November 2013

 
Admin News

A very warm welcome to our newest members: Shelagh Mernagh, Nigel Coutanche and Deni Darke.

Can you help?
Have you done any funerals for someone who has died following drug or alcohol use?

Tony Walter, from the University of Bath www.bath.ac.uk/people, whom you will recall was a tutor on your training course, is currently doing a research project on bereavement following drug or alcohol use. Part of the project involves looking at how bereaved people tell and re-tell the story of the deceased's often troubled and stigmatised life and he would be very grateful to read some funeral scripts for such people in order to see how their lives are recounted in the funeral.

If you are able to help then please send the scripts to me, and I will pass on to Tony, who will not know whom they are from. Please be assured that any scripts you provide will be anonymised - please either take the names out yourself, or otherwise I will make sure this is done. The scripts will be used only for research purposes, and will be destroyed once the project is finished.

Many thanks in advance for your help
Anne
anne@civilceremonies.co.uk
 

Old or tatty Funeral Service books?

Civil Ceremonies is looking for any old funeral service books that you come across at crematoria which they might be replacing.

They are really useful for training and we would very much appreciate it if you could spot any being potentially thrown away and see if they can be thrown our way! It doesn't matter how old or tatty they are and we will arrange to have them collected from the location.

Thank you for your help and if you come across any at all - even one or two, just email the details to anne@civilceremonies.co.uk
Thank you!
Anne
 

Training Dates
Civil Ceremonies are holding the following courses:

12th March 2014 - Child and Baby Funerals

13th March 2014 - Advanced Tribute Writing (to be eligible for this course you must have carried out at least 12 funerals)

For more information on the courses please contact Civil Ceremonies on 0845 0048608.
All IoCF members are entitled to a 10% discount.
 

Conference News

Conference 2013 - Report
Conferences. Ah yes. Those events you go to that are something of a jamboree, a talking shop, just networking, lots of hot air. Well that certainly is the view of some - and who am I to say that they are wrong? Except that if you were at the IoCF Conference in November, I suspect that that myth would be more than a little dispelled!

The first morning saw the Chairman open events and welcome everyone. True, he was still flushed with success from the Blue and Julie Quiz the night before - but it was time for business and less of the crowing! Anne Barber and Peter gave a brief overview of the activities of the previous year before our Patron, Professor Malcolm Johnson was warmly welcomed to the lectern for the keynote address. Professor Johnson, himself a practising Christian, has been a keen supporter of civil funerals and has been with the IoCF since its inception in 2004, having a clear recognition for the need for civil funerals.

After a break for refreshments, Fran Hall of the Natural Death Centre took to the floor. Not everything she said went down well with the audience - and they told her so. But at least it provoked discussion.

Fran was followed by Rachel Middleton, a Senior Coroner's Officer from Peterborough. She gave us all a frank and clear insight into the work of the Coroner's Service and how changes were having and would have an impact.

Lunch was followed by a session headed 'Come fly with me!'. The Chairman led everyone to believe that this was a talk about doves at funerals - so everyone was highly delighted when it turned out to be nothing of the sort. Much more practical and down to earth (pun intended!) it was a session about difficult funerals, difficult experiences and how to handle them. It was very well received.

Further sessions through the afternoon were on the use of anecdotes in tributes and dealing with bereaved children. Everyone learnt something.

The reasonably short AGM was followed by an item headed 'Bar open'. This was a perfectly unambiguous title - and everyone knew where to head.

During the evening meal, Cliff, widower of the late Marilyn Watts, presented 'The Marilyn Watts Award' for 2013 to Chris Howe. As you can imagine, this was warmly welcomed and applauded.

On the Sunday morning there were informal workshops on 'handling difficult clients' - we had all had them! - and on 'improving your delivery' - we all learnt something.

The conference was brought to a close by two extremely interesting talks, one from the West Midlands Area Transplant Team and one from the Alzheimer's Society.

So there you have it. It certainly wasn't a jamboree, it certainly wasn't a talking shop and it wasn't lots of hot air. OK - some networking I'll concede. Everyone who took part was confident that they were taking away some extra arrows for their quivers, a little more education on a variety of topics.

And you will need no reminding that well run conferences such as ours do not just happen. There is always a lot of hard work involved. And the real hard work this time was done by Viv O'Neill. A thousand thank yous to her for her industry and her inventiveness in putting together an event that had something for everybody. Thank you Viv. You are a star!

So what about 2014? Everyone who went this year is sure to be there. Why not pluck up the courage and join us? We'd all love to see you.

Peter McNulty
(ex - just) Chairman

Note: Slides from Professor Malcolm Johnson's keynote speech can be viewed on the Members Area of the website in the 'Newsletters' section.
 

Database Statistics

Here are the stats for August 2013.

Total number of booking forms logged: 497

 
2014 Diary Dates

 
And Finally ...

Congratulations to Andrew Hamel-Cooke, Margaret Price, Sally McManus, Lianna Champ, Heather Peet, Mel Driver, Meg Carter, Sally Band, Nigel Adams, Janet Joel, Sarah Chapman and Carole Codd who have all passed another milestone in their work.
 

And thank you for reading.
 
Peter McNulty