NEW YORK - Former Yankee pitcher Whitey Ford, NBC Today Show weatherman and personality Al Roker and U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) may have been the Big Apple headliners at the New York Credit Union League, Inc. & Affiliates' (NYSCUL) 80th Annual Meeting and Convention, held at Manhattan's Marriott Marquis (right smack in the middle of Broadway and Time Square.) But the major show stopper of the five-day event was the announcement of William J. Mellin as the League's new president and CEO. The news of Mellin appointment came from League Board Chairman Al D'Orazio who said, "We are very pleased to have a leader of Bill's caliber within our ranks to assume the position. He knows the credit union movement thoroughly, and has shown himself to be both talented and effective during his years here as senior vice president/COO for CUC Mortgage Corp., an affiliate of the league." Mellin was named Interim President of the League earlier this month. He replaced R. Wayne Diesel who resigned from the league in May. "My goal as president and CEO will be to foster unity among New York's credit unions, and to assist credit unions of every size in taking full advantage of the rapidly changing financial services environment while maintaining our traditional `people helping people' philosophy," Mellin told attendees. Mellin's comment echoed the theme of the convention, "High-Tech with a Human Touch." The various education sessions held were a mix of technology and member service-type venues. The implementation of a successful technology strategy has more to do with the mix of technologies than the size of a credit union, offered Harold Fried in his session on "Best Technology Strategies." Citing results from a Filene Research Institute study, Fried explained that the "best" and "worst" credit unions all implemented the same number of technologies, but the mix of technologies was different. Also, the better performing credit unions spent less on technology. "The large inefficient credit unions bought the expensive solutions with all the bells and whistles," said Fried. The large-sized credit unions with better performance records were buying front-end office system technologies that involved direct member interaction, such as ATMs, Web sites, audio response systems, and electronic bill payment services, etc. On the back-end, successful credit unions were implementing technology pertaining to lending products while inefficient ones were busy implementing things such as local and wide area networks and human resource information systems. The patterns of success and inefficiency are the same for large, medium and small credit unions. Fried, however, said that mid-sized credit unions are caught in between serving a small loyal niche of customers, like their smaller counterparts, and wanting to grow and become larger institutions. In attempting to become large and offer more services mid-sized institutions often "pay the price and jump in way over their heads in regard to technology," said Fried. In wanting to become "big players," Fried related a story about a software representative who said he could usually sell anything to a mid-sized credit union. As a bit of advice, Fried told the audience, "When you play the high-tech game, look for technologies that directly involve members and that have been around a while." New York State political strategist Norm Adler was also on-hand to discuss how politics is conducted in Albany and how the credit union movement can thrive and get things done in the legislature (state and federal) through grassroots efforts. Explaining the latent power behind the League's individual membership number of 4.5 million people, Adler said, "There are 10 million registered voters in New York State. Of that number, 4.98 million voted for governor. Of that, 2.57 million voted for Pataki." Addressing the audience of League members directly, he said said, "With 4.5 million members, you are powerful." Judging from the applause he received from attendees, NBC Today Show weatherman and author Al Roker was an undisputable highlight at the convention. Appearing immediately after a live shooting of "Today," Roker, said right off the bat, that he was a member of the NBC Credit Union which is located on the seventh floor of the NBC building, "conveniently located next to the commissary," he joked. He segeud into his new book on fatherhood, entitled "Don't Make Me Stop This Car," by saying his dad was a longtime member of New York's Transit Union Credit Union. "Those were in the days when bus drivers made change," he quipped. The title of his book comes from his father's warnings when a younger Roker, along with his brothers and sisters, would agitate his father during long drives. "My father would whack us all with one back hand," said Roker. "He then would threaten to start dropping us off, one at a time, on the roadside . . . I have a brother I haven't seen in 14 years," he joked. -
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