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Member Spotlight: Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Homes & Crematory

From the Summer 2024 issue of The Independent magazine. 

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Boosting Your Funeral Home: Harnessing the Power of Social Media

With modern technology, the potential opportunities and growth for small businesses have transformed with the creation of social media platforms. Capabilities on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn assist in enhancing brand visibility, creating a valuable communication avenue with customers and growing small businesses’ reach from limited to worldwide.

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Combating Compassion and Change Fatigue

This year, the International Order of the Golden Rule (OGR) is focusing its podcast series on “The Changing Consumer, — exploring consumer needs in deathcare and how they have shifted in recent years. How are consumers finding and choosing their funeral homes? What services are they looking for? Which aspects of the funeral are most important to them? The 2023 season investigates questions such as these to provide insight into modern consumers.  

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Building A Legacy: Empowering The Next Generation For A Stronger Future

Chris Miller, current president of Order of the Golden Rule (OGR) and owner of Thomas Miller Mortuary in Corona California, recognizes how important the next generation is to a stronger future.

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Understanding Veterans' Benefits

Funeral directors play a vital role in providing compassionate and dignified services to families during their time of loss. When it comes to honoring veterans, it is essential for funeral directors to be knowledgeable about the benefits available through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). These benefits not only assist families in arranging meaningful funerals for their loved ones but also ensure that veterans receive the recognition and respect they deserve for their service. There are key aspects of VA benefits that funeral directors should be aware of, enabling them to guide and support families in navigating the process.

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Thinking Outside the Box

This year, the International Order of the Golden Rule (OGR) is focusing its podcast series on “The Changing Consumer, exploring consumer needs in deathcare and how they have shifted in recent years. How are consumers finding and choosing their funeral homes? What services are they looking for? Which aspects of the funeral are most important to them? The 2023 season investigates questions such as these to provide insight into modern consumers. 

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Member Spotlight: Stevens Mortuary

Stevens Mortuary is located in Knoxville, Tennessee. OGR had the opportunity to learn from Mary Cantwell's experiences, who is 93-year-old and continues to work at her family funeral home. In this blog, she shares why she never retired and how she continues to find the work she does rewarding.

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Invitation to Innovation

Funeral homes are constantly looking for innovative ways to provide exceptional services and meet the evolving needs of their clients. Recently, the Order of the Golden Rule (OGR) had its inaugural “Invitation to Innovation” workshop to explore new approaches to caring for cremation clients. Led by Andrew Loos from Heartland Cremation & Burial Society, participants engaged in ideation exercises to generate implementable ideas. The event sparked creativity and highlighted the importance of viewing cremation services through the eyes of customers. Let's dive into some of the exciting ideas that emerged from this workshop.

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Is CHATGPT for me? chat.openai.com

As technology continues to shape the world, businesses across various industries are incorporating it into their operations to improve services and remain competitive. Funeral homes are no exception to this trend and can also harness the power of technology to enhance client interactions and services. One such technology is ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence program that is designed to understand and generate human-like language. The best news is that ChatGPT is FREE! 

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Member Spotlight - Heritage Mortuary, Inc.

Larnique Mickens is the executive director of Heritage Mortuary, Inc. in Las Vegas, Nevada. She shared her experiences with running a successful funeral home that recently won Best of Las Vegas by Vegas Review Journal in 2021.

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Honored To Serve Those Who Have Served: Jim Rudolph

Jim Rudolph started his career in 1980 working at local funeral home. In 2000 he founded Veterans Funeral Care (VFC) – the nation’s first branded funeral home focusing on serving veterans and their families. Through its provider network, VFC now provides services to veterans in 18 states.

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Future Leader Spotlight: Tricia Herzig-Mckinnon

OGR FUTURE LEADER SPOTLIGHT
Tricia Herzig-McKinnon is a 41-year-old licensed funeral director, embalmer and vice president of Toland-Herzig Funeral Homes & Crematory in Dover and Strasburg, Ohio.

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Scholarship Winners Announced

The Order of the Golden Rule Foundation has granted scholarships to six graduating students as part of its 2023 Awards of Excellence scholarship program. These scholarships are awarded each year to mortuary students based on strong academic performance, community involvement and an essay exemplifying a commitment to serving grieving families with compassion, fairness and dignity.

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2023 OGR Professional Service Awards

The International Order of the Golden Rule (OGR) is proud to announce the winners of the Golden Rule Community Service and Exemplary Service Awards. The awards were presented on May 3, 2023, at the Golden Circle Celebration Awards Dinner held in Indianapolis. These awards honor individuals and funeral homes that have displayed exceptional dedication, innovation, and commitment to excellence in the profession.

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OGR responds to COVID-19 pandemic

 

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Did Joan Rivers Knock 'em Dead In Her Final Act?

Joan RiversYou’ve probably heard about the over-the-top funeral that comedienne Joan Rivers described as her ideal funeral in her 2012 book, I Hate Everyone…Starting with Me. She wrote:

I want my funeral to be a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action … I want Craft services, I want paparazzi and I want publicists making a scene! I want it to be Hollywood all the way. I don’t want some rabbi rambling on; I want Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents. I don’t want a eulogy; I want Bobby Vinton to pick up my head and sing ‘Mr. Lonely.’ I want to look gorgeous, better dead than I do alive. I want to be buried in a Valentino gown and I want Harry Winston to make me a toe tag. And I want a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce’s.

And she wasn’t kidding. So how did her real service on Sept. 7 at Temple Emanu-El on the Upper East Side of New York City stack up against her fantasy funeral?

Pretty well, actually. One attendee told USA Today, “It was like a Broadway show with tons of humor, lots of tears, and ended with a standing ovation.” The celebrity guest list included Howard Stern, who gave the eulogy, Donald Trump, Sarah Jessica Parker, Whoopi Goldberg and Diane Sawyer, to name just a few. Hugh Jackman, Audra McDonald and the New York City Gay Men’s Choir sang during the service. At its conclusion, bagpipers burst out of the temple playing songs for hundreds of fans who yearned to be included in the ceremony in some small way.

Granted, Joan Rivers was not an ordinary person. Nonetheless, how many ordinary people wondered why they’ve never attended a funeral that made them laugh and cry in ways that perfectly reflected the person being honored? The answer is too many. According to research studies, most consumers don’t believe the average funeral director has the skills to arrange funerals beyond the traditional scripture-eulogy-hymns-prayer variety.

Fortunately, OGR members are a progressive lot. Many realized long ago that cookie-cutter funerals will drive people to one of two types of providers: A) those who offer fresh and meaningful ceremonies; or, B) those who offer easy options at rock bottom prices. Professionals at many Golden Rule Funeral Homes understand that today’s successful funerals are as much about creating vivid memories of the deceased’s life as they are about helping families cope with loss.

The predictable line that once marked a “dignified funeral” has not only shifted, it’s now in a different spot for each and every person that walks through your funeral home’s front door. Baby Boomers, especially, need assurance that funeral professionals will set aside preconceived notions of what constitutes a “suitable” funeral and pinpoint where their lines are so their families can acknowledge their grief and honor their loved ones’ lives. And they must do it in ways that are a little less gloomy, a little more spirited, and a lot more memorable than other funerals they’ve experienced. If their local funeral director can’t provide such an experience, they’ll find someone who can.

After all, shouldn’t everyone be the star of their own funeral?

Are Funerals Getting More Fun?

I’ll avoid the obvious pun, but has anyone else noticed signs that more people are interested in having fun while planning their funerals? Okay, maybe fun is overstating the trend, but instead of avoiding final planning at any cost, it appears that more people are recognizing that death is, in fact, a part of life, and you might as well make the best of it.

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Will Mr. Hyde Save Dr. Jekyll?

 

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Social Media: Who Needs It?

Betty WhiteA few years ago more than 500,000 fans of comedienne Betty White started a grassroots campaign on Facebook calling for her to appear on the late night television program Saturday Night Live. It worked. Ms. White was soon booked to host the May 9, 2010 show. After thanking Facebook users for their support in her opening monologue, she said “I didn’t know what Facebook was! And now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time!” 

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Does Funeral Service Have an Image Problem?

JFKFuneralJacqueline Kennedy once famously wrote that her aim was to be the “art director of the twentieth century.” Little did she know that some of the most enduring images she would help create would come from her husband’s funeral ceremonies after John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. These images were so striking that they are etched in people’s minds as vividly today as they were 50 years ago. Those who have only seen photographs—many who weren’t born yet--feel as though they witnessed the proceedings: Black Jack the riderless horse with boots positioned backwards in the stirrups; six white horses pulling the caisson upon which the President’s flag-draped casket rested; John, Jr., donned in blue coat and shorts on his third birthday, saluting his father’s casket on its way to burial.

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