By Frank J. Diekmann
I asked for it. And you delivered.
Last week I asked the credit union community—especially small and mid-size CUs—if they planned to be around for a while and, especially, if their goal was to make a go of it without merging. I presented an idea for whether there is any interest in a low-cost, highly-focused meeting or conference that would focus on nuts-and-bolts strategies for not just survival, but growth, with the agenda led by peer group-leading CUs themselves. In short, an old-fashioned Credit Unions Helping Credit Unions event that leverages the cooperative strength of the movement.
And boy, have CUToday.info readers responded with feedback, ideas, promises of attendance, and more. You can read more about it here http://cutoday.ssd.thinkcreativeinternal.net/From-Frank/Please-Read-This-And-Then-Share-Your-Thoughts. The suggestion box remains open, so please, take a moment, be a focus group, and let me know what you think.
And now, some Notes from the Road…
While picking up some continuing education credits in Hawaii in hula compliance, I was also able to make at least a little time for NAFCU’s 50th annual meeting in Honolulu. While CUToday.info had extensive coverage elsewhere, here’s a pu pu platter of items you might have missed you not there, or maybe you were picking up some continuing education yourself:
A Permanent White Hat
A constant presence at the NAFCU annual meeting every year has been Bob Marquette, the former CEO of Members 1st FCU in Mechanicsburg, Penn., who for 13 straight years has been on hand to accept the trade group’s White Hat Award. That award goes to the credit union that has done the most to raise money for NAFCU’s PAC. Sadly, Mr. Marquette died recently shortly after the meeting ended and he had returned home from Honolulu. NAFCU should rename the award “The Bob Marquette White Hat Award” in his honor.
Feeling Kinda Insecure 1.0
At the Hilton Hawaiian Village, when you log into the Wi-Fi, you receive a message like this one: “There are 2697 devices using this wife.” It’s a powerful reminder to lock the digital door.
Feeling Kinda Insecure 2.0
One of the other networks my computer detected in the hotel was named “Bloodbath & Beyond.” And that’s a powerful reminder to lock the hotel room door. And perhaps push the chest of drawers in front of it, too.
A Room That Shall Live in Infamy
Speaking of the Hilton Hawaiian Village, my room number was 1941. If you don’t see the connection, might I suggest Google.
A Red or Blue View? No
Jeff Havens had some pretty funny and interesting things to say about how old farts who reject anything new and young ingrates who disrespect experience can actually find a middle ground way to work together. You can read more about it here http://cutoday.ssd.thinkcreativeinternal.net/THE-feature/Are-You-Old-Or-Are-You-Young. But he closed his remarks about age demographics with a powerful pivot that drew some applause from the NAFCU crowd. “If this country is ever run by uncompromising Republicans or uncompromising Democrats, we are not going to have a country for very long,” said Havens.
Ship Shape Sharing
Cutler Dawson, CEO of the world’s largest credit union, the $83-billion Navy Federal, led a session during NAFCU’s annual meeting in which he shared how he has helped add nearly $60-bilion in assets during his 12 years at the helm. Get it? Helm! You can read more about the course he and Navy Federal have sailed (yes, the tide keeps coming in!) here http://cutoday.ssd.thinkcreativeinternal.net/THE-feature/CEO-Talks-Key-Decisions-That-Have-Driven-Growth . But he also offered this, as well:
- “On my tombstone will be engraved, ‘Cutler Dawson came to Navy Federal and created the Abusive Member Policy’.” In this case, Dawson was talking about employees who put up with abusive members and keep doing their best to “bend over backward” to somehow make them happy.
What was especially refreshing was to hear Dawson skewer one of the most ridiculous of sacred cows, that the customer/member is always right. (Of course, the skewering process is just slightly enhanced when you have $83 billion in assets.)
“When you have 7.2 million members like we do now, some of them are crazy,” he said straight up. “Nothing will make them happy. We had one member who sent 12 e-messages a day. It was a game with him. We had another member who wanted a check cashed but who had an outstanding loan for whom we declined to cash the check. The member said to the teller, ‘I come from a business that hurts people.’ The teller responded, ‘That’s nice, but I can’t cash this check.’ And 10 minutes later he got a call from our director of security who said, ‘You are done at Navy Federal.’ And he pleaded. And then he started sobbing. You have to have your employees’ backs.”
- Navy Federal is well known for another reason: it is the only credit union buying flights of national television advertising, including during Monday Night Football. The credit union uses Atlanta-based agency Fitzgerald in Atlanta on the TV spots.
“They took great strides to get to know us,” said Dawson. “It’s a little-known fact is I have to approve every TV ad. I said we don’t want to make people look foolish, and we want to make military people look like they are regular everyday people, which they are, who just happen to do extraordinary thing.”
- As for the philosophy that underpins the rapid growth at Navy Fed, Dawson observed, “Employees come first. The members follow. If you provide the service, growth will come.”
- Just how much of an asset outlier is Navy FCU compared to the rest of the U.S. credit union community? At one point a government shutdown loomed and the threat was that members of the military would miss a paycheck. Navy Federal decided that it would cover the pay of every member with direct deposit. And how much would that cost? About $600 million. The average U.S. CU’s total assets? About $26 million.
- With its FOM expansion, members of the military have become a smaller portion of its membership. But don’t look for Navy Federal to be giving its name a burial at sea anytime soon. “We talk about our brand all the time,” said Dawson. “We believe Navy Federal is a name people know and we’ve never gone anywhere near changing that name.”
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or @FrankCUToday.