September 2015

 
Welcome to the latest edition of the Institute Update
 

A very warm welcome to our newest members: Marianne Allen, Jan Hughes, Barbara Sharma, Evelyn Rutter and Kevin Bending.

 
The IoCF 2015 Annual Conference and AGM

Now that you have received the programme for our annual conference weekend I am sure that you do not need any further encouragement to come along and join us for as much of it as you are able. This is really just a reminder to return your booking form and payment to Barbara by Wednesday, 21st October to secure a place. If you have any further questions or problems downloading the booking form please do contact Barbara.

Every member is entitled to attend the AGM which will be held at 4.30p.m. on Saturday, 7th November - at the end of the afternoon session - and you will receive official notice of this nearer the date. Any formal matters to be raised with the IoCF council can be addressed at the AGM but I hope that you will also feel able to join the conference sessions where many matters relevant to the Institute and its members will be discussed and resolved during the course of the weekend.

Please note that whilst the invitation to the conference weekend is extended to members' partners and spouses, they cannot be included in any activities within the conference hall or at the AGM. They will be very welcome at the social evening and the formal dinner on Friday and Saturday evenings respectively and Yarnfield is close to some tourist attractions which they may wish to visit whilst the conference sessions are in progress.

 
Election of council members
The formal election of IoCF council members will take place at the AGM. There will be at least one vacant place on the council and we would welcome any of you to bring your expertise to the running of the Institute. If anyone is interested in standing for election and would like to know more about what serving on the council entails please do contact me (kemperpot@aol.com) or any other council member over the coming weeks. Likewise, if you are unable to attend the AGM but would like to join the council, do get in touch with me so that a nomination can be made on your behalf at the election.

 
Growing membership
As you will have noted from this and previous updates this year, the membership of the IoCF is growing rapidly. The Institute is now highly respected within the funeral industry and not only are funeral arrangers seeking to use the services of our members, but also other celebrants are coming to realise the importance of being a member of a professional association and recognising the IoCF as the organisation they would like to be part of.

In order to ensure that every member of the Institute provides a funeral ceremony of the gold standard for which the IoCF is renowned, we have always preferred new members to have achieved the highest accredited qualification in funeral celebrancy as provided by our preferred trainer Civil Ceremonies Ltd (CCL). However, I do remind every member that the IoCF does not train, and never has trained, funeral celebrants and CCL does not train IoCF members. Celebrants who train with CCL are free to join any professional association (or none) and thus the IoCF council is now receiving applications for membership from celebrants who have not trained with CCL.

It would be naive and inaccurate for the Institute to believe that all these people are not delivering high quality ceremonies. There are many excellent celebrants 'out there' and the Institute needs to grow in membership over and above the numbers trained annually by CCL. Therefore, we do welcome applications from celebrants who have received training elsewhere and who are established, competent celebrants with a wealth of experience. However, in order to ensure that these applicants can work at the high standard which we expect of IoCF members, the council feel that they should be subject to thorough assessment and we know that the membership would expect that too.

Council has drawn up a new list of criteria to be met by those seeking membership without having been awarded the Diploma in Funeral Celebrancy by CCL. Acceptance for membership is at the discretion of the council and the full details of this policy will be made available to members on request but a celebrant will only be considered if they do have an accredited qualification at minimum level 3, or have completed a training course recognised by the IoCF and worked regularly as a celebrant for 12 months. If they meet these criteria then they will be assessed both through written scripts and by observation. The council may then still recommend further training to develop their standard of work before agreeing that they meet the requirements of membership of the Institute.

In no way do we want to deter celebrants from joining the IoCF, but it is only fair to those members who have completed the rigorous training of the diploma course that these applicants should provide evidence of a high level of competence, professionalism and commitment to funeral celebrancy.

 
Sustaining high standards
The IoCF is very proud of the high standard of work of its members and we are confident that we can guarantee that to both funeral arrangers and families because we maintain our programme of continual assessment. Unfortunately, it has been brought to the attention of council that some members are not enabling us to fulfil our unique selling point of stating that we seek feedback from every funeral and annually assess every celebrant. It is a condition of membership of the IoCF that the celebrant submits a booking form for every funeral to the office; on that booking form it should state clearly that permission for the Institute to send a feedback form to the family has been granted by the inclusion of an email or postal address where the form should be sent. It is also a requirement of membership that the celebrant submits scripts for assessment when asked to do so; undergoes an annual observation by a crematorium manager or funeral director and ensures that the result of that is returned to the office and maintains personal evidence of continual professional development.

I am pleased to say that the vast majority of our members do fulfil all these requirements at all times. However, it is unfair to those who do find the time to complete these administration tasks if the Institute does not insist that they are done by everyone. Barbara will be giving priority to chasing up booking forms, scripts and annual assessments from those members who have not submitted them as expected and so, on behalf of the council, I ask that you do comply with her request to ensure that you are fulfilling the requirements of membership. In that way, we can assure the funeral industry that the IoCF not only sets gold standards but maintains gold standards.

 
Funeral industry events
The council takes its role of promoting the IoCF gold standards as seriously as it does the task of upholding them. Just by delivering the wonderful ceremonies that you do, every member promotes the IoCF and what it stands for but there are further ways in which you could help in doing this. If any member is invited to, or can attend, an event which would be an opportunity to publicise the Institute - for example: the opening of new funeral premises, dedication of new chapels or burial grounds or crematorium open days - do let Barbara know and she will send you a free pack of IoCF pens and postcards to distribute at the event.

 
Child Funeral Charity
As you all know, we do try and find ways in which we can support our chosen charity, the Child Funeral Charity. Many of you will know Stacey who works for CCL and she will be running the Oxford Marathon on October 10th in aid of the charity. We're not asking you to run with her...unless you want to, of course! If you would like to sponsor Stacey then please visit her page at Total Giving and make a donation.

We wish her the best of luck.

 
Best Wishes
Christine Ogden
 

 
And Finally ...

Congratulations to the following members who have reached another milestone in their work ranging from 200 to 1200 funerals (names are listed in no particular order):
Jenny Gibbs, Alison Kirkham, Karen Hopkins, Jane Grimes, Heather Peet and Sally Randell.
 

And thank you for reading.
Barbara