Welcome to The Practitioners’ Post!
Welcome to The Practitioners’ Post!
Isn’t this an exciting time to be a part of The Independent Funeral Group? Within the past year, The Group expanded its scope, opening membership to all 50 states and welcoming many new firms in the process. Now, the small but incredibly mighty TIFG team has done what no one else could do: secured group health benefits at reasonable negotiated rates. And in just a matter of weeks, members, families, and trusted partners will gather in a breathtakingly beautiful mountaintop resort for the 2026 Fall Conference.
The Group is thriving and growing — and I am thrilled to be joining The Group and bringing you The Practitioners’ Post: Independent Journalism Supporting and Informing Deathcare Practitioners!
I’m Patricia Hartley, The Group’s new Head Content Creator. Since 2018, I have written content and shared news to support and inform the deathcare community through Connecting Directors, a publication of Disrupt Media. Through the years I have been blessed to meet some amazing people — funeral directors, cremationists, cemeterians, owners, suppliers, and association leadership. I have been so lucky to develop wonderful relationships with people who have my utmost respect, and I am so grateful to Ryan Thogmartin and my talented colleagues at Disrupt for allowing me to do so.
It wasn’t until I met Brad, Christi, and Alex that I even considered leaving my position as Managing Editor of Connecting Directors. The opportunity to join their hardworking and insanely productive team was an opportunity I could not turn down. Not only will I be able to work alongside three lovely people, but I will still be able to inform and support practitioners through original (non-AI) articles and by ensuring you’re aware of what’s going on in the deathcare profession.
The Practitioners’ Post is the medium we’ll use to provide this content. The Post will arrive in your inbox several times a week, and we hope you’ll not only read it, but share it with your friends and encourage them to subscribe. I promise to make it worth their while.
Incidentally, in learning more about The Group’s members, I have found that I already have connections to many of you. As a college student, I worked part-time in the front office of Spry Funeral Home in Sheffield and Florence, Alabama for three years; the owners were kinfolk of the Spry family that has served the people of Huntsville, Alabama for decades and are members of The Group. While I was at Spry, the manager was Tim Pounders, owner of Lowndes Funeral Home and Crematory in Columbus, Mississippi, who taught me a valuable lesson about the profession and the families you serve that I have never forgotten. Peck Funeral Home in Hartselle, Alabama handled the funeral of my half-brother, and Morrison Funeral Home in Tuscumbia, Alabama took care of my aunt’s arrangements.
I look forward to meeting each and every member of The Group, whether we see one another at the Fall Conference ,connect on a call, or if I’m lucky enough to be invited to your funeral home for a visit (and, of course, the opportunity to interview you for a feature in The Post!). You all have so many stories to share, and making sure those stories are told is one of my goals. I sincerely share The Group’s mission of helping independently-owned and -operated funeral homes to grow, and can’t wait to pitch in wherever I can.
The members of The Group don’t feel like strangers to me; you already seem like friends and family, and I know that together, we can accomplish great things!
