Hotel Room Block Increased (Twice!) Due to Pace of Registrations; Early Bird Registration Ends August 26; Reduced Hotel Rate Expires August 29

There are a limited number of hotel rooms still available in the room block for the ICCFA Fall Management Conference, September 21-23 in Naples, Florida. Reserve your room no later than August 29, when the price of rooms will go up substantially.

Don't miss this conference! The Fall Management Conference brings together hundreds of our profession's most progressive and successful executives and owners in the profession for extensive networking and an interactive program that will help you become a more effective, informed leader.

This year's keynote presentation will focus on emotional intelligence, one of the most important elements in determining whether you are a good leader. According to a recent study tracking more than 160 high-performing individuals in a variety of industries and job levels, emotional intelligence contributed to excellence more than twice as much as intellect and expertise alone.

Dr. J.P. Pawliw-Fry, executive trainer at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, will offer a one-hour keynote and a two-hour interactive training session examining the role of "EQ," or one's emotional quotient, along with practical ways to improve your EQ so you can better lead staff and improve performance throughout all levels of your organization. Pawliw-Fry is co-founder and president of the Institute for Health and Human Potential and has served as a consultant on maximizing performance to Fortune 100 companies, the U.S. military and Olympic athletes.

Additional conference sessions include breakout discussions on marketing to baby boomers, communicating the cremation value proposition and providing leadership in times of change. Numerous breaks and receptions and the Fall Management Golf Tournament offer excellent opportunities for networking with many of the most successful and future-focused executives in the profession today.

The ICCFA room rate at the five-star Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort in Naples is just $179 per night.

Full program and registration information is now available at www.iccfa.com.

Perfect Your Sales Moves at 2012 Wide World of Sales Conference

The ICCFA invites you to review the incredible sessions on the program for the Wide World of Sales Conference, January 18-20, 2012, at Bally's/Paris Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. No matter what your reason for attending the conference, you'll find training sessions filled with useful, practical tools you can take back to your office and implement immediately.

Join us for the world's largest sales and marketing conference for death care professionals, featuring:

• Business relationship expert and bestselling author Garrison Wynn will deliver a keynote address on what the top one percent of salespeople do differently as well as a high-impact workshop that answers two monumental questions: How do you get people to do what you want them to do, and how can you get better results from the difficult people you encounter along the way?
• Funeral home, cemetery and cremation center sales trainer Paul Lushin will share his insights on what to do when you start to lose control of the sale, the sales advice he learned first-hand as a district manager with Fortune 500 company ECOLAB
• Sessions on prospecting, presenting, cremation sales, social media and more!
• Two solid days of educational seminars offering practical tools and techniques for boosting sales
• ICCFA take-home binder filled with handouts and "how to" instructions
• Registration directory of all attendees to facilitate networking with more than 300 of the best industry sales counselors and managers from around the world
• Wednesday evening Welcome Reception
• Lunch and learn: You and your colleagues will share best practices and prepare to present one idea to the conference
• A chance to win cash and prizes
• and much more!

Register online now or download the registration form here. Bally's Las Vegas is offering attendees the drastically discounted room rate of just $99 per night. To make your reservation, call 877.603.4389 and use discount code SBCCF2.

Printed copies of the program will be mailed out within the next few weeks. Sponsorships now available. Download the sponsorship packet here.

2012 Annual Convention Call For Presentations Deadline: Next Tuesday

In preparation for the ICCFA 2012 Convention & Exposition, March 19-22 at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, Convention Planning Committee Chairmen Hamilton Jones, CFSP, and C. John Linge, CCFE, have issued a call for presentations.

If you have expertise in a particular area of cemetery, cremation and funeral service, this is your opportunity to give back to your profession. Proposals are due to ICCFA by NEXT TUEDAY, AUGUST 23. Guidelines are as follows:

1. Include your name, title, company name, address, phone, fax and e-mail.
2. Include a description of your session (approximately 100 words). Session descriptions should name at least two or three specific skills, techniques or ideas the attendee will take away from the session. We are most interested in sessions that share concrete, proven techniques and programs, as opposed to theory or opinion.
3. Include a brief bio regarding your experience and qualifications within the industry as well as any speaking experience you may have.
4. Include information on which areas of our profession are the intended audience, e.g., cemetery owners and managers, funeral home owners, funeral directors, sales managers, etc.
5. Let us know how long you anticipate your presentation will take. Most presentation time slots are 50 minutes; however, there are a limited number of 110-minute slots. In addition to full-length sessions and workshops, we are interested in shorter presentations that can be combined to form panel sessions.
6. Indicate what types of audio/visual aids you will use, if any.
7. Include a list of anticipated handouts.
8. Note that we ask that speakers refrain from speaking about prices or other issues subject to antitrust legislation. In addition, we ask that speakers refrain from overt promotion of their own products/services.

We typically receive many more proposals than we can fit into the program. The committee has to choose among many excellent proposals, so please be sure to follow these guidelines and to clearly explain the value proposition for attendees (#2 above). Please submit your proposal by NEXT TUEDAY, AUGUST 23 to Linda Budzinski at lindab@iccfa.com (preferred) or via fax to 703.391.8416. Questions? Call 1.800.645.7700.

Pet Loss Training Program: Seats Limited, So Register Early

The Pet Loss Professionals Alliance will offer its inaugural session of the Certified Pet Loss Professional (CPLP) certification program October 2-4, 2011, in Forth Worth, Texas.

The training will help you increase your companies' professionalism and expand your pet loss business and is a requirement for achieving the Pet Loss Professional Alliance's newly created CPLP designation. Applications for the CPLP designation will be available at www.iccfa.com/files/CPLPapplication_2011.pdf. The CPLP program sessions include:

• Becoming the Best at What You Do, Joe Dwyer
• Achieving Personal and Professional Success, Rena Tarbet
• Grief Management: Helping Families Deal with the Loss of a Pet, Claire Chew
• Operating a Pet Loss Business: Best Practices, Dewayne Cain and Marty Dumas
• Best Practices for Pet Cemeteries, Bill Remkus
• Providing Pet Funeral Services: The First Call and Beyond, Kate Moore, CFSP, and Terry Branson, CFSP
• The Devil is in the Details: Customer Loyalty is Not Built from 30,000 Feet, Doug Gober
• Increase Your Sales Using Social Media, Zachary Garbow
• Unraveling the Mysteries of Marketing, Coleen Ellis
• Improving the Efficiency of Your Pet Crematory, Jon Remkus and Ron Salvatore

Your registration fee for this course includes:

• Two full days of training
• Numerous opportunities to network and share ideas with colleagues and suppliers
• Bus transportation, admission, dinner, line dancing and a photo opportunity at Monday night's Kickoff Party at Billy Bob's, the world's largest honky tonk
• Two morning coffee breaks
• Two lunches
• Afternoon refreshment breaks
• Happy hour

A full schedule and registration information is available at www.myplpa.com. Cost is $389. Registration will be limited to the first 60 applicants, so register early. The PLPA has secured a discount room rate of $139 per night at the Embassy Suites Fort Worth—Downtown. To reserve your room, call 817.332.6900 and indicate that you are with the ICCFA conference.

Thank you to our Corporate Partners: A Keepsake Company, FuneralSuccess.com, Let Your Love Grow, Matthews International Cremation Division, Memory Vessels, Monarch Resources, Paradise Pictures and Terrybear Urns & Memorials.

Suppliers interested in sponsorship should contact ICCFA at 1.800.645.7700 or via e-mail at hq@iccfa.com.

ALSO BEING OFFERED:
Pet Loss & Grief Companioning Certification Program
October 6-8 • Presented by Coleen Ellis, Two Hearts Pet Loss Center

Understand the basics of the grief process through the companioning skills needed for a mourning heart, and of self-care needed for this emotionally charged role. Attendees will hear firsthand this informative material, complete with stories of pet loss experiences to aid in the learning process.

Registration for this program is separate and can be made through Two Hearts Pet Loss Center. For more information and to register, visit www.pet-loss-grief.com.

One-Day Crematory Operator, Arranger Certification Programs Offered This Fall

The ICCFA is offering its one-day Crematory Operator and Arranger Certification programs this fall.

Cremation Operator Certification: October 5 in Fort Worth, TX, held after CPLP Training Program
Wednesday, October 5, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with sign-in and continental breakfast beginning at 7:30 a.m.

Presented by ICCFA cremation coaches Julie Burn, CCrE, CSE; Poul Lemasters, Esq., principal, Lemasters Consulting; and Larry Stuart Jr., general manager, Crematory Manufacturing & Service Inc. The extensive training curriculum includes:

• professional terminology
• incinerator terminology
• principles of combustion
• cremation and the environment
• incinerator criteria and design
• basics of operating cremation equipment
• general maintenance and troubleshooting
• forms and record keeping
• handling and exposure control

All attendees will receive a comprehensive Operations Manual covering all aspects of crematory operation and maintenance.

Attendees are invited to join CPLP participants for the 40 on 40 event on Tuesday evening (a ticket must be purchased).

REGISTRATION
Cost is $369. You may register online by choosing to attend just the Crematory Operator Training on October 5 or by attending both the CPLP and Crematory Operator Certification programs (save $50 by attending both!). You may also download a registration form.

LODGING
For those attending the PLPA and Crematory Operator Program, they can extend their stay at the Embassy Suites for Tuesday night, October 4, for a rate of $139 (Tuesday night rate).

Please contact Julie Burn if you have any questions at julieb@iccfa.com.

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Cremation Arranger Certification: December 2 in Pittsburgh, PA, at the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science
Friday, December 2, from 8:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. with sign-in and continental breakfast beginning at 8 .m.

The only program of its kind, the ICCFA Cremation Arranger Certification offers six hours of in-depth training on how to arrange and create meaningful cremation tributes, how to create unique options for memorialization and how best to communicate all of this to your client families. You'll learn:

• The cremation consumer
• Effective arrangement consultation
• Liability and staff training
• Presenting consumer options
• Cremation code of ethics

Registration includes:

• Six hours of cremation arranger training
• Certified Cremation Arranger certificate
• "Cremation Best Practices" white paper
• Continental breakfast
• Lunch

The program is presented by Julie Burn, CCrE, CSE, ICCFA director of cremation services; Ernie Heffner, CFuE, president of Heffner Funeral Chapel & Crematory Inc.; and Mark Krause, CFuE, president of Krause Funeral Home and Cremation Service Inc.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Cost is $349; $79 for students. You may register online or download and complete the One-Day Crematory Arranger registration form.

Please contact Julie Burn if you have any questions at julieb@iccfa.com.

Pet Loss Companioning Basics Webinar: TODAY

As a pet care professional, being comfortable with the grief process and knowing how to walk with a pet parent after the loss of a pet and in their grief journey requires special skills. Together, the Pet Loss Professionals Alliance and Two Hearts Pet Loss Center answer your need for this learning. Enhance your skills in helping a family through the loss of their beloved pet by participating in monthly pet loss and grief webinars.

Upcoming dates:

• August 16: Pet Loss Companioning Basics
• September 20: What the Grieving Pet Parent Needs
• October 18: Marketing Your Pet Loss Services
• November 15: Various Age Segments & Pet Loss
• December 20: How to Conduct a Pet Loss Support Group

Each session will be conducted via webinar from 5 to 6 p.m. Eastern time on the dates listed above. You will be contacted closer to the date of each event with instructions on how to participate in the webinar. COST: $39 per session/$30 per session for PLPA Members. For more information, visit www.iccfa.com/node/2562/Events#griefwebinars.

Online Store Sale: 'Rest In Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in the Twentieth Century'

In 1963, Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death shocked the nation and provoked scandal throughout the funeral industry. Mitford portrayed undertakers as exploitative businessmen eager to turn a profit off of a poor man's grief. Her book climbed the bestseller list and put the growing and profitable funeral industry on the defensive.

Forty years later, Laderman comes to the industry's defense with the thoughtful book, Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in the Twentieth Century, which became an instant classic.

He presents the industry's history from its inception during the Civil War period up to the present. The author explores American attitudes toward death through various lenses, including cultural, religious and psychological history, which demonstrate a pervasive fascination with death and a desire to share an intimate moment with the dead as a part of the grieving process. In the last chapter, Laderman discusses current and future challenges facing the industry-such as a desire for cremation and "the rise of death-care giants"-and the industry's successful attempt to deal with them.

Available for the first time in our online store at a special sale price of just $12 (plus shipping). Order your copy now.

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