It is hard to believe that we are well into the new year already. With our fall district meetings in both Great Falls and Missoula getting canceled, I look forward to seeing everyone at the spring district meetings in May.
We just had our Mid-Winter Conference in Helena and I thought it went well. We had a very good turnout for our conference, and the speakers were all fantastic. For those in attendance, make sure you get your certificates via email.
On the legislative side, we had a bill come up (SB 244) that we had to testify for during our time in Helena. I want to thank Tyson Moore and Chris Holt for going and giving testimony on this bill. SB 244 will allow for internships to be served while enrolled in mortuary school rather than having to serve the one-year internship after school and after passing the National Boards. I would also like to thank our lobbyist, Brad Longcake, for all his hard work tracking the various bills pertaining to our industry, as well as his involvement with our Mid-Winter Conference. A couple more legislative bills of interest are that they are trying to raise crime victims’ compensation to $10,000 as well as trying to raise the current $15,000 limit on burial insurance to $25,000 per person. Both seem to be making their way through without much opposition.
Terri James and I recently attended the Board of Funeral Service board meeting. It is good to have regular meetings again and I thought the meeting was very positive. They are sitting very well financially — almost too good – that they are worried the excess funds may be taken and put back into the general fund. There is talk at their next board meeting about actually doing an abatement on licensing fees for a year — possibly two years; we will have to keep an eye on this. I also suspect with the surplus of money and that the board is meeting regularly again, we will see more routine inspections as well as audits on our continuing education credits.
Also, our MFDA board meeting went really well. We have a wonderful board and are honored to serve with everyone on it. The financials of our board are still rock solid. I attribute this to the financial stewardship of our Executive Directors James Brown and Terri James. We did see a loss in our investment account during 2022, but we look forward to gaining that back when the market goes up.
Another positive from our board meeting was with our Montana Funeral Trust. We have a significant amount of CDs within it that will be maturing over the few months. One of our advisors from New York, Mellissa, stated she speculates that, with interest rates on the rise, 4% or better is a possibility. Currently, the Montana Funeral Trust is gaining 1.8% on average.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions, please feel free to call me anytime. I look forward to seeing everyone again at the district meets in May and hope everyone has their calendar marked for the summer convention here in Miles City in June!
T.J. Stevenson
MFDA President
