Zambian official visits Jacksonville CUs as part of WOCCU's internship program

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.-A number of credit unions in the Jacksonville area have set up training sessions during the next few weeks for Noah Halwiindi, a field consultant with CUSA Zambia. CUSA Zambia, located in Lusaka in the African nation of Zambia, is a trade association for Zambian CUs that is equivalent to CUNA here in the United States. Halwiindi's local host will be the Northeast Florida Chapter of the Florida Credit Union League, said Mark Ivester, FCUL vice president of communications. Halwiindi is visiting this country as part of the "People to People" Internship program sponsored by the World Council of Credit Unions, of which CUSA Zambia and CUNA are a part. "Noah Halwiindi will spend this time studying every aspect of how credit unions operate and function in this country," Ivester said. While in Florida, Halwiindi was scheduled to visit and attend training sessions at several credit unions in Jacksonville. Staff at these CUs plan to brief him on the workings of a typical CU, with sessions on marketing, lending procedures, deposit accounts, training CU staff and compliance with federal and state CU regulatory requirements. Halwiindi was scheduled to spend one day each at Jax Navy FCU and the other Jacksonville area CUs he was visiting. He was going to be at ECCU several days, during which Dave Freeman from NCUA was visiting Florida to meet with him. In addition, Halwiindi was to meet with Mike Moss and Tracy Hancock from the State Comptroller's Office, and talk to ECCU Internal Auditor Kathy Pevy. Among the CUs Halwiindi is visiting this month is Educational Community Credit Union. At ECCU, where he was scheduled to be at the beginning of his visit Feb. 4, Halwiindi was to have an orientation and go to lunch with ECCU President/CEO John Hirabayashi and Linda Murrow, president of the FCUL Northeast Florida Chapter. After visiting other area CUs, he was to return to ECCU on Feb. 11 to meet with ECCU Chief Financial Officer Sam Inman, Financial Analyst Mark Beckworth and Accounting Manager Brenda Cornwell. Financial management areas Halwiindi was to examine included capital standards; matching asset/liability provisioning terms; pricing-setting interest rates; liquidity standards; dividend policies; budgeting; board and management reporting; and trend analysis. During his stay in Jacksonville, Halwiindi is scheduled to be the guest of John Wallace, former president/CEO of Educational Community Credit Union. Wallace had visited CUSA Zambia recently and was instrumental in initiating Halwiindi's visit. "John Wallace went over to Africa to work with credit unions over there, and they kind of struck a relationship while John was over there," said Jax Navy Federal Credit Union Chief Operations Officer Rich Alfirevic. In addition to ECCU and Jax Navy FCU, other CUs on Halwiindi's itinerary included: JM & Associates Federal Credit Union; Florida Telco Credit Union; and State Employees Credit Union. "We're excited to have him come to Jax Navy Federal Credit Union," Alfirevic said, prior to Halwiindi's arrival. "It will give him a chance to see how we do things in this country, and give us a chance to see how they do things over there." Jax Navy FCU staff members scheduled to have sessions with Halwiindi included Vice President of Real Estate Lending Dale Orr, Senior Vice President Kathy Bonaventura and Vice President of Collections Shirley Bashlor. In addition, Jax Navy FCU President/CEO Terry West and several others, including the FCU's directors, planned to meet with Halwiindi as well. "At Jax Navy, he'll be learning about the lending side," Alfirevic said. "We're going to go over policies, underwriting standards, loan terms, interest rates, different collateral that we use, the different types of forms we use, the different types of lending, as in real estate and commercial lending. And we'll cover processing and collections." Halwiindi also was invited to attend the mid-February Northeast Florida Chapter meeting as part of his itinerary in the Jacksonville area. In addition, Halwiindi was scheduled to travel to Tallahassee with Melba Jordan, FCUL District II director, and Linda Murrow. "He'll learn how the league supports and assists credit unions throughout Florida, and how the league carries out its advocacy role before the Florida Legislature and Congress," Ivester said. According to his advance schedule, Halwiindi will conclude his visit in Florida and travel to WOCCU headquarters in Madison, Wis., in late February for additional training and observation at CUNA, prior to returning to Zambia. -lide@cutimes.com