01/19/2009

Executive Director's Message - A New Year & New OFDA Communications

By: Stephen J. Gehlert, Excecutive Director

Welcome to 2009!  I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to spend quality time with family and friends.

As we begin a new year, OFDA's unveiling new initiatives we believe will dramatically enhance our communication with our members.

The first of these will be a bigger, better and more responsive OFDA website. We recognize information today needs to be released quickly and timely in order to make it valuable to you. Updates on current activities will be posted immediately to our website under a "What's New" headline. When you need the latest information instantly this will be your outlet for keeping current on all activities and programs OFDA offers.

In keeping with this desire to keep information flowing in a more timely manner by using our website as our primary source of current information, we are also changing our newsletter publication schedule.

This will be the last of the monthly OFDA newsletters in its current format. Starting in April OFDA is publishing a quarterly newsletter.

This new quarterly publication will be approximately 32 pages and printed on a glossy stock, four color format. This will give us the opportunity to publish more articles on all aspects of funeral service including in-depth articles on legislative activities, current trends, and issues affecting us both in Ohio and throughout the country.

We are excited to begin these new communication activities. As you monitor the information you receive via our new website design and our new newsletter, please let us know how you think this new direction is working. Your recommendations will be greatly appreciated as we strive to improve our communication techniques in the coming months.

Name the OFDA Newsletter

As mentioned above, the OFDA Newsletter will now be published on a quarterly basis. With the new look comes the need for a new name. OFDA is asking all members to put on their thinking caps and come up with a name for the newsletter. Please submit your ideas to Diana O'Neal via email, diana@ofdaonline.org or via fax to 614-486-5358. The deadline for submitting your idea is January 31, 2009.

Thank you.