Vocab 2 Flashcards
A person publicly unassailable outside the private office of the boss, this person is frequently nepotic.
Assistant To (Or in many cases, the Executive Secretary)
A term for the person in the firm who eats people and ideas that threatens or come from the wrong person, even when the idea is superior. Insatiable appetite.
Barracuda
An arrangement of flowers either in metal, plastic, or wicker baskets.
Basket
A platform that the casket is placed on for display during visitation and funeral services.
Bier
When they appear, they are treated as EXALTED. Exception: when the employee is a member of the board. Function is to try, with a pile of papers issued at the tie of the meeting, to act as though they know what is going on and how to vote in any way not indicated by the presenter, usually the general manager, who has done his homework (self-preservation). Occasionally gets hold of a thread the GM did not anticipate and takes a great deal of time and glee in riding that horse, only to back off after he has shown his teeth. Never one to rock the boat in a final way. Exception: where the above is not true and where the Board is not on the ball and kept up to date by the GM.
Board of Directors (Trustees)
Financial planning vehicles. What will happen, based on what has happened. Adjusted by changes in the firm’s accept and direction.
Budgets
A concrete, metal or fiber glass container into which a casket is placed for burial. The purpose is to protect the casket from the weight of the earth.
Burial Vault
A cloth that drapes the casket during visitation or the funeral. Used by some religious faiths, or can be an American flag.
Casket Pall
The person who oversees all divisions except one. This is always true. If there are four divisions, he/she will be up on three and the other runs itself. Since this person is good at what he/she does, the division he/she ignores is easy to see (smell, etc).
CEO
A copy of a death certificate that s certified to be a true copy of the original. Identified by the seal of the Health Department and signature of an employee of the Health Department.
Certified Copy of Death Certificate
An area in a mausoleum or other structure containing recesses (Niches) used to contain and sometimes display urns or cremated remains.
Columbarium
Crypts side by side for companion burial. Caskets will be placed lengthwise (feet first) in a companion and sideways for companion couch.
Companion/Companion Couch
A concrete container for the casket that is designed to protect the casket from the weight of the earth, but offers no protection against the entrance of moisture.
Concrete Box
In charge of day-to-day operations. Cannot afford to ignore any division. Generally is the organization’s glue.
COO
The reduction of human remain to bone fragments by intense heat.
Cremation
The concrete space for casket placement.
Crypt
A legal document listing statistical information about a deceased person and stipulating the cause of death as certified by a physician. It is the funeral home’s responsibility to file this document with the local Department of Health.
Death Certificate
A certificate issued to all new property owners after the contract has been paid in full. This certificate gives the owner right of interment only. The property is not owned outright. The certificate is issued on lots and mausoleum showing the exact location of the property. The certificate does not include the purchase of merchandise or services.
Deed (Certificate of Ownership)
The ability to. One who does this has confidence. One who does not has much to do. This is the breeding grounds for procrastinators.
Delegate
Letting others perform tasks that should not occupy the top manager. In small firms, this is entirely academic. In larger firms, this is usually under done,if not over done. This is very hard to do correctly.
Delegation of Authority
Non-existent in smaller (one man gang) firms. Otherwise, these are the operating bosses of the separate divisions.
Department Heads
For salespeople, a place to look busy, and hone the art of prospect card solitaire. For the secretary, a place to leave for a break. For the boss, a barrier that protects and, when large enough, intimidates. For the grounds superintendent, a surface to not clean or have seen. For him it must be covered, totally.
Desks
Cremation without viewing the remains or having any memorial service.
Direct Cremation
Refers to two persons interred in one space.
Double Depth Burial
Small bronze plaques placed on markers, monuments or crypt fronts. Examples: club or lodge emblems, or religious emblems such as a cross or open Bible.
Emblems
The act of burying a deceased in a crypt.
Entombment
Incorrect moves performed by subordinates. Attention is called to these. All shall know.
Errors
The dumping ground for any issue that needs attention but is perplexing management. Use is, “Our executive committee is discussing this at the present time and will handle this matter.” Actually, otherwise, a potentially very useful group.
Executive Committee
The same as a mausoleum with the only difference being that the crypts are outside.
Garden Mausoleum
Funeral service that is held at the grave site rather than in the funeral home or church.
Gravesite Service
This is the name and date of birth and death of the deceased, placed on the front of the crypt, marker or monument.
Inscription
The act of burying a person in the ground. We charge a fee for this service, separate from the burial space.
Interment or Opening and Closing
A term applied to spaces designed in which the casket is placed at the time of interment. Usually double depth. These are below ground, pre-installed concrete containers for the interment of human remains.
Lawn Crypts
The above ground structure; the burial is made inside the building.
Mausoleum
A coined expression meaning “family member.”
Nepotic
The act of being nepotic. To employ the kin in the business. Non-relatives tend to not rise above the family members. Another form is to employ a married couple, not in the family of the owners. This is thought to be a bad form of this, while the family variety is accepted. Where the total number of employees equals the total number of family members, we have no problem, only a concept to discuss.
Nepotism
The space which holds cremated remains. This can be glass front or wood front, marble or granite. Glass front contain urns which are engraved; wood front will have inscriptions on the front, similar to the crypt fronts.
Niche
A charge to all new property owners for the recording, processing, and deeding or property. This is also charged to funeral families for administrative functions.
Organization Fee
Fear. “Wonder what he meant by that?” is an example. Price changers, direction changes. This person may well be pure in operations and wonder what he did or said that has been misinterpreted.
Paranoia
The time set as the starting point of a funeral home visitation.
Placement Time
A term used when property and other cemetery or funeral home merchandise has been purchased before a death.
Pre-Need
The rooms in the funeral home used for embalming and preparing the remains for visitation and funeral.
Preparation Room
The term used by the Sales Department to provide the family with facts about the advantages of purchasing.
Presentation
Frequently thought of as the dart board. In actual fact, they are so easy to do, they are usually done correctly. But like computers, garbage in, garbage out. One of the major reasons consultants lose their clients.
Pro Forma
Call your office and see how yours is handled. Ask a fairly off the wall question, such as “How much does the funeral cost?” I hate to tell you what you will find out, but there will usually be a meeting, and soon.
Public Relations
Identification for groups of employees helping to identify and solve problems.
Quality Circles
Any casket container.
Receptacle
Incorrect moves performed by the boss. It’s between him and his maker. The exception is the boss’s home. There he makes errors.
Secrets
Rooms in the funeral home used specifically for visitation.
State Room (Reposing Room)
Work at the direction of the department heads. Line people, get the job done.
Supervisors
Crypts placed end to end. The first burial is placed in the back and the second entombed directly in front.
Tandem
A form which must be completed and notarized to transfer property from one person to another. These forms are needed even to transfer from husband to wife or mother or daughter. An affidavit is often required.
Transfer
A receptacle for holding cremated remains which can be made of various materials: bronze, copper, wood, marble, or cardboard.
Urn
This refers to the outer receptacle in which the casket is placed at the time of interment.
Vault
