Season's Greetings

Season's Greetings from SAIFCharter Chairman, Adam Ginder

As Christmas is fast approaching and 2019 draws to a close, I hope you are preparing for the festive celebrations and much needed time with family and friends. I’d like to take this opportunity to offer you all my thanks for your support during my first three months in post.

It’s been a privilege to have been elected to take on the role as Chairman and, since our AGM in September, I have been busy working with my fellow funeral directors on the executive and the senior team at Golden Charter to ensure the priorities of our association and our company are aligned and we’re ready to face the challenges and opportunities ahead.

It was good to see many of you at our AGM weekend in London, showing the engagement and commitment to get involved.  I’m pleased to confirm the minutes from the meeting are now available by logging in to the members’ area of our website with your username and password.

As we look ahead to 2020, our first focus must be on the Funeral Planning Authority’s new rules and Code of Practice coming in to play from the 1st January.  I would urge you to familiarise yourself with the content and suggest you listen to Golden Charter’s first Partnership Podcast which focuses specifically on this topic and includes me discussing what the changes will mean for us and our profession and families. If you are unsure of any parts of the new Code of Practice I would urge you to speak with your Business Manager.

Finally, I’d like to share the news with you that at our December Executive meeting, Anthony O’Hara has made the decision to step down from the Executive and working groups due to the demands of balancing increasing commitments with his business.  I’d like to thank Anthony for his passion, commitment and enthusiasm over the years as he’s worked to represent the interests of our members and our association – Anthony will be sorely missed.  This does however present the opportunity for another individual to become part of our Executive team, as we may look to co-opt an existing working group member on to our Executive ahead of the formal election process in September.

I look forward to working with you all in the year ahead and, on behalf of my fellow SAIFCharter colleagues, may I wish you and your family and those working alongside you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Season’s greetings,

Adam K Ginder
SAIFCharter Chairman