MFDA is pleased to announce that postcards for 2009 Convention exhibitors with registration instructions will go out on Monday. This years convention will be held at the Depot in downtown Minneapolis, May 5th and 6th and promises to once again be a full lineup. This will be our last year at the Depot and Minneapolis for a while, because we want to change things up a bit and go out of the city. We looked at many venues for convention and finally decided to take the convention back to St Cloud in 2010. The convention was last in St Cloud in 2001.

This year we are changing things a bit and offering Justin Zabor as our keynote speaker. He will talk about the "F" Words in Funeral Service. Justin is young and engaging as well as one of the original "Men of Mortuary Calendar" models. Justin is extremely popular as a speaker with other state Funeral Director Associations and Funeral Service Groups.

We are going to have 2 embalming sessions this year, one each day. In addition we will also have breakout sessions each day with a myriad of timely topics.

Complete details will soon be available on our website www.mnfuneral.org

Young Professionals Group Grows Stronger

The Young Professionals in Funeral Service Group met January 28th at McCoy’s in St. Louis Park. There was a group of 14, including three MFDA Funeral Directors. The group consisted mainly of U of MN students who provided suggestions for future meetings. Since they prefer to meet monthly, the next gathering is scheduled to be Wednesday, February 25th. Details of location, sponsor and/or activity are in the works. Please check the MFDA calendar for updates. So far, the YP roster includes 17 members.