Talk:Service Corporation International/Archives/2014

Biased?

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I cannot help but feel that this article, and especially the links it includes, are extremely biased - each and every one of them are extremely slanted ("Bush stole the White House," etc. are in all of them) and aren't really focused on SCI as a company - but instead, as a mere political issue. This really needs to be fixed in my opinion. 24.131.27.95 17:08, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

SCI Scandal

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I know that the scandal could be subject to NPOV concerns because of the fact that President Bush had ties to the head of SCI, as well as the firing of May - which may or may not have been politically motivated. I've tried to present this information in as netural a tone as possible. I would hope that if people disagree with the intent of that section that they would present evidence for or against Bush and incorporate it into the article, and not do a wholesale deletion of the section.

JesseG 18:46, Dec 17, 2004 (UTC)

Mergefrom Funeralgate

Pl. see discussion at Talk:Funeralgate. Thanks. Pan Dan 12:05, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I have tried to change as much as I can at the moment to increase the article's neutrality. I must point out, however, that the article's selection bias is impossible to overlook. I would request that someone with more time than myself attempt to take an unbiased look at SCI. All I had time to do was basically put the word "alleged" in front of actions attributed to the company without proof--or, frankly, even logical connection. (How can a corporation desecrate graves? Clearly it was employees of the corporation whose actions are imputed to SCI--actions which the company almost certainly knew nothing about as they were occurring). Anyway, it seems ridiculous to me that an article on SCI that purports to be "neutral" can open with a paragraph about SCI trying to hide its existence from consumers (need I point out that most funeral companies aren't "branded" like, say, Wal-Mart? The industry isn't exactly conducive), and then go on to be almost entirely about grave desecration, funeralgate, and no-bid contracts.

Articles

The following articles were listed in the main text; they're either notable or they're not, but they're inappropriate as a list of articles. If they have notable information, include them as footnotes. NB that Dailykos and Democrats.com are not appropriate WP:EL. THF 21:05, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

• Gruesome Photos, Video Show Bodies Discarded in Woods Behind Cemetery from Fox News
• Bush faces questions over funeral home dispute from CNN
• Bush Need Not Testify, Judge Rules from the Washington Post
• Governor approves the settlement of lawsuit involving President Bush from the Corpus Cristi Caller Times
• 9,000 stake settlement claim in Florida Jewish cemetery desecration case from HAARETZ Daily
• La. outsource Katrina body count to firm implicated in body-dumping scandals
• Kenyon International Activates Emergency Team for Hurricane Katrina Response
• Florida adds new lawsuit to cemetery firm's woes
• Service Corporation International Announces Settlement of Florida Litigation
• Bush Need Not Testify, Judge Rules
• Funeral Scandal Is a Real Scene Stealer
• "Funeralgate" Now Involves Georgia, Too
• Georgia crematory operator faces Friday court date
• Governor approves the settlement of lawsuit involving President Bush
• Central figure in cemetery probe found dead

unbalanced tag

This entire article is a hit-piece and needs reworking to comply with WP:NPOV. THF 21:17, 21 August 2007 (UTC)

remove unsourced section

I removed an unsourced section which reads

In recent years, SCI has liquidated most of its overseas assets. The profitability of funerals :outside of America was not as large as estimated and different cultural and economic factors, even :in other Western nations, were not taken into account. For example in Australia cremation is the :norm—accounting for 60% of services overall, with a higher rate in urban areas—and the cost of a :full funeral service there is often less than that of a casket purchased by a similar family in :the United States.

I place it here for easy recovery if sources are available. --Moonriddengirl 11:41, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Assistance in upgrading this article

I work with SCI's communications agency. We are looking to update this article and make it fully accurate and more informative. As noted by users moonriddengirl, THF, and JesseG there are some obvious issues with several links and phrasings for this article.

We have drafted several sections that we'd like added to the article. According to what I've gleaned from suggestions on the (WP:NPOV) and autobiographical guidelines (WP:Auto), the best way of incorporating some of our suggestions is to post them to this talk page to let the community decide how best to incorporate them. If anyone would like to work on this article further, please contact me on my talk page.

The following is an info box that we created to help improve the page. Please feel free to copy it over to the article.

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Service Corporation International

Company type	Public (NYSE: SCI)
Industry	End of Life
Founded	1962
Headquarters	Houston, Texas, USA
Number of locations	1,613 (2006)
Products	Funerals, Cremations, Pre-planning
Revenue	$1.747 billion USD (2006)
Net income	$344 million USD (2006)
Number of employees	~22,000
Website	www.sci-corp.com

Additionally, I'd like to suggest that the lead paragraph should be changed to:

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Service Corporation International (NYSE: SCI) is North America’s largest provider of end-of-life arrangements and services. Based in Houston, Texas, United States, SCI operates more than 1,500 funeral homes and 400 cemeteries in 48 states, eight Canadian provinces, and Puerto Rico.

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This is an update from the previous language that is out of date and phrased ambiguously. Our reference for these edits is the 2006 Annual Report

I look forward to working with editors transparently and in good faith to make this article better. We understand the value of Wikipedia and want to make sure all interested readers get a thorough, neutral view of SCI. We respect this process and want to update this article seamlessly and transparently. Thank you.

Morningstarcomm (talk) 23:41, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I have went ahead and implemented this information. As far as I see, you are just pretty much wanting to perform clean-up tasks, which is fine. It's not a conflict of interest until you start adding information that is overly POV. As long as you can source anything you add, there is no problem, otherwise I can continue to do it for you. Thanks for the great contribution! SpigotMap 23:49, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I agree with SpigotMap, good work. Let me know if I can help. Postoak (talk) 23:51, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Futhermore, if you can get an image of your headquarters and release it in to the commons, that would make this article all that much better. SpigotMap 23:52, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Further improvements

Thanks, SpigotMap and Postak for the offer to help. Your guidance and knowledge is very helpful to new wikipedia writers. Thanks.

I have a couple more sections to improve the article that could be uploaded and wikified if need be. The first one is corporate governance, detailing the management structure of the company.

Morningstarcomm (talk) 19:30, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Corporate Governance

• Robert Waltrip, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Director[[s
• Thomas Ryan, President and Chief Executive Officer
• Michael Webb, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
• Eric Tanzberger, Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
• Phillip Jacobs, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
• Gregory Sangalis, Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
• Daniel Garrison, Senior Vice President, Operations Support
• Stephen Mack, Senior Vice President, Middle Markets Operations
• Sumner J. Waring, Senior Vice President, Major Markets Operations
• Jeffrey Beason, Vice President, Corporate Controller
• Christopher Cruger, Vice President, Business Development
• Jane Jones, Vice President, Human Resources
• Albert Lohse, Vice President, Litigation and Risk Management
• Joseph Hayes, Vice President, Ethics and Business Conduct and Assistant General Counsel
• Elisabeth Nash, Vice President, Process and Technology
• Donald Robinson, Vice President, Supply Chain Management

Sources: http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:SCI

http://www.sci-corp.com/SCICORP/CorporateOfficers.aspx?alias=0101

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I'd also like to clean up the current history section for thoroughness and clarity.

Here is the copy that we like. We used a lot of the copy from previous versions adding information where it will better serve the document. I believe I have sourced the article correctly. If this needs to be wikified, please feel free to take a stab at it.

Company History

Robert L. Waltrip, a licensed funeral director who grew up in his family’s funeral business, founded the company in 1962. SCI began as a small network of funeral homes and cemeteries in the Houston area.

As SCI grew its offshore presence, it continued to acquire businesses in North America—a marketplace that, by the late 1990s, had become extremely competitive among companies seeking to buy death care businesses. SCI, Alderwoods Group and Stewart Enterprises emerged from this period as the three largest companies in the industry. On December 31, 1999, SCI owned and operated 3,823 funeral service locations, 525 cemeteries, 198 crematoria and two insurance operations located in 20 countries on five continents.

In 1999, SCI also introduced Dignity Memorial®, the first transcontinental brand of death care services and products in North America. By unifying its network of funeral homes and cemeteries under one brand name, SCI believed it could establish recognizable and communicable brand values.

In 2000, poor market conditions forced SCI to reevaluate operations. While foreign operations had once shown promise, nearly 70 percent of SCI’s revenue was generated by operations in the United States and Canada. The company decided to divest many of its offshore businesses, in addition to many North American funeral homes and cemeteries.

In 2006, SCI merged with Alderwoods Group, its nearest competitor in terms of size. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) blocked the merger, citing concerns over consumer choice. After agreeing to divest funeral home and cemetery locations in several markets and end licensing agreements with other funeral homes, the FTC allowed the merger to continue. By 2007, the integration of Alderwoods locations and operations was complete.

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Thanks in advance! We are working to get an image of the headquarters, as well as a logo that we could use in the info box. As soon as they are available, I will post them here.

Hi, I haven't really went through all this and had time to wikify it yet, I've got one heck of a cold. The only problem I see is the list of leaders/governance. It could be viewed as a violation of WP:NOT and would probably be removed. The reason being, Wikipedia isn't a news service or an indiscriminate collection of information. Things you add to an article should all still apply to the company 40 years from now, which that list will likely not. SpigotMap 23:45, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the feedback SpigotMap. We saw that sort of information posted on other pages, but per your recommendation, we will leave it out. I am going to go ahead and implement the company history changes mentioned above. Please feel free to make any formatting edits necessary.Morningstarcomm (talk) 19:22, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

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Another section we would like to add to this entry is one detailing the brands SCI operates. We want to add this information in the interest of full disclosure. I would like feedback on whether this violates WP:NOT and if I have the correct formatting. This information comes from

Brands

SCI operates the following brands in the United States and Canada.

Dignity Memorial

Founded in 1999, Dignity Memorial is North America’s first transcontinental brand of end-of-life services and products. Dignity Memorial provides services in 41 states and seven Canadian provinces.

Dignity Planning

Dignity Planning provides end-of-life planning and arrangements through Dignity Memorial North America locations.

Advantage

Advantage provides basic funeral services and products.

Funeraria del Angel

Funeraria del Angel provides specialized services for Hispanic customers.

Memorial Plan

Memorial Plan currently manages six funeral homes and five cemeteries in South Florida.

Making everlasting Memories

Making everlasting Memories (MeM) is an online database service that allows customers to preserve biographies, photographs and other memories of loved ones.

National Cremation Society

Founded in 1973, National Cremation Society is the oldest and largest cremation service in the United States. Morningstarcomm (talk) 19:41, 26 December 2007 (UTC)

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As we continue to move forward with updating this entry, I would like to propose the following changes to the section discussing Kenyon International. First, Kenyon International is no longer affiliated with SCI. We would like to remove the Kenyon Internation mention from the entry. If this is a violation, then we would like to propose the following section copy:

Subsidiaries

Kenyon International

In 1996, SCI acquired Kenyon International, A U.S.-based emergency services contractor. Kenyon International and SCI made news in 2005 when Kenyon was awarded a contract by the state of Louisiana to count and collect bodies in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In October of 2007, Kenyon became a privately held company when Kenyon President and CEO Robert Jensen purchased the company from SCI.

We welcome feedback on this proposed edit and continue to appreciate any feedback and/or technical assistance. Morningstarcomm (talk) 22:18, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

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Additional Edits

Below are two more proposed changes to the main entry. The first is an Interesting Facts section providing some noteworthy information about some locations operated by SCI. The second is a revision to the scandals section. This revision does not seek to remove any factual information, but simply tighten language and provide a better account of the incidents. We welcome any feedback on these proposed additions, both content and formatting.

Interesting Facts

SCI operates Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Rose Hills is the largest single-site cemetery in the world at 2,500 acres. SOURCE: http://www.answers.com/topic/rose-hills-memorial-park

SCI operates Joseph Gawler’s Sons Funeral Home in Washington, D.C. Joseph Gawler’s Sons is known as “the funeral home to the presidents.” SOURCE: http://newarknaz.net/staff.html

SCI operates the famed Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel located in Manhattan New York. SOURCE: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE6DC1431F93BA35755C0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2

Controversies

Eliza May

In the late 1990s, SCI was involved in a controversy involving alleged violations of Texas State embalming laws. The proceedings took a political slant due to Robert Waltrip’s friendship with the family of then-governor George W. Bush and Waltrip's campaign contributions to various members of the Bush family. [9]

Referred to as "Funeralgate" or "Formaldegate" in the media, the controversy was widely publicized when Eliza May—a director with the Texas Funeral Service Commission (TFSC)—was fired while investigating SCI. May alleged in a civil suit that she was fired because she refused to halt her investigation, despite pressure to do so from Governor Bush. Other TFSC employees indicated she was fired because her colleagues had lost confidence in her ability and because she was using her authority inappropriately.

May's lawyers subpoenaed President Bush to testify at the trial [10], but Texas Judge John K. Dietz threw out the subpoena on the grounds that the then-governor was not in a position to have enough specialized information to require his involvement. [11]

The lawsuit was settled in 2001 for more than $200,000. SCI and the state of Texas were required to jointly pay the decision. [12] On January 23, 2004, the TFSC fined SCI an additional $21,000 for administrative penalties. [12]

Menorah Gardens

In December 2001, Florida news media reported that two Jewish Florida cemeteries called Menorah Gardens, owned by SCI, had mishandled bodies and, in several instances, disinterred bodies to place other people in the graves. [13] The general manager of Menorah Gardens, Peter Hartman, died by apparent suicide on December 27, 2001. [14] The state of Florida filed a civil complaint against SCI in 2002 and then felony charges in 2003 in connection with these events. [15][16] Following a class action suit filed by more than 2,000 families, SCI agreed to a settlement of $100 million. [17] Morningstarcomm (talk) 14:12, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Revisions

It seems inappropriate that over half of the article for a prominent company is a litany of controversies and scandals. Can this be condensed? (Texas94 (talk) 12:03, 29 October 2012 (UTC))