NAFD recognised for its commitment to Best Practice
The Trade Association Forum has once again recognised the National Association of Funeral Directors for its commitment to attaining ever higher standards in communication and representing the interests of its members.
For the fourth time in a row the NAFD was a finalist in the Trade Association Forum Best Practice Awards. The Funeral Director Monthly was short listed for Magazine of the Year, while the Association's pandemic influenza campaign put it in the running for the Sector Representation Award.
The NAFD highlighted how The Funeral Director Monthly is an essential element of its integrated communications strategy and works in tandem with the funeral portal www.nafd.org.uk to highlight general business and industry specific issues, and how these will impact on funeral directors, and provides guidance on how to deal with them.
The submission for the Sector Representation Award focussed on the pivotal role taken by the NAFD in the development of a pandemic influenza response plan for the funeral sector. In particular, it discussed how the Association was the driving force behind the education of funeral staff and that it successfully made the case for re-categorising the funeral sector as an ‘Emergency Service’ to ensure funeral workers would be a priority group for inoculation.
In a two-stage judging process entries were first sifted by senior executives from Trade Association Forum member associations. Those on the shortlist were then reviewed by the judging panel of Peter Day, business journalist and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s In Business; Professor Justin Greenwood from Aberdeen Business School; Rob Haywood, current chairman of the Trade Association Forum and chief executive officer of the British Beer and Pub Association; Anthony Murphy from the Department of Trade and Industry and former ABTA chief executive Ian Reynolds.
“Although we were pipped to the post for the Sector Representation Award by the British Educational Suppliers Association, which waged a six-year campaign against the BBC, and the International Federation of the Periodical Press picked up the Magazine of the Year award for its quarterly title Magazine World, we were very pleased with our achievement,” says NAFD chief executive officer Alan Slater.
“The competition gets stronger every year, as the professionalism within the trade association movement increases and more associations are encouraged to take part, so when you consider that there are over 300 trade associations within the Trade Association Forum it is very gratifying that the National Association of Funeral Directors is in the top echelon”.