First Annual PLPA Conference Program Announced

March 10-13, 2010 • Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center • San Antonio, Texas

Click here for complete details or to register now!

Toward Standards in Pet Loss Care
Bill Remkus and Coleen Ellis
Now is the time to lay the groundwork for a viable set of standards in pet loss care in North America. We'll examine an industry code of practice, to include discussion on:

• Maintaining dignified cremation and burial facilities
• Maintaining necessary permissions and licenses
• Being open to inspections and queries from the public
• Helping customers become fully informed and educated regarding services and terminology
• Treating remains in a caring manner
• Maintaining a clear chain of custody
• Ensuring quality services when dealing with third parties

In addition, we'll look at ways to propagate standards both among our pet loss care colleagues and among the veterinary community.

Bill Remkus is the third-generation owner of Hillsdale Animal Cemetery & Crematory in Willowbrook, Illinois.

Coleen Ellis is president of Two Hearts Pet Loss Center in Greenwood, Indiana, and is chair of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance.

Pet Loss Center Best Practices, Part I
Jocelyne Monette
Eternal Companions Pet Memorial Centre is a truly leading edge firm among pet loss service providers, offering "a sanctuary for rest, reflection and healing"—a mission reflected throughout the company, from the staff, environment and memorial offerings to the delivery of the cremains back to the family.

Owner Jocelyne Monette will walk you through a variety of best practices she has implemented and which can be adapted for your company. These include video certification of a pet cremation, either through a DVD or real-time access via Web cams, web-based software created just for the pet industry, and trust accounts set up for pre-planning needs.

Jocelyne Monette is founder and chief executive officer of Eternal Companions Pet Memorial Centre in Rigaud, Quebec.

Pet Loss Center Best Practices, Part II
Nancy Lohman
Lohman Pet Cemetery and Cremation was founded on the concept of providing special, exclusive places for pets and people to be together, with offerings that include benches, honor rocks, columbariums, and K-9 memorials. One of the ways in which the business has been most successful is through its many forms of community outreach.

Nancy Lohman will show you some of the projects such as "shampouching in park" which you can use to draw community participation to your pet loss firm. She will also show how her company has used expos, parades, and community seminars and presentations to brand their product and make it recognizable in the community.

Along with her family, Nancy Lohman is owner of Lohman Pet Cemetery and Cremation, and also Lohman Funeral Homes and Cemeteries, based in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Pet Cremations: Legal and Liability Issues
Poul Lemasters, Esq.
Traditional cemeteries, crematories and funeral homes in recent years have needed to step up their awareness with regard to potential liabilities related to cremation. Now, pet loss operators are facing many of the same issues.

ICCFA Cremation Coach Poul Lemasters will walk you through a must-do list to protect yourself and your firm, including cremation authorization policies and forms, employee safety measures, recordkeeping protocols and more.

Poul also will provide an overview of current cremation legislation and will supply sample forms so that you can immediately implement his recommendations.

Attorney Poul Lemasters is principal of Lemasters Consulting in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is special cremation counsel for the ICCFA. He is a licensed funeral director and embalmer.

Expanding Your Traditional Business to Include Pet Services
Tom Flynn, John Flynn, Roberta Knauf
Pet resorts, designer pet wear, pet massage, even a pets-only airline!

As pets become increasingly important members of today's family unit, many cemeteries and funeral homes are looking for ways to reach this market and to provide increased value and service to their existing customers by extending services to their beloved pets. Particularly for companies whose traditional funeral and burial business is on the decline, pet products and services can represent a natural course for growth.

If you are thinking about adding a pet loss business at your location (or if you are simply interested in learning how to reach this large potential market), you'll want to join Tom and John Flynn and Roberta Knauf for this two-hour session as they share:

• The opportunities for new, loyal patronage that pet lovers represent
• Specific steps for making your cemetery or funeral home more pet-friendly
• How to stage "pet centric" events
• Logistical issues such as zoning and design
• How to generate positive public and community relations through pet programs
• Use of strategic partners: for preneed insurance marketing; a software company for data management; and advertising firm to promote your new image

Tom Flynn, CPA, is president of Hillcrest Memorial Park and its People and Pet Gardens in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, and is president of Pet Service Advisors.

John Flynn is a funeral director who oversees the Hillcrest-Flynn Pet Funeral Home and Crematory and is owner and supervisor of the adjacent John Flynn Funeral Home and Crematory.

Roberta Knauf is the firm's pet funeral director and has over 25 years experience in the pet industry. She is responsible for daily operations of the pet funeral home and crematory and coordinates all people and pet related events.

Grief: What Your Team and
Pet Parents Will Want To Know
Coleen Ellis
For pet loss professionals, having the skills and knowledge to be able to companion a bereaved heart is of the utmost importance. Pet parents often are lost in the darkness of their grief, with a very special set of needs. How do you maneuver these complex waters?

Learn what a family's needs are at the time of loss and how you can help your team and your process partners work with them in their time of grief. This will be a truly powerful hour of learning, with techniques that you can immediately take back and use at your pet death care operation.

Coleen Ellis is president of Two Hearts Pet Loss Center in Greenwood, Indiana, and is chair of the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance.

Meeting the Needs of Today’s Pet Caregivers
Dr. Jane Shaw
Veterinarian and professor Jane R. Shaw directs an educational program focused on strengthening veterinarian-client-patient communication and supporting relationships between people and their companion animals. In this interactive workshop, Dr. Shaw will present communication and grief therapy techniques to support pet caregivers during difficult times. The underlying goal is building collaborative partnerships; the same skills are relevant to pet providers in caring for clients and in engaging with veterinarians. She will highlight key skills and conduct exercises to put them into practice.

Jane R. Shaw, DVM, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Veterinary Communication and the Director of the Argus Institute at Colorado State University. Dr. Shaw is a recognized expert in veterinarian-client-patient interactions, and was recipient of the 2008 Leo K. Bustad Companion Animal Veterinarian of the Year Award, recognizing her contributions to enhancing the relationship between people and their pets.

"Ask The Veterinarian" Roundtable Discussion and Conference Wrap-Up
Moderated by Coleen Ellis
Working with veterinarians is a key component of most of our businesses, but our respective business models are different in so many ways. Finding the best ways to bridge those gaps and develop relationships and marketing approaches that reflect a common mission vis a vis our pet parents is one of the key goals of the PLPA.

Toward that end, we will close our Inaugural PLPA Conference with an extended roundtable discussion with representatives from the veterinary community. This is your opportunity to bring your questions and ideas, to discuss challenges and shared goals, and get an insider perspective on how to best work with the vets in your community.

This will also be the opportunity to discuss all of the issues that have been raised during the week, and share suggestions for the next PLPA Conference and our next steps going forward.

Developing a Pet Loss Support Group and Defining Relationship-Based Selling In The Pet Loss Provider World
Mark A. Russell
Whether you are pet loss provider or a traditional cemetery or funeral home, this session will provide valuable tools for increasing your service to families as well as improving your sales efforts.

In the first half of the session, Mark Russell will share how to start a support group for those grieving the loss of a pet. He'll share the exact steps you can take to get the program off the ground, including information on planning, logistics, marketing and more.

Next, Mark will switch gears to talk about relationship-based selling. Often "selling" does not come easily to people in a service business. But good sales are in fact an important part of providing good service. You must be able to present your products and services in a way that leads your clients to say "yes" before you can serve them. Whether in a business-to-business setting or a business-to-consumer setting, Mark will show you how to gain the buy in needed to earn the "yes" from the families and the businesses most often served in the pet loss provider segment.

Mark Russell serves as the Managing Director of Funeral & Cemetery Sales & Operations at Resthaven Gardens of Memory & Funeral Home in Baton Rouge, LA (Legacy Funeral Group). Mark is the former Director of Strategic Marketing for Stewart Enterprises' Corporate Division (New Orleans, LA) and has held several regional sales and marketing management positions with SCI, The Alderwoods Group, and Funeral Directors Life Insurance Company. He is a licensed Crematory Retort Operator, and holds certifications from Tulane University in Strategic Marketing and Grief and Bereavement Facilitation and from LSU in Marketing Research and Statistics. He is credited with starting the pet loss bereavement programs at various Alderwoods funeral and cemetery locations in and around the New Orleans region both before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Click here to register now to attend the 2010 Annual Convention.

____________________________________________________

Click here to view the PLPA introductory flier and membership application form.

The PLPA Mission Statement:

The Pet Loss Professionals Alliance is committed to being an educational resource to its members by bringing continued learning in every aspect of a pet death care operation.  The membership, including pet loss suppliers and pet death care facility operators, will be dedicated to the creation of programs to profitably meet the changing needs of the pet death care industry in the areas of cemeteries, crematories and pet loss facilities, also incorporating the various needs of other process partners, such as the veterinary industry.

The PLPA’s commitment to its membership is to assist in:

• Foster positive consumer relationships by promoting high ethical standards
• Encourage our members to promote the dignified and respectful care of the pet bodies
• Promote cemeteries as respectful resting areas and as a place of lasting tribute to the memories of our beloved pets
• Provide services, products and educational opportunities with an emphasis on those resources that members cannot as effectively provide for themselves.
• Be proactive in leadership on legislative, regulatory and legal issues
• Create mutually beneficial relationships with state, regional, international and allied associations.
• Provide members the opportunity for growth and recognition through participation in the ICCFA

Obligations of Membership in PLPA:

Members of the PLPA recognize that we have special obligations to the pets, families and other businesses that we serve. As guardians of pets in death, we pledge:

• To care for the remains of those entrusted to us with dignity, respect, and professional skill, whether at a clinic, funeral home, crematory or cemetery.
• To honor the wishes of the family and to serve all families with respect, understanding and confidentiality
• To protect and preserve all interment sites and relevant historical data entrusted to us.
• To be guided by the spirit and letter of all applicable laws and regulations set by governing bodies with jurisdiction over our activities in the ownership, management and operation of a funeral home, crematory, cemetery or related endeavor.
• To be an educational resource and guide in standards relating to final pet death care options for our client families as well as our process partners

Click here to visit the Discussion Forum to comment on the Mission and Objectives.