The 114th FFDA Annual Convention and Tradeshow was a huge success!

The Annual Convention was held at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando on July 6-9, 2008. A great time was had by all. If you weren’t there you missed a good time with good people. We would like to thank our speakers and sponsors for the extra support they gave FFDA this year. We couldn’t have done it without you!

The Golf Tournament was held at Falcon’s Fire. Tedd Beggs is the winner of the Closest to the Pin competition, and Erin Richards is the winner of the Longest Drive competition.

The tournament winners are:

The Tradeshow opened on Monday night with a Welcome Reception and over 40 vendors. Kids enjoyed special Pirate’s Punch and a stilt walker balloon artist. It was an enjoyable night for the whole family!

The Legislative Luncheon was held on Tuesday and included the guest speakers Representative Dorworth and Ken Roberson who is running for House seat 72.

Scholarships were given to three deserving students totaling $2500. The scholarship honors Doug Stowell and his work within the funeral profession and is sponsored by FSI & FFDA. A PAC raffle was lead by Judy Ralph and raised $2500! Thanks to those that contributed!

FFDA was proud to have special guest Jack Youngblood, NFL Hall of Fame, speak at the convention. Jack spoke about his time in the NFL, the life lessons he learned while playing football and shared motivational stories that brought the whole audience to their feet.

Wednesday was a full day of activities with the election and installation of officers and new board members and of course the much anticipated Inaugural Banquet.

The 2008-2009 FFDA Officers and Board are:

• Lew Hall (Independent) – President, Gentry Morrison Funeral Home in Lakeland
• John Williams (Independent) – President Elect, Farley Funeral Homes & Crematory in Venice
• Mark Van Rees (Independent) – Vice President, Fred Hunter’s Funeral Home in Hollywood
• Robin Giddens-Sheppard (SCI) – Secretary/Treasurer, Hardage-Giddens Funeral Homes in Jacksonville and surrounding areas
• Dan Perrin (SCI) - Immediate Past President in Lake Worth
• District 1 – Ted Beggs (Independent) : Beggs Funeral Homes in Monticello and surrounding areas
• District 2 – Jim Semesco (Independent): Page Theus Funeral Home in Leesburg
• District 3 – Peri Craven (SCI): Moss-Feaster Funeral Home in Largo
• District 4 – Tim Hauck (Carriage Services): Harvey-Englehardt-Metz Funeral Home in Cape Coral
• District 5 – Paul Mitchell (Independent): Bass Okeechobee Funeral Home in Okeechobee
• At-Large – Michael Wick (Independent): Serenity Meadow Memorial Park & Funeral Home in Riverview
• At-Large – Andrew Coleman III (WFG): A.B. Coleman Mortuary in Jacksonville

Congratulations to Lew Hall of Gentry-Morrison Funeral who is the newly elected FFDA President. Mr. Hall has big goals for the association this year and is looking forward to sharing it with the membership.

The Banquet allowed the FFDA board to recognize certain individuals for their support and outstanding work in the industry. The following companies were recognized at the Banquet for their outstanding service in the funeral industry and support of FFDA:

• FSI
• Ellis, Ged and Bodden
• Batesville
• Federated Insurance

A.B. Coleman Industry Excellence Award:

The A.B. Coleman Industry Excellence award was presented to Lew Hall for his outstanding work within the industry and dedication to FFDA

We hope you take the opportunity to attend next year if you didn’t this year, and we invite everyone back to join us again. We hope to see you at the convention next summer!

For more information please call the FFDA office at (800) 226-3332 or by email at meetings@ffda.org.