For Immediate Release: January 17, 2019

Brookfield, Wis. – The National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) is bringing exciting changes to its live education opportunities in 2019, from engaging, free webinars to lower-priced CE opportunities and much more. There’s never been a better time for funeral professionals to learn with NFDA.

The new NFDA Virtual Roundtables offer an exciting and interactive way to earn continuing education hours. Featuring live video discussions with the profession’s most insightful authorities on topics that impact funeral professionals and their business, NFDA Virtual Roundtables offer a more dynamic learning experience than the traditional webinar. NFDA Virtual Roundtables also enable participants to ask the experts on their most pressing questions.

NFDA Virtual Roundtables, which will be one to two hours in length, come with more affordable pricing – $99 for NFDA members and $149 for nonmembers.

The first NFDA Virtual Roundtables open for registration are:

• January 24, 1-2 p.m. CT (1 CE): Coffee Hour with the Cremation Experts with Mike Nicodemus, NFDA vice president of cremation services; Sammy G. Oakey III, president of Oakey’s Funeral Services and Crematory; and Adam Sanden, partner at Brunner Sanden Deitrick Funeral Home & Cremation Center.
• February 20, 1-2:30 p.m. CT (1.5 CE): Lingering Liability – Inside the Cemetery with Mark Evely, director of the Mortuary Science Program at Wayne State University; and Tanya Marsh, professor of law at Wake Forest University School of Law.

Dates, topics and presenters for future NFDA Virtual Roundtables, which will address topics such as community outreach, death cafes, the FTC Funeral Rule and technical skills, will be announced throughout the year.

NFDA members have an additional opportunity to learn: free webinars. These sponsored webinars will feature a wide range of experts addressing topics such as marketing, preneed and more. Dates, times, topics and speakers will be announced on the NFDA website, www.nfda.org, in the weeks and months to come.

Refine Your Skills with Other NFDA Education Offerings

Beyond the new NFDA Virtual Roundtables and free webinars, the association has a variety of offerings to help funeral directors raise the bar professionally and personally.

NFDA’s certification and training programs include the Arranger Training Program, Cremation Certification Program and Certified Preplanning Consultant Program. These programs offer an in-depth exploration of issues that funeral directors encounter on a daily basis. The tips, tools and techniques learned during these seminars can transform a funeral director’s approach to serving families and lead to increased client satisfaction.

NFDA Online Learning Courses enable funeral directors to learn from the best experts in funeral service to boost their business knowledge and skills wherever and whenever they have Internet access. In recent months, NFDA has unveiled new courses such as:

• Embalming Risk Management (3 CE Hours)
• 2018 Annual All-staff Training with the FTC Funeral Rule Coordinator (3 CE Hours)
• Approaching Trauma Cases with Confidence (3 CE Hours)
• Demonstration of Soft Tissue Repair (4 CE Hours)
• Supporting Pregnancy Loss Families (3 CE Hours)
• Do-It-Yourself Memorials (with a Little Help from the Funeral Director) (2 CE hours)
• Mastering the Art of Funeral Home Phone Etiquette (1 CE Hour)
• The Relevance of Restorative Art (3 CE)
• RSVP: I'll See You at My Living Funeral (2 CE Hours)
• Ten Tools for Stress Relief (3 CE Hours)

NFDA’s conferences and events, which culminate with the annual International Convention & Expo, are specially planned to help funeral professionals take their career and business to the next level. These events offer a chance to grow personally and professionally through unique opportunities to learn from the some of the best minds in the profession and network with peers.

• February 22-24 – Cremation Conference – St. Pete Beach, FL – www.nfda.org/cremationconference (registration now open)
• February 24-26 – Business Conference – St. Pete Beach, FL – www.nfda.org/businessconference (registration now open)
• March 10-12 – Meet the Mentors – Atlanta, GA – www.nfda.org/mentors (the entry period for a chance to participate has closed)
• April 3-5 – Advocacy Summit – Washington, D.C. – www.nfda.org/advocacysummit (registration opens soon)
• April 12-14 – Professional Women’s Conference – Annapolis, MD – www.nfda.org/pwc (registration opens soon)
• May 16-17 – Embalming & Restorative Art Seminar – Pittsburgh, PA – www.nfda.org/embalmingseminar
• July 13-16 – Leadership Conference – San Diego, CA – www.nfda.org/leadership
• August 15-16 – Embalming & Restorative Art Seminar – Nashville, TN – www.nfda.org/embalmingseminar
• October 27-30 – NFDA International Convention & Expo – Chicago, IL – www.nfda.org/convention

For more information about NFDA education offerings, visit the NFDA website, www.nfda.org, and click on the “Education” tab at the top of the page.

NFDA is the world's leading and largest funeral service association, serving more than 20,000 individual members who represent nearly 11,000 funeral homes in the United States and 49 countries around the world. NFDA is the trusted leader, beacon for ethics and the strongest advocate for the profession. NFDA is the association of choice because it offers funeral professionals comprehensive educational resources, tools to manage successful businesses, guidance to become pillars in their communities and the expertise to foster future generations of funeral professionals. NFDA is headquartered in Brookfield, Wis., and has an office in Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.nfda.org.

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Contact: Jessica Koth, 262-814-1536, jkoth@nfda.org