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AGM & Education

Conference 2023

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Hours
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This year’s OFSA conference will be held at the beautiful Hockley Valley, a boutique resort just 45 minutes north of the GTA. More details will be released soon…

HOCKLEY VALLEY RESORT

 

September 25-26, 2023

Nestled in the corner of the Niagara Region just beyond Niagara Falls, the picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake epitomizes old town charm. Beyond the quaint old town, explore the area’s several wineries, breweries and distilleries, world class theatre at the Shaw Festival, important historical landmarks, and stunning waterfront views.

LINKS TO ATTRACTIONS

 

Local Restaurants | SHAW Festival Tickets | Wineries | Breweries | Spas | Bicycle Share

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CONFERENCE AT A GLANCE

Monday September 25, 2023 

 Board of Management Meeting
 Golf Tee Times Available
3:00pmWelcome & Keynote Speaker
 4:30pmPast Presidents Meeting
6:00pmAdamo Estate Winery Dinner & Wine Tasting

Tuesday September 26, 2023

 Breakfast with Professionals
 Education Sessions
 Students & Supplier Session
 Lunch with Students
 OFSA AGM Meeting
 OFSA Presidents Banquet & Service Recognition

HOTEL INFORMATION

Queens Landing Vintage Hotel
155 Byron Street, Niagara-on-the-Lake

Website: Queens Landing Vintage Hotel

Address:

155 Byron Street,
Niagara-on-the-Lake,
ON, L0S 1J0, Canada

OFSA Group Rate $244 per night available from Sept 11, 2022 – Sept 16, 2022

Included: Parking – Pool – Steam Room- Fitness Room – Mini fridge – High-speed Internet – Bathrobes – Local Shuttle Bus

Limited space call OFSA for room options. 905-637-3371

OR
Call: 905-468-2195

Make the Impossible Possible

 

Lessons from an Improbable Olympic Journey

What does it take to inspire your team and foster deep commitment? In this keynote, you’ll experience a rollercoaster journey full of insights on working through uncertainty, forging self-leadership, blasting through doubt, staying resilient, and building and inspiring team trust from one of the fastest Olympians ever to go from his parents’ couch to the Olympic podium. Jeremiah Brown challenges common notions of what it means to lead and be led in the pursuit of excellence, how to adapt to forces outside of one’s control and stay the committed when the pressure is on, all while encouraging a healthy dose of self-compassion and humility. Using vivid real-life Olympic setbacks, failures, and ultimate success, Jeremiah illuminates the true measures for success in the face of any competitive setting.

Jeremiah Brown: Olympian, Author, Creator

Jeremiah Brown won an Olympic silver medal as a member of the Canadian men’s eight rowing team at the London 2012 Olympic Games. A former commercial banker with a big dream, he is one of few Olympians ever to have started learning his sport only four years before winning a medal at the Olympics.

Jeremiah’s book, The 4 Year Olympian, spent five weeks as the #1 bestselling sports memoir in Canada. His story has been featured on CBC, CTV, Roger’s Sportsnet, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, and USA Today. A top keynote speaker, Jeremiah has helped thousands of people find the courage to reach their goals and overcome the psychological traps and emotional pitfalls that lie hidden along the way.

EDUCATION SESSIONS

Tuesday September 13, 2022

9:30 – 12:30 – Interactive Keynote
CEC – 3hrs Category A

Presenter:
Scott Kress,
Keynote Speaker and Author

 

Scott is a highly accomplished leadership and team development trainer, author and keynote speaker. He is also a highly accomplished wilderness guide. He was recently elected to the College of Fellows of the Royal Canadian Geographic Society and is one of only 33 international Polar Guides in the world.

Title– Achieve the Outrageous

In this interactive team building session Scott will provide a mix of activities, models, tools and strategies that will provide you with the following results:

  • Tools to motivate and educate your team
  • Promote retention with a high level of interaction and engagement
  • Make follow through easier based on this retention
  • Gain knowledge about important aspects of effective teamwork
  • An action plan to help your team achieve high performance

1:30 – 2:30 Education Session
1hr.  CEC – Category A

Presenter:
Heather Kiteley,
President and CEO of GFD

Title – Innovative Preneed Solutions

Heather has always had a passion to connect with people and shape the future of pre-need services. With the remarkable shift in innovation and technology it is her prime duty as a pre-need advisor to serve and educate the pre-need community.

Heathers vision is to help funeral homes across the country improve their operations and ultimately grow their business.

GFD was created by a passionate group of bereavement service professionals in 1961. GFD has since evolved into a vibrant, Members based organization that has expanded to include bereavement professionals across Canada. Whether we’re investing & monitoring bereavement funds, providing Member support, or helping the public
understand and pre-plan their last wishes, GFD is dedicated to the growth and vitality of the Canadian bereavement sector.

3:30 – 5:00 Team Building Session
1.5 CEC – Category A

Facilitator:
Summit Team Building

Title -Step Up – Build a Prosthetic Device

To understand a man, you’ve got to walk a mile in his shoes, whether they fit or not.” It’s hard for most of us to imagine coping with a disability in a developing country with little or no support. But this is the reality for thousands of people around the world.

Through a connection with a children’s hospital in Kijabe, Kenya, this program will have your team step up to compete, to perform and to help our global neighbours by providing much needed prosthetic devices.

Participants will be divided into teams to complete in a variety of challenges that will earn points and parts for the final prosthesis assembly. Each challenge will be followed by discussions that will link experiences in the workplace.

Wednesday September 14, 2022

9:30 – 10:30 – Education Session
1 CEC – Category A

Presenter:
Warren Weeks, Media Specialist

Title – Funeral Media Training 101

For more than 26 years, Warren has been empowering spokespeople across Canada and around the world, teaching them how to conduct strategic, disciplined media interviews – whether they’re trying to get positive media coverage, dealing with a contentious issue or managing a full-blown crisis.

Along the way, he’s helped people from hundreds of companies from nearly every industry to improve the quality of their media coverage. This includes a few OFSA members that have found themselves in need of some media guidance.

In this 1-hour session Warren will discuss what to expect in the process and how to navigate the interview with confidence and ensure your funeral homes best interests are served.

11:00 – 12:30 – Education Session
1.5 CEC Category A

Presenter:
Todd Reinholt, Funeral Educator

Title: Creating Ambience – Our Unspoken Messages to Families and Guests.

Todd is a licensed funeral director, funeral celebrant, and grief recovery specialist. He promotes a future for funeral service and is the founder of Life Celebrants International.

93% of what we communicate to families as funeral professionals is communicated without words. Our appearance, body language, and general environment convey clear messages about staff and your services.

In this session Todd will illustrate the importance of being aware of our non-verbal communication and share examples of the messages we send and how to be continuously aware of their potential impact both good and bad.

OFSA Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Wednesday September 14, 2022 @ 3:30PM

Queens Landing Hotel – Grand Georgian Meeting Room

  • Hosted by Soctt MacCoubrey, OFSA President and the OFSA Board of Management
  • Presentations from Humber and College Boreal
  • BAO Update – Registrar Mr. Carey Smith
  • CCO Update – Chief Coroner, Mr. Dirk Huyer

REGISTER TODAY

Wednesday September 8
3:00pm -4:00pm

Diana Tikasz

MSW, RSW Organizational Health and Resiliency Specialist
Key Tools to Safeguard Your Well-Being

Session Summary:

We spend time and attention ensuring that we protect the people that we serve from harm: we are diligent about infection control, strict about confidentiality and mindful about boundaries. However, as helping professionals, we do not often turn that same level of attention towards our own well-being – particularly when it comes to protecting our emotional and mental health. Research shows that without adequate emotional protection, we risk our health, our relationships and – ultimately – our ability to do this work.

This webinar provides practical and easy-to-implement strategies to help staff and organizations protect themselves from the consequence and challenges of high-stress, trauma-exposed work.

  • The Hot, Walk & Talk Protocol: How to assist a team member following a distressing or disturbing incident
  • Low Impact Debriefing: Strategies for teams to reduce exposure
  • The Window of Tolerance Framework: Learn how to re-frame your automatic responses
  • The Power of the Pause: Quick strategies to re-center and reset
Wednesday September 15
3:00pm -4:00pm

David Jung

RPC, Q.Med Facilitator & Consultant ACHIEVE Centre for Leadership
Dealing with Difficult People

Session Summary:

We all encounter people we find difficult, and typically conversations with them leave us feeling stressed and frustrated. This workshop explores what is happening in those exchanges and demonstrates how people can adapt their strategies to bring about more productive conversations with those they find difficult. Individual approaches for dealing with difficult people will be discussed, with an emphasis on understanding and adapting one’s approach to create different results. Participants will explore how to deal with patterns of passive-aggressiveness, resistance, and chronic anger, and how to begin to change difficult patterns using a straightforward, five-step approach.

 

Wednesday September 22
9:00am -10:00am

Andrew Musselman

Principal, Fluency
Speak with Presence and Influence Listeners Online

Session Summary:

Speaking with impact on platforms like Zoom, WebEx and Microsoft Teams can be a daunting prospect. How do you project confidence and instill trust when you’re not in the same room as your listeners? How do you generate emotion when you’re speaking through a webcam? In this one-hour online seminar, Andrew Musselman of Fluency will offer tips to overcome these challenges, so you can achieve engaging, influential online communication and win your virtual audience.

Key Take-Aways:

  • Understand the challenges and the benefits of virtual platforms
  • Tips to make your set-up looks professional and inviting
  • Incorporate body language to make your communication more dynamic and empathetic

Wednesday September 8, 2021 (10am-11am) Online

Past Presidents Meeting

Wednesday September 8, 2021 (10am-11am) Online

Wednesday September 8, 2021 (3pm-4pm) Online

Virtual Education Session

Key Tools to Safeguard Your Well-Being.

(Diana Tikasz)

Wednesday September 8, 2021 (3pm-4pm) Online

Wednesday September 15, 2021 (3pm-4pm) Online

Virtual Education Session

Dealing with Difficult People.

(David Jung)

Wednesday September 15, 2021 (3pm-4pm) Online

Wednesday September 22, 2021 (9am-10am) Online

Students & Member Training Session

Speak with Presence and Influence Listeners Online.

(Andrew Musselman)

Wednesday September 22, 2021 (9am-10am) Online

Wednesday September 22, 2021 (3:30pm-9:30pm) In Person

In-person – Last Responder Appreciation Panel Discussion, Networking & Dinner

Wednesday September 22, 2021 (3:30pm-9:30pm) In Person

Wednesday September 29, 2021 (3:00pm-4:30pm) Online

Virtual OFSA AGM & Member Discussion

Wednesday September 29, 2021 (3:00pm-4:30pm) Online

info@ofsa.org

1-800-268-2727

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