October 2018

Page A18 OCTOBER 2018 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A • Family Owned and Operated • 20+ Years Industry Experience • New Product Increases Settlements • No Contracts... Free Recycling Tote Cremation Metal Recycling 800-664-8365 cremation metal recycling - responsible recycling charitable foundation cmr@metrocast.net www.cremationmetalrecycling.com Caring for every need, every day. Experts in: Domestic Shipping International Shipping Cremation Removal & Embalming Flight Arrangements 800.321.0185 natlmortuaryshipping.com Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. V i s i t u s a t B o o t h 2 0 0 6 By Jim Starks, CFuE, CCrE Protecting Business through Innovation We work hard to build business and the number of funer- als performed each year. In some areas the competition is poor and a firm is able to increase a few calls a year. This has a direct impact on the bottom line. In today’s world with cremation increasing and fewer full service calls, firms need to do every- thing in their power to keep what they have and be the domi- nate player in the area. I first started working as a part-time employee in the death care profession in the early 1970s. Then, funerals were mostly the same, except for a few differences in religious rites. Today religion dictates funerals less; society as a whole does not want a cookie-cutter funeral. Sadly, many owners and arrangers do not understand that concept. When a family does not have a minister, they are of- fered a “rental pastor.” But most often the reason they don’t have a minister is because they don’t attend church! Some Protecting Your Families and Business families. Fun doesn’t mean an out of control party. But elements that make people smile and laugh – but also have dignity and respect – go a long way. Customizing and personalizing the tribute/celebration does not mean all the work must fall on the shoulders of the funeral home staff. Have different family members and friends help bring it all together. This will also help them with their grief from the loss of a loved one. Firms that follow the above advice will get the commu- nity talking about the wonderful, meaningful gatherings they attended. That is called free advertising, and it’s far more powerful than any print or media ad. firms have a celebrant, which is a move in the right di- rection. • We need to be funeral event coordinators/special- ists and not funeral arrangers. Look what the wed- ding industry has done and what people spend on an event – even when so many marriages end in di- vorce! It may take a few more days to arrange every- thing, but it will be a meaningful event for all who attend • We may need to be the master of ceremony aka “MC” if the firm does not have a celebrant on staff or one they can call. Ask the probing questions of what was important in the deceased’s life. Did they enjoy the beach and Jimmy Buffett music? Then focus the service on that: Play Jimmy’s music, and find their favorite song and put the lyrics in the folder instead of the 23rd Psalm. Go to Party City and get the props that are needed. In the obituary, direct everyone to come in their Hawaiian shirt and flip flops. • It needs to be arrangers that help come up with ideas and not the family. The family has the infor- mation we need to help them visualize what we can do for them. • Each tribute/celebration of life should be unique and meaningful for the family and friends. This means moving away from the cookie-cutter funeral. • Find a meaningful location; this may mean not us- ing the funeral home or a church. If this person was a farmer, why not in his barn? If he was active in the local Elk’s Club, then have the service at the lodge. A casketed body can be at a different location than a funeral home or church. • We need to put the FUN in funeral to serve today’s Jim Starks, CFuE, CCrE, is President of J. Starks Consulting in Lutz, FL, and a nationally-recognized trainer on funeral home and crema- tory risk management. He used his experience in both funeral home and crematory oper- ations and risk management, combined with his involvement with funeral homes of all sizes and geographies, to become an author- ity at controlling risk and loss in the death care industry, providing lectures and presentations to private firms, as well as regional, state and national associations. He also conducts private audits and risk assessments to independent funeral homes and crematories in the US and Canada, often identifying ways to save or generate thou- sands of dollars of profit. Jim is a Michigan and Indiana Licensed Funeral Director and Embalmer and ICCFA- and CANA-certified crematory operator, as well as Dean of ICCFA University’s College of Cremation Services. He is a graduate of the University of Wyoming, the Mid-America School of Mortuary Science, and the ICCFA University. For more information on risk management in the death care industry, visit jstarksconsulting. com. Contact Jim at (813) 765-9844 or jim@jstarksconsulting.com. www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. Blogs Birth of a Cemetery: Forest Lawn Memorial-Park By John F. Llewellyn John F. Llewellyn GLENDALE, CA— Lucille Ball, Carrie Fisher, Walt Disney and Paul Walker : these are just a few of the famous indi- viduals who were laid to rest among Forest Lawn Memo- rial-Parks & Mortuaries six cemeteries that are a part of the fabric of Los Angeles. While Forest Lawn’s six cemeteries in Southern California are often known for their celebrity “clientele,” their rich his- tory truly goes beyond the grave. In the new book, Birth of a Cemetery: Forest Lawn Memorial-Park (August 2018, Tropico Press), former president and CEO of  Forest Lawn a nd in- dustry expert John F. Llewellyn shares the story of the orig- inal and most famous location in Glendale from its incep- tion in 1906. Conceived by San Francisco architect T. Paterson Ross, his father, and businessman J.B. Treadwell, Forest Lawn experienced the many ups, downs and finan- cial hardships of most busi- nesses – many times coming far too close to also heading six feet under. It wasn’t until Hubert Ea- ton, one half of a sales team came in 1912 to help man- agement find new ways to make money, managed to ac- quire control of much of the cemetery’s land that the tide truly turned for this SoCal landmark. Closely following, Eaton was inspired to cre- ate a new model for a cem- etery, known as a “memorial- park,” which would abolish upright tombstones in favor of sweeping vistas combined with beautiful art and archi- tecture. Forest Lawn Cem- etery would become Forest Lawn Memorial-Park and, ultimately, Eaton’s vision changed the way cemeter- ies were designed across the United States. Today, as the  LA Times  deemed it, “a conver- gence of religion, patriotism, American entrepreneurial pluck and European facsimi- les set on about 300 sloping, grassy acres,” Forest Lawn Memorial-Park still ensures its primary focus is on hon- oring the lives lost and the families they’ve left be- hind. Amidst these ser- vices, tourists will of- ten visit with hopes of finding the final resting place of their favorite celebrities (Forest Lawn does not provide any specific information to protect the privacy of those buried there) as well as to admire the reproductions of many of Michelangelo’s ma- jor sculptural works; many original sculp- tures created for For- est Lawn; a vast repro- duction of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in stained glass; a free museum; a 195-foot-wide panoramic painting of Christ’s crucifixion, the world’s largest permanently-mounted religious painting; and three churches modeled after Europe- an landmarks, one in which Ron- ald Reagan and JaneWyman were married in 1940. John F. Llewellyn has spent four decades in the cemetery and funeral industries. For more than two decades, until 2011, he was president and chief executive of- ficer of Southern California’s Forest Lawn Memorial-Parks® & Mortuaries and acts as the chair- man to its board of directors. Widely acknowledged as a cem- etery and funeral industry lead- er, Llewellyn has been president of the International Ceme- tery, Cremation, and Funeral Association and the Cemetery and Mortuary Association of California as well as being an officer and director of the Western Cemetery Alliance. A graduate of the University of Redlands with a major in economics, as well as the recipient of an MBA from the University of Southern California, Llewellyn has also penned three books. His first, A Cemetery Should Be For- ever, was widely acclaimed in the cemetery industry and beyond as capturing the complexities and challenges of managing a cemetery, and has been used in college lev- el courses as well as provided to the governing boards of many United States and international cemeteries. His second book, Saying Goodbye Your Way, is followed by his 2018 release, Birth of a Cemetery. Llewellyn lives in Pasa- dena, CA with his wife, Carol, and their dog Spotless. Birth of a Cemetery can be found on Amazon and other booksellers. Visit www.tropicopress.com and www.ForestLawn.com for more information. www.nomi s publ i cat i ons . com