Credit Union Times - October 1, 2008 - (Page 4) NEWS Ike’s Aftermath Continues to Plague Texas Credit Unions By JIM RUBENSTEIN CU Times Senior Correspondent BEAUMONT, Texas — The credit union community had plenty of misery to deal with last week in the cleanup and loss of personal property from Hurricane Ike, which affected nearly 200 CUs in two states. Tales of perseverance and dedication elicited from mail clerks to CEOs were ubiquitous as CUs from devastated Galveston to water-logged Nederland recounted their experiences during another trying week. At the same time CUs along the hard-hit Texas Coast wasted no time to get back to the business of serving members with disaster relief products ranging from skip-a-payment to sharply reduced loan rates. Indeed, the $205 million Texas Bay Area CU in the Houston suburb of Pasadena said by midweek it had already granted more than 400 loan extensions valued at $3.5 million while also witnessing a sharp jump in new member applications in order to take advantage of its $500 disaster relief loan package. The loan offers came as Texas Bay, like scores of other CUs, were still trying to get all of the branches on full power, making insurance claims and repairing damage to drive-in canopies, ripped roofs and flooded lobbies. “Our branches are OK but we are still are using one diesel and three 5,000-watt generators in our main office,” commented Paul Withey, vice president of strategic development and public relations at Texas Bay. All of the credit union’s branches were able to reopen Sept. 16, three days after the storm hit. With more than half of its 60 employees relocated to small offices and stock rooms during the peak recovery period, the CU was able to function with high morale “and focused on helping the member even though we are in rather tight living arrangements.” In another story of perseverance, the $150 million DuPont Goodrich FCU of Beaumont stayed open for several hours to handle emergency cash and hand out bottled water to nervous residents of the city under mandatory evacuation orders Sept. 11, the night before Ike swept ashore. “Shelley Landry was one of our vice presidents who elected to stay behind and ended up being rescued by boat after losing her home and all her possessions,” noted Clint Wilson, marketing manager. “While she was stranded in five feet of water, she was bitten by ants and surrounded by alligators and even after this traumatic experience, she still showed up to work on the Monday after the storm to support co-workers and serve members.” Lisa Baione, DuPont’s senior vice president, applauded CUs’ resiliency. “I’ve been in the credit union industry for almost 25 years and have never seen a group of people embrace the credit union philosophy of people helping people like the DuGood employees,” she said, referencing a CU nickname adopted as part of its branding. In the two weeks following Texas Bay Area Credit Union made sure members knew they were open Ike’s landfall, CUs with the following Hurricane Ike. help of state regulators in Loui“The city, once the home of 57,000 residents, has siana and Texas and NCUA, worked hard at cooperatissued a long list of requirements and cautions to the ing with one another at many levels. returning citizens, including a sundown to sunup cur“I can’t say how grateful I am to AMOCO FCU in few,” said the league, which listed several Galveston Texas City for letting me set up our mobile branch CUs as still closed. right on their parking lot complete with banners and In Houston, however, JSC FCU said its Galveston all, so our members could access the cash they needed,” branch, located in the historic Strand district, “took in said Tony Budet, president/CEO of the $929 million about six feet of water” and remains shuttered. University FCU of Austin, whose Galveston branch Meanwhile, the Texas Credit Union Foundation was out of commission. said that more than $135,000 in Budet said his CU was one of the lucky ones to contributions had been received to help CU victims experience little structural damage to its free-standing with $120,000 in grants already made Galveston branch, located at the University of Texas to 247 individual applicants. Medical Center. The National Credit Union Foundation in WashingThe Texas Credit Union League, noting the dire ton said that its online CUAid vehicle had received straits of Galveston in an e-mail distributed last week, $60,000 from national donors. said an estimated 80% of Galveston households had —jrubenstein@cutimes.com some level of flood damage from the storm surge. Altura CU Keeps Strategic Planning From Getting Moldy By MYRIAM DI GIOVANNI CU Times Senior Staff Reporter RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Altura Credit Union is breaking its board out of the typical strategic planning meeting mold. This year the credit union has transformed its strategic planning session into a four-day mini conference. In addition, Altura CU invited St. Joseph, Mich.-based United Federal Credit Union to join them in a collaborative exchange of ideas. According to Altura CU President/CEO Mark Hawkins the changes had been in the works since last year’s meeting with the dual goal of addressing timing and format. “As far as timing, we wanted to move the meeting up earlier in the year from late summer to early spring, which would give us more opportunity to assess what was accomplished the previous year, what we need to do for the next period and have more time to plan the budget impact out,” said Hawkins. “With the format, we felt that sometimes with the day-and-a-half historically for planning the amount of information, which includes our four affiliates, our volunteers had to respond to, well it’s like drinking through a fire hose. We didn’t think it was fair or equitable so we pulled back to try to give them more time and came up with the idea of a mini conference.” Rather than cramming everything into a two-day session, the Altura Planning Conference would last four days and include nationally known speakers. With Continental Federal Credit Union CEO Tom Glatt acting as facilitator, speakers included CUNA Mutual Group President Jeff Post, Callahan & Associates President Chip Filson, CMG Executive Vice President/Chief Products Officer David Lundgren, Cornerstone Advisors Principal Steve Williams and NACUSO President/CEO Tom Davis. “We wanted to create a format with broader perspectives from outside speakers and then use the last day-and-a-half to talk about how it relates back to Altura and what we want to do for next year,” said Hawkins. He added that the extended format was designed to give participants an opportunity to interact, socialize, relax and, most importantly, digest the information that was presented. In addition to the speakers and working sessions, the conference also included golfing, a cocktail reception and dinner together each evening to further the exchange of ideas. The United Federal CU connection actually goes back to 2006, when it merged with First Resource Credit Union. Hawkins had a long relationship with First Resource’s CEO Dave Wyland and the credit union became the first to partner with Altura’s Auto Expert CUSO. Wyland passed away suddenly, shortly after the merger, and United’s new CEO Gary Easterling was unaware of the relationship with Altura. Over time, he began to hear about it from staffers and contacted Hawkins. “About January of this year, I went out to visit Mark Hawkins and renew acquaintances and he extended the invitation to come to their planning session in the spring,” said Easterling. “It was a great opportunity to see another credit union planning and Mark really hit a home run with this idea of a collaborative conference. My team and board came back from the conference pumped and excited.” United Federal attendees included Easterling, Board Vice Chair J.B. Hoyt, Board Treasurer Jim Rothfuchs, Board Secretary Anson Lovellette, Executive Vice President Finance/Technology Mark Weber and Executive Vice President Member Service Duane Nelson. According to Easterling, in addition to brand new information from the speakers, the team and board really enjoyed spending time with their Altura colleagues. “It was great to watch another board from across the country in action facing many of the same challenges we do and the collaborative environment created a burning sense of enthusiasm to create change,” said Easterling. “The longer breaks allowed people to digest and discuss the information so when you got to the actual planning everyone was on the same page and could contribute.” He added that the format and length of the conference also enabled him to better connect with his board members, and he has incorporated the idea of having industry speakers at United Federal’s board planning session in August. Hawkins says the board feedback has also been overwhelmingly positive at Altura. “They enjoyed having other people there and rather than hinder performance, it provided an opportunity to experience another perspective.” —mdigiovanni@cutimes.com Credit Union Times, October 1, 2008 cutimes.com http://www.cutimes.com
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