DATE: Saturday, August 2, 1997              TAG: 9708020319

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT

LENGTH: 26 lines

MORTICIANS TO CONVENE IN NORFOLK

THE ASSOCIATION IS THE LARGEST GROUP OF AFRICAN- AMERICAN DEATH CARE

PROFESSIONALS IN U.S.

The customers might be dead, but the funeral industry is anything but lying still.

The National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association will take a look at some of the changes facing the industry at its annual convention in Norfolk next week.

Among the meeting's topics: Corporate chains that are snapping up independent black-owned funeral homes; the American Society of Composers and Publishers' requirement that funeral homes register with ASCAP; and the introduction of embalming techniques to South Africa, which has seen an influx of American tourists since the end of apartheid.

With more than 1,600 members, the National Funeral Directors and Morticians Association is the largest association of African-American death care professionals in the country. About 1,000 members are expected at the annual meeting.

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