International Credit Union Day—How Will You Be Celebrating?

Back on Saturday, October 2, 2010, I published a blog post on this site featuring 12 simple ways to mark your observance of International Credit Union Day. Three years later, it goes without saying that all 12 ideas continue to hold value for any credit union searching for that special way to call attention to their distinguished heritage.

So once again, here are my 12 ideas for making October 17th, this year’s International Credit Union Day, a memorable occasion for your staff, your volunteers, your members, and really, your entire community!


I.      Make your members feel like owners. Host an Owners’ Day Party.

II.     Review and closely examine the definition of a cooperative. Understand the meaning of the business model it describes. Ask yourself what makes your organization a co-op?

III.    Have a meeting with staff to identify the Seven Cooperative Principles and evaluate how your organization embraces each one. Are they posted publicly for all to see?

IV.    Invite the local business reporter to the credit union to meet and greet the staff and your members. This is a great way to help the reporter develop a deeper understanding and appreciation for credit unions and the cooperative difference.

V.      Participate in other International Credit Union Day activities sponsored by your local League, CUNA and WOCCU.

VI.     Develop special messaging to your members talking about co-ops, the cooperative difference, and what co-ops stand for in the community. Display the messages in your lobby, in electronic statements, in your mobile banking application, on your credit union’s website, and on your social media channels like Facebook and Twitter.

VII.    Sponsor an art competition for youngsters of the credit union asking them to draw a picture of a cooperative. Publicly post the images in your lobby and your website. Offer awards to the best drawings.

VIII.   Leverage your relationships at the local chamber of commerce or rotary club to serve as a presenter during the month of October to talk about the cooperative business model and the values and principles on which it is built. As part of this community education effort, talk about your credit union as one of the many organizations built on that model. (If you missed the chance to do it this year, get your name on the list for next October!)

IX.    Sponsor an essay contest in collaboration with the local high school. Offer a grand prize of $1,000. Make the essay topic: How cooperatives and their distinct business model deliver better value to the American consumer.

X.     Host an open house of your credit union. Roll out the red carpet and invite folks from the community to stop in and have a coffee, have a donut and find out what a credit union is all about. Include a local radio station to broadcast LIVE from the credit union branch to further attract public participation in the open house. And don’t forget to invite the public to bring along cans of food for donation to the local food bank!

XI.    Cooperate with other co-ops in your community to create an organized referral effort where each cooperative helps to promote awareness of one another.

XII.   Organize a community day where the staff of your credit union goes into the community to help low-income and underserved families do repair work, painting and cleaning on their homes. Invite your members to join with staff, shoulder-to-shoulder in providing these services on Community Day as a way to mark National Cooperative Month—People Helping People.

Make Members Feel Like Owners: 10 Ways to Get Started

In a recent blog submission to the Credit Union Times, I discussed my thoughts on making ownership the credit union value proposition.

I related some personal experiences at credit unions I joined, recalling that none of them ever made me feel like an owner. Why owner? Well for me, being assigned member status is both overused and overdone in our culture. Everyone is offering membership of one kind or another; from hotels to grocery stores.

On the other hand, if the emphasis was placed on being an owner, a whole new sense of loyalty and allegiance would come into play.

I see ownership as a way to create a more profound and vibrant bond, albeit one that also requires me to relinquish a certain level of complacency, becoming more engaged in the enterprise. The dynamic ushers me to the front and center of the organization, creating for me a vested interest in seeing the organization succeed and prosper.

You can read the entire blog submission at Credit Union Exchange

In the meantime, since I’ve proposed discarding the term “member” in favor of “owner,” I’ve put together a list of 10 ways to help you get started in making your credit union users feel like owners. E-mail me for a PDF copy.

MAKE THEM FEEL LIKE AN OWNER

10 Ways to Get Started

I. Key to the Credit Union

At sign up, give the new owner the Key to the Credit Union. Like the Key to the City, the Key to the Credit Union is a symbol and gesture, representing a special bond of affinity between the recipient and the credit union.

II. Honorary Welcome By the CEO

Upon joining, extend the new member a personalized welcome by the CEO or another Chief Executive. As an example, at the start of orientation at The Ritz-Carlton, the entire leadership team of the hotel, the General Manager to Head Chef, personally greets all the new employees. They made the time to do it because they viewed the new employees as important, and what an impression it made!

III. Owners’ Meetings

Hold monthly meetings for the owners (not to be confused with Board Meetings) focusing on informational and educational topics pertinent to the owners, and use multiple channels to attract participation; in-person venue, podcast, webcast, video recordings, etc. In addition to hearing from the CEO and CFO, other presenters may include a board member, city council rep, police chief, local doctor, state senator, etc.

IV. Monthly President’s Summary

Include a summary of the month’s operations with the owner’s monthly statement

V. Referral Dividends

Provide some type of dividend to an owner when he or she gets a new owner to join the credit union. The dividend may take the form of money, a service, or a donation to their favorite charity.

VI. Recognize Owner Birthdays

Acknowledge an owner’s birthday by sending a card, or giving him or her two movie tickets or a discount coupon for groceries at a local food co-op, or a dinner at a local restaurant.

VII. Owner’s Lounge

Within each branch, create an owner’s lounge, a workplace away from home for the owners. This would be akin to Delta Airline’s Crown Room.

VIII. Concierge Service
Provide owners with a concierge service to handle routine services such as making dinner reservations, ordering flowers, etc.

IX. Owner’s Hotel Discount

By working together with other credit unions and co-ops (cooperation with other co-ops), establish an “owner’s rate” with a hotel chain. The rate is low and consistent at all of the hotel’s locations.

X. Ownership Card

In cooperation with other credit unions and co-ops, as cited in number IX, present the new owner with an Ownership ID Card. Upon presentation at other co-ops, the owners receive a discount for their role as owners of a credit union.

By Walt Laskos, CUDE waltlaskos@gmail.com

June 2010

The Seven Cooperative Principles: How Committed Are We?

I’m quickly learning that any calls for credit unions to pause and rediscover their roots might prove to be a futile exercise if we credit union folks don’t also stop to consider how much we are truly willing to embrace and actualize the real essence of being a cooperative. I’m referring to the Seven Rochdale Principles associated with the cooperative business model (http://www.creditunion.coop/history/cu_philosophy.html).

How committed are we to the principles, or do we find ourselves picking and choosing what fits best to meet our own particular needs?

I’m willing to bet that many draw a sharp distinction when it comes to credit unions versus cooperatives. It would be cool to hear arguments supporting the thesis, but quite honestly, is there really a distinction? In my mind’s eye—no.
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Yet, there have been numerous occasions when I’ve heard tenured credit union officials shutter from sharing their thoughts and beliefs about co-ops and our defining principles and values, acting as if such discussion was reserved for the hippy communes and flower children of the ‘60s.

Why is that so? A wealth of factual evidence supports the cooperative business model and everything it stands for—its principles and values—as being a solid and successful manner of conducting business.

Such success accounts for the move by the United Nations to recognize the valuable attributes and contributions flowing from the cooperative business model, and the value we bring to both the marketplace and lifestyle of millions. The UN’s proclamation that 2012 be The Year of Cooperatives sets the stage for all the eyes of the world to look at us—yes, credit unions as well. What will folks see?

In the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of the Cooperative Business Journal (http://www.ncba.coop/pubs_cbj_current.cfm), Dan Mica, President/CEO of the Credit Union National Association, talks about the relationship between credit unions and cooperatives in a full-page article. One bright spot he points to is the Cooperative Alliances Committee, formed to foster mutually beneficial business- and advocacy-related partnerships between credit unions and other cooperatives.

Just imagine how much we all could benefit and grow from such partnerships? For instance, imagine the power of one unified cooperative voice in all cooperative-related advocacy initiatives.

So what’s stopping us?

Mr. Mica summed it up quite directly, saying, “The Cooperative Alliances Committee has discussed that more of these partnerships can form if we overcome a persistent hurdle: the lack of a shared identity between credit unions and other cooperatives. I am convinced that if credit unions and other co-ops had a greater recognition of our shared principles and history, we would see greater interaction between these cooperative sectors.”

And, “greater interaction” for me spells out greater prosperity for us all.

Mica strikes an important chord. So, how committed are we to the Seven Rochdale Principles? Are we willing to accept everything that they stand for?

The question reminds me of a story I heard quite some time ago. It helped me to better understand the price of commitment and how much further I had to go attain the price.

Remember a high-wire acrobat from back in the 70s named Karl Wallenda? He was the founder of The Flying Wallendas, an internationally known daredevil circus act famous for performing death-defying stunts without a safety net.

Well, on one of Karl’s famous walks across a high wire strung between two towering structures, a young fan named Peter was on the ground standing among the crowd, viewing Karl’s carefully calculated steps across the sky. In watching, he became so mesmerized and excited by Karl’s skill that he sought him out after the walk, proudly professing his deep esteem for Wallenda and the unique abilities he embodied.

“Peter,” Wallenda said, “If you really believe I’m as good as you say, come back tomorrow when I plan to perform the walk again. This time I’ll be pushing a wheel barrel and I’d like you to be in it.”

Now ask yourself, “How committed am I to the Seven Rochdale Principles?

I know I still have work to do!

The Time Is Right To Re-Discover Our Roots

When future generations of credit union folks look back to the Great Recession of 2009and the havoc it created for credit unions everywhere, what do you think will be their ultimate assessment?

Now lest we forget, credit unions are financial co-ops based on a business model predicated by seven cooperative principles. Membership is voluntary and without discrimination. Co-ops are democratically controlled—-one member, one vote—-formed to be an aggregator where the benefits of membership come in the form of lower fees and better rates, not soaring profits. Co-ops are autonomous, self-help organizations that educate their members, cooperate with other cooperatives, all the while focusing on member needs and demonstrating a concern for the community.

But what was the reality of U.S. financial cooperatives during the first decade of the new millennium?

OK, let’s not kid ourselves. Can we be honest? Although credit unions still demonstrated a strong presence with the underserved, I am of the opinion that the push was on to see where the best yield could be achieved on many credit union investment portfolios. One investor was shopped against the other to see which could deliver the higher yield. All along, we failed to realize the consequences induced by the competition this practise created, affectionately dismissing it as co-opetition.

All the while, credit unions focused their attention on the bankers who were constantly trying to undermine credit union business, pushing for limits on the range of products and services that we might offer, in addition to advancing calls for taxation.

Bankers, increasing regulations, decreasing margins, and now the need to compete for members with the credit union up the block all mounted a formidable pressure on everyone, prying our focus from where it rightfully belonged——on the cooperative values and principles that are at the heart of credit unions. Why should we care about a national branding strategy we asked ourselves when our first obligation is locally to our members and the success of our own credit union?

In retrospect, it’s ironic to think that the more our business flourished, the more our behavior became like the bankers we so firmly abhor. To me, it appears we as an industry drifted from our real intrinsic nature as defined by those seven cooperative principles.

So, I only can wonder if future generations will be of similar opinion. Today, somehow, some way, I believe we have to find our way back to those principles and values that truly distinguish us within America’s financial services marketplace. I believe our survival depends on it. Wouldn't you agree?