December 2022 Newsletter

A Year-End Message from our President

I hope you and your families all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. For this newsletter, I thought we would recap what CCA has accomplished over the past year and what we hope to accomplish in 2023.

As you may know, being a cemeterian is not my day job. My position of President at Newtown Village Cemetery is a volunteer position, which I have held for about 25 years. What did I know about running cemeteries? I learned some things from my dad as he also served on the board. But this was not his day job either! Then one day I discovered that CCA was holding a conference in Mystic. On a very cold wintery day in December, I decided to go to Mystic and see what CCA was all about. I recall it being a small group of attendees, but I was welcomed by all. Dale Fiore was in attendance, and he explained to me the benefits of being a member of CCA. I joined. And I am glad that I did. The people I have met and the knowledge I have gained has been tremendous in my running my cemetery.

We are again including the message from Karl Hunter from SavATree this month. Karl said it all – why it is important to be a member of Connecticut Cemetery Association.

The Board wants to increase our membership this coming year and that includes having new suppliers join CCA. We need your help in spreading the word about our great organization and asking other cemeterians and suppliers to join. Let them know what Karl says about CCA!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and Happy New Year!

Best,
Maureen Crick Owen

2022 CCA Annual Recap

We started 2022 off by launching our new and improved monthly newsletter on January 1^stand it has been published every month since then. We hope you find the stories and articles interesting and useful.

COVID was still on everyone’s mind in early 2022. The Board decided that it would be best to postpone the March Suppliers Expo for the health and safety of our members.

In June, we held an outdoor Suppliers Expo at Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven. As we got closer and closer to the event, the weather forecast was rain. We did not have a rain date – not a good plan. We said we would just huddle under the tents and do the best we could. Clearly someone above wanted our event to be a success. By 8:00 a.m. of the day of the event, you could see the sun starting to peek through clouds. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day with a slight breeze! The event was organized by Anthony Puglisi and Dale Fiore and they did a great job!

A brochure about Connecticut Cemetery Association was created and printed. These brochures will aid in our trying to grow the membership.

At our October annual meeting, our membership approved the proposed revised bylaws that were presented. Also, officers for the upcoming year were elected. They are:

President                Maureen Crick Owen, Newtown Village Cemetery
Vice President       Lisa Vaeth, Association of Jewish Cemeteries
Treasurer                Anthony Puglisi, Evergreen Cemetery and Crematory
Secretary                Pamela Brown, Hillside Cemetery

Anthony Puglisi was elected to another three-year term. Mark Johnson of South End Burying Grounds was elected as a new board member and is serving a three-year term.

Directors that are continuing to serve are: J.H. Torrance Downes, Cypress Cemetery; Charlotte Maher, Mountain View Cemetery; James Randall, Rose Hill Memorial Park; William Raffone, Catholic Cemetery Association; and Dale J. Fiore, Evergreen Cemetery and Crematory.

Our Supplier Liaisons are Chris Gehrke, Cooperative Funeral Fund, Inc. and Doak Marasco, Davey Tree Expert Company.

We provided all our members with a 2022 CCA Membership Directory. For those that did not attend the October annual meeting, we will mail you a copy.

CCA Goals for 2023

CCA’s two main goals for 2023 are improving its website and growing the membership.

The Board has received two quotes and is researching companies to obtain a third quote. We anticipate we will choose a vendor in January. Then the process starts. We will be working with the vendor on creating the website. This process could take up to 3 months before the new website is live. We feel by improving our website this will help in growing our membership. We are a professional organization and want to show that by having an online presence that reflects the same.

Part of our due diligence on a new website is to make signing up for events and membership easier. We want to have fillable forms on the website. And we are going to look into accepting credit cards. We want it to be easy for all our members and suppliers to sign up and pay for events and membership online. We want to move away from mailing hard copies and having members sign up through the website and possibly pay online via credit card.

The subcommittee leading the charge on growing the membership is going to work on a plan. We will reach out to those cemeteries that were previously members and ask them to rejoin. We will reach out to those cemeteries that have not been members and explain the benefits of being a member. One letter or phone call does not normally get the result we are looking for. We will establish a procedure to ensure there is follow up with each potential member. We will do the same with suppliers. If any of our members know of cemeteries or suppliers we should reach out to, please provide us with that information.

Message from Karl Hunter of SavATree

I wanted to take a moment and echo Dale Fiore’s thoughts from the Annual Meeting; “Make the most of your Connecticut Cemetery Association Membership”. We are all here because we understand the challenges of working on or with a cemetery. While many of you have been doing this for years, others are just getting started. I hope all of you at the Annual Meeting picked up a copy of the 2022 membership directory. If you have not received one, reach out and get your copy. A great deal of work goes into producing the membership directory and I would encourage you to use it. Look up other cemetery members in your area and reach out to introduce yourself. Members are here to learn and to help each other. A problem you are facing might be something another member has already dealt with. Reach out, get advice and guidance.

The same goes for Supplier Members as well. We are CCA supplier members because we understand the challenges that come with a cemetery - working around the monuments, being respectful of burials, visitors, and tight budgets. Some supplier members only work with cemeteries. Look up supplier members, call them and ask questions. We want to help and can guide you in the right direction. Are you interested in landscaping? A new columbarium? Tree care? Contact supplier members and see who can help. Supplier members are proud to support the CCA!

In closing, make use of the Membership Directory and the CCA web site. These tools can help support you in managing your cemetery. Make the most of your membership by using the tools and meetings that the Connecticut Cemetery Association provides.

I look forward to seeing all of you at the 2023 Suppliers Expo!

Sincerely,
Karl Hunter
CT licensed Arborist for SavATree and a proud CCA supplier member

2023 Membership Dues

It is that time of year again to renew your membership in CCA. The forms will be mailed out to everyone in the next week or so. Registration forms and checks are due January 15, 2023.

The membership dues are remaining the same for 2023. They are:

Membership Levels - 2023

Level	Cost	Includes
Platinum (previously Gold)	$300	Membership in CCA and NECA and an invitation to CCA’s Supplier’s Expo at no cost.
Gold (previously Silver)	$200	Membership in CCA and NECA and an invitation to CCA’s annual meeting at no cost.
Silver (previously Bronze)	$100	Membership in CCA and NECA.
Bronze (previously Associate)	$60	Membership in CCA only with no voting rights.
Supplier	$125	Membership in CCA.

2023 Supplier's Expo

The 2023 Suppliers Expo will take place on Thursday, March 16, 2023 at Aqua Turf Club located at 556 Mulberry Street, Plantsville, Connecticut. Details and registration forms will go out to all members in late January.

Mark your calendar!