working with the Muslim community, distance between burial sites, direct mail marketing, the growing popularity of geocaching at cemeteries, recruiting staff and more. Ideal for smaller companies with smaller budgets. Join today! The ICFA Internet Expo is the largest online exposition in the cemetery and funeral service industry. Cemetery and funeral home owners and operators will find 300+ providers in more than 100 product and service categories. Exhibit space is provided as a free, exclusive benefit to all ICFA supplier and professional members. Check it out today! Need a labor relations and employment law attorney? Check out ICFA's HR Law Benefit program offering members no-cost telephone legal consultations, paid for by the ICFA via an exclusive retainer agreement. ICFA members now also have access to an attorney for tax-related questions regarding trust earnings, care fund allocations, capital gains, investments and more. The ICFA has retained Leslie Schneider, CPA, a tax attorney with Ivins, Phillips & Barker in Washington, D.C., for telephone consultations for up to 20 minutes with no obligation. To take advantage of this member benefit, call Schneider at 202.393.7600. The ICFA and Applied Merchant Systems of Chicago, Illinois, currently offer members a Credit Card Processing Program with a special low discount rate of 1.75 percent, with no per transaction processing fee. This new benefit makes it less expensive for cemeteries, funeral homes, memorial designers and related businesses to accommodate customers who wish to pay via credit card. For more information, call 1-800-675-6573. The ICFA Insurance Program, administered by Driver Alliant, allows members to purchase commercial property and casualty insurance -- including general liability, commercial property, automobile liability and physical damage, umbrella liability, professional liability, workers compensation, employee benefits and more -- at rates they probably would not be able to afford on their own. To advertise in the ICFA Wireless: The ICFA accepts limited advertising in the ICFA Wireless newsletter, a bi-weekly newsletter e-mailed to all ICFA members that are current on their dues and have provided a current e-mail address. For rates and to place your insertion, contact Kim Ferguson at kferguson@icfa.org or 1.800.645.7700. To unsubscribe from the ICFA Wireless: Send an e-mail with "unsubscribe" in the subject line to: wireless@icfa.org. Please include your name and company name in the body of the e-mail. International Cemetery and Funeral Association 107 Carpenter Drive, Suite 100 Sterling, VA 20164 1.800.645.7700 703.391.8400 Fax: 703.391.8416 www.icfa.org Copyright 2006 International Cemetery and Funeral Association. |
