Chairman's Report for IoCF AGM 17-11-12

If you are looking for a master-class in understatement, look no further: 'This has been a difficult year for the Institute of Civil Funerals'. But before you think that a tale of doom and gloom is about to appear, it has also been a year which has brought with it some very real positives.

We began the year with Mervyn Pilley in place as our Chief Executive. The office at Ware provided us with not only a headquarters address but also somewhere where we could hold Council meetings as and when required. As CEO, Mervyn dealt with our accounts. He dealt with our registration of funerals. He dealt with feedback and associated matters. He dealt with telephone and e-mail enquiries. He produced a Newsletter. He was our first point of contact for funeral professionals. He attended funeral industry events as our representative. I am sure that list is not exhaustive. Whilst Mervyn may have frustrated some members of Council on a regular basis - and I for one plead guilty to allowing that frustration to show at times - we were content that he should continue in his position as our paid Chief Executive.

In the middle of the year, Mervyn informed Council that he could no longer continue as CEO. The lease was about to expire on his premises and the pressure of his work for other organisations and companies was proving too much for him to be able to continue with us. In July Mervyn ceased to be our CEO. Council were faced with a dilemma which needed early resolution. We needed a premises address and we needed someone to do the everyday work of the Institute - and we were faced with days not months to resolve the issue.

A number of options were discussed but were found to be unworkable. Anne Barber, having made tremendous efforts over the past years to establish a proper dividing line between Civil Ceremonies Limited and the Institute, found herself in a position where to save the Institute she had to effect a compromise. Ergo, her offer of rented office space within CCL for an office for the Institute. This was accepted - and we as members of this Institute have good cause yet again to be thankful to Anne Barber.

Having established a headquarters - and all the ancillary changes which have to be made to move from one premises to another - there was the problem of staffing the office. We needed someone to effectively take on at least most of the role previously performed by Mervyn and the decision was made to employ someone on a five day week part-time basis. And as an Institute we have again been extremely fortunate. Mrs Barbara Pearce was employed. She had no experience of the funeral industry - in fact her profession was that of schoolteacher. If that was any cause for concern, it most emphatically need not have been. Barbara Pearce has proven to be a star! She has very quickly grasped the ropes and is playing all the right tunes. She is enthusiastic and on top of her work - and knows that she mustn't allow herself to be overworked. She has ideas which work and is an all round thoroughly competent asset to this Institute.

The physical change of headquarters was something which took place all on one day. I drove from home to Kimbolton via Ware, en route picking up all the papers and files from Mervyn. On arrival at Kimbolton, I was met by other members of Council - and the fun began. Sifting through the papers was a long and arduous process. Council were dismayed to find that some of the things they thought had been happening had not.

I did not spend all day at Kimbolton on that first day. The mammoth share of the work was done - and continues to be done - by a small band of celebrants. I will name them because I sincerely feel that we as an Institute are deeply indebted to them. They are, as they say in all the best TV shows 'in no particular order' - Jill Maguire, Christine Ogden, Janice Thompson and Viv O'Neill. How they have managed to sort us out in the way in which they have is a miracle, especially when you consider that they have all their other everyday tasks to perform, not least as active funeral celebrants. To them, jointly and severally, I say a huge thank you. And always there for us, always available for wise guidance, has been Anne Barber. And again, a huge thank you to Anne. It must not be forgotten either that the remainder of Council too have been very much involved in sorting out affairs. The role out with those five ladies mentioned has mainly been in Council meetings and in e-mail traffic. Again, members of Council are professionals within the funeral industry and very much have a need to be on top of their full-time work. I have not at all been a hugely 'hands-on' Chairman, but I have been consulted at every turn of the way. To give you an idea, in the week that ended last Sunday I had no fewer than sixty-three e-mails delivered concerning the Institute. I don't think the other members of Council upped the ante just because I had declared the previous Saturday an 'E-mail Free Day'!

The sad loss of Marilyn created a space on Council which has not been filled. She always offered wise counsel, but her illness prevented her from taking an active part in our affairs in the long months before her untimely passing. We miss her.

Happily, Angela Allan, our long-standing NAFD representative, is alive and well. Work commitments within the NAFD have forced her to step down. I am sure we all wish her well and we will all bump into her at various events around the country. She too has brought wise counsel to the table. We look forward to working alongside her replacement, Brian Parsons. He has such a breadth of knowledge of the industry and we know he will be a great asset. Brian was at one time editor of the Funeral Service Journal.

What you cannot fail to have noticed during the course of the year is the introduction of the new website. In case you hadn't noticed or if you would like a reminder, Anne will now take us on a tour of the website. Sit back, relax, enjoy the flight and thank you for flying IoCF!

(Anne Barber gave a demonstration of the website)

My ambitions as to a date for it to go live were thought to be a little ambitious, but Mike and Sharon at Siserone Ltd had the whole thing up and running very quickly and I was not disappointed. Not everything is yet perfect with the website, but we are getting there. We are often asked about 'member benefits'. The website provides us with one benefit and we are very close to the point of offering all members their own web-page and an e-mail address linked to the site.

Whilst I touch upon 'member benefits', the issue of insurance has always been a thorny one. Our previous CEO and myself made efforts to find a company to provide appropriate cover at an attractive rate and our efforts were in vain. However, I am pleased to report that Council will be having talks at their next meeting with an insurance company representative. We cannot make any promises but we will try to secure a deal suitable for members. If you have any thoughts on the subject, please share them with Council members today and over the weekend.

During the year, the Institute has been represented at the regular meetings of the Council of British Funeral Services; the SAIF Independents Days in Warwickshire and Newcastle; the NAFD Autumn Conference; the London Funeral Exhibition; the Cross Sector Training meeting in Hertfordshire; the Bereavement Services Association Conference; the Bereavement Liaison Group and the Funeralmap Convention. All these have by axiom brought us in to contact with other funeral professionals and have helped to spread the word. My thanks to all those members who gave of their own time to fly the flag for us - and at their own expense!

In amongst all the change and counter-change that has gone on, Institute members have continued to go about their work. Latest statistics show that we have exactly one hundred members. We have two people who are currently going through the joining process and we have three Affiliate members. The category of 'Affiliate' is one which Council have been monitoring very closely. There are good reasons why the category should continue but in future, applications for such membership will be rigorously examined. One reason that Council have had their doubts is that an affiliate can perfectly legitimately refer to the fact that he or she is 'An Affiliate of the Institute of Civil Funerals'. To anyone outside the Institute there is no discernible difference between an affiliate and a full member. We as members know only too well what hoops we have to go through to gain and sustain our membership.

Even a perfunctory glance at a graph of IoCF statistics over the years will show how the work has taken off. In the six years between the inception of civil funeral ceremonies in 2002 to early 2008, members had officiated at some five thousand funerals. Two years later, in 2010, this had doubled to ten thousand and there has been a healthy flow of some five thousand or so funerals a year until here in mid-November 2012 we are approaching a figure of twenty-five thousand. Pleased though we should be with that figure, it still represents but a very small percentage of the overall number of funerals in the United Kingdom. We have plenty of room for expansion!

It is also significant to record that as at 2012, over sixteen hundred funeral premises have used the services of a civil funeral celebrant from the IoCF. Again, there is plenty of room for expansion. Some areas of the United Kingdom are lost to us. I am acutely aware that when I visit my own relatives in Ulster I might as well try to enrol them on a project to fly to Mars as get them to understand the concept of civil funerals. It is one place where the church definitely rules! But closer to home, I recognise that there are still problems in getting funeral directors to use civil funeral celebrants. A fair number of requests come my way for assistance with getting started or maintaining a level of funerals. My advice is always the same - it is all about getting out and about, getting seen, getting a foot in the door. From those little acorns, one hopes that the oak trees follow.

The other difficulty which comes to notice is about the fees for funeral celebrants. This is always a thorny issue. Much is dictated by market forces in local areas. Close to £200 might work in Central London, it most certainly will not in rural Yorkshire. But alongside those regional variations, there are other factors which give rise to concern. It has been brought to our notice very recently that one funeral director is offering a cheap funeral package to families. Included in that cost is a ridiculously low fee offered to a celebrant. The rationale appears to be that the celebrant would do cut-price job for less input, including a prescriptive one visit only policy and not handing out a hard copy to the family after the funeral. As IoCF members we must remind ourselves that we are precluded from going down that road by our Code of Practice. Please do not be tempted to cut corners - our reputation has been built on the quality of our service and in that there can be no compromise.

On the subject of quality of service, how proud are you to be a member of the Institute? Wear that badge at all times - it gets the Institute and civil funerals 'out there'.

We do know that not everyone sends in every single booking form as soon as they should. We are all human and we get behind. But please do think about the benefits it gives you.

We know of several areas in the country where funeral directors will only use our members. This is because of the quality controls in place - booking forms are the key to this. It is the concrete base on which we build our quality house. No other celebrants they might use have this form of back up and quality control - and FD's are getting increasingly wise to the fact. The ongoing quality assessment is what sets our members apart and as a result, with new administrative procedures in place, we will be getting rather tougher with members who fail to send in booking forms.

I am delighted to say that two people who are pleased to wear the badge and all that it entails - and we know that because they send in their booking forms! - are Jo Donlevy who has a achieved a total of one thousand funerals at which she has officiated and Rob Rowe who passed that total some time ago. One of our West Country members is getting close to the thousand mark - he will doubtless feature in the Chairman's report next year! And may I say at this stage that my own reports of my impending retirement have been somewhat premature. Having re-thought the whole process, I will not now be retiring.

In conclusion, I would like to say that despite the obvious problems that we have had, we are still on our feet and we are moving forward. I firmly believe that the statistics we are now provided with are honest and accurate and enable us to see ourselves as we really are and not how it is imagined we would like to be. We are all passionate about funerals - but we need to be clear about what we do and where we are going. To you, the members, I would say thank you for your patience. To the handful who bemoan what is done for you, please try to remember that Council is comprised of volunteers, people who charge nothing for what they do, put in hours of work over and above their own everyday work, travel miles at no cost to attend meetings and events and spend a lot of time thinking about what is right for the Institute. We may not always get it right - but we will die trying.
 

Peter McNulty