ANSWERS AT LAST: NFDA'S CEO ANSWERS THE MERGER QUESTIONS AS MEMBERS' LAWYERS READY THE DC COMPLAINT

For seven weeks, the National Funeral Directors Association answered questions about its takeover of Selected Independent Funeral Homes with silence, a FAQ page, and a line about not purchasing anything. On September 28, that silence ended in writing.

Within hours of each other, NFDA and the member opposition both made moves. NFDA CEO Christine Pepper answered three written questions from Obitley, her first on-record responses since the deal was announced July 29. And Nathanael M. Billow, the sixth-generation Ohio funeral director leading the member opposition, delivered an on-record statement along with the name of the law firm filing the members' complaint with the Attorney General for the District of Columbia: Brennan, Manna & Diamond, which he says will file "this week."

The answers arrived on day four of a voting window that closes next week.

WHAT PEPPER SAID

Obitley asked Pepper three questions through NFDA public relations director Jessica Koth: which description of the deal is accurate, whether the letter of intent lets NFDA dismantle Selected, and whether the full letter would be released. Her answers, in full:

On the structure, Pepper described the transaction as a merger rather than a purchase. "The two organizations will become one," she wrote. "Selected would no longer exist as a separate 501(c)(6) trade association and the assets would be transferred to NFDA. There is no money being exchanged. Selected is not being purchased, and NFDA is not paying Selected."

She did not address the contradiction Obitley asked about: NFDA's own Better Together page still describes the transaction as "an acquisition of Selected Independent Funeral Homes by NFDA," language that sat unchanged as of September 29.

On the wind-down question, Pepper drew a line between what the contract allows and what NFDA intends. "Having the legal ability to make changes is very different from having the intention to dismantle or wind down Selected," she wrote. "That is not NFDA's intent." Her answer is the first time NFDA has addressed, on the record, the provisions Obitley reported September 24: a one-year no-material-change commitment stamped non-binding, and governance terms giving NFDA "ultimate and sole discretion" over the combined organization.

Her stated plan: operate Selected's programs as they are through 2027 while the NFDA board and Selected Executive Council decide together what, if anything, changes.

On the letter itself, Pepper wrote that it "has now been released and is available to members," and that the two boards treated it as confidential until members asked to see it. That asking came as a demand from a member group days before the release, with ballots already scheduled to open.

BILLOW: "UNCONDITIONALLY SURRENDERED"

Billow's statement, provided for the record, is the bluntest language yet from the opposition's most public voice:

"The LOI was released at the 11th hour, and it was very clearly a move by the board to save face at the last minute. The LOI confirms what many of us feared all along: it is intentionally vague, lacks depth, and leaves so much of this crucial deal to be decided down the road. The LOI cedes all power, control and decision making to NFDA. It is sad because the document shows that the Selected Board has waived the white flag and has unconditionally surrendered the association to NFDA, without any protections or provisions for Selected. So many of the important details are to be negotiated and explored down the road by our Board, with NFDA having the ultimate say."

The news in his email: the DC complaint, which ConnectingDirectors first reported as being prepared, now has a firm and a timetable. "The complaint with the Attorney General for the District of Columbia will be officially filed this week," Billow wrote. "The law firm of Brennan, Manna & Diamond has been retained by the members and is filing the complaint."

As of September 29, no complaint appears on the DC OAG's public site. Obitley will report the filing, and what it asks for, when it lands.

THE ALTERNATIVE PLAN, IN THE OPEN

Billow also cleared for publication the outlines of the alternative he has promised members, the plan the board has yet to engage. Two parts:

First, fix why members keep leaving. Selected has bled members for 15 to 20 years, he wrote, and reversing that requires a complete overhaul of programming, events, meetings, and offerings, including the Study Group program and Leadership Academy. His sharpest critique: Selected drifted toward chasing large firms and their dues, and must refocus on the small family-owned firms that are "the heart of the association."

Second, shrink the cost side. "Selected's fixed costs, spending, personnel, and association expenses must be trimmed down," he wrote, with all spending that does not create member value eliminated. The structure could become an association-management-company model or new dedicated staff, a decision he says cannot be made "until all relevant organizational and financial information is shared with the members," the same information demanded in the September 14 letter whose October 2 courtesy deadline arrives Thursday.

And one personnel line, unambiguous: any turnaround "most certainly will involve a new CEO, as Rob Paterkiewicz has demonstrated that he is no longer able (and clearly no longer willing) to lead Selected." Paterkiewicz, Selected's longtime executive director, told Obitley on September 9 that the vote is a dissolution requiring only a simple majority.

Billow withheld the plan's specifics, saying details stay members-only "out of respect for the Association."

THE BALLOT, AND WHO RUNS IT

While the two sides traded statements, NFDA confirmed that its own vote is running on schedule. A launch announcement on nfda.org, "Voting Now Open for Proposed Changes to the NFDA Bylaws," says electronic voting opened September 24 and closes 4 p.m. Central on October 7, with two sets of proposed changes before the members.

The association named an outside administrator for the vote: Survey & Ballot Systems, a Minnesota election-services firm. Voting credentials go out by email from [email protected], technical support runs through SBS (952-974-2339, [email protected]), and process questions are routed to [email protected].

The announcement does not show the ballot itself. The exact wording of the two questions sits behind the member login, a gap that matters for a different reason one section down.

THE CORRECTION DEMAND, AND A QUESTION OF WORDING

Koth's email carried one more item: a formal request to correct Obitley's September 19 article on the NFDA bylaws vote. Pepper asserts the NFDA ballot presents two separate questions, voted independently, one covering merger-related changes and one covering technical housekeeping, and that members are not casting a single bundled vote.

Obitley's September 19 article reported the two sets of changes as one ballot with no way to split the difference. NFDA's launch announcement confirms two sets of changes exist but does not show the questions themselves; the wording sits behind the member login. Obitley has asked NFDA to provide the exact question wording members see on the Survey & Ballot Systems voting screen, and has asked members in a position to forward the ballot email to do the same. A correction decision, in either direction, will follow the document, not the demand.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

The NFDA bylaws vote closes 4 p.m. Central on October 7. The Selected ballot closes October 8. NFDA members who have not seen a ballot should check the junk folder for [email protected]. The complaint Billow says is coming this week would land mid-ballot, and the board's financial-records deadline arrives October 2, before either vote closes. Obitley will update this article as the filing, the ballot wording, and any further answers arrive.

*Sources: Email, Nathanael M. Billow to Obitley, September 28, 2026 (on-record statement; Brennan, Manna & Diamond; "this week" filing timetable; alternative-plan outlines cleared for publication); Email, Jessica Koth (NFDA) to Obitley, September 28, 2026 (Christine Pepper's three answers verbatim; correction request re Sept. 19 article; junk-folder explanation and safe-senders note); NFDA, "Voting Now Open for Proposed Changes to the NFDA Bylaws," nfda.org (Sept. 24 open, 4 p.m. CT Oct. 7 close; Survey & Ballot Systems as administrator; [email protected] credentials; SBS support contacts; [email protected] routing), checked September 29, 2026; DC Office of the Attorney General public filings monitor, checked September 29, 2026 (no complaint visible); Obitley reporting: letter-of-intent provisions (September 24, 2026), Paterkiewicz simple-majority interview (September 9, 2026), NFDA bylaws two-thirds threshold and ballot structure (September 19, 2026), September 14 records-demand letter and October 2 courtesy deadline (September 22, 2026), Better Together page wording re-checked September 29, 2026 (unchanged).*