10/17/2008

Currency Pies a Mayor!

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09/28/2008

Credit unions rock Lifehacker and other mainstream blogs lately!

By Tim McAlpine

I caught this one in my RSS reader this morning and it took me by surprise. Good news credit union stories don't typically come from the biggest blogs on the planet. There was a great article posted to LifeHacker on Friday: Why Choose a Credit Union Over a Bank. Within the article are numerous links to other mainstream sites singing the praises of credit unions lately.

The credit union blog-o-sphere is a great place but it largely speaks to the converted. When credit unions get this kind of positive coverage in a non-industry blog with a huge readership, it is worth noting. As of the time of this writing, the article has been read 15,322 times. That's awesome.

Take a read and pay special attention to the more than 70 comments. For the most part, the comments are very positive. Good news like this couldn't come at a better time for credit unions.

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09/16/2008

What are you doing?

By Nala Henkel

For credit union day, that is. I know Gene Blishen of Mount Lehman Credit Union always has a wonderful BBQ.

Internally, I've always wanted our entire staff to go guerilla on behalf of the credit union industry, and have a BBQ outside a bank. I wonder how long we could do that before we got "escorted" away?

I don't know if we'll be able to make that happen, but I do know I'm going to get a t-shirt with the "It belongs to me!" slogan for the year on it. Maybe a "Happy Credit Union Day" too.

I'll keep you posted! In the meantime, what are your plans?

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08/29/2008

Being "a number" is okay for some

By Nala Henkel

I know it seems like I've been slacking, but over this busy summer I HAVE managed to ask three people what it would take for them to become a credit union member (remember this post? Johanne, thou hast not been forsaken!)

And dang it if all three weren't ALREADY credit union members! But here's the ironic thing I found out. My question opened a very emotional memory for one of these people–I'll call him John.

"I recently lost my member number." John told me. He used to have quite a low number, and when his credit union merged they adopted a new banking system which resulted in him losing his low number. Now he doesn't feel special, he said.

Let's forget for now that, after some scoop reporting, I tracked this merger down to find out it happened OVER FIVE YEARS AGO and that he obviously has difficulty with the definition of "recent." This fellow still hasn't gotten over it! I've only HEARD stories of people like him (and they're usually in their 70s. This man is in his mid-40s.)

And that begged another question - why was his sense of importance to the credit union tied to a number? Didn't the credit union make him feel valued in other ways?

His answer? No. Now (he says) I'm just like everyone else. Before it was a topic of conversation, now there's no conversation. This could have been one of those catalyzing moments that had him moving all of his business away, but when I broached this he shrugged in that ambivalent way many consumers do when weighing the aggravation of the event against the aggravation of finding a new financial home and said "I have all my stuff there."

I'm completely unaware of whether or not I have a member number at my credit union. The only numbers that matter to me is my account number and my PIN numbers, because I need them for transactions. Maybe if I had a member number I would feel more like I belonged?

What are your thoughts about numbers?

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05/23/2008

Challenge your members

by Nala Henkel

In a recent Ipsos News Alert, it was reported that "fully eight in ten Canadians (86%) enjoy being exposed to people and ideas that challenge the way they look at the world."

When Larissa put out her great "difference" video on behalf of Young & Free Alberta, I sent it to several family and friends. I wanted to share the kind of work my company does. Here is the response from one of them:

"This is so informative!!  I never really knew the difference before.
I am convinced that I should join our local Credit Union."

So many credit unions that Currency works with have growth opportunities with their existing membership, let alone new members. Banking is such a commodity these days, that providing great service is merely table stakes. What does your credit union do that is different? How can you challenge members to rethink their banking relationship and deepen their credit union relationship?

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04/22/2008

That first day flush

By Nala Henkel

My 15-year-old daughter Taylor is one-month into her new job. She's an umpire for the community softball league. To get this job, I had to tell the league's organizer that she was interested (it helped that she'd played for a few years too) and she had to pass a simple test after her full day of training.

The league supplied the training (by Softball BC professionals), uniform and gear, and rule book. When she got her gear home, she put it all on and walked around the house alternately calling strikes and checking her hair. When the schedule was posted online, she wrote every game down on the calendar - location and time. She always pushes me to get her to her games early, and during games (wonder!) she cleans home plate periodically without being asked.

Kidding aside, she respects softball in a way she didn't before. She works more and has more responsibility than she ever did as a player, but she likes it. It's a pretty cool first job for her, and I overhear her talking about it to her friends often.

This made me realize that you never have a more enthusiastic brand advocate than when a staff member first starts his or her job at your credit union. Could you imagine them trying on their name badge and checking it out in a mirror? Wouldn't it be great to maintain that first day flush of enthusiasm throughout their career? I suspect that if more people could keep in touch with the feeling, there would be less turnover and stronger brands.

What do you think?

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03/16/2008

Shout out: State Employees' Credit Union from North Carolina is a catalyst of signficant change!

By Tim McAlpine

My friend Jeff Hardin, the CU Communicator, posted a video interview with SECU's CEO Jim Blaine.

The SECU Foundation received the 2008 Wegner Award from the National Credit Union Foundation.

At $15 billion in assets under management, more than 1.4 million members and 214 branches, this is one huge credit union! A number of years ago, they switched the $1.00 per month maintenance charge on their 700,000 chequing accounts to a $1.00 per month donation to their charitable foundation.

This change in accounting generates more than $8 million dollars annually. These funds are contributed back into the communities SECU serves. Wow!

Think about how powerful and simple this idea is. Just imagine if all 172 million credit unions members world-wide donated $1.00 per month to credit union foundations in their own communities. $1.00 is like a quarter of a specialty coffee! Imagine the collective good that the credit union movement could do with this money.

Kudos to the SECU Foundation and kudos to Jeff for sharing the story.

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03/14/2008

The CU Skeptic, Mel Gibson, bankers and blog paranoia.

By Tim McAlpine

A very smart, politically plugged-in blog reader from the U.S. tipped me off to something that I had never considered.

Insert deep movie announcer voice here. Could blog comments by credit union employees be used for nefarious purposes by the banking lobbyists in Washington in an attempt to topple the U.S. credit union movement?

Whoa, I deleted my first blog comment!

Are you still with me after my cryptic, heavy-duty intro? Other than spam, I have never removed a blog comment from our blog until yesterday. I am proud that our readers have kept things extremely civil in all 500 plus comments that this blog has received in the last 14 months.

After speaking with this caring reader, we both agreed to remove her comment and suggest an edit to one of the comments above her's. I checked with the commenter in question and we all agreed that a change would be prudent. With permission, here is the instructional comment that was first removed.

"We can all guess about The CU Skeptic, but here’s a blogging best-practice reminder. If you have your own CU blog or even just dabble in comments on other blogs remember your credit union should have a blogging policy that discourages:  Disclosing business performance or financial information.   Disclosing confidential or proprietary information (research from trade association events that require registration). I’d hate to see your public comments end up as written testimony at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on credit union taxation. I’m sharing this reminder to ensure positive outcomes for everyone. Thus far I’m enjoying The CU Skeptic’s work as a catalyst to ensure we deliver on the seven principles, even though he sounds a like Keith Leggett's puppet."

Say what?

I read this comment and the preceding comments and I didn't understand what could be used against the credit union movement.

Here's why. I am a Canadian credit union cheerleader with my feet firmly planted in both the Canadian and the US credit union systems. My knowledge of the political workings of Canadian system is very deep, while my knowledge of the political workings of the U.S. system is at the kiddie-pool level.

Up until yesterday, I considered this to be my real advantage. I'm that Canadian renegade who can spout off about crazy ideas without being mired in the realities of the governmental-red-tape-laden U.S. credit union system. In Canada, credit unions just do crazy creative stuff, pay their taxes and beg forgiveness when they step on the big bank's toes!

The reality for my U.S. credit union colleagues is very different.

The common refrain

Everybody talking part in the credit union blog-o-sphere can agree on one thing: we are passionate people who want to bring about positive change to propel the credit union forward. Sometimes our passion gets the best of us and we drop comments that we might regret later on. I know I've done it.

For example, what could happen if someone left a comment like this on an industry blog?

"We can keep doing things the way we have been and keep growing and keep under serving our members and the country or we can do something about it and make the changes so that we can make a difference and take the CU movement to the next level."

On the surface, many might slam their fist on the table and say, "hear, hear!" But think about this. Our banker counterparts are certainly using Google and the like to find statements like this. They could use this statement to prove that things need to change in a very different way than was intended by the commenter. It could be grossly misrepresented as a statement suggesting that U.S. credit unions need to be taxed. We need to collectively be careful on how we nudge our beloved credit union movement forward.
 

Here are some sample blogging policies from my friends at JayRay to consider for all of us.

Bloggers should:

• Know and use your credit union’s general conduct guidelines
• Identify and speak for yourself and use a disclaimer
• Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws
• Be personally responsible
• Protect privacy
• Protect your credit union's clients and suppliers
• Respect your audience and co-workers
• Know and reference other bloggers on the site
• Check your facts and correct your mistakes
• Don’t alter others’ posts without informing them
• Use in a way to add value to your credit union's business
• Be interesting
• Write about what you know
• Pay attention to quality of blog content

Bloggers should not:

• Disclose business performance or financial information
• Disclose confidential or proprietary information
• Pick fights

Paranoia? I don't know—I'm just that renegade Canadian credit union cheerleader that doesn't want to become that renegade Canadian credit union cheerleader that helped bring down the U.S. credit union system!

Leave a comment if you dare. You never know who's watching. Pardon my conspiracy theory overtones. Not only am I known to be a cheerleader, I am also known to be a bit of a smart ass!

UPDATE: The CU Skeptic has an excellent response on his blog. + More

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03/05/2008

YouTube love from Steamboat Springs!

By Tim McAlpine

Before and after our morning session,Larissa Walkiw and I conducted a number of random interviews with CUES Execu/Summit attendees. We hit them with some hard-hitting social media questions!

In between sessions, we filmed and edited it together and posted it to YouTube. Enjoy the show.

If we embarrassed you or made you look silly, we apologize. This was all done in good fun.

Why did we do it?

1. My contention is that senior folks in positions of power at credit unions need to experience social media firsthand.
2. To prove that this stuff is not rocket science. You can just grab a camera and get going.
3. We love a challenge on only four hours of sleep!

I sure hope I am still booked for another CUES speaking engagement in June!

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01/25/2008

The credit union blog-o-sphere is an amazing ongoing conversation.

By Tim McAlpine

This last couple of weeks of blogging for me have been really fulfilling. There is such a tight-knit group of really smart, passionate people that are so intent on ensuring a bright future for credit unions.

As a graphic designer turned marketer turned blogger turned cheerleader, I have been increasingly fascinated with the social web.

My post Who's in charge of this stuff on Open Source CU was an attempt to articulate this nagging feeling that the credit union industry was letting the social web pass it by. The interest and comments blew me away.

I then posed the question, If your credit union won't start a blog for the love, how about the money? on the Currency blog.

What transpired from there really solidified the wisdom of crowds for me. Ron Shevlin took me to task with his post Getting the boss to blog (or at least let you start one). We battled it out in the comments and he finished it with this Twitter gem.

Morriss Partee from Everything CU, then composed his ALL CAPS call to arms, How many CUs should be blogging?

Gene Blishen added to the conversation on his Tinfoiling blog with a great post,
How many CUs should be blogging or how many angels can dance on a head of a pin?

All the while, my Twitter feed has been going crazy.

In the meantime, Lisa Hochgraf has been exploring the question, Are blogs really so different? with her posts on the CUES Nexus Connection.

So what's the conclusion? If you are considering a blog for your credit union, the answers lie in these posts and, especially, in the comments. Explore these links—they are golden.

My take away is if your credit union is considering blogging, do it well and do it often. Dedicate resources and make it part of your marketing and communication DNA. You can't do it properly off the side of someone's desk.

Blogging infrequently without a plan and a consistent, compelling voice is like peeing in a dark suit. It may make you feel warm, but nobody is going to notice what you are doing. (You can quote me on that one Shevlin).

I sure hope Terrell from Verity Credit Union isn't right when she says, "Blogs are overhyped. There is a disconnect between bloggers (us) and the people we are trying to communicate with. Not everyone reads blogs."

What I do know, is that as all of this conversation has been going on, a powerful piece of social media delivered by a new voice in the credit union blog-o-sphere enlightened my computer screen (no it wasn't you, Mr. Skeptic) and proved the credit union difference using social media. Serendipity?

Thanks for participating everyone. I really need to move onto a new subject now!

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