FSABC President, Justin Schultz

Preparing a body for the grave would be enough to send shivers down most people’s spines.

Not so for funeral director and embalmer Justin Schultz.

“I don’t have any level of discomfort with it,” says Schultz, 35. “It all relates back to providing service to a family that’s lost a loved one.”

Schultz, who works at Valley View Funeral Home in Surrey, dismisses the notion that embalmers are comfortable only around dead people. In fact, he spends the bulk of his time guiding families through the difficult period that follows a death.

“I think we get a unique insight into people’s lives,” he said. “We get to help them add a sense of peace to a pretty disorganized and otherwise stressful time.”

Read the complete story here: Five tough jobs: Labours of love.

Angelo Rea, B.TH; M.T.S.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010 - 9am – 3pm PDT

6 Funeral Director or Embalmer CEUs for only $97!

Growth for Goals: Charting Your Dream:Realizing Your Passions

GROWTH FOR GOALS will teach each one of you a practical step by step strategy. This strategy will establish a career path.
It will help you to achieve your career goals in your personal, academic and career life. You will develop an effective coaching and mentoring methodology that will help you to achieve your mission and your vision in life.

This program will implement a practical strategy and methodology of coaching and mentoring in your place of business. It will direct you to answer the four coaching questions: What is it that I want (What is my mission)? How am I going to achieve it (What is my vision)? What is my time limit? What does it look like when I have achieved my dream? It will allow you to become fully aware of where you are at in your career path. This program will change the way you think and the way you operate. Coaching and mentoring is the key component of moving an organization and its people into a progressive and responsible future. The main objective of this program is to help you establish a crystal clear idea of what you need to do to discover your dream through coaching and mentoring.

The objective of this 6 hour training session is for the attendee to set goals that are reasonable, achievable, and accountable.

After completing the program, the attendee will strategize and record a plan of action for personal, academic and career life.

• This program will enable you to apply a coaching and mentoring strategy.
• This program will enable you to discover your mission in life.
• This program will enable you to develop goals.
• This program will enable you to answer the four coaching questions.
• This program will establish an effective development program for you and your place of business.

Register Today for

6 CEUs for only $97!

Registration Closes on September 7th at 3 pm PDT.

Click here to Register Now – Today!

For more details about obtaining your CEUs via online seminars, visit: www.FuneralDirectorCEUs.com

Never taken an online seminar before?

Online Seminars include:
Viewing PowerPoint slides and computer demonstrations via the Internet from your personal computer.

Interactive features such as polling (allowing you to respond online to speaker questions) and a simple online “chat” feature that lets you key in your questions for the speaker.

How Do I Participate?

It’s easy! Approximately one week before the event, you will receive an email from the organizers with information about joining the teleconference or web seminar and downloading handouts.

What Are The Minimum Requirements?

All you need to participate is an email address, internet access, and a computer with speakers or if you do not have speakers you can use your telephone to dial into the webinar but long distance charges may apply.

These online seminars integrate audio conferencing and web-based presentations that feature an expert educator in an interactive experience. They run directly in your web browser, allowing you to “gather” together and easily communicate with others no matter your geographic location. Participants can log/dial in from anywhere – work, home or even a hotel room – to attend.

Eligibility for Continuing Education Credits?

To be eligible to receive your Continuing Education Credits, you must register under your own name and have a dedicated computer with an Internet connection, and attend and participate the entire online seminar.

Participation will be measured by 5 criteria:

• Registration in licensee name
• On-time arrival for seminar
• Participation in Online Polls
• Attendance monitoring
• Post seminar survey completion

* Attendance monitoring is part of the GoToWebinar technology that monitors if the participant has the seminar window active, meaning that the participant has not opened other computer programs – such as checking emails, using chat programs, or surfing other websites.

Sharing computers is not permitted as the above criteria cannot be measured.

The following are scenarios that are NOT permitted:

• Two licensees sharing the same computer
• One licensee sharing the computer with administration staff or other staff members who need it for tasks for the funeral home

VICTORIA, BC, CANADA, July 17, 2010 Funeral Futurist, Robin Heppell has been granted approval by Consumer Protection British Columbia  for two Internet-related, funeral home focused continuing education programs. Heppell will cut through all of the hype about Google and Social Media and instruct attendees how Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter can be used by funeral directors to promote their funeral homes at little or no cost. These programs will be delivered Live Online so that attendees will get the benefit of instructor interaction and also enjoy the convenience of participating in the sessions from the comfort of their office or home.
http://www.FuneralDirectorCEUs.com

Heppell has developed two 3 hour sessions that are based on research, training, testing, and actual case studies from funeral homes over the past four years.

“These programs are not going to be a bunch of theory – nor are they going to be taught by someone who has never sat across from bereaved family.” Heppell stated. “I see more and more people in the industry talking about Social Media and hyping it up and not sharing just practical steps to use it as a tool to build relationships – relationships are what our profession has been built on, maybe the tools today are different but the principle of relationships has not changed in over 100 years.”

These sessions will be delivered on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 via live online webinar. There are convenient times for both funeral professionals in the East as well as the West and all points in between.

Here are the details about each program:

Social Media & Funeral Service: Making Sense of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
With Rapid growth and popularity of online Social Media networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube , many Funeral Directors are unsure what is the best way to harness the power of Social Media for their funeral home. In this 3 hour program, Heppell will provide an overview of the most popular social networks and share his Best Practices on using them to building relationships without crossing the line of social activities and business. The objective of this training is to introduce the most popular social media networks to Funeral Directors and teach them to implement community outreach activities in the most effective yet efficient manner possible.

Understanding Google: The External & Internal Effects on Your Funeral Home
Since Google is the world’s most popular website (and also most used search engine) and coupled with the fact that the majority of Internet users use the Internet to research local businesses first before making offline purchases, it is important for funeral homes to understand how Google sees their funeral home. Heppell has created this 2 part session that will first look at how Google sees your funeral home from a search engine perspective and will include Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies, creating and optimizing Google Maps Listings and give you an introductory look at Google AdWords (Pay Per Click) advertising. In the second part of the program Heppell will introduce you to Google’ s suite of free, online tools.

Heppell remarked, “There are many misconceptions about how the search engines like Google work and how they rank Funeral Homes. In this session I will clear the air and provide simple tools and analysis that can preformed to see why one funeral home ranks higher than another in Google.”

About Robin Heppell
Robin Heppell, CFSP, combines his expertise in technology and preneed, his formal business knowledge and his deep-rooted legacy in the funeral profession so that he can help funeral homes be more competitive, more profitable, and provide the best possible service for the families they serve. Through his consulting firm, FuneralFuturist.com in Victoria, British Columbia, he assists funeral directors throughout North America embrace and incorporate innovative strategies and technologies. His own websites include http://www.FuneralDirectorCEUs.com and http://www.FuneralFuturist.com.

Contact Information:
Robin Heppell, CFSP
tel: (250) 744-3595
email: robin@funeralfuturist.com

Did you know that in British Columbia there are two routes to a career in Funeral Service? Choose either to begin the program as a Funeral Director and / or Embalmer Apprentice or enroll in the new pre-employment Funeral Service Foundation Program.  To enroll as an Apprentice in the Funeral Service Apprenticeship Program, you must secure a apprenticeship position at a funeral home who will be your sponsor/employer.  The new Foundation Program is intended to provide you with an introduction to funeral services and at the same time you will receive credit for level one technical training.  To enroll in the Foundation Program you register directly with the Funeral Service Association of BC.   Choose the route that is right for you.  Learn More Here.

Victoria 2010 Voyage of Discovery

 Successfully Navigating Your Course

April 14, 15, & 16

Thank you to all who attended the 2010 FSABC & CCABC conference held in Victoria on April 14 – 16, 2010!  Attendees gave the event excellent evalutations!  If you attended the conference and have not yet completed an evaluation form we would greatly appreciate your FEEDBACK.

The success of the conference would not be possible without the generosity of  sponsorships!  Thank you to all of our conference sponsors!!

EXHIBITOR’S WINE & CHEESE SPONSORSHIPS     2010 CONFERENCE SPONSORS