We're back from our biggest national conference yet, and the attendees are calling the event "inspiring," "packed full of information," and "hosted by the nicest, most helpful volunteers" (hats off and thanks to Peoples Memorial Association!).

Here are some highlights of the three-day event:

• FCA presented Elvira Hoffman of the FCA of Long Island and New York City with the Award for Oustanding Consumer Advocacy for her tireless work lobbying for funeral consumer rights.
• FCA gave Valerie Bayham (at left, addressing the membership at the Saturday banquet) of the Institute for Justice our first award to an outside organization for funeral consumer advocacy. IJ's work protecting funeral consumers and small business owners - like casket retailers - from anticompetitive regulations is unparalled.

(right-click any of these to download the files. They're in Adobe PDF format)

• Outgoing President Joyce Homan's welcome address, The Chivas Regal Effect.
  
• Executive Director Josh Slocum's opening remarks, The Future of Funeral Consumer Advocacy.
  
• Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial, prepared this slideshow for use after his well-received talk. Check it out for myths and facts about natural burial, and how you can accomplish it.
  
• Kathryn Tucker, Legal Director for Compassion and Choices, presented this slideshow on the legal and societal barriers to patient choice in pain management and choosing one's own time of death. Don't miss this eye-opening presentation.
  
• Julie Lomoe, Administrator of the Memorial Society of the Hudson-Mohawk Region, offers Effective Networking, full of tips on to make friends with organizations in your community to boost membership and spread funeral consumer education.
  
• Donna Belk of the home funeral advocacy group Crossings Care Circle used this moving slide show in her workshop demonstrating the hands-on practicalities of caring for a deceased family member at home (note - the slide show has images of deceased people being waked at home; we think you'll be surprised at how touching and not "scary" home funerals really are).
  
• John Eric Rolfstand and Ruth Bennett of Peoples Memorial Association know their stuff. Marketing Your Mission rounds up great advice from our oldest and most successful affiliated consumer group.
  
• FCA Executive Director Joshua Slocum walks you through the basics of funeral consumer advocacy - how to monitor your state funeral board, stay on top of legislation affecting consumer rights, and testifying on behalf of consumers in your state's legislature. Advocacy 101 is a simple slide show with the basics; The Advocacy Action Plan gives step by step instructions and real-life examples.
  
• Valerie Bayham of the Institute for Justice gave an inspiring call to action against allowing government regulators to give in to industry demands at the expense of consumer choice and reasonable prices.
  

You can fax your registration form to 802-865-2626, or register and pay by phone at 800-765-0107.

We’re in This Together
Consumer Advocacy From the Grassroots to the Nation

Seattle University
June 26 - 28, 2008
901 12th Ave.
Seattle, Washington

Featuring

If you’ve never been to Funeral Consumers Alliance’s national conference before, don’t miss this one. We’ve got the largest program of speakers in our history, and we’re honored to be working with our oldest and largest supporting member, Peoples Memorial Association, to bring you this program. PMA made history last year by opening the largest nonprofit, member-owned funeral service cooperative in the country. Don’t miss this chance to come together in the city where it all started, and meet the people who are bringing funeral consumer advocacy into the 21st century!

The registration deadline is June 10, 2008. Download your registration form today! 2008 Biennial Registration Form

Thursday , June 26

Event/ Room

• 12:00 PM FCA Board Meeting (open to public) STCN-130 Meeting goes until 5 pm.
• 02:00 PM Registration- Bellarmine Lobby
• 03:00 PM Registration- Bellarmine Lobby
• 04:00 PM Registration - Bellarmine Lobby
• 06:00 PM Barbeque - Student Center Patio (Room 160 if raining)

Friday, June 27

• 7 - 8:30 a.m. Breakfast Cherry St. Market - Student Center
• 8 a.m Registration (UNTIL 1 PM) -Pigott Atrium
• 08:45 AM Welcome from PMA - Pigott Auditorium
• 9 a.m. State of the FCA, President Joyce Homan - Pigott Auditorium
• 9:15 a.m. FCA: Who and Why We Are, Exec. Dir. Josh Slocum - Pigott Auditorium
• 9:35 a.m. Audience Q&A - Pigott Auditorium
• 10:10 a.m. Break Coffee in atrium
• 10: 30 a.m. Breakouts and Workshops
  
  1. Advocacy 101 - PIGT-103
  2. Effective Networking - PIGT-101
  3. Funeral Director Panel Discussion - PIGT-107
  4. Old Traditions, New Ways: Home Funerals - PIGT-109
  5. Start Spreading the News (Newsletter Development) - PIGT-106
  6. Rethink, Revamp, Be Relevant -PIGT-102

12:00 noon Lunch Cherry St. Market - Student Center
1:00 - 2:30 Anatomical Donation Panel-Pigott Auditorium
2:30 - 2:50 Break
2:50 - 3:30 PMA's Funeral Cooperative - PIgott Auditorium
3:30- 4:30 Open Mic for Affiliates - Pigott Auditorium
4:30 on Dinner/sighseeing on our own

Saturday, June 28

• 7 - 8:30 a.m. Optional Roundtable Breakfast Discussion - Campion Ballroom
• 7 - 8:30 a.m. Breakfast - Cherry St. Market Student Center
• 7 - 10 a.m. Registration - Pigott Atrium
• 8:45 AM Announcements - Pigott Auditorium
• 9:00 - 10:10 Natural Burial, Mark Harris - PIgott Auditorium
• 10:10 - 10:30 Mark Harris Book Signing - Break
• 10:30 AM Breakouts and Workshops
  
  1. Marketing Your Mission - PIGT-103
  2. Natural Burial w/Cynthia Beal - PIGT-101
  3. Advocacy 102 - PIGT-106
  4. Rethink, Revamp, Be Relevant (repeat) - PIGT-102
  5. A Grave Plot: Resurrecting the Memorial Society of Rhode Island - PIGT 107
     
  6. Advocacy 101 (repeat) - PIGT-100

• 12:00 noon Lunch Cherry St. Market - Student Center
• 1:00 - 2:30 Kathryn Tucker, Compassion and Choices - Pigott Auditorium
• 2:00-3:30 Breakouts and Workshops
  
  1. Marketing Your Mission (repeat) PIGT-103
  2. Diversity in Death PIGT-102
  3. Using Computers: They're Not Scary PIGT-207 Computer Lab
  4. Old Traditions, New Ways: Home Funerals (repeat) PIGT-109
  5. Advocacy 102 (repeat) PIGT-101

• 3:30 p.m. Break
• 4:00- 5:00 Open Mic for Affiliates - Pigott Auditorium
• 6:30 - 7:00 Cocktails/Appetizers - Campion Ballroom
• 7 - 10 p.m. Awards Banquet with Valerie Bayham - Campion Ballroom