Comments for CU Innovators

Comment on Credit Union InfoSec by Jerome Lindblom

Jerome Lindblom — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:54:10 +0000

Awesome contribution! My hubby and i certainly liked your info – clear and to the point, just the thing my spouse and I like

Comment on Speaking on CUSO’s… by Robbie Wright

Robbie Wright — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:41:34 +0000

yeah, you’re a bad friend, but I’ll let it slide this time. Just kidding, we’re all going to owe you for organizing Crash the GAC! Presentation went well and I really like talking to CU folks about new and upcoming things that pushes their minds a little bit!

Comment on Who’s more cooperative, credit unions or churches? by Jen S

Jen S — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 02:45:44 +0000

It’s ironic that you compared churches and credit union’s because I’ve been thinking along the same lines lately. In January I read a book that talks about borrowing ideas from other industries. One industry (if you could call it that) that I’m close to is church. So I started to think about ideas, systems, and successes that we can learn from successful churches and apply it to a credit union. Two things stood out to me:

#1 Fellowship:
Fellowship within the membership encourages participation, creates a sense of belonging & ongoing connection, discourages attrition, etc.

What if we didn’t just serve the community, but created community? What could this look like in a credit union? Perhaps it would be fellowship groups for budget accountability, debt recovery, strategic grocery shopping, investing, etc. Perhaps it would be in-branch book clubs or networking events. And, of course, there’s social media.

The idea is bigger than a one-time event, like a financial workshop. But instead something that creates relationships between community members and a next-step to apply learning. Instead of offering a workshop on strategic grocery shopping, you organize a group that meets once a month to share shopping strategies, clip coupons together, encourage one another, read through a related book together and build friendships, etc.

#2 Volunteer Leaders:
Volunteer leaders are built up to help facilitate small groups, organize events, and advocate for the faith. These people bring up replacement volunteers.

This is key, because it takes a lot of resources to do #1 Fellowship successfully. If the organization provides tools and training to volunteer leaders who actually carry out the fellowship groups and help make the events run smoothly, the organization can have a larger impact on and build more ties with the community. And brand awareness grows.

Comment on Speaking on CUSO’s… by Brent Dixon

Brent Dixon — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:06:59 +0000

The slides look great. Knock em dead today. I apologize for being a bad friend who skips out early.

Comment on Who’s more cooperative, credit unions or churches? by paul k

paul k — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:48:52 +0000

It’s interesting for me to see this article. My company designs facilities for both Credit Unions and churches and, in the past, they seemed like 2 totally unrelated markets. I can see now that there are similarities.

Comment on Who’s more cooperative, credit unions or churches? by Janine McBee

Janine McBee — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:42:08 +0000

As someone who’s been in the credit union movement since 1978 (started while in diapers), it’s been sad to see some barriers go up as credit unions see each other as more competitive with each other. I believe that communication and collaboration will be the key to innovation and success in the future for credit unions. We need to be more focused on reaching out to members and growing market share than worrying about whether or not we are competitors with each other. We need to be positioned to compete with non-traditional financial service providers to stay viable.

On another note, ever since DE training, I’ve questioned why credit unions and churches don’t partner together to reach out and serve the underserved. Bottom line, both are about helping people improve their lives.
.

Comment on Who’s more cooperative, credit unions or churches? by CU Water Cooler » Blog Archive » CU Water Cooler – 2/10

CU Water Cooler » Blog Archive » CU Water Cooler – 2/10 — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:58:47 +0000

[...] • Who's more cooperative, credit unions or churches? [...]

Comment on Money Merge Account/One Account by JoeTaxpayer

JoeTaxpayer — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:05:54 +0000

Larry – The HELOC shuffle when properly used can offer some savings. Unfortunately, when you look at a first year printout of cash flow, you quickly see that the system is not optimized. The one thing that UFirst claims they can do and it’s not calculated correctly. But – even when you calculate the best numbers, you se that the system can’t save you enough to pay for the software.
Let’s look at the example UF has all over the web, 6% mortgage, $5000/mo income, etc. Now, let’s say you are paid on the 1st, and all your bills are due close to month end. So you send the $5000 to your mortgage. Now, if you were earning 0% in checking, the $5000 sitting there now earns you $300/yr by paying off the 6% mortgage, and let’s even ignore the one day you might tap the HELOC. Now, I’ve given MMA the benefit with every step, right? Enough that you’d think me aligned with them. But of course the truth is their system will cost you some HELOC interest and you average checking balance over the month isn’t $5000, but more like $2500-$3000. So $300/yr is 100% of what the absolute limit would be.
So this magic system saves you $300/yr, $25/mo. But $25/mo isn’t enough to pay off the $3500 over 10 years or even 15. That should be enough to put an end to the discussion. It’s all a scam when you realize this. Plain and simple.