National Funeral Exhibition
Our attendance at the National Funeral Exhibition every two years is a must. It is a costly exercise, both in terms of fees and hours devoted to it, but we must be seen to be about. As an Institute we undertake to promote all our members and this year we certainly achieved that objective.

The exhibition ran from Friday-Sunday, with set-up taking place on Thursday evening - undertaken by Council members. Our stand was manned on Friday by various Council members, and on Saturday and Sunday by members Jane Grimes, Karen Imms and Tim Turner - we have to thank them for giving up their time, and for doing such a good job.

A survey was conducted at the exhibition into the feelings of funeral directors about civil funeral ceremonies. The results will be released to the national press and to trade magazines next week; do look out for them - they make interesting reading.

 
Admin News

Assessments
A gentle reminder! It is time for Barbara to receive your annual crematorium and script assessments, together with your self-certification that you have completed the required CPD. Thank you to all of those who have already done this. If you have any problems please ring or email Barbara.
 

Public Liability Insurance
All members should by now have received their insurance certificates (if not, please contact Barbara). One of our members has had good experiences when taking it round to funeral directors - including those with whom she has a long established relationship - and I hope that our next newsletter will have a short article from her telling us all about it.
 

Advertising
A new advertisement for the trade press has been created by members of Council with an eye for these things - ie not me! We will no longer list all the members in the advert but readers will be referred to the website. The advert is currently being finalised. As soon as it is ready, a copy will be emailed to you and it will also then be placed on the resources page of the website, should you wish to use the advert locally.
 

Best Practice Day 2014
Council have provisionally booked Saturday 5th April 2014 at Buckden Towers for a 'Best Practice Day' - something which have proved to be very popular in the past.

More details will be published later, but we do need to know if you are interested in attending - and whether you have any particular topic which you would like covered. A one line email to Barbara will do the trick - preferably by 13th August.
 

A New Outfit in Town
'Rival' organisations seem to be popping up almost daily. There seem to be any number of offers and counter-offers being made. You are all mature people running your own businesses and are more than capable of making your own decisions, but all I would say is beware of pale imitations!
 

Training dates
Civil Ceremonies is offering the following courses:

Course Title: Date: Venue: Cost: Course tutor:	Poetry and Readings for Funerals - designed to help you improve the selection and delivery of poetry and prose This course is OCN Accredited at Level 3 Tuesday 8th October 2013 Either at CCL Offices in Kimbolton, or the Claret Centre, Buckden (depending on numbers) £155 + VAT - 10% discount for IoCF members John Valentine
Course Title: Date: Venue: Cost: Course tutor:	Advanced Tribute Writing Techniques - learn how to take your tribute writing skills to the next level This course is OCN Accredited at Level 2 Wednesday 9th October 2013 Either at CCL Offices in Kimbolton, or the Claret Centre, Buckden (depending on numbers) £195 + VAT - 10% discount for IoCF members Charles Cowling and Anne Barber
Course Title: Date: Venue: Cost: Course tutor:	Voice Training for funerals - improve your delivery Thursday 10th October 2013 Either at CCL Offices in Kimbolton, or the Claret Centre, Buckden (depending on numbers) £175 + VAT - 10% discount for IoCF members Melanie McHugh

Refreshments, lunch and course materials are provided for all training.

To reserve a place on any of the above courses, email Vicki@civilceremonies.co.uk or call 0845 0048 608
 

Website News

Website updates
Our website has 'settled in' and Council are now looking at it page-by-page to eliminate any errors that may have been missed during set-up. For some reason, use of the forum has fallen markedly. The procedure for getting in has not altered. Any feedback about the Forum from Members would be appreciated.
 

Mini-websites and IoCF email addresses
We're continually developing the mini-websites and we have added an additional page - making them two-page mini-sites. As previously, the first page gives you the opportunity to describe yourself and what you offer; the new page is for testimonials. Both pages can be updated once a year, free of charge.

For those of you interested in either the mini-sites or email, we are creating a step-by-step guide which will be sent to you shortly.

The good news is that Jill, our original "guinea-pig" for setting up this service, is reporting that she is getting work directly as a result of her mini-website.
 

Members' Area
Things are also changing in the Members' Area. In there you will find a new section "Events" which will contain items such as:

• Diary of Events
• Conference and Best Practice Day updates
• Upcoming Training Courses

Including these items in their own section means we will be able to keep them up-to-date in a more timely fashion than simply relying on our newsletter.

And talking of - newsletters now have their own distinct page in the Members' Area - all past newsletters are available there.
 

 
Conference News

IoCF Conference 1st to 3rd November.

Arrangements for our Conference and AGM are well under way in the capable hands of Viv O'Neill. Have you got the date in your diary? It runs from Friday 1st November to Sunday 3rd November and you can attend for as many or as few days as you like. Contact Viv if you wish to attend (viv.oneill@btinternet.com).

Watch out for your "formal" invitation - it will be with you shortly.
 

 
Database Statistics

Total number of booking forms logged:
March: 546
April: 541
May: 460

 
2013 Diary Dates

 
And finally ...

We welcome Rick Sayer, Sarah Chapman, Andrew Platts, Rosemary Drewery , Jonathan Chapman, Deborah Wharton, Sally McManus, Mary Hopes, John Lewing, Sarah Aubert, Izzy Rider, David Clark and Christine Freeman, who have recently joined the Institute.

And congratulations to Julia Anderson, Mark Jardine, Lynn Banham, Jenny Gibbs, Steven Heath, Jo Donlevy and Faith Oxford , who have all passed another milestone in their work (ranging from 100 to 3600 funerals)!
 

And thank you for reading
Peter McNulty