Welcome to the lastest edition of our newsletter, and an expecially warm welcome to new members Roy Haylings and Lynn Kilbane, who have recently joined the Institute.

 
Admin News

The Association of Registered Celebrants
Many of you will have heard about a new organisation which sprung up calling itself 'The Association of Registered Celebrants'. In a nutshell, their idea seemed to be that all celebrants - funeral and otherwise - would register with them and they would become the regulatory body.

Your Council - and in particular Karen Hopkins - wrote to Vince Cable, the government minister whose involvement the ARC alluded to, to raise the issue. As a result, Mr Cable's department took this up and wrote to the ARC directing them to remove all references on their website relating to potential government backing and Vince Cable's possible involvement.

The website has disappeared completely. I have no doubt that ARC or some other body with grand ideas will emerge in the future, but rest assured that Council have been and will be prepared to take action to protect your interests.
 

Marketing IoCF
The question of what the IoCF is doing for members in terms of marketing is often raised - especially in relation to publicity outside the funeral industry.

We can get articles published in the funeral trade press, but reaching a wider audience through the media is, at best, tricky. A recent two page spread which you will have seen in the SAIF 'Insight' magazine and which may soon be repeated in the FSJ and others was, in fact, sent to each and every national newspaper and magazine group. Net return on time invested? Zilch! Not one enquiry and not one scintilla of publication. There is still time because the national press seem to scour the trade press and then come up with 'original' articles of their own. Please be patient with us!

One point on the SAIF article. The publishers gaily plastered it with the logo for CCL in error and promoted me as Chairman of CCL. The error will be corrected in next month's issue - a free advert in a way.
 

New advert
Continuing the theme of marketing, as we've mentioned in previous newsletters, we have redesigned our advert for the trade press. You can see a copy of the new advert here - it is also available in the Resources section of the Members' Area. It is a print-ready pdf (and as such, is a large file and might be quite slow to download), should you wish to use it for your own local advertising.
 

Coronation Street
Followers of the soap 'Coronation Street' will know that death is imminent. Hayley has terminal cancer. Now, when did you ever see a civil funeral on any of the soaps? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it appears to be 100% vicar and church/crematorium. Since, to my knowledge, few of the soaps feature regular churchgoers, it is surprising that churches are the only places they go for their funerals.

In an effort to get the producers to reflect real life, I have written to them making the appropriate suggestions as to how a funeral might be portrayed. I don't hold my breath - but again this is an example of how we are trying to get civil funerals in the public eye for you.
 

Best Practice Days
A long time was spent at the last Council meeting discussing 'Best Practice Days'. We are in favour of spreading these round the country - perhaps one in the Bristol area, one in the Brighton area, one in the Bootle area and one in Buckden. I have used the four 'B's for effect - other sites in those areas would be great.

At this time, we would not envisage changing the content at the four locations - it really is an effort to get closer to celebrants and reduce their travel and overnight costs. What do you think? Send a one line email to Barbara ... or join in that discussion on the Forum.
 

Resources for Members
Did you know that, in addition to producing leaflets and business cards for members, we can also supply several products to assist you in presenting a professional image at all times?

Two products that are very popular with many members are the zipped writing case and the presentation folder.

Zipped writing case - £20
Invaluable when visiting families and funeral directors with many pockets to hold an A4 pad, pen, leaflets, business cards, flashcards etc.

The Logo identifies you immediately on arrival.

 

Presentation folder - £10
Deliver the funeral ceremony from this smart, high quality folder.

20 clear A4 pockets keep your script and ceremony notes in order and the logo is prominent all through the service.

 

Full details of all the stationery and other resources that are available, along with details of how to order, can be found on the stationery order form, located in the Resources section of the Member's Area on the website.
 
 

Website News

Website changes
Please have a look at the website. We have made some slight changes to the text. We have been asked from more than one source to completely re-vamp the website. Some of you may not appreciate that it is barely a year since we did just that. What we have now is a substantially better site than we had in the past. Council are going to stick with it - on the grounds of cost if nothing else!
 

Forum
Our forum on the website seems to cause some confusion. I am not the expert, but I am told that once you have logged on just the once, you can re-enter at any future time with a single click on 'Home'. Try it ... and use it!
 

 
Conference News

IoCF Conference
Please do make a note in your diary and make every effort to attend our Conference at Hillscourt from 1st - 3rd November. There is a full and varied programme and the whole event is well worth attending.

The Conference will incorporate our AGM - my last as a Council member - and we will be looking for new blood to join the Council. They aren't paid posts and traditionally we haven't paid any expenses - but the work is worthwhile and does do something to help our members, old and new. Please give it your serious consideration.

If you wish to reserve a place for the Conference, your first step should be to let Barbara, in the office, know that you are coming and what your accommodation requirements will be.
 

Hot off the Press - Conference News continued
Free Wi-Fi will be available to all members attending the Conference - details will be in the arrival packs.
 

 
Database Statistics

Funerals registered by celebrants between May and July this year total 1330 - as compared to 835 for the same period last year. We must be doing something right!

Here are the stats for June 2013

 
2013 Diary Dates

 
Member In Focus

Bring On The Funerals...

Hello, my name is Abby and I am a celebrant. That is a celebrant, not a celibate, just to make that clear, as most people do seem to mishear me. I trained last November and have to date, done two funerals with my third in a week's time (correct at the time of writing). When I told my Mum that I was training to be a funeral celebrant, her first words were, "but can you do solemn?" Funerals are, of course, solemn affairs but as I grow a little in confidence, I am also seeing that they are uplifting and there is even quite a lot of room for humour.

The first funeral I did was so easy that it gave me a false sense of security. It was for an old lady and the family (her daughter) wanted me to do everything from deciding on and sourcing the music (something from the 1930's and ballroom-related was the spec) through to writing the tribute and delivering the whole event. I didn't have to press any buttons, which was all done for me by the crematorium and the coffin remained where it was. Everything went wonderfully well and I do believe I spoke slowly enough (although this is always a matter for debate). What I did find strange was cutting off all contact with the family afterwards. We spoke on the phone the next day to discuss how everything went and when they received the funeral script there were one or two texts exchanged but when someone has opened up to you so much, it felt strange to just walk away. Of course I am over it now but someone did tell me you never forget your first funeral (or was that first boyfriend?).

Funeral number two was for an old man. When I asked his partner to describe him, she said, "There isn't much to say, really just day-to-day stuff." When probed a bit deeper, she was off with so much to say. It was brilliant for me, I was awash with information and when it came to writing the tribute, the words flowed. The man had been passionate about opera and ballet so my concern here was ensuring that the music requested was exactly what the crematorium had sourced. He was also a collector of teddy bears and so we had three of his favourite up on a table in the front. The first piece of music was over seven minutes long and it was the finale of the song that was the bit my client wanted. I had arranged with the crematorium staff to start playing the song as the hearse arrived so that it would be around three minutes in by the time everyone was in and seated but this didn't happen. The play button was not pressed until the coffin was on the pallbearers shoulders being marched up the five-second aisle. The piece did, I have to say, seem to go on forever (and ever) just for the four-second finale but it was what the client wanted!

My upcoming funeral is for an oldish man from a big and complicated family. I met all six of his children for the 'chat' and half of them refused to address the other half and there were a lot of disagreements on memories but I did get a lot of 'colour' for the tribute. I am looking forward to this funeral because for the previous two, it has been only me delivering it but for this one, there are family members doing readings and I have got all the grandchildren coming up to light candles so it will be a lot more interactive.

So, that is me three funerals in, loving it. Meeting a lot of different people is great. The crematorium staff could not be more helpful and I am beginning to bond with the funeral directors. So far, most of my funerals have been in small chapels, I am looking forward to a doing a really big, double slot with lots of speakers and songs and symbolic gestures. I am not sure I should be putting 'looking forward' and 'funerals' in the same sentence but hopefully everyone reading this is 'in the profession' and so will get exactly what I mean.

Abby Aron
 

 
And finally ...

Congratulations to Jane Grimes, Jane Harris, Judith Talbot, Chris Wynn-Owen, Gill Warwick and Alison Kirkham who have all passed another milestone in their work (ranging from 100 to 800 funerals).
 

And thank you for reading
Peter McNulty