Actions Taken by the Georgia Board of Funeral Services at its January 12 Meeting

Macon, Ga.—The Georgia Board of Funeral Services met on Tuesday, January 12, 2010.

The Board voted to approve two new funeral establishment licenses, one funeral apprentice license, four changes to funeral director in full and continuous charge of a funeral establishment, and two requests for change in supervisor of funeral service apprenticeships.

The Board voted to approve the following requests for grace periods to replace the facilities’ funeral director in full and continuous charge:

• Peoples Funeral Home, Augusta
• Dogwood Hill Crematory, Covington
• Hicks Funeral Home, Elberton
• Community Funeral Home of Pike, Zebulon

The Board voted to approve the following courses for continuing education:

• Elite CME, Inc: 10 Hour Continuing Education Course for Funeral Directors and Embalmers; Religion and the Funeral Director; Funeral Services: Interpersonal Skills and Communication; Formaldehyde Monitoring; HIV/AIDS – Communicable Diseases & OSHA Blood borne Pathogens Standard; Complying with the Federal Trade Commission Rules; Professional Ethics; Complying with the Funeral Rule; Employment Law; Dealing with Difficult People and Situations; Formaldehyde Monitoring Update; The Americans with Disabilities Act; Professional Ethics
• International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association: 2010 ICCFA Annual Convention and Exposition
• MKJ Marketing: MKJ Marketing’s 2010 Beaver Creek Seminar: Improving Your Funeral Business
• NFDA: 2010 Cana & FDA Spring Cremation Symposium; ADA Employer Compliance: Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act; Communicable Diseases: What Every Funeral Home Must Know; Conflict Management for Funeral Directors: Successful Interpersonal Communication Practices; Controlling Your Accounts Receivable; Embalming the Obese Case; Professional Ethics in Funeral Service: NFDA’s Code of Professional Conduct; Serving Hispanic Families; Time for Your Annual Check-up: Financial Statements and Preneed Analysis; Understanding a Child’s Grief; Understanding Adult Grief: Developing Ways to Help adults on Their Grief Journeys; Understanding the Practice of the FTC Funeral Rule; Wage and Hour Laws for Funeral Home Employers; Delegating; Essential Skills of Communicating; Essential Skills of Leadership; Improving Work Habits; Managing Complaints; Professionalism in the Office; Providing Performance Feedback; Supporting Change; Guaranteed Funerals: Is Preneed Right for You?; Risk Management: Controlling Liability Risk for Small Businesses; Recession – Friendly Ideas to Accelerate Innovation at Your Firm; Creating Meaningful Funeral Experiences; Customer Service in an Instant: 60 Ways to Win Customers and Keep Them Coming Back; Ethnic Variations in Dying, Death, and Grief; Funeral Home Customer Service A-Z; Hands-Off Manager: How to Mentor People and Allow Them to be Successful; Healing a Child’s Grieving Heart; Healing a Friend’s Grieving Heart; Healing a Teen’s Grieving Heart; Healing the Adult Child’s Grieving Heart; Healing Your Grieving Heart; Healing Your Holiday Grief: 100 Practical Ideas for Blending Mourning and Celebration During the Holiday Season; Prescriptions for a Healthy Family Business; Traversing the Minefield: Best Practice: Reducing Risk in Funeral-Cremation Service; When All the Friends Have Gone; Winning Ways: The Funeral Profession’s Guide to Human Relations; 100 Ways to Motivate Others; Boom! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors off Business-As-Usual; Cry Until You Laugh: Comforting Guidance for Coping with Grief; Think Like a Marketer; Understanding Your Suicide Grief; Capitalizing On Kindness: Why 21st Century Professionals Need To Be Nice; Building Customer Loyalty From the Inside Out; The Eight Building Blocks for Creating a Sustainable Closely Held Company; Body Preparation and Practices for Different Religions and Cultures: Jewish, Hispanic, Mormon; Creating the Ultimate Funeral Experience Through Questioning Strategies; Hispanic Funerals: Need to Know Insights;

If Your Buying or Selling a Funeral Home, Timing is Everything; Internet Age vs. Your Funeral Home: Legal Issues Created by Technology; Legendary Service at the Ritz-Carlton: A Great Fit for Funeral Service; Does Formaldehyde Cause Cancer? NFDA’s Formaldehyde Best Management Practices Can Protect You; Ethical Thinking in Today’s World; FTC Funeral Rule Staff Training; GPL Funeral Packages – Doing Them Right; Prepare for the New Employment Regulations; With the Push to Cremate: 5 Reasons to Encourage Viewing and Ritual; Art of Facial Reconstruction; Avoiding Sexual Harassment Suits; Embalming Difficult Cases: Donor Cases; FTC Compliance: Handling the General Price List; Restorative Arts: An Artist’s Perspective; Your Professional Image

• FuneralReview.Com: Graystone Conference 2010
• GFSPA: “Fight Fraud with the Red Flag Rule”
• South Carolina Funeral Directors Association: 23rd Mid-Winter Conference and Expo
• Selected Independent Funeral Homes: Selected Independent Funeral Homes 2010 Group Meeting Series

The Board approved the following orders to accept fine money for inspection violations:

• J L Litman Memorial Funeral Service, Albany: Fined $50 for failure to conspicuously display a current biennial renewal license for the establishment, embalmer, funeral director and apprentices.
• Wimberly & Jackson Funeral Home, Inc., Gainesville: Fined $400 for failure to screen all outside openings where left open for ventilation and use of the embalming room for purposes other than the embalming of dead human bodies.
• Anderson & Marshall Funeral Home, Manchester: Fined $400 for failure to maintain the sanitary and clean condition of each embalming room, including all instruments and tables and use of the embalming room for purposes other than the embalming of dead human bodies.
• Victory Memorial Chapel, Sylvester: Fined $100 for failure to maintain a minimum of eight adult caskets within the display room on the premises of the establishment.
• Reno Tapley Mortuary, Swainsboro: Fined $100 for failure to maintain a minimum of eight adult caskets within the display room on the premises of the establishment. 
• Bentley Funeral Home, Roberta: Fined $200 for failure to equip all embalming rooms with non-absorbent sanitary floor and walls.

The Georgia Board of Funeral Services will hold its next meeting Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. at the Professional Licensing Boards Division office in Macon.

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