Author: Chip Filson

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Jeanne D’Arc: A 110 Year Perspective on Sustaining Co-op Success

After the first year of operations, Jeanne D’Arc reported $6,063 in total assets.  At December 2021, the number was $1.8 billion.  This is a compound annual growth rate of 12.25%.

The credit union’s history, like its namesake, is an example  of human determination and independence.  It also demonstrates a credit union continually expanding its role as a “civic trust.”

The third oldest US credit union celebrated its 110th anniversary on February 12, 2022.

How does it sustain success for five generations, through two world wars, multiple economic crises, changing technology and always competitive financial markets?

What can credit unions learn from the example?   Can this longevity provide perspective as credit unions evaluate multiple business alternatives today such as mergers, greater size and even buying out local banks?

I believe there is much to be gained from their history.  For the fundamentals of cooperative success have not changed because  they are embedded in coop design.

The Founding

The credit union opened in 1912 in St. Jean Baptiste Parish on Merrimack Street, in Lowell MA, to serve the Franco-American Community.   It was founded by a catholic priest adapting Canada’s Caisse Populaire financial model to serve French speaking immigrants in an area known as Little Canada.

These workers who provided the labor in in the local weaving mills were an early example of an entrepreneurial enterprise “cluster” that might today be described as a “textile silicon valley.”

From the beginning the Credit Union helped build the community as a mortgage lender.  The board voted to accept loan and mortgage applications in May 1912. Personal loans were capped at $100 with an interest rate of 6.00%; real estate loans at $2,000 with an interest rate of 5.00%. It recorded its first mortgage on February 21, 1913.

In the decade that followed the credit union closed over 252 first mortgages helping members move away from the noise of mills to resettle in the fast-developing Pawtucketville neighborhood.  Today almost 85% of the credit union’s loan portfolio is first or second mortgages.

Over the years the credit union has grown steadily as membership expanded out from Little Canada, first to the adjoining area known as the Acre, and eventually migrating to the surrounding suburbs and beyond.

The Acre was the historical entry point for succeeding waves of immigrants.  These included Greeks, Irish and more recently Cambodian refugees and Hispanics.  Lowell today has the second highest population of Cambodian arrivals after Long Beach,  California.  The credit union has always been known as a safe place for these newcomers to put their  money.

Legacy and Continuity

The credit unions roots run deep so that until 1977 all board meetings were conducted in French.  Mark Cochran is only the 7th CEO.  When he moved to Lowell from New Jersey the members would tell him stories about the credit union’s long history in the community.

At the time the credit union had begun rebranding itself as JDCU.  Mark returned to the  original name, Jeanne D’Arc, and reemphasized the credit union’s long time commitment to the area.  He set a priority that the credit union should also be celebrating its heritage in addition to members’ stories.

Today Jeanne D’Arc serves 93,000 members though eight full-service branches in Lowell, Dracut (2), Tyngsboro, Chelmsford, Methuen and Westford, Massachusetts and Nashua, New Hampshire.   It operates three fully operational high-school branches at Lowell High, Dracut High, and Nashua High School South that serve as both financial training for the students and a source for potential future hires for the credit union.

Focus on Members

Jeanne D’Arc’s focus is the foundation of every credit union, that is, it is a movement by and for people, not a financial growth machine.

The most critical outcome of this design is the trust earned with members. Their loyal relationship means the credit union can go out on a limb to help those with damaged credit or no credit at all. Paul McDonald, the cooperative’s vice president of residential and consumer lending, admits the credit union makes loans his previous community bank employer wouldn’t have, and that’s OK.

A Commitment to Community

These loans nourish the community and members’ roots with its long-standing lending priority of helping members buy homes in the local community.  “When they move in this part of the state, it is traditionally only 5-10 miles away.” says Cochran.

In the construction of its new head office, Tremont Yard, the site is on the base of the remaining historic brick foundation of the Tremont Mills Power House, dating back to the 1840s.  “We’ve got a legacy that means something,” Cochran says. “Building on this historical foundation fits our legacy.”

It was also in investment to revitalize this commercial area of Lowell.

“We’re committed to staying on the street where we were founded and giving back to this area that’s been so good to us. People are shocked when I tell them about our history. They don’t believe we’re this old and still in Lowell.” according to Robin Lorenzen, chief marketing officer.

This sense of place determines not only its branch network including those in three high schools, but also how it distributes time and money to meet local needs.

Reinvesting Resources  in the Community

In recent years it has granted $240,000 to the Lowell Development and Finance and Energy Fund, hundreds of thousands annually from its “We share a Common Thread Foundation” to over 100 local organizations as well as similar amounts directly from the credit union.

These organizations range from local little league teams, to Megan’s House-an addiction recovery center for young women; Lazarus House, a shelter and soup kitchen- to direct donations to members to pay home heating bills in winter.

Employees have volunteered almost 10,000 hours annually to make their communities a better place to live.  “We have a reputation for giving back and being visible at our local institutions and their events,” says Cochran

A Strategy Based on Legacy

The credit union’s century long record of service was implanted with its origin story.  It remains literally grounded in the communities of its members and continually reinvesting and attracting more members from  new arrivals.  It is familiar with its communities and known by its members.  It becomes their primary financial home.

Generations of Relationships

Combining this historical local focus with leadership stability enables the credit union to serve members’ financial needs for their entire life.

From “saving at school” elementary programs to educating and recruiting employees through their high school branches, to donations to senior retirement communities, the credit union connections last a lifetime.

Tying Everything Together with Culture

The credit union weaves the threads contributing to its success by creating a culture of service.

“Building a culture of service starts in the hiring process.  We seek peoples with a heart to serve,” says Cochran.

The Unique Capacity of Cooperative Design

I believe there are two additional elements in Jeanne D’Arc’s success that are often overlooked because they are inherent in cooperative structure.  The first is the belief in local ownership as the foundation for vibrant communities.  The second is continuing to mine a niche that is so well developed that even much larger competitors cannot hinder its continued expansion.

“We’ve not strayed from our roots, we’ve just changed how we do it,” observes Cochran.

This is an era when some believe the future can be secured though boundary-less markets, technology innovation or acquiring other financial institutions.

The 110-year message of Jeanne D’Arc is that dedicated consistent implementation of traditional cooperative “knitting” advantages can underwrite a resilient future.  One resulting in an annual growth in excess of 12% for over a century.

Cochran’s future goal is straight forward: “Our members will speak in glowing terms about the institution and its work on behalf of their communities.”

Tomorrow I will contrast this legacy with an interview of a CEO who retired after converting the 96-year-old credit union he led to a stock bank charter.

 

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Ukraine Rekindles the American Spirit

During his inaugural address in 2019, President Zelensky told lawmakers: “I do not want my picture in your offices: the President is not an icon, an idol or a portrait. Hang your kids’ photos instead, and look at them each time you are making a decision.”

The National Cathedral at night in Washington D. C.

(photo by Holly Kylen)

 

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Ukraine Notes:  Life Engages Art

Several observations from the Ukraine war.

LIFE: 

From a post by an American leaving the country with his Ukrainian wife:

I wasn’t a big fan of President Zelensky when he was elected. My wife and our friends didn’t support him; they didn’t think the former comedian was serious or particularly effective.

But in the past few days I’ve seen that the man has balls of steel. I get goosebumps when I watch him speak. This is a man who leads from the front. As Nassim Taleb would say, he has skin in the game. If he loses—if Ukraine loses—he’s going to lose his life. I respect him so much now.    Eugene Katchalov

ART:

“How Can Man Die Better Than Facing Fearful Odds”

By Thomas Babington Macaulay

Then out spake brave Horatius,
The Captain of the Gate:
“To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better
Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers,
And the temples of his Gods.”

Haul down the bridge, Sir Consul,
With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,
Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand
May well be stopped by three.
Now who will stand on either hand,
And keep the bridge with me?

—Lays of Ancient Rome (1842)

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LIFE: 

From a post by Lauren Elizabeth:

I have not been able to stop thinking about the Ukrainian woman who was filmed approaching a Russian soldier, offered sunflower seeds, and said:

“Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here…”

Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine.

ART:

From a post by Andy Tobias this week (click on link):

In so much of life, it’s not clear where exactly truth or justice lie . . . what balance between alternatives is best . . . what compromises are most reasonable.  All that.  For sure.

But other times, there is clear good and evil.

This is one of them.    (As, 80 years ago, was this.)

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LIFE: 

 BBC to launch shortwave radio service in Ukraine and Russia.   March 3, 2022

In order to reach audiences across Ukraine and in parts of Russia, the BBC will start a daily shortwave transmission to ensure access and the “resilience of its news operations.” Listeners can tune their receivers to 15735kHz from 18:00-20:00 and 5875 kHz from 00:00-02:00, Kyiv time. Shortwave radio is difficult to disrupt or censor. It is also useful for emergency communications in the event that internet connectivity or other radio signal is lost.  (Kiev Independent)

ART:  (humor)

Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities: No need to declare captured Russian tanks,    equipment as income.  

The National Agency for the Protection against Corruption has stated that captured Russian tanks and equipment do not need to be declared to tax authorities. This is because the value of this “crap” does not exceed 100 living wages. . . On a serious note, it said that war trophies are untaxable.    March 3, 2022  (Kiev Independent)

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ART and Life Together

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Miles to Go Before I Sleep

Frost’s poems are simple and profound.   The words are easy to understand, but latent with meaning.   The repeated final lines of “miles to go” is haunting.

Is it the speaker’s temptation to avoid obligations, to remain in the “lovely” woods, aware of duties elsewhere? That he must go farther, physically and metaphorically, before he can finally rest?

The poem’s wagon driver narrator is all of us.  As we close this week which includes both Mardi Gras’ revelries and Ash Wednesday reflections, as the example of human barbarity continues in Ukraine, and as we each bear personal worries, what are our “promises to keep?”

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

ROBERT FROST

Whose woods these are I think I know.

His house is in the village though;

He will not see me stopping here

To watch his woods fill up with snow.

 

My little horse must think it queer

To stop without a farmhouse near

Between the woods and frozen lake

The darkest evening of the year.

 

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.

The only other sound’s the sweep

Of easy wind and downy flake.

 

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

 

 

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The President and NCUA Board Members Provide their States of the Union

Today’s post includes excerpts from the speeches of the three board member at the GAC conference in DC this week.

At the same time President Biden gave his administration’s agenda update, NCUA board members were given the opportunity to share their leadership perspective with thousands of credit unions in person at CUNA’s GAC.

Whether their remarks are described as a “state of the industry,” “regulatory update,” or even a “future vision,” I thought about topics they might  address.

My focus was on issues that would most directly affect credit unions and their members.

Will their remarks offer insight?  Will they enhance the credit union brand? What are their priorities? Their tone: concerned or upbeat?  Words to be remembered or quickly forgotten?

How might the extraordinary role of credit unions with members during the two years of the Covid economic crisis be celebrated? And the movement’s political standing enhanced?

Below is my “listening” list with any relevant comment by a board member.  The link to their speeches are on NCUA’s website.

My GAC Topic Checklist

  1. Why the Board decided to implement the new three-part RBC/CCULR capital requirement within days of being posted in the Federal Register. The rule immediately restricted use of over $26 billion in credit union reserves and required $4-6 billion more in additional capital to avoid the RBC regulatory burden. What was the evidence of a capital adequacy shortfall in the system?

Board Member comments:

  1. What are board members’ views of mergers of long standing, well-run, and well-capitalized credit unions that result in fewer choices for members and reduce the movement’s financial diversity?

Board Member comments:

  1. Do board members believe that members’ collective savings compiled over decades should be used to pay off bank owners at premium prices in whole bank purchases? If yes, what should members be told in advance about this expenditure of their reserves?

Board Member comments:

  1. What do board members believe will be the consequences of low-income designated credit unions’ (LID) increasing reliance on subordinated debt from outside investors to comply with higher new capital requirements and for “acquisitions”?

Board Member comments:

  1. How will the agency’s two-year experience with remote exams and work from home impact agency costs and effectiveness? Will future staffing needs be lessened?

Board Member comments:

  1. Is there a special role for the not-for-profit, tax exempt $2.2 trillion cooperative system in American finance? If so what is it?   Or should credit unions be part of a level regulatory playing field?

Board Member comments:

  1. When will the credit union shareholders of the four corporate AME’s  $1.2 billion surplus, receive their final payment as the NGN program ended in June 2021?

Board Member Comments:

  1. Would board members encourage an enhanced democratic member governance role in cooperatives especially at the annual meeting’s election of directors? Would NCUA consider developing a cooperative scorecard, with the industry, to enhance awareness and better implementation of the seven principles?

Board Member comments:

  1. As individual board members frequently voice a commitment to transparency, when will details of the NCUSIF NOL modeling and the Cotton accounting memo be public so credit unions can understand the logic behind NCUA’s financial decisions? Both are subject of FOIA requests.

Board Member comments:

  1. Are there any areas where the agency is willing to work collaboratively with credit unions to develop better solutions such as a wider role for the CLF, a more supportive new charter process, or even succession planning resources?

Board Member comments:

  1. Please share your vision for the future of credit unions given the their record setting performance during the Covid economic shock and recovery?

Board Member comments:

My Summary

Obviously my list and board member priorities differ.   None commented on any of these topics directly.

The themes from the talks included fintech partnerships, crypto and block chain’s future, and an important insight from Chairman Harper:  Leaders of this industry, like all of you gathered here today, should prudently use your hammers to positively affect the financial prospects of all your members.

Harper did not explain the credit union hammers he was referring to.  He made clear the agency would use its hammers for increased consumer compliance. “However, the logic that credit unions do not discriminate because they are owned by their members is a dangerous myth and one that should end.”

If my topics for board members are not yours, it just shows every person has their meat or their poison.   Skim the talks.   They may respond to  your interests or not.

They do however provide an insight on each board member’s view of the industry and his role as a regulator.  And maybe you should go out and buy some hammers!

 

 

 

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Where’s The Rest of Credit Union Members’ $1.2 Billion?

In early January following NCUA’s posting of the September 30, 2021 AME financials for the five corporates, I published an analysis of the forecasted amount to be paid to credit unions.

That analysis showed NCUA projected total distributions of $3.185 billion to shareholders of four of the five estates.  The $569 million in additional payouts NCUA announced on February 28 brings actual payments to $2.010 billion.

Even with  these latest payments, there is still $1.2 billion due to credit union members based on NCUA’s financial projections.

The portion that NCUA announced as dividends on February 28 will go to the former Southwest Corporate shareholders.  They already received their entire capital contribution and are projected to be paid a $330 million liquidating dividend.   After this initial “dividend,” they will be due $120 million more.

Questions Abound

 

The NGN program ended in June 2021.   Why has it taking so long to return the remaining $1.2 billion balance to credit unions?   Will NCUA post a list of the remaining legacy assets and their current market  value with its December 2021 AME financial statements?

The five spread sheets of every legacy asset updated through September 2017 for each estate are already completed.  Shouldn’t NCUA now update these and publish the current market value for every remaining asset?

Is it fair to conclude that 12 years after the 2010 liquidation of the five corporates, only one was actually insolvent?   The other four were deemed insolvent because they were victims of exaggerated and inaccurate loss provisions projected decades into the future?

At this time NCUA forecasts total cash recoveries over $5.7 billion. Of this amount $2.6 billion was the TCCUSF surplus merged into the NCUSIF on October 1, 2017.

Is it correct to say this cash surplus occurred only after the agency subtracted $3.6 billion in liquidation expenses as reported in section B 1 Liquidation Expense in the AME financials?  Are these expenses approximately the same amount as the net legal recoveries?

The so-called legacy assets seized in 2010 have never changed.  Is it reasonable to suggest that this regulatory modeling miss-estimate of $6 to $8 billion was how NCUA determined the corporates to be insolvent?  Moreover, the vast majority of the projected credit defaults had not occurred when the corporates were seized.

If these erroneous projections of at least the $5.7 billion cash surpluses are reasonable, does this suggest why a look back at the entire event should be undertaken?  How can such misleading estimates be avoided in the future?

The Critical Work Still to be Done

 

NCUA’s errors in models and their assumptions resulted in irreversible damage for the credit union system and the individuals involved.   It continues still today in the diminished role of the corporate network.

While many might say let bygones be gone, the processes and powers that created this regulatory debacle have not been assessed or even changed.

The real work of the Corporate Resolution Plan remains to be completed.   Paying out the recoveries from events that should have never taken place should not be the end.  Rather it should compel a thorough look at what caused these errors and miscalculations in the first place.

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Yesterday the Most Important GAC Speaker Missed His Scheduled Appearance

In the gaggle of bipartisan congress speakers, the nobility of CUNA praising attendees, the inside the beltway literati’s wisdom, and the obligatory regulatory updates, there is one person who  missed his scheduled talk.

Chef and humanitarian José Andrés was to participate in a fireside chat with National Credit Union Foundation Executive Director Gigi Hyland on Monday.  The public purpose was to talk “how he lives out the ‘people helping people’ mission through his global humanitarian efforts as a passionate human rights advocate.

Chef Andres is not in Washington DC.  He was on the ground feeding refugees at the Polish-Ukrainian border where his World Central Kitchen has served more than 8,000 meals.

In a TV interview last night, his destination today was to go into Ukraine.

Chef Andres work in places of natural disaster such as Haiti, flood and hurricane regions of the American south and throughout the world have been widely reported.

In March 2020 I witnessed his work locally.   The entire economy had been shut down.  Restaurants were closed, but Chef Andres kept his Bethesda location, Jaleo open.  His staff was still employed providing free meals for several hours each day to workers and anyone else who needed access to food.

The occasion for his absence may say more than an appearance at GAC could have ever accomplished.

For Jose Andres embodies an aspect of “people helping people” that is often overlooked: he runs, not walks, toward danger, need and human suffering.

Walking Toward Member Problems in Credit Unions

Some of the most powerful examples of the cooperative model at work are when leaders walk toward, not away from their member’s needs.  Here are some examples:

  • In 2009 a Dayton credit union continued and expanded its dealer lending program when all other lenders backed out because the traditional car title collateral was suspect as the auto manufacturers faced bankruptcy.
  • A Florida credit union rewrote first mortgages with payments extending out 50 years to keep members in homes as  incomes were reduced by over half by job loss;
  • Credit unions in Lowell, MA (Cambodian), in St Paul MN (Hmong) and in Missoula, MT (sub-Saharan Africa) serve refugees from all over the world who are new to this country’s financial options.
  • The New York City taxi lender who divided his loans into A and B notes.  A was pay what you earn; B-we’ll worry about later.

Two Crises

In the national Covid economic shutdown in March 2020 there are thousands of examples of credit unions willing to walk in the members’ shoes, share their collective capital by waiving fees and giving loan payment holidays all the while setting up remote delivery options literally overnight.  Employees worked from new home offices and kept their full pay.

Perhaps the most consequential example was when I watched the CEO of the second largest credit union in America offer the senior management of NCUA a solution to the Corporate crisis in early 2009.  He said his credit union and his peers would buy all the legacy assets and carry them on their books if NCUA would guarantee no loss of principal.  He was turned down.  NCUA instead guaranteed wall street investors in the NGN program so they could walk away from the problem.

A Unique Capability

The cooperative model is unique in its capacity to walk the extra mile for its members when they are in harm’s way.   That is what self-help means.  Putting member needs first in all circumstances.

I don’t know what Chef Andres would have said in a “fireside chat” at the GAC.  However I believe his personal witness is more important than any words he may have used.

I would hope his example might inspire everyone to ask again what our slogan of “people helping people” means in today’s world.

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Two Reactions to NCUA’s Proposed Succession Rule

In January the NCUA board in a 2-1 vote issued a proposed rule to implement new requirements for succession planning.  Two observers’ responses follow.

One approach to succession planning.

Credit union consultant Ancin R. Cooley’s solution.

Her name is Asha Monroe Cooley.  There are two interpretations of this strategy.

  1. Ancin is hoping Asha will be his business partner and successor.
  2. He is perpetuating the Cooley brand, but in another context.

The message for credit unions:  either perpetuate yourself or create new models to sustain the movement.

The Most Important Thing is Not the Person in Charge  (excerpt from CUSO Magazine by Randy Karnes)

“I agree with planning for leadership changes, planning your response to them, organizing for the potential deer in the headlights look you get when your leader decides or has it decided for them now is the time to step off.

“But I do not agree with many of the things that succession consultants and “we can fix it people” will cast upon organizations in the quest to “predict the future and pick people now.”

“By forcing your hand to do something, NCUA has made it all too easy to simply check the box (possibly at great expense) and move on. But succession planning is important for an organization’s longevity. To be successful at succession/continuity planning and its execution:

  • Create an organization that expects, demands, and wills the organization to have a future that needs a leader. Build that expectation every day.
  • Present a firm to the marketplace, candidates, and stakeholders that is based on a dynamic mission worthy of its individual contributors’ time and efforts.
  • Focus on the key processes to complete the task more than you are on the subjective evaluations of human social tradeoffs. It’s a project with tasks to manage, not a social dilemma for the ages.
  • Focus on expected outcomes and their priorities more than the way to achieve them. A prospective CEO needs the assignment as the compass and goal more than a blank page to assign leadership skill to.
  • You need everyone to lighten up and avoid the drive for certainty and perfection from ensuring the paralysis and regrets of failure. It’s a 50/50 proposition picking a new leader, and one that gets better with doing it multiple times, not just once.

“Have plan, budget a course of action, and trust the future. And then get back to building the will, the confidence, and the positive belief that your organization will survive. Because the most important thing to your team’s future is not the person in charge; it is the confidence that your design, your stakeholders, and your membership can sell their intent to survive.

“I hate that so few credit unions today can proudly declare we are valuable, we are the ones our members need, and we see this mission as important, intoxicating, and something to hand off to our future leaders.

“Please do not see this as a task to simply put a new butt in a seat… it’s not. It is a constant culture of building a case to always be in the game and trust the future to those willing to lead.”

 

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Notes on Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom

President Zelensky’s response to US offer to airlift him from Kyiv:

“The fight is here.   I need ammunition, I don’t need a ride.”   (NYTimes Feb 26)

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From the staff of Music Mission Kiev, a nonprofit charity serving musicians, widows and orphans in the city:

Here is the word today from our VP of Operations, Serhiy Basarab: “We definitely do NOT feel safe. There is fighting where Oksana and Pastor Ruslan live. I just spoke with Oksana and other people. We clearly feel betrayed by the West. Pastor Ruslan is already at the drafting board with his unit. There are no weapons for us, he is writing to me in despair.    (February 25)

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Victor Havel, the first President of a free Czechoslovakia, a playwright and long-time dissident against Soviet rule:

Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but rather the ability to work for something because it is good not just because it stands a chance to succeed.

The more unpropitious the situation in which we demonstrate hope, the deeper that hope is.   Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism.   It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out.

In short, I think that the deepest and most important form of hope, the only one that can keep us above water and urge us to good works, and the only true source of the breathtaking dimension of the human spirit and its efforts, is something we get, as it were, from “elsewhere.”  

It is also this hope, above all, which gives us the strength to live and continually to try new things, even in conditions that seem as hopeless as ours do, here and now. 

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Why Ukraine Matters to America

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. . .  And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

 

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Military Credit Unions in Wartime

War has broken out in Ukraine.  All of Eastern Europe is on alert.  Some credit members are on the move.  Others wait to learn what’s next.

When a geo-political crisis occurs, America will be involved.   How much and when depends on events.

One sector of our society at the leading edge of these situations are military credit unions.   Many have spent years planning to help their member’s financial preparedness for whatever comes next.

Frontwave Credit Union’s Military Relations Team

The credit union’s self-description: There aren’t many communities like this one. One foot in the Pacific, the other in the desert. Home to the world’s greatest fighting forces — and a community of blue-collar fighters.

Five years ago, CEO Bill Birnie established the Military Relations Team.  He hired Chip Dykes and two other former marines to lead this group which focuses directly on the financial well-being of military members and their families.

Over 50% of the credit unions 117,000  members are current or former military members and family.

Front wave has been the credit union on base at Camp Pendleton since 1952.   It also serves at three other bases in the area.

Camp Pendleton is the location for all initial basic training on the West Coast for over 17,000 new marine recruits each year.  Bill was concerned about retention of these new military members, many of whom would be assigned out of the area after training.

Chip’s team are all certified financial counselors.  Their purpose is education  on all aspects of money management and financial planning for the new recruits and during every phase of subsequent training.

This counseling is especially important prior to deployment.  For example how do you follow your finances when in an area with no Internet?

The team focuses on member’s financial needs at all levels of the service at each of the four bases where they have branches.   In 2021 they provided over 10,000 marines and family members with basic and more advanced financial courses.

Helping Credit Union Staff Understand the Military Member

Just as important is helping credit union staff understand the needs of the military member with whom they work with daily.

Bill and all three team members are marines.  Many staff have had little direct experience of military life.  The team’s internal mission is to help customer service personnel understand needs from the military member’s perspective.

The Ukraine Crisis

When events such as the Ukraine invasion occur, “our ears perk up,” says Dykes.  The European theater is served from units located on the East Coast, so it may not immediately affect West coast units.

When there are relocations,  the team works directly with  all units on the ground to ensure their financial and personal affairs are in order.  And to offer help to family while the service member is away.

Following Events in Ukraine

This article provides a current visual map of Ukraine and the population of its major cities which are now referenced in hourly news updates.  Facts on the country’s demographic trends, its major natural resources and a short history of its relations with the Russian Bear are summarized after the large scale country portrait.

Solzhenitsyn on Ukraine-Russia Relations

(from an essay written June 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea)

“It pains me to write this as Ukraine and Russia are merged in my blood, in my heart, and in my thoughts. But extensive experience of friendly contacts with Ukrainians in the camps has shown me how much of a painful grudge they hold. Our generation will not escape from paying for the mistakes of our fathers.”

There are several terrific English language websites which provide news directly from Ukraine, which are updated frequently.  One is Kyiv Independent and the second the English section of the Ukrainian Information Agency.

The Independent includes minute by minute stories from across the country.

I will share other examples of credit unions serving their members who are or will be on the front lines of this crisis.