June 2018

Page A45 JUNE 2018 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A PUTTING DOWN PM3073 Preneed program not available in all states. R ts To have your free tree planted, visit PhysiciansMutual.com/preneed In celebration of our 1-year anniversary It’s been a year since Precoa and Physicians Mutual joined forces to bring the power of preplanning to more families, and we couldn’t be happier about our partnership. We invite you to celebrate with us as we plant 365 trees. Through the Arbor Day Foundation’s Trees in Celebration, we’d like to plant a tree in your honor in the Mississippi River Valley, a seven-state area that’s lost 20 million acres of forestland. Join us … and grow something lasting. News Educational ContinueD rates of all accredited programs. COA chairperson Venus Riley Smith (Jefferson State Commu- nity College, Birmingham, AL), James Shoemake (Dallas Institute of Funeral Service), David Mar- tin (Piedmont Technical College) and Gwen Mooney (ICCFA rep- resentative) were recognized and thanked for their years of service to the COA as their terms ended. Enrollment and graduation sta- tistics for 2017 were reviewed by the COA and the summary data will be shared with the programs and the public following the an- nual conference. Fifty-nine ac- credited schools and programs operated during 2017. Two pro- grams closed during 2017, an- other is wrapping up operations during 2018. The program at Northeast Texas Community Col- lege was granted initial accredi- tation and another program is currently in candidacy status. In 2017, 1646 graduated from ac- credited programs across the country and 2411 new students enrolled. Females were 64.8 per- cent of the graduates and 11 per- cent of all graduates had parents in funeral service. Updated curriculum outlines for business law, chemistry and mer- chandising were approved and plans were made to initiate review of the funeral service law, small business management (w/ac- counting) and funeral service psy- chology and counseling teaching outlines during summer 2018. ABFSE reviews teaching outlines on an annual basis with input from the association members. The scholarship committee rec- ommended 2 undergraduate awards and 2 graduate scholar- ships. Names of recipients will be reported on the ABFSE website upon confirmation with the re- cipients. The annual conference opened with an update on the ABFSE Strategic Plan and Review of Standards. The scholarship com- mittee, constitution and by-laws committee, program committee, NBE Liaison Committee, curricu- lum committee and COA Liaison Committee held their meetings. Professional development ac- tivities included: Advanced Em- balming Made Easy; Credit and Financing a Funeral Home; Best Practices for Teaching Funeral Di- recting; and Assessment. The In- ternational Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards (ICF- SEB) provided an update of their statistics, policies and job task analysis. The association mem- bers, NFDA, NFDMA, ICCFA, and CANA provided a summary of their education related activi- ties. ABFSE is currently in the midst of a ‘Review of Standards’. Period- ically, accrediting agencies must evaluate the standards with which programs must comply. Com- ments from educators, students, funeral service practitioners and the general public were collect- ed for the proposed update. The next round of comments on the revised standards will be collected during summer 2018. Updated standards are due to be approved at the 57th Annual Meeting in Miami, FL. Attendees received a status re- port on the pending 6th edition of the Embalming textbook and were treated to a reception cour- tesy of Service Corporation In- ternational. Twenty-six exhibitors partici- pated in a mini-trade show which included banking, education and grief related resources, embalm- ing chemical companies, provid- ers of death care products, po- tential employers and scholarship providers, textbook providers, and cremation-oriented compa- nies along with the association members. A learner’s lounge was available to provide educators with assistance using the new on- line platform that will be used for self study submission. Orientation for new mem- bers was included in the confer- ence agenda and Martha Thay- er (Arapahoe Community College, Littleton, CO) led a mentoring session designed to connect new program directors and faculty with experienced colleagues. On the final day of the Confer- ence, 15 program representatives attended a self study workshop to review expectations for the pro- cess known as the self study. At least every 7 years, every program undergoes a comprehensive re- view of its activities which is eval- uated by a team consisting of two educators and one funeral service practitioner. Formally established in 1962, ABFSE grew out of the efforts of NFDA, ICFSEB and the associ- ations of funeral service schools and colleges. Currently, ABFSE is recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation as the accrediting agency for the colleges and uni- versities teaching funeral service/ mortuary science education in the United States. ABFSE strives to cooperate with all groups and agencies having an interest in the advancement of the principles and standards of funeral service education. ABFSE meets annually in April. For further information, con- tact ABFSE at 992 Mantua Pike, Suite 108, Woodbury Heights, NJ 08097. Call 816-233-3747 or visit www.abfse.org for a directory of accredited programs. To reach Robert C. Smith III, executive director email exdir@abse.org or Deb Tolboom, executive assistant dboom@abfse.org. ABFSE holds 56 th Annual Conference in Anaheim, California Continued from Page A41 Send Us Your News! Email info@nomispublications.com PO Box 5159, Youngstown, OH 44514 • Fax 1-800-321-9040