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Members of FCA pay a one-time $25 fee. "The active societies have done a funeral-price survey in their area and/or negotiated a discount for certain cooperating funeral homes. Definitely as a member you're going to get the cheapest funeral around. It saves hun dreds of dollars. The societies have reciprocal arrangements, so if you die away from home there's a good chance you'll be eligible to use a cooperating funeral home wherever you are." The organization consists of 120 societies across the country, totaling about 500,000 members. Seattle has almost 100,000 members and a paid staff, whereas some local societies struggle with a volunteer staff, administered from someone's kitchen table.

"Anyone can get behind a consumer's right to choose," Lisa says, recalling a speech she ga ve to the alliance. "I told them, If the industry did not manipulate the grieving, did not hide the low-cost caskets, did not dominate the funeral boards with self-serving regulations, did not limit who could sell caskets or in what states you could care for your own dead, there would be no need for our organization. But we have an obligation to protect the public at large, not just our members." The speech absolutely electrified the whole audience. "There was suddenly a new reason to do what we're doing."

"The conscientious, sensitive funeral director will help educate you," she says. "On the other hand, they will also very willingly let you turn it over to them, and they will plan a more expensive (funeral). The problem is that there are too many undertakers who expect full-time pay for part-time work. Years ago it was a sideline. Now they crank the prices up to charge you waiting-around-until-you-die time. The majority of funeral homes in Vermont are doing 50 calls a year. One a week. When you're a funeral home and you're sweating your mortgage, it's a situation that invites abuse."

She recounts several recent scandals in Vermont involving funeral directors convicted of fraud. One was discovered selling expensive caskets and then using cheap models for the burial; bodies were even piled up in his garage. Another coerced grieving survivors into buying unwanted services. Pre-need funds disappeared after one undertaker went bankrupt. "In any other business, when you've got too many suppliers the prices go down. In this business, they go up. Figure that."

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