Christie is a Family Assistance Core Team Leader for the Office of Emergency Preparedness Disaster Mortuary Operations Response Team (DMORT), she has helped at the World Trade Center Disaster, Egypt Air Crash, and Alaska Air Crash.
DMORT to identify and return remains of the victims of the disaster to their families, they set up temporary morgue, a family assistance Ante Mortem Information Victim identification using Fingerprints, dental and forensic pathology anthropology as well as information given by the deceased family.
There are 2 morgues one on the east coast are are ready to be shipped by truck, if they are shipped by air, the morgue is shipped and received in a much more difficult fashion, to ship by truck or rail the whole facility arrives together.
Once the site is set up, the facilities are usually not the best of conditions, most recently DEMORT helped out in New York City as a matter of fact our Speaker Christine Whitaker was at the New Jersey FDA's convention last year and was called into action and was escorted by the State Police to the World Trade Center Site.
Christie is also married to NFDA's Doggert Whitaker and they have four daughters.
Mac is a funeral director and author of the highly aclaimed book "Days of Death, Nights of Service". He gave us the History of the Lives and Funerals of: Kentucky Fried Chicken Founder: Colonel Harland Sanders, God Bless America Famous Singer: Kate Smith, TV Series Bewitched Actress: Agnes Moorehead, Hershey Chocolate Founder: Milton Hershey and others Namely: Gutzon Borglum and Wendell Wilkie.
Sorry for the above black & white shot, the room at this point was very dark, this photo was taken in Sony's Nightshot mode, while we are on the picture topic,: while covering a funeral service event in Washington DC, NFDA staff complained about the flash photography that was previously used, so we switched to Sony's Digital camera, this new camera takes an amazing thirty pictures per second and although not as vivid as flash photography, it's doing the job until a better flashless camera comes out.
All that is important to consumers is "WHAT YOU DO FOR THEM"
Some consumers feel stuck and some are even scared to look at funeral merchandise, consumers are looking for the Funeral Service Professional to "LISTEN EMPATHIZE and become TRUSTWORTHY, some consumers feel the funeral professional is a shady, trying to sell you what you don't want and some think FSP's take advantage of grieving families
Reestablish commitment to the general public to values process of funerals, we must realize we have such a transient society, and there is less respect for tradition.
Funeral attendance is down, this does have an effect on the value of our services. A shift in consumers to spend less on funerals than in the past.
NFDA is looking proactive strategy to address emerging consumer needs and attitude, to build on our skills to meet those needs and to rebuild consumer relationship with the funeral profession. The brand for Funeral Service could be. We are committed, empathetic and protective of consumers, we are advocates, educators and business builder. (maybe now we will see some business training acceptable for CEU's)
NFDA will be more
Credibility of the profession, accountability to members relevent skills for todays funeral service, here is where NFDA will be asking the profession to do.
Soon you will see in industry magazines NFDA's new ad probram on these three bullet points.
Wilson told us much of what he took home from NFDA's Futures Forum, and gave us what funeral service has to be prepared for, a forecast of the doubling the amount of funerals we do and at the same time facing families who only want a minimal service, Wilson said a lot more and is very much on target to help funeral professionals understand where we are going. Mr. Beebe would be a good choice for your favorite organization to have as a speaker about our future, if your Executive director needs a tune up send them to NJSFDA for a refresher on how to serve membership well.
Very Satisfied Members value NJSFDA, members voted overwhelmingly to bring their dues for an additional fee of $350. from $320. to $670. to help the association fund their Political Action Committee, Congratulations Wilson & company.
Wilson also hosted a
BOTTOM LINE: WE ALL WORK FOR THE BETTERMENT OF FUNERAL SERVICE PROFESSION AND THE DEATH CARE INDUSTRY THE CONSUMERS WE SERVE AND THE PROFESSIONALS WE WORK WITH. IF YOU SEE ANYTHING WRONG, IF SOMETHING HERE REALLY OFFENDS YOU, LET'S WORK TOGETHER. PLEASE NOTIFY FSPA IMMEDIATELY, YOU CAN E-MAIL TO lowellma@aol.com Or call FSPA in the United States Voice 978-458-6816 Fax 978-459-0115 or the old fashioned way through the mail at FSPA c/o 14 Highland Street Lowell, Massachusetts 01852-3399 USA
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