When you call the CFSA headquarters office in Lake Bluff, Illinois, that friendly voice you hear belongs to Chris(tine) Lindom, CFSA’s Project Manager. And Chris is the one who is always the first to greet our members with a smile at the registration desk for our Fall Conference and Winter Seminar meetings. This month marks a huge milestone for Chris and CFSA – her 10-year work anniversary. Congratulations, Chris!
She began her tenure at CFSA on February 9, 2009, when she was hired by then Executive Director Mark Allen. It was a trying time for the staff back then, as Chris’ predecessor as Statistics Coordinator, Sharon “Shari” Lucas, died suddenly from an accident just weeks before. With no overlap and scheduled transition time, Chris jumped right in and was attending her first Winter Seminar three weeks later in Marco Island, Florida. Mark Allen and then Executive Assistant Barbara Russell went on to train Chris, but the position was so complex that former Executive Director George Lemke even came back a couple of times to help explain the nuances of the statistics software and database.
“Chris is the bedrock of our small three-person staff,” said current Executive Director George Buckley. “Although I’ve been here nearly seven years, Chris is the one with the institutional memory and who has known some of our longtime members for over a decade.” He also commended Chris on her ability to manage a significant, changing, and dynamic program important to our members: “When Chris began with CFSA, she was operating – literally – an old and complicated MS-DOS program while printing reports on dot-matrix, ledger-size, three-part forms that were mailed to our members. Today our Credit Guide and Casket Sales Statistics programs are web-based, highly efficient, and available to our participating members on a 24/7 basis, and Chris was instrumental in managing that challenging transition.”
With such a small staff, carrying over CFSA traditions and honoring certain customs is important to our members, and Chris has been the one to help train four new staff members over those 10 years – George Buckley, Erin Russell, Matt Zellner, and, now, Amy Cole, our current Marketing & Operations Manager. “Chris has been very helpful to me since I started, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know her – not only as a coworker but also as a friend,” said Amy. “At the Fall Conference in Columbus, I could really see how well she has gotten to know our members over the past 10 years!”
Chris has this to say about her time at CFSA: “I truly enjoy being employed by CFSA and the relationships I have developed with members over my time here. I am forever grateful for the experiences and memories that I have been able to make and share during my decade of employment as Project Manager.”
If you would like to contact Chris to congratulate her on this significant CFSA milestone, you can reach her at (847) 295-6630 or clindom@cfsaa.org.