Credit Union Management

At Electro Savings Credit Union, St. Louis, employees are always looking for Plus One -- one more thing to make a program or product better, explains President/CEO Stan Moeckli, CCE. Since a lot of their programs are seasonal, they look at each program to see if they can generate loans and/or checking, etc., from it. The $147 million/18,000-member CU's skip-a-pay program is one example. Launched in 2005 as a typical offer allowing members who were paying their loans faithfully to skip one pay...

4 Steps to Paperless Processes

The Federal Reserve released data on Oct 5, 2012, indicating that consumer credit among credit unions grew nearly $30 billion during the month of August. That's $8.7 billion in revolving credit and $20.4 billion in non-revolving credit. Based on Cornerstone Advisors' experience working with CUs across the US, the author would guess that at least that many pieces of paper were printed and handled in dealing with the loans associated with that volume of credit. While paperless lending may not b...

Advanced Mbl Learning

Audio Response Still a Service?

At $179 million Alcoa Tenn Federal Credit Union in Alcoa, TN, customer demand for audio response continues to be solid. Even though use of the Web site is more than seven times that of audio response (95,000 hits per month vs. 12,500 for audio response), the latter still remains popular with some members. Audio response is still used by many who seem to prefer it, and until the numbers decline sharply they will need to keep it as a channel, says CUES member David W. Proffitt, president/CEO. G...

Boards: Room for Improvement

According to male and female corporate directors surveyed by Heidrick & Struggles', corporate boards excel at teamwork, candid and open discussions, and acting as good stewards of company assets for their shareholders. These directors also see the need for substantial improvement in several areas, including director education, tracking decisions, addressing poorly performing directors, and strategic planning, as reported in "Women Corporate Directors: Best Practices in Corporate Governanc...

Buyer Beware!

Indeed, unknown liabilities present the greatest threat to a successful merger. These potential costs may well exceed the value of the deal. Or, worse yet, unknown liabilities could threaten the financial integrity of the continuing credit union. Mergers, therefore, warrant the greatest consideration and scrutiny. Accordingly, the cardinal merger principle is to understand what you are getting into. Here are four things CUs should consider before pursuing a merger: 1. Know the legal nature of...

Choosing a Board Governance Model

A hybrid approach -- that's how Dick Ardisson, board secretary of Fort Knox Federal Credit Union, Radcliff, KY, describes his board's governance policy in "Choosing and Implementing a Governance Model." Now a $1 billion CU, Fort Knox FCU began talking about the Carver Governance Model in 2007. Ardisson explains that they discussed governance models among themselves, did further research, and ultimately decided to go to a Carver-like form of governance that incorporated what they saw as the be...

Cues Announces New Ceo

Cues Recognizes Exceptional Leader

Cues Skybox

As each of you travels through the day, it is vital to your own success to be aware of the impact you have on others. The measure of your impact is your emotional intelligence quotient (EQ). EQ is gauged by four factors: how self-aware you are, how aware you are of our impact on others, how in control of your own behavior you are, and how effectively you manage relationships with others. You can use this knowledge to be more effective in working with others -- your "clients," if you will.

Cues.Org

Cyber Libel

With social media sites at virtually every employee's fingertips, libel via the Internet is becoming much more prevalent. Employees now have the opportunity to log on to their favorite social media site and vent about their co-workers, supervisors, and employers. Employers need to closely watch these sites to protect their companies' and their managers' reputations from being damaged by inappropriate postings. Employers also want to ensure that their corporate officers and managers do not pos...

E-Statement Success

Farewell, Fred

Getting Gen Y

f (FCU) had a strong program for ages 0-12 but was lacking in the 13 to college-age demographic. As a result, Alexa Bennett, marketing supervisor at the Watertown, NY, CU, and her colleagues spent three years in research to develop the right product. The result is NEXT from Northern CU, a full suite of products and services designed for the 18-to-25-year-old. In its research, Northern FCU learned that one of the biggest problems for younger members was they couldn't find a co-borrower. That's...

Know Before You Go

Community Focus Federal Credit Union (FCU), has recently been hiring within its teller and loan groups. To help zero in on qualified candidates and reduce the time her team spends staffing these open positions, CUES member Lynne M. Boucher, president/ CEO, says they've turned to preemployment testing. Candidates first go through an initial interview, and those selected to continue are then given an online test. It's designed to let them know if applicants are reliable and trustworthy. The SOS...

Kohlrus Is Cues Next Top Credit Union Exec

Marketing Challenges

When building a credit union marketing strategy, there is no five-step, bullet-point solution, said Mark Weber, president/CEO of CUES Supplier member Weber Marketing Group, Seattle, at CUES School of Strategic Marketing in Seattle. The strategy will depend on each CU and its goals. But, he said, most CUs are facing a number of strategic marketing challenges, including: 1. slow to no member growth, 2. low market awareness, 3. confusing names, 4. dated brand image, 5. the need for new revenue s...

Mom's the Word

Credit union marketers have typically divided their marketing efforts and budget to cover a wide variety of members and potential members across age segments. Throw a portion of the budget to youngsters, another chunk for young adults, a bit more for 30-somethings and spend the rest on baby boomers. This is what savvy marketers do; it's called market segmentation. An ideal target market has strong affiliation, homogeny and influence. Moms have all three. Building a mom-centered credit union c...

On Time for Retirement

Credit unions with at least $100 million in assets are more likely to include split-dollar life insurance in their CEO's supplemental retirement plan now than they did one or two years ago, according to the Credit Union National Association's 2011-2012 CEO Total Compensation Survey. Still, only 16% of the credit unions surveyed offered this benefit. Split-dollar life insurance hasn't reached the penetration of the 457(b) and 457(f) tax-deferred retirement accounts, which were offered by 45% a...

Owning It

A multi-faceted campaign focusing on local ownership has brought home Credit Union Executives Society's Golden Mirror Awards (GMA) Best Campaign honors for $477 million/47,900-member Telhio Credit Union, Columbus, OH. This award recognizes the top first-place winner among the three asset divisions in the GMA Coordinated Campaigns category. Telhio CU chose this theme to leverage the economic environment and pro-local/small sentiment to obtain new members and grow our loan volume, while simulta...

Professional Development for All

During his 23 years at CUES, CUES president/CEO Fred Johnson has shown not only staff, but CUES members and the credit union industry alike, that he can be relied upon -- not only to do his duties at the podium, but to do everything possible to advance the professional development of credit union executives, directors and future leaders. In fact, Johnson, who will retire December 31, says his proudest achievement as president/CEO of CUES has been the establishment of CUES' CEO Institute, a th...

Six Common Erm Mistakes

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is one of the biggest buzzwords in the credit union movement today. But many organizations struggle to implement ERM for a variety of reasons, ranging from staffing to performance measurements to costs. As philosopher Georges Santayana said, "Those that do not study history are doomed to repeat it." Over the past few years, he has helped more than 50 credit unions with their ERM efforts. Before that, he provided ERM consulting at organizations ranging from For...

Six Join Hall of Fame