Credit Union Management

More than 300 people attended a December 11 dinner hosted by the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Credit Union League (CCUL) featuring human rights activist Mukhtar Mai, who in 2006 was named by Time magazine as one of the world's 100 most influential people. More than $30,000 in donations will go toward Mai's Woman Welfare Organization Girls School Expansion Project in her native Pakistan. In addition to holding a fundraising dinner in Mai's honor, CCUL scheduled a visit to a loca...

Insights

New Curriculum in Director Education Center

Cues Executive Compensation Survey Data Requested

Cues Board Nominations Due March 31

Even Better After 15 Years

Cues Skybox

Your policies are the best place to start if you think the balance sheet management processes at your credit union needs improvement. Typically, the CEO, CFO, chief lending office; chief branch officer and head of marketing, at a minimum, should sit on an ALCO. Board members should also be invited to participate. Include measurements to be used as well as your established tolerance limitations. Measuring net interest margin and net income variability in a shocked interest-rate environment wil...

Management Network

Goodwill-Cu Partnership Is Catching On

Bob Dugas, president/CEO, Goodwill Industries of San Antonio, got wind of the Prospera-Goodwill "Good Money" program in Wisconsin, and he felt prompted to contact $311 million San Antonio City Employees Federal Credit Union (EFCU). Following an RFP process, San Antonio EFCU agreed to open branches in six local Goodwill centers. The first opened last month in the largest Goodwill store in San Antonio, a newly refurbished airplane hangar. San Antonio EFCU is targeting payday lenders, but Skip L...

Heard Around Town

Building the Cu Image

Open Forum

Credit Checks?

When hiring new employees, many credit unions (CU) pull credit reports. After all, those employees will be working around money so it seems logical that their current credit status could affect their employment. But the question is whether running credit reports on potential hires open the CU to lawsuits. Jenee Rawlings, VP/operations, Yolo Federal Credit Union, said one of the main arguments against running credit checks on employees is that they have a disparate impact on minorities. That i...

General Management

Six Simple Rules

Credit unions are as individual as their members. These groups have unique wants and needs: Some are cutting-edge, while some cherish familiarity. Some members range far afield, while some stop by once a week on their way from work. But despite all these individual differences, there are certain rules that hold true for all credit unions that seek to improve their technology planning process: 1. Create a power structure that works. 2. Meet often. 3. Speak the language. 4. Start with the membe...

A Strong Supporter

For more than 30 years, John M. Floyd & Associates (JMFA) has dedicated itself to improving the profitability and performance of financial institutions. With programs ranging from overdraft and fraud protection to executive recruitment and earnings enhancement, JMFA has helped thousands of its financial institution clients realize a dramatic improvement in their bottom lines. Based on this commitment, JMFA was named the 2007 CUES Supplier of the Year in the category of firms with 50 to 10...

Human Resources

Track Training in One Spot

Bethpage Federai Credit Union, Bethpage, NY, has had a training department since the late 1980s. The department, says Melissa Feeney, learning center manager at the $2.8 billion/130,000-member CU with 357 full-time equivalents, has grown tremendously throughout the years. Today, more credit unions are finding out, as Bethpage FCU did, that learning management systems (LMS) offer the ability to improve the accessibility, structure, control and management of training and learning information. I...

Board

Web 2.0: High Tech &Amp; High Touch

You may feel your credit union is doing fine by conducting an informative annual meeting, publishing a member newsletter and maintaining a graphically pleasing Web site. Thanks to the emergence of social media -- also known as Web 2.0 -- credit union management and volunteer directors alike can interact and create a closer connection with members. In Web 2.0, there an many online venues that invite participation, including blogs, message boards, forums, podcasts, photo galleries and videos. T...

Strategy Defined

Strategy, operations and leadership were each day-long focal points at CUES' Directors Leadership Institute II, held Sep 10-Sep 13, 2007, at IESE Business School, University of Navarra, Barcelona, Spain. The directors, supervisory committee members and CEOs in attendance spent each morning learning about the day's topic in depth, and each afternoon applying their knowledge using the IESE-written case study "SAFE and Travis: Strategies for Growth." Mike Rosenberg, IESE instructor of long-term ...

Operations

Embracing Automation

Automation is making its biggest inroads in lending, as credit unions (CU) move toward Internet-based, consumer-oriented, and off-hour loan application and processing options. In most automated systems, the electronic signature is embedded in the loan document and a copy sent electronically to the member. The original is then stored electronically at the credit union. Automation does more than just complete a loan in a paperless way, however, says Philip Elwyn, VP/sales, Equifax Enabling Tech...

Measured Emotions

Progressive credit unions (CU) recognize the importance of member satisfaction in the call-in experience and try to measure it, usually in selective, largely manual ways. Now a few pioneers are looking at revolutionary technology that can measure satisfaction in comprehensive, automated ways, which, in turn, enables them to develop the right new products, and identify and fix competitive disadvantages. What it is And how it works can be explained by leading vendors like NICE Systems and CallM...

Marketing

Old Dog, New Tricks

Despite research that suggests social media marketing may grow faster than any other kind of "e-marketing," sources in credit union (CU) land say "traditional" e-marketing is alive and well. And social media marketing will be yet another option for CU marketers. A recent report from Forrester Research Inc predicted spending on interactive marketing will more than triple over the next five years. Although e-mail marketing is expected to grow to more than $4 billion by that time, other channels...

Keeping Them Fresh

Credit Unions (CUs) that can retool their annual meetings and make them fresh may discover a potent marketing tool. In an online world, the annual meeting is a place to meet people face to face. In an era of deregulation and hyper-competition, a CU can use an annual meeting as a way to strengthen its brand with members. Meeting the professionals running the credit union, realizing they work and live in your community, and that they're working hard on members' behalf. It's especially important...

Trigger Leads

Several states have either outlawed or are considering a ban on the use of trigger leads. For example, a new provision of the Connecticut Unfair Trade Practices Act, which took effect October 1, requires mortgage brokers or lenders using trigger leads to clearly explain that they are not affiliated with the initial lender and that they purchased borrowers' information from a credit bureau. State legislatures in Maryland, Massachusetts and Wisconsin were considering restricting the use of trig...

Cues News

Drive for Hope Unveils New Web Site

From The Editor

Technology-and More

Editor

P & S

Raining On the Mobile Banking Parade

Despite all the hype at the time about wireless being the next "killer application" for banking, the big banks shut down their wireless banking initiatives after just a few years. Technology -- and consumers -- just weren't ready. Now it's 2008 and the wireless hype is back. And the technology to support wireless technology has improved, and it's in the hands of many more US consumers. Still, while mobile technology is better and in the hands of many potential wireless banking users, most con...

Hr In Brief

Romance at Work?

It's that special time of year when romance is in the air and the American workplace is a buzz. In fact, nearly four in 10 workers would consider dating a co-worker, and nearly four in 10 have done so, according to a Spherion Workplace Snapshot survey conducted by Harris Interactive. The romance is apparently worth the risk, as 42% of workers conduct their romance openly, compared to 35% who consider it top secret. Workers today should be realistic about whether they can keep a workplace roma...

New Resource for Mature Workforce Employer Best Practices

The Conference Board announced the launch of its new Employer-Practices Locator, a Web-based database that enables employers, reporters and researchers to locate examples of specific actions companies have taken to address the challenges presented by the mature workforce. The Locator is part of a multifaceted program by The Conference Board on issues surrounding the aging workforce. The Employer-Practices Locator delivers a more select list of results than a user would get using a search engi...