Funeral Words

Health Insurance Changes

Our health insurance came up for renewal recently and our company faced a 24% increase in order to maintain the exact coverage. The insurance company did provide an alternative plan but this would mean new co-pay structures, deductibles and all the rest.

In the process of wrestling with the changes, I finally realized how much "merchandising" control our insurance provider has over their plans. Just like renewals with the Yellow Pages, these big companies can adjust their rates in ways that make it difficult to choose anything but what they really want you to choose.

When I wrote to the staff announcing the changes, I organized my communications around another form of merchandising that all of them would recognize. You can download a sample of the letter by clicking the link.

Download health_insurance_letter.pdf

Perhaps it will help you with your next health insurance meeting.

What NOT to say on a blog

I guess we all shake our heads from time to time over a choice made by a family we served. Perhaps we even remove the details and share the basics with a colleague or two. But none of us would get on the local radio station and tell the whole world what had happened.

Somehow people view the internet differently. Even though the medium can broadcast to the entire world, some treat it like a private diary. Follow the link to find a perfect example of what NOT to write on a personal website when you work as a funeral director. People ARE watching and if this funeral director's family ever reads his comments, he might have some very upset people on his hands.

http://heaththeundrtkr.blogspot.com/2007/03/check-this-out.html

Lynch Pin or Grenade Pin--You be the Judge

The funeral director and author Tom Lynch reportedly created quite a stir with his recent comments at the ICCFA meeting in Las Vegas. I invite you to read Doug Hernan's summary by following the link below and then return here to post comments.

Funeral Wire: Lynch Speaks Out About Preneed, Personalization and More

For those of you who have not seen Tom, he has an elegance and polish in his use of language never seen before in funeral service. This mated with a truly Irish verve and scrappiness I enjoy and admire in many ways. Still, as a titular spokesman for our profession who regularly gets his thoughts published in major newspapers and other national publications, his "eliminate consumerism" message (my terminology, not his) may not help us reconnect and enhance our relationships with our consumers. Much like the push and pull I see within mainline denominational churches. Those leaders driving towards a recapturing of some mythical past only find themselves preaching to a smaller and smaller crowd.

We too, in most parts of the country, must blaze paths forward not backward in the service of those in need.

Have a fantastic week!!!

Coffins from Ghana

Amazing folk art, some of the most elaborate and colorful coffins I have ever seen.

Follow the link:

Knuttz.com: Ghana Coffins

Note: There's a lot of advertising at the top of their webpage. You have to scroll down to find the photos.

Mini Projector

Need a highly portable media projector for your community presentations? Tired of all the fan noise you get from traditional projectors?

If so, check out PC Magazine' review of the Boxlight Bumble Bee projector. It weighs 1.1 lbs and uses LEDs instead of a traditional bulb for light so it runs quietly and cool. It even has a battery pack which will reportedly run the unit for two hours. And yes, that's a quarter in the foreground of the photo, the projector is that small.

The reviewer does mention the built in speaker as too weak for many circumstances. If you want to project a movie you will likely need to bring an amplifier. For other standup presentations with a PowerPoint or other slides, this unit can go almost anywhere.

See the review here: PC Mag: Boxlight Bumble Bee

Manufacturer here: Boxlight Site

If you pick one up along the way and put it to use, come back an leave a comment. Let me know how it went.

More Anatomical Challenges

The heart stops, harvest organs, where in the past surgeons had to wait for a declaration of brain death. This revised approach increases the number of organs available for transplant. At the same time, it can create tremendous ethical pressures. For instance, sometimes hearts will restart on their own, so when is someone truly dead?

Washington Post: Organ Donation Trend Raises Questions

Keep an eye on this. No doubt we will see wrongful death lawsuits growing in number over the years to come.

Just One Number

Do you find it annoying to keep up with multiple phone numbers and multiple voice mail and message systems? A company called Grand Central has developed a solution. They issue a phone number which you give out as your primary contact number and after a little set up work, that number will automatically forward calls to ALL your numbers simultaneously. THAT's when it gets interesting.

When your phone rings, Grand Central gives you options. You can take the call (and yes the system can sync up with your contact database for rich caller ID), turn it over to voice mail, or like answering machines of old actually listen in as the caller leaves a message and pick up the call as needed.

You can manage voice mail in the usual way (with the handset) or actually log in to Grand Central and view a listing of all your messages, organize, listen, save right onto your computer, and delete as needed.

As I understand it, they offer two plans. The basic setup covers two phone lines and comes free of charge, with system limitations. Voice mail stays in the system for only 30 days and you must put up with advertisements on the web interface.

The premium plan covers 6 lines, provides unlimited voicemail storage, gets rid of the advertising and costs all of $15.00. Not a bad deal at all for a group of features you can't get anywhere else right now.

Please note, Grand Central has not quite completed its beta test cycle. You may sign up right now and begin using the features, however they do not yet have phone numbers to cover every state or telephone exchange. Still, if you find yourself juggling multiple lines all the time, this service may make all the difference in the world. Much more flexible than call forwarding or any of the other work arounds available through the phone company.

Check it out at www.grandcentral.com .

Think Different

A bookshelf? Yes a bookshelf for children, a different way to see and live in the world. You can find more information here: Bookshelf Link (assuming you can read Italian).

We live in a changing world. Our role and purpose as funeral professionals has changed in relation to many people we serve.Those changes will only accellerate. So I look everywhere for inspiration, for differing points of view, non-traditional products and presentations, challenging websites like TomPeters.com, whatever it takes so that perhaps I can stay current and aware, so that I can indeed "stay in the game" for the long haul.

What has inspired you to grow and change in your funeral service work?  I would love to read your comments and ideas.

Thanks.

Webcast Funerals in the News

Last night and this morning I came across two articles on major news sites referring to the use of webcasts for funerals. A webcast means the ability to take live video from cameras and convert the information so that anyone with a web browser can sit at their computer and view the activity. You will find links to the articles below.

Perhaps at a later time I will more thoroughly organize my thoughts about webcasting. For now, here's a couple of things to think about if you find the concept fascinating.

* In offering a webcast to families, you make a very complicated promise. Family members will get notified across the country and they will expect to see the show. As with any technology driven process, things will go wrong. You and your staff will need to know how to troubleshoot problems in order to keep the broadcast going. Maybe your internet goes down in the middle of the funeral or someone unplugs something accidentally or the webcasting service has trouble with their servers or maybe you're serving a military funeral for someone killed in the gulf war and the system gets overwhelmed with viewers. Someone on staff will need to handle those things while the funeral director is trying to run the funeral. Not impossible, but this stuff is not foolproof and requires technical know how.

* Lighting, camera angles, zooms and pans, you have just entered the broadcast video business. It will take training (or hiring a couple people from the local cable company) to end up with a broadcast that looks professional. I think the novelty of a single camera pointed at the podium while the minister speaks will get old in a hurry. Thing is, most people know what a television broadcast is supposed to look like. It will take training and practice to produce a broadcast with the same level of professionalism you provide in the running of your funerals. The two ought to match up in quality.

* Permissions: Check with your legal professional and learn what privacy concerns a webcast may trigger in your state. Participants in the funeral may have the right to refuse having their image broadcast around the world.

* It will take some serious equipment to do a really fine job. Certainly you can prop a few cameras on stands in the parlor and run wires along the floor and manage to webcast the funeral. Most directors I know would not want the clutter and the mess in the way. In that case, you will need ceiling or wall mounted remote cameras and a central control booth. That will take some money.

These are a few devil's advocate thoughts in relation to webcasts. I would suppose in some parts of the country (Silicon Valley and other technology centers for instance) you would find a true competitive advantage and financial reward for putting together webcasts for families. In those instances, where engineers work with colleagues from all over the world, demand might justify the installation and operating expense. For many though, a big distraction which will add operating cost for very little return. Above all, if you decide to head in that direction, experiment and practice A LOT!!! Broadcasts don't just happen. Good broadcasts (such as you see from the local television station) require many skilled people. Make sure you take the time to develop a few skills of your own or a minor technical glitch could turn into a major customer service failure.

ABC Online: Online Funerals a Growing Trend?

Engadget: Irish Undertaker Offers Webcasts

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Follow up thought: When we start to see families themselves come in with video cameras and later post the resulting recording on YouTube.com, then we will know we have some demand for the service. If you have an anecdote about a family doing this at your funeral home, please tell the story using the comments link just below. I would love to collect a few of those stories and watch how the need does (or does not) unfold.

I did look quickly on YouTube.com to see if a funeral video popped up. I did not happen to see one in the first few pages of search results. If you know of one, post the link in the comments so I can take a look. Thanks.

Infant Hospice

Today's New York Times includes an article about alternative hospice programs for infants with fatal disease. Often this involves a known genetic disease, so the programs provide pre-natal support (such as special birthing classes away from mothers of healthy children) and planning which allow the parents and immediate family to have as rich an experience of life in the short time available. Amazing process.

NY Times Online: A Place to Turn When a Newborn is Fated to Die