Funeral Consumers Alliance

 
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Newsletters

We will be putting our back issues of the quarterly FCA Newsletter on this page for free, dating back to 2006. The issues on this page will be 3 months behind. If you like the newsletter, but you want the current issue, please join us as a Friend of FCA or subscribe to our quarterly newsletter.  We exist and publish entirely on donations and public support, so if you value our work please help ensure it continues. Contributions to FCA are tax-deductible.

The Newsletter is published and mailed on paper, and is not distributed by email.

Documents

Order by : Name | Date | Hits [ Ascendant ]

Spring 2011 Newsletter Spring 2011 Newsletter

Date added: 01/11/2012
Date modified: 01/11/2012
Filesize: 322.94 kB
Downloads: 209
  • FCA Executive Director has heart attack at 36; learns to practice what he preaches in funeral planning
  • Micromanaging your final send-off—not helpful to your family
  • Veterans' cemeteries allow private family funerals, no funeral director required
  • President's column—education and advocacy together with discounts
  • A fancy funeral is not an entitlement: helping consumers who can't pay for a burial

. . . and more

Fall 2010 Newsletter Fall 2010 Newsletter

Date added: 07/01/2011
Date modified: 07/01/2011
Filesize: 216.62 kB
Downloads: 535
  • National Home Funeral Alliance is born
  • Balancing the FCA Budget
  • A Consumer's Guide to Cemetery Purchases
  • Veterans' Burial Scams
  • Benefits of Achieving 501(c)(3) Status
  • Tales from the Funeral Trade Press
    . . .and more!

Summer 2010 Newsletter Summer 2010 Newsletter

Date added: 11/19/2010
Date modified: 11/19/2010
Filesize: 457 kB
Downloads: 1048
  • Round-up of the 2010 Biennial Conference featuring author Robert Fulghum
  • Introducing new FCA board members Tracy Fritz, Joyce Mitchell, Rodger Ericson and Don Mertic
  • Consumer-Industry Cooperation Part I - how FCA and the Vermont Funeral Directors Association are working together
  • Consumer-Industry Cooperation Part II - how the FCA of Nevada convinced local funeral homes to clarify their consumer price lists
  • Popping "The Other Question" - talking to your parents about funeral arrangements
  • Virginia lawmakers require funeral homes to offer refrigeration, not just embalming
  • California Funeral Directors Association Master Trust accused of misusing $70 million in consumers' prepaid funeral money for lobbying, trade show junkets

Summer/Fall 2009 Newsletter Summer/Fall 2009 Newsletter

Date added: 04/13/2010
Date modified: 04/13/2010
Filesize: 258.09 kB
Downloads: 1516
  • FCA testifies to Congress to ask for expansion of consumer protection rules to cover  cemeteries nationwide
  • Who's eligible to serve on a Funeral Consumers Alliance board? - preventing conflicts of interest
  • FCA National Board member appointed to New York State funeral regulatory board
  • FCA of North Texas helps rewrite state regulations to better protect preneed funeral consumers
  • Membership cards - Love 'em or Leave 'em?
  • Federal court dismisses undertaker Thomas Lynch's libel suit against FCA

Spring 2009 Newsletter Spring 2009 Newsletter

Date added: 09/21/2009
Date modified: 09/21/2009
Filesize: 341.36 kB
Downloads: 2047
  • Staying Relevant - tips for keeping your Funeral Consumers Alliance vibrant and up to date with contemporary consumers interests
  • FTC Funeral Rule enforcement "sweeps" find more than 25 percent of mortuaries with major consumer protection rule violations
  • They're our Members, not our Customers - how to stop hand-holding members and help them empower themselves
  • Deathstyles of the Everyday and Middle Class - an editorial on how families can plan a meaningful funeral even in economic hard times
  • Spread the Work Around: Building an Active Board

Fall 2008 Newsletter Fall 2008 Newsletter

Date added: 01/10/2009
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 225.11 kB
Downloads: 2935

The Money Issue: How to Raise it and How to Stretch it

  • Fundraising basics for FCA affiliates
  • Don't let funeral prices scare you to death - 10 tips for saving funeral dollars
  • FCA national board adopts policy on accepting paid advertising
  • Celebrity undertaker sues FCA for libel and defamation - well-known funeral director Thomas Lynch takes FCA to federal court (and we fight back)
  • Sustaining Membership - we appeal to you to make a monthly or annual commitment to support Funeral Consumers Alliance
  • Dollars doing double-duty - how to find company matching grants your donors can use to boost their support to your FCA
  • Pinch those pennies - how to run a lean office without skimping on the necessaries

Summer 2008 Newsletter Summer 2008 Newsletter

Date added: 07/25/2008
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 621 kB
Downloads: 2520
  • Recap of 2008 FCA national biennial conference - highest attendance ever
  • Welcome to the newest member of the federation, FCA of the Piedmont (North Carolina)
  • Time's up - quirky hour-glass urns
  • Legislative watch
  • Report from the leading edge - FCA of Maryland attends workshop on family-directed, mortuary-free funerals
  • How to build a better board - a manual for recruiting and retaining energetic volunteers with new ideas and commitment
  • FCA announces Web 2.0 - an introduction to our new website and how to use it
  • 5 Hospice Myths - Vanity Fair writer and blogger Judy Bachrach dispenses salty, funny, and useful advice on hospice care
  • Billion-dollar preneed meltdown - National Prearranged Services goes belly-up; taken over by court receiver, leaving prepaid funeral consumers with questions

Fall 2007 Newsletter Fall 2007 Newsletter

Date added: 10/10/2007
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 188.46 kB
Downloads: 3639
  • Preview of 2008 national FCA conference in Seatlle
  • Legislative watch
  • Minnesota unfriendly - state enacts unnecessary restrictions on family-directed funerals
  • A few of our favorite funeral directors - recognizing top-notch service and good deeds
  • One ringy-dingy - how to choose phone/voicemail service for your FCA that fits your budget and your staffing
  • Social workers to the rescue - how to bring social worker expertise and dedication to your FCA affiliate

Summer 2007 Newsletter Summer 2007 Newsletter

Date added: 07/01/2007
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 268.34 kB
Downloads: 3219
  • Funerals go co-op - Peoples Memorial Association opens largest nonprofit, member-owned funeral business in the nation
  • FCA affiliates (and all small nonprofits) need to complete IRS e-postcard yearly
  • Accountability 101 - basic standards for cooperating funeral homes that serve FCA affiliates and members
  • The Funeral Director's Guide to Consumer-Friendly Price Lists - an FCA manual for funeral homes
  • Defending your last rights - FCA and Muslim advocacy group defend Nevadans' rights to private burials by religious congregations
  • Public viewing without embalming - separating fact from fiction, and how to assert your right to decline embalming
  • Federal Trade Commission issues four advisory opinions affecting funeral consumer rights

Spring, 2007 Newsletter Spring, 2007 Newsletter

Date added: 04/01/2007
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 619.27 kB
Downloads: 3240
  • You make me feel like a natural burial - interview with Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters: A Journey Through the Modern Funeral Industry to a Natural Way of Burial
  • Minding your meeting - how to avoid a boring FCA annual meeting and bring in new attendees
  • Legislative watch
  • FCA and the Institute for Justice convince the state of Missouri to preserve the right to sell retail caskets, care for one's own dead
  • FCA and consumers defeat Montana bill to put low-cost crematories out of business, strip citizens of the right to care for their own dead
  • Review of Lasting Images, a DVD on alternative and creative funerals

Fall 2006 Newsletter Fall 2006 Newsletter

Date added: 07/19/2006
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 351.77 kB
Downloads: 2578

The Consumer Self-Help Issue

  • When best-laid plans go astray - helping consumers make last-minute funeral decisions
  • Funeral shopping 101 - tips and stories from volunteer FCA educators
  • Four-step funeral planning - where to start when you don't know where to start
  • How to read (and use) a funeral home price list
  • Funeral myths and facts
  • Who has the legal right to decide on your funeral arrangements
  • Death in one state, burial in another - do it without breaking the bank
  • Backup and succession planning for FCA groups - who can get a hold of the important files if your group leader dies?

Summer 2006 Newsletter Summer 2006 Newsletter

Date added: 07/01/2006
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 200.96 kB
Downloads: 3227
  • Recap of FCA national Biennial Conference
  • Newly elected FCA Board of Directors
  • Legislative watch
  • Preneed fraud
  • The Undertaker's Burden - humorous industry self-promotion

Spring 2006 Newsletter Spring 2006 Newsletter

Date added: 04/04/2006
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 345.14 kB
Downloads: 3279
  • The Watchdog Sleeps: Federal Trade Commission goes easy on industry
  • Congressional bill to rein body brokers
  • Legislative watch
  • Regulatory Capture: when state boards put profits ahead of consumer protection
  • Tightwad tips: saving money for your FCA
  • How to get a seat on state funeral regulatory boards
  • A funny thing happened on the way to the morgue: interview with Mary Roach, author of Stiff: the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Fall 2005 Newsletter Fall 2005 Newsletter

Date added: 10/01/2005
Date modified: 05/27/2009
Filesize: 183.95 kB
Downloads: 4022
  • Scatter-brained: Cremation Myths and Facts
  • FCA v. SCI Class Action Lawsuit Update
  • Bargaining for member discounts at funeral homes

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Newsflash

Welcome to our new website. We've overhauled it to make it easier for you to find the practical information you need to make informed funeral choices and get answers to the most common questions about funeral choices and costs. Leave us a comment on our forum and let us know what you like, what you don't, and how we can improve it!

About FCA

The Funeral Consumers Alliance (FCA) is a Federation of Nonprofit Consumer Information Societies protecting a consumer's right to choose a meaningful, dignified, affordable funeral since 1963.