Dear Members,

This year is building up to have some major challenges. Working on this letter for several weeks I realized how important this year is really going to be. To make sure you do not miss something we need your email address. If we do not have your email address, please send it to Beth at alcemeteries@aol.com. If you do not "do email," learn. If you are unaware of the pending legislation changes, it is because we do not have your email address. If you want updates from our Legislative Committee you will need to get on board and get email. We have reached out to the AFDA and the AFDMA to combine our efforts and input on the pending legislation. Several meetings are planned in Montgomery over the coming weeks. It is not too late to submit input.

The convention in New Orleans, if you missed it, was very productive, educational and fun. We have the SCCFA, our suppliers and ourselves to thank for the success. I encourage you to go ahead and put next years Tri-State Convention on your calendar now. The dates are August 15 - 18, 2010. It will be back in Alabama at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach. Gene Moore and Brenda Reaves will update us as time grows closer. If some of you have not joined us there, just ask those of us who have been there how good it is. I can tell you the food and service is 1st rate and the accommodations are family friendly and will make you want to come back.

We are going to setup our website to use the Members Only section. I have emailed Beth and she is working on it. We are going to post anything that will help us. Like ideas for running our businesses. Or if you had a good or bad experience with a vendor or service company, we will post it. If you have any money saving ideas or just an idea that you use or do in the normal course of business that helps you and you feel someone else could benefit, we can post it. It can be a very small idea or something that changed the way you operate. I challenge every member to submit an idea or a fee you are charging and we will give you credit if you want your name listed or not. Then we will reward the best submission at the convention. We will post them and start sharing some ideas. My whole point is to get more of us involved and working together promoting ourselves and our businesses.

One thought I brought back from the convention this year was, "what got me in this business and what is keeping me in it." Most of us got in it to make a living. But maybe along the way we figured out how to do that and to help people at the same time. "Make money and help people." I challenge all of you, again, to review the current legislation in Alabama and any of the surrounding states and make suggestions on what we can do to make money, help people and still obey the law.

I would like to thank you for the opportunity to serve as your president. I will try to raise your level of confidence in me as the year goes forward. If any of you want to contact me about any issues concerning you now, please email me at choyt@tuscaloosamemorial.com.

Sincerely,