By Joey Haas
Transcript from our video interview with Amy Hunt and Rob Paterkiewicz at Selected Independent Funeral Homes.
Heather:
Hi everyone. And thanks for checking in with us at Funeral Innovations: Trends, Tips and Technology, where we chat with professionals in the funeral industry to discuss marketing trends, business tips, and technology innovation in chat about how digital marketing helps you better serve your families. I’m Heather Mierzejewski at Funeral Innovations
Joey:
And I’m Joey, I’m the marketing and design coordinator at Funeral Innovations.
Heather:
And today we’re super happy to have two folks from Selected Independent Funeral Homes here. We have Amy Hunt and Rob Paterkiewicz. Did I say that right, Rob?
Rob:
Perfect.
Heather:
All right. Thank you. So thanks so much for joining us, you guys. And just, can you start by telling us who you are and a little bit about Selected?
Rob:
Sure. So Selected Independent Funeral Homes is a nonprofit trade association. We represent independently owned and operated funeral homes on a global level. We were established back in 1917. So have been working with the funeral service for quite some time. You know, the mission of the organization is to really deliver innovative and pertinent resources, tools, solutions, and support to help push excellence within our current and our future members. Each of whom is striving to be the very best in funeral service. I think what makes Selected a little bit unique within the funeral service association world is that our membership is by invitation only. Our members are very involved in that process from making a recommendation through approving each new member that joins Selected. And that invitation is extended only after a careful review of the firm’s professionalism, reputation, you know, commitment to being ethical and professional practices. I think the other thing that kind of sets this organization to part is the fact that our members accept the fact that they’re going to be students and teachers at the same time. And so there’s a tremendous amount of interaction that takes place virtually and face to face. And it’s really what makes this organization so unique is this level of interaction and sharing that are members have with each other. So so yeah, that’s a little little background on who Selected is, and we are certainly excited to be with you guys today to talk a bit about our, our annual meeting.
Joey:
Cool. Do you think you guys could talk about your individual roles at Selected a little bit more?
Rob:
Yeah, absolutely.
Amy:
I’m Amy Hunt, director of meetings and education. So I have been with Selected since 2003 started in a different role and moved into the meetings position in about 2008. So I do oversee all of our, our meetings work with speakers who have our programming work group is a volunteer member committee that helps plan our different meetings out, obviously communicate with the board as well. And I have the pleasure of also getting to facilitate our Selective Leadership Academy. So that’s been a really neat program that we’ve started almost 10 years ago now.
Rob:
Yeah. And I’m Rob Paterkiewicz. I’m the chief executive officer here and I’ve been with Selected since 2007. So very heavily involved in all of the operational aspects of the, you know, the company and certainly a more strategic level with the board of directors and doing everything I can to keep up with this amazing staff that we have who are here working every day.
Heather:
Terrific. So part of the reason we asked you guys to come right now is because of the pandemic, your annual meeting is going to be held virtually. I think most people at this time are familiar that we understand that most of the trade shows or annual meetings are being held virtually. And I just wanted you guys to talk a little bit about what that’s gonna look like and what attendees can expect. I know it’s happening from September 30th to October second, let us know what that’s gonna be like.
Amy:
So obviously for us, we had intended to be a Montreal. So with the border closure, we really didn’t have any opportunity to go across. So the nice thing is, is we do have technology now that allows us to do that to still gather, keep our tradition and move forward. So in making the decision to transition, I think we were very committed to trying to retain as much of the flavor that we find when we gather together as we possibly could. So what we have chosen to do is we’re using a platform that is being built by our AV partner currently. So we could have more say in the look and feel of it. We’re trying to make it a very simple. We know how overwhelm these past few months of been four people. So trying to make it a comfortable, easy experience, very obvious of where you find different things and how you get into the platform itself. And then we’re going to actually be using for our live interactions Zoom, because we know almost everyone has been on a Zoom call at some point in the past few months. So again, wanting to try to make it as easily accessible, as comfortable as possible in amidst a lot of changes. So some of the exciting things that we have based off of our dashboard as the main page, you’re very obvious to go into our live sessions, very self explanatory. That will be where we have all our great speakers and all of those opportunities connect. We will be retaining our traditional elements where we have, you know, transition of our board of directors. And we recognize our milestone membership nominees and members involved that way. We have our remembering, our colleagues, traditions. So many of those things that members have come to love and that we love to be able to do for them. We’ve been able to retain through our agenda and program. And of course, another huge aspect of the platform is the opportunity to connect with our Preferred Partners, very valuable experts and knowledgeable in their fields. So we will have a partner exhibit hall that we’ll have nearly 40 of our partners involved in and, and in booth areas, they’ll have materials to check out in 24 hours a day, that’s basically on demand. And then throughout the meeting, there’ll be some specific times set aside for those that maybe have some lives Zooms. We do have our Conversation Cafes, so we have some partners featured that way. And, and I think so some nice inner interactive abilities within the partner exhibit area, there will be public chats as well in each of the boosts, so that conversation can continue. Our members have always enjoyed being able to walk through and just say hi. So through the public chat element, they can do that. The really neat thing, as well as we’re also going to have a member to member chats that basically floats across every page of the dashboard. So if you are actively logged in, you will show up as someone that can be reached out to. So that can be as simple as just a chat message, but there’ll also be a video option. So you could reach out and try to video directly with someone. And our Preferred Partners will have that ability to, if they’re logged in, they can see who’s there and members can see who’s active from our partners. And anytime you want to do a video with them or a chat, there’s also the private chat available. So that’s, I think I’m pretty excited about that piece. Another key area that we’ll have that I think really kind of speaks to who Selected is, our headquarters staff team works so hard every year for the annual meeting. And we were sad to not be able to see and have conversations. So we’re going to have a live Zoom each of the three days of the meeting, all day of the meeting. So from 8:30 to 4:15 each day, we will have at least one or two of our headquarters staff team available to have conversation with anyone who wants to pop into our Selected Solution Center. We will be reaching out to a couple of our key partners through the Academy. Our Academy Dean will have some time that she’ll be available in there. So we’ll have some scheduled opportunities and then there’ll be just some pop-ins as well. So we’re, we’re happy to be able to offer that and to have that ability because so often we love those conversations that happen in the hallway or at the registration desk as well. So it’s kind of our virtual registration desk. We also we’ll have a section for our selected educational trust. The trust in recent years has really been a valuable part of the annual meeting. So we will feature them. They will have some on demand types of resources available, and then they have a silent auction that’s been done for the past several years. So by visiting their area, people can look through the silent auction, place, their bids, and also find out more about the trust, which is really got some neat things that are happening right now, the Institute, and other things that be Anne and her team has been rolling out. So people will definitely want to get caught up on what’s happening with the trust. And then finally, the other, other key area that we have is our Take a Break section is what we’re calling it. So that’s kinda just a storehouse for some on demand opportunities that we know in the virtual world, right? Someone might just be up in the middle of the night or in between sessions or whatever it might be. So we have reached out to a couple of our contacts, again, Margarite Ham, our Selected Leadership Academy Dean. We have a few others, we’ll be recording some short videos, kind of five minutes, 10 minutes on some specific topics, all kind of curated and designed around helping everyone kind of adapt in this atmosphere that we’ve been through. So some things on resilience, some meditation types of things, some laughs find some things to just laugh and, and also just some fun, you know, links that we can put together that, that people can jump in and jump out of there. And, and just try to catch their breath and relax a little bit in between.
Joey:
Awesome. Oh my gosh, it sounds like there’s going to be tons of different channels available for interaction. So that is super exciting. Along those lines, do you have any suggestions for how people can get the most out of attending the conference, maybe how to prioritize their time, that kind of thing?
Amy:
Great question. I think we are all very guilty of it here in the past few months being very distracted, right? Oh yeah. Well, okay. We’re going to go to that. And then, but the email, just being that I’ve got to answer the email or my dog’s barking or my child’s learning, right? So I think probably the, the key thing is to adapt a mindset of, I am going to a meeting. So when we are traveling to a meeting, it’s pretty obvious we’ve packed our luggage. We’ve gotten on the airplane and they can’t see us at home, so we could, we could get away. I think we still have to kind of embrace some of that mindset. I am going to this meeting. So block the calendar, put an “out of office” message on, catch your breath. Put a sign on your door. I’m in a meeting don’t disturb recommend looking through the, the agenda like you would, if you were going to be going to the meeting, Oh, I really have to be at that. Or I really want to do this, or this is what I’m going to go look at the partners. This is what I’m going to check out the Educational Trust, and maybe even block that on your calendar as well. So I think it, I think a lot of it is trying to eliminate some of that distraction, really embracing it as this is your opportunity to go. And, and really try to put yourself in that mindset and take advantage of that opportunity. And as you said some chances to touch base with people in unique ways that maybe you haven’t picked up the phone to call or, you know, sent emails to recently, you can kind of see who else has popped on and, and have those conversations that we’ve all been missing.
Joey:
Great. That’s awesome.
Heather:
Sounds like it’s going to be super fun. So I wanted to take it back a little bit. Can you explain what that educational trust is a little bit for people who don’t know?
Amy:
I’ll let Rob take more of that.
Rob:
Sure. So the Selected Educational Trust is a, is our charitable arm. Selected established that organization back in the 80s. And it’s been fairly quiet for the, you know, for the first decade or two, but for the last 10 years, we have really ramped up our activities in that area. So it’s what we call a 5013C organization. It is a charitable entity that’s focused on lifelong learning. So it’s all about education. Education for, you know, the new practitioner. So we offer scholarships for second career individuals who are getting into mortuary science, funeral service. And then we also offer support for those who are long time you know, professionals. So the trust really is focused on delivering education opportunities as well as connecting members of Selected with future staff. So we, we continually are building relationships with all of the accredited mortuary science schools to be able to create a pipeline between the independent professionals as well as those who are getting into the career of a funeral service. And the Trust also recently just launched, what’s called the Institute for Professional Funeral Education. And it is an all online platform that we were building long before COVID came around, but it’s certainly convenient now. We just launched our first class a few weeks ago all about, you know, the soft skills that, that one needs that they may not necessarily be teaching at the mortuary colleges but really what you need to be able to sit down with a family or to sit down with someone to help them and in the arrangement to greet somebody as they’re coming into the firm and all the other important aspects that go with that. So the trust is really a neat entity that is just exploding in growth. And there’s been a tremendous amount of interest in helping to fund the activities of the trust. So we’re certainly excited to see all of that growth there.
Heather:
Well, thanks for that valuable service. That’s great opportunity for a lot of people interested in meeting their skillset. Can you talk about who can attend the conference? Is it just Selected member?
Amy:
You know, as has always been the case, our continuing education sessions are open to anyone. So obviously primarily our members and we have many things targeted towards them, but we definitely are open and welcome to any funeral service professional looking for continuing education. So it’s very easy to register our member on our annual meeting page on our website. There are links for the different member options, as well as non-member information.
Heather:
And then if people are members, is that included? Is it part of that, or is it an extra fee for them?
Amy:
Yes, we have two different options. So it is a different fee structure, whether it’s a view only, or the continuing education piece.
Heather:
Got it. That’s terrific. And Joey, we can put a link to that at the end of the video, if you don’t mind. So anybody who needs to register once you have access to that.
Amy:
That’d be great.
Joey:
And so, Amy, I know you talked a little bit earlier about how you were excited for that staff Zoom conference. What else are you guys most excited about for the conference?
Amy:
Well, obviously, yes. I think biggest excitement for me every year is getting to see everyone and participating. But I think beyond that, I, I am always really excited for educational sessions. I work with our member volunteer programming work group that we, you know, really look through options and opportunities and, and I feel every year they really help us find some great content and speakers. And the topics this year really are a nice range of things that fit well with where we’re at. So we were going to start off with Mallory Brown, who is going to talk about empathy, and we were excited about that topic before everything changed. And I think it’s even more important and valuable now. So a lot of these things I think have taken on even extra meaning. Since we were first looking at our agenda, we also have Hayden Shaw who I’ve respected for years. Hayden has been a strong advocate for multi-generations and that topic of how we can all work together better. And now we have five generations in the workplace and client families you know that our members are serving. So I think that message is exceptionally timely as well. And we also have Jonathan David Lewis coming back with McKee Wallwork. He presented last year in our future session and released information on the disruption survey. So this is the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say, we kind of get part two to that. And that session was very well received last year. So we’re excited to find out what has been happening in the, in the ensuing 12 months, since that was first presented. And also some of the nuances that maybe have changed or been influenced because of the massive changes in, in recent months. And then of course we have our great breakout sessions and our Preferred Partners are going to be highlighted in the conversation cafes and throughout all of those being based on the Zoom platform, there’s some great opportunities for interaction. So some, you know, each presenter will decide what they want to do, but there’ll be polls. There could be opportunities to go into smaller breakouts with other participants there’ll be chat features. And, and of course for our Selected members only we do have a couple member only sessions that are very open discussion based. So that’s exciting to be able to allow those discussions and conversations to happen, even in this different format.
Heather:
Yeah. I know from talking with some of our clients who are Selected members, they really get a lot out of those Selected membership conversations. That’s very meaningful. They talk about it being a great place to really ask anything or talk about anything. So we know as a Preferred Partner, I was always, I was so happy with Selected who said, we are having a conference, it will be in person, or it’ll be virtual, but there is none of this, is it going to be happening. I just really appreciate you guys knowing that you are going to host the annual meeting no matter what. So, as we progress through the pandemic, you know, there’s kind of some big changes happen and I think things have settled down and maybe we’re a little more into a routine now, but are there any trends right now that you’re seeing among your membership or common themes, common threads?
Rob:
You know, there’s the obvious, you know, there’s the obvious issues of of having to deliver more with less and having to navigate the ever changing rules and regulations that the pandemic is bringing. You know, honestly, I think from what I hear from our members while they are still dealing with, again, current day challenges, you know, the, the trends, the issue that they were dealing with pre COVID are still, still quite prevalent. You know, the challenge of trying to find the next top, you know, staff person is, is critical, especially for firms in a more rural area who may not have access to the, the labor pool that others might have access to. So that continues to be a big area in that, as I was talking about with the Educational Trust, we’re trying hard to find ways to, to help members with that. And I think the other issue that certainly has been out there for quite some time, especially within the independence is trying to create a fair and smart succession plan. You know, that with, with family businesses, generational issues and the challenges that funeral homes are facing you know, planning for the future of that business, the ownership of that business and how the family will, you know, will split that up or not split that up. That’s a significant issue that, again, a lot of these independent firms are grappling with, especially now.
Heather:
That wouldn’t go away because of the pandemic.
Rob:
No, it’s only, it’s only being strengthened.
Joey:
Okay. So kind of looking at the rest of the year and into next spring, are there any predictions you guys would want you know, want to make, and obviously anything can happen it’s 2020, but are there any predictions you guys have about the industry or just in general?
Rob:
I predict that 2021 is going to be very much like 2020. And, and I think we all need to plan for that. You know, we as a team have, have already begun focusing much more on scenario planning, you know, the what ifs whether it’s with our events or our programs or our members because yeah I don’t anticipate seeing many changes in the next year. So for us to be able to pivot, but pivot with more knowledge and experience that we’ve had this year, so that it’s not such a shock, it’s not such a surprise. You know, the, the way that that’s going to happen is to plan accordingly.
Heather:
Yeah. Do you have any predictions Amy?
Amy:
Well obviously I echo Rob. I think one, one optimistic kind of prediction I have though, is that we will slowly start to have some things opening up. I think we are all getting better at understanding how we can safely start to bring people back together. And I think I commend our members for all they’re doing in their communities to start some of that and getting our arms around what is doable? I think, you know, regional meetings, smaller meetings, blends of the hybrid types meetings where some in person, some out, and I think you know, hotels and just the travel industry itself too, is stepping up to allow some of that to become more comfortable as, as we all have kind of started to adapt that we can, we can find some middle ground that that’s my prediction, my optimistic prediction, that we will start to kind of move forward a little bit more now.
Heather:
I like this prediction been, I just want to echo what Rob what you said. We were just talking to someone else earlier today that was saying, you know, if you plan now, if you’re troubleshooting for what could happen in the next year, you’re going to be in a way better place in five years, in 10 years rather than if you just wait to see what happens and react.
Joey:
So we have the last question, and this is the question we ask everybody. So what is the biggest lesson you both have learned from serving in this industry?
Rob:
I can tell you, I’ve learned a lot. My, my background is working for associations and that’s what I’ve been doing for 30 years. And I’ve worked for a number of different groups. So funeral service was not part of my background. And I think what I’ve learned is just how important a professional funeral director is in all aspects of pre-planning and at-need. I think sometimes they’re taken for granted. So, you know, the, the loss of a loved one is sad and painful, but there are lasting effects of that. And you know part of the process to heal and to be able to move on are tied directly with the traditional funeral, with mourning, the loss, with having your friends and your coworkers, you know, surround you and support you and try to help. And, and unfortunately, you know, we see more and more situations where people are avoiding that or choosing not to go down that road for whatever reason. But the reality is that that stuff’s there for, you know, that’s there for a reason. And it’s helpful. And again, a good professional funeral director plays such a key role in, in helping again, not just at the time of the loss, but beyond that as well.
Amy:
And wholeheartedly agree. I think the only thing I would, I would add as a, how much I’ve learned over the years of the heart and soul that our members put into what they do, who they’re serving. I just had no idea before getting to understand the profession better and really meeting the members. The stories that I have heard of how many times they go above and beyond, and the things that they do when no one is watching.
Joey:
I think, yeah. I think heart and soul was perfectly said, and yeah, it is a very tough job that is for sure. Those are all the questions we have for you guys. So thank you so much, Rob and Amy for joining us today, we really appreciate your time. And thanks for joining us this week on Funeral Innovations: Trends, Tips, and Technology. So we’ll be posting this video on our blog, on our YouTube channels, and you’ll be able to access it on your Facebook feed. And we’ll be back with another show soon, so check back in with us next week. If you have any topics you’d like to see discussed or anyone you’d like to hear from in an interview, add it in the comments down below and be sure to visit our website at funeralinnovations.com. Thanks so much. You guys.
Heather:
Thank so much.
