"It\'s looking pretty good," says Ian Gostling, the National Executive Officer of NAMM, about the Association\'s Centenary Garden at the National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas, where NAMM held their AGM this year.

Before they got down to the business of the AGM, members of the National Association of Memorial Masons and their guests, representing funeral directors and burial authorities, walked around the time-line circle of memorials that members have produced to show how lives have been commemorated in stone for at least 5,000 years. The picture (right) shows a Saxon cross that forms part of the circle.

The NAMM garden opening in September was rather eclipsed by the Queen opening the Armed Forces Memorial this month (see page 18), but NAMM are still hopeful that another member of the royal family will officially open their garden, which still has a few more memorials to be added, in the spring.

During the AGM it was reported that NAMM membership had grown again by 5% during the year. Ian Gostling told NSS afterwards: "I think we are a far more desirable association to be involved with these days. We\'ve certainly had a higher profile this year and we have become a pretty major player in the area of training - and we offer more attractive rates for training if you\'re a member than if you\'re not. A number of companies have decided they need to get involved in training and want the discount."

The safe fixing of memorials is still an important issue to cemetery operators and was the reason behind NAMM\'s development of the British Register of Accredited Memorial Masons (BRAMM). Although the register was developed by NAMM, it is run as a separate entity and is open to all memorial masons, not just NAMM members.

That did not stop a resolution being put before the NAMM AGM proposing that the BRAMM licence should be for life and not have to be renewed every three years, as it currently does, and that the requirement for on-going training should be dropped.

The motion was carried by a ratio of 10:1 and the suggestion will be put to the management of BRAMM.

Masons have been quick to get their trainming and apply for BRAMM licences and more are joining the register all the time. An increasing number of burial authorities are also adopting it because, as Ian Gostling says, doing so "is such a no brainer."