Education Credit Union Council, Spanish Fort, Ala., has named Teachers and Community Credit Union CEO Kenneth Saunders, the recipient of its first Annual Conference Scholarship. The Memorial Scholarship program provides scholarship assistance to credit union staff to attend CUNA Management School. Burbank Federal Credit Union, Calif., has awarded $2,100 in scholarships to the student volunteers of the Student Credit Union, a limited branch of BFCU. Award amounts ranging from $600 to $250 were presented to the six recipients. Bell-Tell Credit Union, Orlando, Fla., has awarded four $1,000 scholarships to the winners of the Paul H. Higgs Memorial Scholarship contest. High school seniors Thomas H. Gill of Orlando ; Kristen R. Murray of Geneva; Melanie Murray of Orlando; and Jennifer A. Pate of Leesburg were selected based on their academic achievements and essays written on the "Credit Union Philosophy"....

Teachers Federal Credit Union, Farmingdale, N.Y., has reached a landmark event with the addition of its 100,000th member, third grade teacher Melissa Marsh. TFCU now has the largest membership base of any Long Island credit union....

Grand Rapids Federal Credit Union, Mich., has presented Chairman Daniel H. Ocharzak with an award recognizing 25 consecutive years of volunteer service. Peninsula Community FCU, Shelton, Wash., has selected branch consumer loan officer Russ Couraud as its 1999 Employee of the Year. PCFCU has $96 million in assets and serves 19,803 members. Gulf Coast Community FCU, Gulfport, Miss., has been named the Medium Business of the Year. The award is based on a business' contribution to the economy, leadership and quality of life within its community as well as labor management relations and recognition within its own industry....

Central Florida Educators FCU, Orlando, has participated again in this year's Rotary Street Painting Festival. Proceeds from this annual downtown Orlando Rotary event will benefit the Inner City Games, one of the community's youth programs. The credit union has also raised over $2,200 for Junior Achievement, a program that provides practical economic education to students. Seventy -six CFEFCU employees, family members and friends registered to support the Junior Achievement's 17th Annual Bowl-A-Thon. CFEFCU has over $451 million in assets and serves 112,033 members. Affinity Federal Credit Union, Bedminster, N.J., will host its third annual Golf and Tennis Invitational to benefit the Adult Day Center of Somerset County, a nonprofit agency providing affordable, quality medical day care and other respite adult day services for disabled and elderly residents. The invitational will be held June 19 at the Stanton Ridge Country Club. Royal Credit Union, Eau Claire, Wis., has raised over $15,400 to benefit sick and injured children treated at local nonprofit hospitals of the Children's Miracle Network. The campaign raised funds through the sale of paper links and hearts. Each link or heart included the name of a credit union member and a loved one they wanted to remember in a special way. RCU's Chain of Hearts was part of a statewide fundraising effort for CMN by 351 Wisconsin credit unions....

ATLANTA-While bill pay vendors continue to maneuver to become the leading vendor for financials, are they making any money? Bill pay giant CheckFree has just announced revenues of $79.7 million for the third quarter of fiscal 2000, ended March 31, 1999, compared to $63 million for the same quarter of fiscal 1999, a 27% increase. Despite the increased revenues, the company reported a net loss for the quarter of $3.9 million, or 7 cents per share, diluted, compared to earnings of 4 cents per share for the same period in fiscal 1999, adjusted for non-recurring items. "We had another very solid quarter of executing on our plans. Stronger than expected revenue growth from our electronic commerce division resulted in our beating the high end of the expected range for revenue by $1.7 million," said CheckFree Chairman and CEO Pete Knight. "Our net loss of 7 cents per share is two cents better than the positive side of the range expected for loss-per-share," Knight said. The company did report that it had its strongest quarter to date in signing billers to its electronic billing and payment services, adding 32 new bills to its roster, primarily in the cellular, cable, and oil credit card categories. To date, 121 billers have committed to use CheckFree's electronic billing and payment services, either directly or through one of the 18 Biller Service Providers contracted to use CheckFree services. CheckFree distributed more than 62,000 bills in March, compared to 38,000 in December, and 20,000 in September. The company processed more than 15 million transactions during the month of March, compared to 14 million in December. -pgentile@cutimes.com...

The days of expensive custom interfaces may be coming to an end. A number of standards have developed in the IT financial services arena that give developers and third party vendors a common set of code to write to. But which standard will survive is yet to be seen. Below is a look at some old and new standards: * ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) This standard enables applications, including browsers, to interface or communicate with database apps via SQL queries. * SQL (Structured Query Language) A query language developed by IBM that has become one of the leading standards for querying databases in a client/server environment. * XML (eXtensible Markup Language) Enables Web masters to create their own tags so the structure of their data can be more accurately captured. Useful for loan apps and other more detailed forms. * OFX (Open Financial Exchange) A communication protocol spearheaded by industry giants such as Microsoft. OFX is actually an extension of eXtenseible Markup Language. * OFX 2.0 Leading OFX solution providers have begun work on the second generation OFX, known as OFX 2.0 * IFX (Interactive Financial Exchange) A standard many in the industry are hopeful will become the leading standard developers and vendors will write to in the future....

HIALEAH, Fla. - Deciding to apply for a charter conversion is never an impulsive decision. Aside from the paperwork that's involved in a filing, the decision has profound strategic business decisions for a credit union. For FPL FCU, the decision last month to convert to a state charter came down to one thing, said President Henry Prior - the credit union's ability to expand its field and membership and provide members quality products and services. After that, everything else fell into place. "It doesn't make a difference whether a credit union is federal or state chartered," says Prior." It's all transparent to them. What they care about is the continued viability of the credit union to be able to provide them with quality service and products." So does the credit union, and that's why it decided to submit a proposal for charter conversion to NCUA and the Florida Department of Banking and Finance, division of banking, according to section 657.067 of the Florida statute. Under Florida administrative rule, the division has 90 days to give its approval. Prior said a NCUA vote is tentatively scheduled for June 19. FPL was chartered as a federal credit union in 1951. The $226 million credit union counts about 142 select employee groups mostly in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties in its 39,000 membership. Prior explained that FPL didn't begin adding SEGs until about 1994 and "by that time, most of the larger SEG opportunities were already signed up with other credit unions." So most of the SEGs FPL has taken in are relatively small. "Under a federal charter, we have limited availability to select employee groups to allow us to expand," he remarked. " We have a strong primary sponsor, but we still need to diversify. When has putting all your eggs in one basket ever been prescribed as good business policy?" Running the credit union under a state charter will allow FPL to explore FOM expansion opportunities outside of its current SEG limitations. Florida has only one type of credit union charter-there are no association or community charters-so that means FPL will be able to bring new select employee groups into the credit union's field of membership without sacrificing any of its current SEGs. "I can't lose my ability to serve the FPL employees," said Prior. Although Florida has had only a handful of federal-to-state charter conversions so far this year, Prior is aware of comments that have been made concerning the wave of charter conversions, especially in California. He is not daunted by the trend or see in it any writing on the wall about the shift in balance of the dual chartering system. "Doesn't almost every state have a dual chartering system for every financial?" he asked. "The federal-to-state charter conversion trend we're witnessing is not the death knell for credit unions. I don't understand what all the ruckus is about." Coming to FPL from the savings and loan industry where he held a top management position, Prior says he'll be able to leverage his experience in going out into communities and building FPL branches. "I'm used to working in the community," he commented. Prior expects FPL's conversion to a state charter to be finalized by mid-July. -...

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Data processing models are cyclical and it looks like the "00" decade may bring a move away from client/server to a more centralized model. "Historically if you look at the `70s, `80s and `90s, the beginning of each decade started with centralization. In the `70s there was the creation of the mainframe, multi-tasking came in the late `80s and then client server phases. The phase is now back to centralization," said John LoPreto, vice president of application services for credit union data processor C.U. Processing, Southfield, Mich. Centralization isn't going to mean large mainframes built up off the credit union's IT room floor. Today's powerful servers strung together can act "mainframish" and bring that centralized approach. The openness that some DP vendors are today touting as a differentiator from competitors will be the rule, not the exception, in the future, said LoPreto. "Plug and play has become such an overused phraseology, but it is truly going to have to be plug and play," said LoPreto, who noted that industry standards like XML and OFX are helping DP vendors get there (see chart on this page for standards definitions). Dereck Strate, manager of application technology for C.U. Processing said the move away from client/server back towards server side processing is driven by the Web. "All you need to get to the server today is a browser. That's really what's shifting us back to a centralized approach," said Strate. LoPreto said one byproduct of the move to centralized server side processing is increased emphasis on bandwidth. "Servers are more robust, but also the bandwidth is becoming more robust. 56K is going to be obsolete. You're seeing ISPs penalize companies for using 56K. Three to five years ago fiber optics were unbelievable, but now they're common." Strate said data processing is really trying to keep up with the American family's lifestyle. "People are typing to reclaim some of their family time. They don't want to leave home to bank. We're going to have to provide the convenience level by providing services at a distance," said Strate. Simply put, that means providing wider access and more access points to the data. That doesn't mean the data processors will be providing the Net banking and other remote solutions-they're going to have to provide the access for third-party vendors' solutions or credit unions will look elsewhere, said Strate. Dan Chavitage, architect of EDS' CUBE system, said centralization is coming fast. One of the reasons is the proliferation of handheld devices and other high-tech appliances that members can use to access their credit union. "The whole PC business is moving back to a centralized mainframe computer. I see CUBE as a pocket mainframe. Things right now make sense for a mainframe environment. People are swarming around with handheld PCs. Credit unions want open access, controllable access and auditable access. "How are we going to do all of it? By running a tight ship in the computer room, which basically means mainframe instead of an uncontrolled room of PCs," said Chavitage. Chavitage described the DP system of the future as a piece of taffy that will be stretched and pulled in many different directions as the credit union strives to provide members with more entry points to the system. "My responsibility is going to be to allow unbelievable kinds of access to data. You would think the Web is the great equalizer and would decentralize everything, but not from our perspective. It's like pulling taffy from every direction at once," said Chavitage, who said there has to be one primary centralized piece of taffy (or core system) for users to pull from. John Schooler, vice president of business development for credit union data processor USERS, Valley Forge, Pa., said DP vendors are also trying to deal with a growing credit union industry sales culture. "I'd say the theme we are faced with is moving from transactional processing management to relational management without slowing down. In the old days you met the member face-to-face. Members got in line with a check or withdrawal slip and we were very good about moving those transactions through the lines, but now we're hearing more about sales cultures." To do the cross selling credit unions are demanding, member data is required, and not only that, very specific analysis of that member data is required, said Schooler. "Almost a level of artificial intelligence to analyze data is needed. It puts heavier loads on the system because you're doing a lot more looking at data and thrashing through data. The structure of data processors' data has never been oriented to this. It's been for posting transactions quickly not supporting a sales culture." Schooler and others interviewed said there's a drive to present a single unified user interface at the teller line and member service desktops so that member information from all systems-whether they're on a back-office mortgage system, securities system on a separate PC or what have you-will be available without the user having to go to different systems, or even different windows. "All vendors are working on it in one stage or another. Our perspective is through using open systems concepts and standards. We can never build all the interfaces to all the back-end hosts," said Schooler, who said concepts like SQL, XML and OFX are the standards DP vendors will need. Chavitage said EDS is counting on the IFX standard, but until it is complete EDS plans on unveiling its own standard interface, known as CUBELEX. "OFX is good for Quicken type stuff, but you can't book a loan with OFX," said Chavitage. He said IFX can't help book a loan right now either, but down the line it should be able to. "It's still a few years off. We're pushing a head with a standard of our own-CUBELEX. We'll publish the standard and then the vendor can present a transaction in CUBELEX. It gives people in the computer room control of what kind of applications have access," said Chavitage. Chavitage said larger DP vendors will have an edge in the truly open environment of the future because they have the economies of scale to cut vendors the best deals. "Be open or dead. Niche vendors do things they're own way. DP vendors will be as open as possible." LoPreto said DP vendors won't build systems in the "00" decade like they did in the `70s. "Back in the `70s technology was used to build the system and the business had to learn what to do with it. Now the technology is used for the business' sake. The whole purpose is to meet the business' needs," said LoPreto. Schooler said with more members controlling their financial lives from their PCs real-time posting will be essential. "Credit card postings done in batches at the end of the day won't be good enough. We're going to have to implement the real-time connectivity," said Schooler. Schooler said it will take some large entities, like ATM networks, longer to convert to the standard. "They're happy with their ISO 8583 standard. You don't see them making a lot of moves to migrate to SQL. But even they will have to." -pgentile@cutimes.com...

WASHINGTON -Most people involved with squashing the Y2K bug are tired of the success stories and tales of dedicated people overcoming a mammoth programming flaw, but federal financial regulators are still mulling over it. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council-which includes bank, thrift and credit union regulators-recently released "Lessons Learned from the Year 2000 Project." In it, the regulators explain what worked and what didn't work with Y2K. According to the study the financials that were best prepared possessed some or all of the following 10 characteristics: * Senior management and director involvement to ensure that the project plans were clearly defined, supported and monitored; * Consolidation, elimination or integration of technology on an enterprise-wide basis by developing current inventories of information technology systems and applications; * Improved oversight of service providers, software vendors and consultants; * More formalized and effective strategies and standards for testing information technology systems; * Detailed contingency plans that analyzed the effect of potential system failures on core business processes (e.g., deposit taking, lending, fiduciary services, etc.); * Better safeguards to detect fraudulent, malicious, and negligent acts from both internal and external sources; * Review of testing and contingency planning processes by internal auditors; * Open information sharing for developing strategies and to respond to media reports or perceptions that could reduce public confidence in the financial services industry; * Improved public relations with customers; and * Thorough legal review to assist in vendor management, documentation retention, and legal defense. Interestingly, the study said some byproducts of Y2K may help financials deal with future crises. "Many financial institutions reported significant benefits from the development of Year 2000 contingency and `event management' plans. Contingency planning evolved from a largely theoretical exercise to a problem solving and training tool to help organizations respond promptly to operational failures and natural disasters," stated the report. Contingency planning also helped financials learn how to operate their core businesses (deposit taking, lending, etc.) if their primary IT systems fail. Yet contingency planning wasn't even required by regulators in the early days of Y2K preparedness. Another positive post-Y2K effect cited by the FFIEC was improved public relations. "The Year 2000 project afforded financial institutions many opportunities to communicate with customers, building on previously established relationships and establishing new ones," stated FFIEC. Key PR tools included Y2K info on monthly and quarterly statements; displayed on Y2K posters in lobbies; on ATMs; advertised in local newspapers and on radio and television; and via special Y2K Web site messages. The monster tech project also helped unite tech and legal departments. "In-house counsel also benefited from working closely with the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Officer on a project that cut across a range of disciplines." One other significant benefit of Y2K the FFIEC cited and which is being echoed by many credit union IT professionals is the comprehensive IT inventory Y2K forced them to do. "Financial institutions developed current inventories of information technology systems and applications. This enabled many institutions to consolidate, eliminate, or integrate technology projects on an enterprise-wide basis." The FFIEC will send a copy of the Y2K Lessons study to the CEOs and directors of all financials. -pgentile@cutimes.com...

MADISON, Wis. - CUNA says that its Web strategy is starting to pay off. Last year CUNA's site (www.cuna.org) was overhauled in terms of design and content. The trade association added broader consumer financial news as well as ATM and CU locators and a daily financial service from Reuters. Dorothy Steffens, CUNA & Affiliates new assistant vice president of Web services, said hits and page views have been growing for the past six months. "I think a lot of it is because people are bookmarking our site now. Also more people have found about it through other means. There are a number of sites that refer to our site, such as MSN.com and bankrate.com," said Steffens. In March, CUNA's site saw 386,000 page views, an 11% increase from the month before. There were also approximately 2.4 million hits, which aren't as accurate as page views because each image on a page is counted as a hit, but Steffens said CUNA reports it because of the "wow" factor. Steffens said CUNA tracks where visitors are going on the site and News Now, CUNA's daily electronic news service, is the most popular page. News Now is followed by the CU Locator page which helps consumers find a credit union they may be eligible for. Next is the Products and Services page and then the Surcharge Free ATM locator page. "On an average day we're getting 13,000 page views," said Steffens. Coming soon to the site, said Steffens, will be a free CEO job posting component, as well as a shopping cart system that will let visitors roll through the site and make purchases as they go. "Really my vision of the site is to continue to promote the trade association functions; build the members-only area; and provide compliance and regulatory information," said Steffens. Despite its breadth, Steffens doesn't consider the CUNA site a true portal. "I don't like to use that word. I guess it could be perceived as one. I like to see it just as the leading credit union trade association site."...

WASHINGTON - After more than two years of working through district courts and appeal courts, the Iowa Superintendent of Banking, state Attorney General Tom Miller and other interested parties have reached the end of the litigation road in the case involving states' authority to regulate ATM transactions. On April 24, the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would not hear the state's appeal of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals September 1999-decision in favor of Bank One of Utah in the case of Holmes Foster, in his official capacity as Superintendent of Banking and Administrator of Electronic Transfer of Funds, Iowa Division of Banking, Iowa Department of Commerce v. Bank One, Utah, National Association. As a result of the Supreme Court's decision, a portion of Iowa's Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) concerning ATM law will be enjoined. In addition, the Court of Appeals injunction against the state Superintendent to allow Bank One's ATMs to operate in Iowa remains in effect. The case now returns to Federal District Court where the balance of the state law, including the prohibition against ATM surcharges and the requirement of universal, non-discriminatory access (so that all ATM cards must work in all ATM machines in Iowa) still has to be decided. Bank One is challenging the state's requirement. Earlier this month, attorney's general for 40 states and one commonwealth filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. The Iowa Credit Union League, Iowa Bankers Association, Iowa Independent Bank and Iowa's Community Bankers filed a similar amicus brief with the Supreme Court (CU Times April 26). Commenting on the Supreme Court's decision, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said "we intend to continue to defend Iowa's law in the interest of fairness to consumers and all financial institutions in Iowa." -...

Who's leading more consumers onto the Net? Depends how large the financial is. Below is a breakdown of leading Net banking vendors based on asset size....

Four Utah CUs, the CO-Op Network win bid to place ATMs in Salt Lake City airport..............................................Page 24...

DALLAS and NATICK, Mass. - Partnerships are, and have been for the last five years or so, the name of the game in the bill pay industry. Rivals Checkfree, Transpoint, edocs and others have been trying to outdo each other in forming strategic partnerships that will bring more bill pay customers into their pipeline. Andersen Consulting, one of the world's largest IT and management consulting firms, and edocs, Inc. have formed an electronic bill payment and presentment partnership. Under the alliance, Andersen Consulting will offer electronic bill payment and presentment solutions based on edocs' BillDirect product suite. The market for electronic bill payments is expected to continue to grow. The Giga Information Group predicts that approximately 743 million bills will be presented and paid electronically this year. The Meta Group anticipates that 90% of the 500 largest billers will offer bills on their own Web sites by 2003. Dale Raaen, a Partner in Andersen Consulting's Communications/High Tech Global Market Unit, said while financials may not consider bill pay/presentment as a revenue generator, there's an opportunity there. He said financials can sell goods, services and advertising space on their e-bills and Web sites "Effective EBPP requires the ability to display the bill on a company's own Web site, while still being able to send summary bill data to a wide variety of sites more readily accessed by consumers, such as portals or bank Web sites," said Doug Coons, Managing Partner of Customer Relationship Management for Andersen Consulting's Global Utilities Practice Coons said....

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Concord EFS, Inc., an electronic commerce processor that owns the MAC network, has announced that it will acquire Cash Station, Inc., the nation's 7th largest electronic funds transfer network. The Cash Station network has approximately 645 financial institution members mainly in Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Approximately 7,000 ATMs and 6 million debit cards carry the Cash Station brand. The company also switches more than 15 million transactions per month, and drives over 1,600 ATMs. "We expect that consolidation among EFT networks will continue, driven by the fact that financial institutions are merging and demanding broad geographic coverage under a single brand," said Ed Labry, president of Concord....

WASHINGTON - Credit unions and credit union vendors are gearing up to offer members e-statements after NCUA amended its Truth and Savings regs permitting CUs to e-deliver monthly statements. NCUA is following the lead of the Federal Reserve's amendment to Rule DD which allows financials to deliver periodic statement disclosures in electronic form if the consumer agrees to that form of delivery. There is still some confusion as to how a credit union gets a member's consent to deliver statements electronically. Does the credit union need to mail a printed disclosure form for the member to sign and return, or can the CU deliver the disclosure notice electronically? "Under the Truth and Savings Act NCUA is required to promulgate the same rules that the Federal Reserve promulgates within a certain time period of when the Fed's rules are effective. Since we are statutorily required, we basically take the Fed's rules and make them our own taking in account the unique nature of credit unions and then altering the rule to make them applicable to credit unions," said Frank Kressman, an NCUA staff attorney who worked on the rule. Kressman said there wasn't really any specific credit union uniqueness to cause NCUA to stray from the Fed's rule in this case. "The Fed was purposefully flexible in determining how this agreement has to come about. All the Fed really said was that prior to a credit union being able to send the periodic statement disclosures to members the member and the credit union have to agree that that's how it's going to be done. The credit union can't all by itself decide that they're going to start sending members electronic statements without their consent," said Kressman. But how that member/CU agreement comes about isn't in the new rule. "What the Fed said was that they had no intention of defining what that agreement is and how it is struck. The Fed said the state law will control, from a legal point of view, if the bank and the customer have an agreement," said Kressman. He said NCUA isn't going to define what an agreement is either-for the CU's own benefit. "It provides flexibility. We don't want to hamstring any credit union or their members into following an NCUA format. In this rule it's up to the CU and their members to come up with the agreement, and ultimately it will be up to the state law to come up with the agreement. If a particular state says the only way an agreement can be made is if it's in writing with these ten things, then that's how the agreement must be," said Kressman. -pgentile@cutimes.com...

WASHINGTON-Congress asked them to deliver a study about taxing online sales... and no one was surprised when they couldn't reach an agreement. The Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce, a 19-member group formed in 1998 to study the Internet tax issue (CU Times, Jan. 12) closed its sessions in disagreement, divided by those who sought to extend the exemption until 2006 and those brick-and-mortar proponents who claimed it was an unfair advantage over retailers. In the end, Chairman James Gilmore (Governor of Virginia) submitted a report to Congress without having won the two-thirds vote required to recommend a proposal. Recently, an all-out push by retailers and local government leaders forced Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), former presidential candidate and Chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, to postpone a vote to extend the exemption contained in The Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998. But there may be a bug in that computer law, say some state taxing authorities. According to Jim Zingale, executive director of the Florida Department of Revenue, the law does not apply to consumer and business purchases made over the Internet. It only forbids states from collecting sales tax on Internet access charges-the monthly fee paid to Internet providers such as America Online, CompuServe or other ISPs (Internet Service Providers)- and leaves the requirement of paying "use" taxes to the buyer. Until now, buyers have been blissfully ignoring that burden in much the same way that catalog buyers who purchase from out-of-state sellers like L.L. Bean and others have usually done. That party may be over soon; but it likely will not be consumer-driven buying that dooms it. Rather, it'll be the business-to-business driven purchases. For while estimates put consumer online buying at 1%-2% of total sales ($30 billion retail), B2B sales estimates may represent three-fourths of total Internet sales. State and local governments are fearful they may lose as much as $10 billion per year in tax revenue in the next three years. A series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions put the tax payment responsibility on buyers after states sought to have catalog businesses collect sales tax. The Court ruled that unless a company had substantial presence in that state (a retail store or warehouse) mail order companies did not have to collect tax. Few buyers pay it voluntarily, and individual sales are almost impossible to track (yet) so most state authorities have just let it go. But B2B commerce is another story. For an individual business that fails to pay use tax on online purchases, an agency auditor may impose payment of back taxes, penalties and interest, according to Zingale. The Net tax debate picked up steam during the presidential primary season when McCain challenged all other candidates to make the perceived moratorium permanent. In mid-January, he signed an "E-Freedom declaration" promoted by an anti-tax group called Citizens for a Sound Economy, but George W. Bush refused to buy or byte. The now-expected Republican nominee said he supported an extension from three to five years on the exemption, but offered that the marketplace was too unpredictable to warrant a permanent tax ban. Most state governors (Bush is governor of Texas) favor an imposed Net tax The most positive suggestions made by the Commission are that states streamline their tax structure in preparation for an eventual agreement; that the 3% federal excise tax on phone companies be repealed because they are no longer regulated monopolies; and that any surplus funds generated from lower welfare costs be used to provide computers and online access to low-income Americans. -caburger@cutimes.com...

SAN FRANCISCO - If credit unions are to serve the next generation of members, they had better have a compelling Internet presence and be technologically savvy - or else they might as well close up shop, according to a marketing consultant. "The Web is moving so fast that in the face of this juggernaut, in terms of how fast it's changing and how fast it's expanding through society, it means you simply have to `webify' your credit union or you'll disappear," said Frank Feather, president of Global Marketing Consultants. "I absolutely guarantee it because the next generation of members will not interact with you in the way members have interacted (with you) in the past." Feather's message was delivered during WesCorp's Economic Forum 2000 and Annual Meeting held here April 16-18. He was one of two speakers who addressed Internet issues. The other speaker, Chuck Martin, chairman and chief executive officer of Net Future Institute, discussed the role of e-business, which he said would be driven in the future not by business but by the consumer. "This has incredible implications for every industry, every profession and anyone doing business virtually anywhere on the planet," Martin said. "The point is we have to rethink virtually everything in business and how we do pretty much everything." Feather warned credit union officials that their membership base "was changing before your eyes" and would continue to change. The next generation of members, he said, will have been raised with computers and will expect credit unions to be able to provide electronic access - and more. "People would much rather be on-line interacting in real time than standing in line," he said. "There's a big change going on in the way people lead their lives and the technology that they're using," Feather said, adding that a new computer was switched on for the first time somewhere in the world every second, 24 hours a day. "The Internet is still a baby," he noted. "It's barely learned to crawl. It's moving so fast that indeed it's the future. The Internet is the future." Citing the growth of automated teller machines, he said that in 1996 ATMs accounted for more than 50% of transactions at banks in the United States. In less than 20 years, he predicted, they will have captured the other 50% of transactions, eliminating the need for tellers at banks and credit unions. He said a similar situation will happen with computer access. "The Web takes financial transactions out of the banks and credit unions just like the ATMs before," he said. "There's no difference. We've been there before. "E-commerce is not something that's down the road," he added. "It's happening now. It's happening in financial services." In the next few years, Feather predicted that e-commerce would be replaced by mobile commerce, with consumers able to handle financial and other transactions, including downloading cash, via their cellular telephones. Feather offered a variety of suggestions for credit unions, ranging from becoming Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for their members, giving away cell phones or providing cell phone access to account information and reinventing themselves to better serve their members. "Why can't credit unions be more like Starbucks?" he asked, suggesting that the financial institutions consider "nice cozy booths" where members could sit down and discuss their financial affairs with tellers who had become "financial services officers." "This (technology) revolution changes the way you need to think about the business that you're in," Feather said. "You're not in the money business. You're in the business of information about money. The money, the transactions, are incidental." Martin, speaking at session earlier the same day, touched on a similar theme. Using on-line book seller amazon.com as an example, he noted that the company "isn't about selling books. Amazon is about changing how people buy. "What we're going through here is a change in behavior," he said. "It's a change in behavior in society of everybody in the world. That's what this is all about. It's not about technology. It's really about changing habits and changing what people are actually going to do and how they're going to do it." Martin also said the Web was no longer about selling goods and services on-line. "That's trivial," he insisted. "Selling stuff on the Web is a failed strategy. That is not what business is all about in this environment. It's about transforming how you do virtually everything - how you integrate with your members - how you do everything all the way back that really matters." Feather said credit unions needed to develop a Web site strategy which "must drive the entire strategy of the institution, not the other way around." "The CEO is not just the chief executive officer of your credit union," he said. "The CEO must be the chief e-commerce officer of your credit union." The challenge facing credit unions was in figuring out how to become an e-commerce membership organization, he said. "How do we marshal this Internet juggernaut in the interests of our members rather than being swept aside by it?" he asked. Feather recommended that credit unions offer high-tech and high-touch services for their members by becoming a "brick and click highway." "Concentrate more on the clicks than the bricks," he advised, noting that "the bricks need retrofitting." -...

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STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. - One might think that a statement fulfillment company serving credit unions might be a little concerned about losing business because of NCUA's recent rule on e-delivery of statements. But not so says Lasertech CEO Mark Schulte. Lasertech, which does all the traditional statement services-printing, stuffing, and shipping-is ready for the electronic approach to statements, said Schulte. "The way we're going to handle this is to use our online data archival system to actually load member statement data into this secure online system for those credit unions that want to provide the statements electronically," said Schulte. However Schulte said the unique thing Lasertech is doing is sending e-mails to members with a link that will take them to their statement. Members will then input a password to view their statement. This method eliminates the member having to log on to their CU's site to view their statement. The members are accessing a Lasertech system directly. Schulte said Lasertech can also embed a link within a CU's home banking system for members to view their statements. Schulte said Lasertech is even helping credit unions with e-mailing the disclosures required for CUs to begin delivering statements electronically. Lasertech provides statement printing and mailing to about 300 credit unions. Schulte said providing the statements electronically is about 80% cheaper than the traditional print and mail method. "The real savings is in the postage. The postage is typically the largest expense a credit union pays to mail statements," said Schulte. Lasertech archives the data (statements) for the credit union. "The Internet has been the biggest change in our business in a long time. It's put us in a position to pipe data directly to members," said Schulte, who said Lasertech also offers access to other forms such as tax forms. Schulte sees a big market for e-delivery of statements. "I think that as more and more consumers get computers at home and get access to the Internet, you're going to see a larger percentage of this stuff electronically." Schulte said Lasertech is also innovating with nontech products. "One of the new things we're doing is custom messaging. It allows the credit union to provide custom messaging within the body of the statement based on the member's participation or lack of participation in credit union product offerings." Schulte said right now Lasertech is just looking at accounts and if a member doesn't have a car loan, for example, the CU can send them a statement message. He said in the future the analysis will get more sophisticated and the messages more specific. -pgentile@cutimes.com...

EAST LANSING, Mich. - State Sen. Mike Rogers (R-Brighton) got a major boost of support in his campaign for the state's eighth congressional district April 18. Almost 25 state credit union leaders gathered in the Kellogg Center and presented Rogers with a $10,000 contribution - $5,000 from the Michigan Credit Union League Legislative Action Fund (MCULLAF), and $5,000 from the Credit Union Legislative Action Council (CULAC). U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) was also on hand to offer words of support, the Michigan Credit Union League reports. Rogers is a member of the Senate Banking and Financial Services Committee and has a perfect pro-credit union voting record. He is seeking the soon-to-be-vacated seat by U.S. Rep. Stabenow (D-Lansing, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.). -...

ROME, N.Y. - Up State FCU, chartered in 1951 as a state-chartered credit union which converted to a federal charter in 1979, is once again a state-chartered CU. The $280,000-million CU's charter conversion was approved by the State of New York Banking Department on April 19. As of May 1, the credit union will be known as Up State Credit Union. Roxanne Sopchak, vice president of marketing for the credit union said Up State has continually assessed the benefits of the different types of charters to determine which is in the best interests of the credit union's members. When Up State converted to a federal charter in 1979, it was so the credit union could take in select employee groups. During the months of uncertainty prior to passage of The Credit Union Membership Access Act, the credit union laid out its options again. Sopchak said the ambiguity in the language in the NCUA Field of Membership and Chartering Manual concerning "close proximity" forced the credit union's latest decision to convert. Up State includes among its nearly 80,000 members about 500 select employee groups throughout an eight or nine county area in central and northern New York. Because the credit union's members are so widely dispersed, Sopchak said "a community charter was not appropriate." -...

Economists advise financials to keep steering cautiously through economy's predicted slowdown.......................Page 22...

OREM, Utah - Credit union data processor SOS Computer Systems here continues to add to its Centryx e-commerce solution. Three Utah credit unions are bringing check imaging to their members this month via SOS' new Centryx imaging component. Check imaging is just one more way for credit union to try and attempt to eliminate paper and reduce costs. It gives members the ability to pull up an image of their cleared check via their CU's home banking system. Deseret First Credit Union, Utah Central Credit Union and Family First Credit Union, in partnership with clearing firm Rocky Mountain Corp. and SOS, will offer a new check image viewer as an option to SOS's Centryxr e*teller Internet banking systemr. Centryx is meant to be a complete CU e-commerce solution that allows the CU to pick and choose the different components, according to SOS. "Right when a member requests their account history, the draft number just comes up in bold with an underline. When a member passes under it they see the hand letting them know there's a link there. They click on the draft and the date and all the clearing information is displayed," said Joe Shelby, sales and marketing manager for SOS. SOS DP solution runs on IBM RS/6000. Currently the company serves about 130 credit unions. Shelby said SOS wanted to streamline the process so a lot of resources weren't taken up storing the images themselves. "It's a pretty convenient process because the images are tied to the processor (Rocky Mountain Corp.) of the drafts themselves. We give them info for indexing to bring them to the server. It's very efficient," said Shelby "Everything is moving to an e-commerce environment. This is just the tip of the ice berg. It is a more efficient way to do business," said Shane London, President/CEO of Deseret First Credit Union. "Our members expect these kinds of options and services." According to SOS, the new service makes the front and back of a draft available within 24 hours of the credit union processing the drafts. Members will also see the payee verification and balance reconciliation. -pgentile@cutimes.com...

MINNEAPOLIS - In this Internet investing era, credit unions that want to become their members' first choice for investments are going to have to do much more than just offer high yield money market accounts and CDs from the teller line. The `90s was the decade of the individual investor. The days of investors relying on high-priced stock brokers and financial planners are over. Stock brokers used to be viewed as treasure chests of Wall Street information, and many are, but thanks to the Internet much of that information has been disseminated to millions of consumers. From thestreet.com to wallstreetcity.com, surfers don't have to look far for company research tools. But all of those personal finance sites have something else in common-most of them carry banner ads and links to popular online trading sites such as E*Trade, Ameritrade and Datek. And while stocks aren't a core credit union product, many industry analysts believe credit unions need to offer members stocks to keep their other relationships going. In fact, a recent Card Services for Credit Unions' cardholder survey found that online investing was one of the three most desired products among members surveyed, yet only 14% of the credit unions surveyed offered it. A CUNA/PSI Global study found that 55% of CU members are online, compared to 37% of nonmembers. But the Net-savvy of CU members can actually be a bad thing if credit unions don't offer them their own online investing options, said Bob Vosburgh, CEO of Stockwalk.com's private label unit. "Credit unions have the option to put E*Trade links on their sites to show members the way to online trading, but the silly thing is when the member clicks on that E*Trade link they could be gone forever," said Vosburgh. While "forever" may be a bit strong, Vosburgh said the fact that many online trading firms now own banking subsidiaries (such as E*Trade's Telebank) there's a chance members could start doing more than just investing with these firms. Vosburgh said Stockwalk.com has tried to find a solution for credit unions to "ease the pain in competing with super-sized banks' investment options." Stockwalk.com, which has signed six "large" credit unions, according to Vosburgh, gives members the ability to debit their share accounts to purchase stocks. "We have set it up in such a way so it's all debits and credits from the checking account," said Vosburgh, who described online trading as an "e-revenue" source for CUs. Members must still have a Stockwallk.com account virtue of SEC regulations, but money gets funneled into it from a member's share account at time of purchase. There are two versions of Stockwalk.com's services. One is the fully customized private label deal that lets the credit union personalize every page of Stockwalk.com's online investing solution. The other is by the credit union partnering with an online banking vendor Stockwalk.com has a relationship with. The Minneapolis-based firm has many relationships with popular CU Net banking vendors-Digital Insight and cavion.com to name a few. With that package the online investing solution is still customizable with the CU's logo and other branding information, but there are not as many customization options. However, Vosburgh said this solution does the job from a branding standpoint and is much more affordable than the private label deal. For both programs, members log on to their credit union and click on an investment link provided by Stockwalk.com. They are linked to the online trading component, which includes the CU's branding information. "It looks like they're still doing business with the credit union. And we don't really let them leave the credit union's site. There are no links to financial competitors," said Vosburgh. Of course members will see Stockwalk.com early on when they view an investment disclosure as mandated by the SEC and the National Association of Securities Dealers. Despite the E*Trades of the world, Vosburgh believes credit unions have an advantage with online investing. "E*Trade was great for the early adopters, but we're seeing a move back to clicks and mortar. People want to know they can go down the street to their credit union if they have any problems," said Vosburgh. Stockwalk.com provides CUs with full-service member trading call center support. "We have someone answer the phone in a generic bent for trading support. The beauty of the whole thing is if they get frustrated they can complain to their favorite teller and the credit union can let us know." While Vosburgh said Stockwalk.com does everything to prevent the credit union from having to field investor complaints, he said just that local option to do so may give members an extra level of comfort. Stockwalk.com charges users $18.95 a trade. To open an account members need $2,000. Vosburgh said the company set it at $2,000 because of research that shows investors with less than that tend "to bleed their accounts with a lot of trades." "The top 19% of the accounts usually end up being the only positive flow to the bottomline," said Vosburgh. But for a limited time Stockwalk.com is reducing the account minimum to $500. Vosburgh would not say how much revenue CUs see from trades, but said each member's trade will bring a percentage back to the CU. Stockwalk.com Group is the parent company of MJK Holdings Inc., which owns Miller, Johnson & Kuehn, a 20-year old full service brokerage firm. For more information visit www.stockwalk.com. -pgentile@cutimes.com...

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. - CU at the DealerT, the point-of-purchase auto lending subsidiary of the Washington Credit Union League voted on April 18 to merge with the Rancho Cucamonga,Calif.-based CU Direct Corp. The merger will take effect this summer. The Washington Credit Union League said the decision to merge the two operations was made to provide expanded lending opportunities to credit unions and their members in Washington state. CU at the Dealer was launched in 1999 to help finance automobiles in Spokane and most of Western Washington by allowing members to leverage their credit union's indirect lending power while at the dealer. The program will be renamed Credit Union Direct LendingT to unify branding...

FISHERS, Ind. - Indiana Telco CU, chartered in 1941 as Hoosier FCU, is changing its name again. Effective May 1, the nearly 60 year old CU will be known as Forum Credit Union. Just as the first name change was prompted by the credit union wanting to have a name that more clearly emphasized the CU's relationship with its sponsor - Indiana telephone company employees - President/CEO Gary Irvin said the latest name change reflects the credit union's more diverse membership. The $435 million Indiana Telco counts among its 74,000 members over 1,000 select employer groups....

WASHINGTON -Veteran NAFCU Vice President for Communications and Technology Pat Keefe will be ending 16 years of NAFCU service and go to work for rival CUNA on June 5. There he will assume the newly created position of vice president of communications and media outreach, and will be responsible for media relations, communications strategic planning, and "involvement in raising the awareness and visibility of such key CUNA initiatives as the National Credit Union Brand Campaign and CUNA's new partnership with the National Endowment for Financial Education," according to a CUNA press release....

OKLAHOMA CITY-Five years to the day after a terrorist bomb destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Building here, the families of the 168 victims killed- along with the survivors and the search and rescue workers that saved them- gathered to commemorate the site as a national memorial. Federal Employees Credit Union, located on the third floor, suffered the loss of 18 of its 33 employee-staff. Many more were injured, some quite seriously. President William Jefferson Clinton and several members of his cabinet attended the ceremony. The memorial will be jointly operated by the Oklahoma City National Memorial Trust and the National Park Service. It will be open 24-hours a day, seven-days-a-week....

EAU CLARE, Wis.-During its recently held annual meeting (its 36th, to be exact) Royal Credit Union Chairman John C. Sackett proudly announced a string of accomplishments the CU had made during 1999. RCU returned over $16 million in dividends to members over the year's span, he said. Some others are: A new Member Service Center was opened that is now recording some 25,000 phone calls a month from members. RCU increased its membership by 6,903, making for a new total of 87,444. RCU disbursed 104,000 loans, funneling $311 million into the communities it serves. RCU's real estate lending department disbursed 2,300 loans, making it the number one lender in Eau Clare and Chippewa Counties. The RCU Charity Classic raised $7,500 for the Interfaith Hospitality Network, the Chippewa Valley Free Clinic and Junior Achievement. RCU has a four county (Eau Clare, Chippewa, Trempealeau and Barron) community charter....

SAN ANTONIO - Southwest Business Corporation, an insurance and financial services provider, has announced the introduction of its new quarterly publication, FOCUS. The magazine, designed to both educate and entertain, will provide insight and information about mortgage, insurance, and investment topics pertinent to financial institutions and business-to-business services. FOCUS, will feature original graphics and artwork from SWBC's marketing media design department and articles will be written by guest columnists, industry experts and SWBC staff. For more information call 830-321-7398....

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JACKSONVILLE, Ark. - Intranets are fast becoming a technological staple at large, medium and even small companies. Credit unions are starting to log on to their SEG's intranets, so to speak, to give SEGs desktop access at work to their credit union. Intranets are used so an organization can circulate information internally through electronic means. Intranets are not always accessible via the Web, however, Web links can be added to Intranets that give employees access to certain areas of the Web. Arkansas FCU, Jacksonville, Ark., has managed to convince about six of its major SEGs, including Timex and Riceland Foods, to place links to the credit union's Internet banking program on their Intranets so employees can have access to their CU's Net banking system from their workplace desktop PCs when they log on to the company's Intranet. "We are finding that more and more companies are providing Intranets for their employees," said Lorraine Baisdon, vice president of marketing for Arkansas FCU. Baisdon said from a tech standpoint providing the link for the SEG to place on their Intranet is fairly simple, so SEGs are usually open to the idea....

SALT LAKE CITY - Credit union data processor CUSA Technologies has launched AMS Image 1.0, an archive management system for document storage and retrieval. The system provides CU employees access to image information via a graphical user interface. A search engine allows images to be retrieved by type of document, date, operator ID, member number and other criteria. Images can be viewed on-screen, printed, resized, rotated, annotated, highlighted, redlined or section blocked. For more information visit www.cusa.com....

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Prologic, a software solutions provider for the financial services industry, is beefing up its U.S. presence. The company is set to open four new offices in target cities in the U.S. The offices will be in, New York, Chicago, Phoenix and Orlando. Prologic is based in Vancouver, with its U.S. headquarters in Atlanta. Prologic currently powers some of Stanford FCU's online initiatives. The company is getting serious about wireless technology. Its i-Wealthview enterprise wealth management products will soon feature capabilities for WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and SMS (ShortMessaging Service)-supported wireless Internet-access devices. Prologic CEO Mike Cardiff said the U.S. banking market is just getting more sophisticated with the integration of insurance, banking, and securities because of financial modernization legislation....

WORLD WIDE WEB - The Y2K bug produced a number of jobs for people in the information technology sector, and many of them were in the consulting realm. But what about life for these consultants after Y2K. Peter de Jager, one of the most well-known Y2K consultants in the financial services industry, is starting a new monthly newsletter, titled "Managing Change & Technology." The newsletter will be sent out monthly via e-mail. According to de Jager, the newsletter concentrates on the issues surrounding change and is written in a conversational, friendly style. For more information e-mail de Jager at managechange@home.com....

BEAVERTON, Ore. - Internet solutions provider Corillian Corporation has filed an answer and counterclaim in response to the patent infringement lawsuit brought by rival S1 Corporation recently Corillian denied infringing any valid claims of S1 Corporation's patent and requested that the court issue a declaratory judgment that the claims in S1 Corporation's patent are invalid and not infringed by Corillian. Corillian is led by Ted Spooner, who has a strong credit union technology background. The company recently went public and is traded on the NASDAQ under CORI. For more information visit www.corillian.com -...

HOUSTON - iwayloan.com, an online consumer lender, has formed an alliance with eMiser.com, a Web site design, hosting and online loan application vendor. Under the agreement iwayloan.com will provide mortgage solutions to eMiser.com's credit union clients. Credit union members of eMiser clients will be able to apply for mortgage loans online. Credit union members and employees can also check the status of the loan applications using iwayloan.com's Loan Tracker. In February eMiser.com and Lending Solutions, Inc. announced an alliance for LSI to offer its credit union clients eMiser.com's Web design, Web hosting and online lending services. For more information visit www.emiser.com and iwayloan.com....

How much is enough? California's largest credit union, The Golden 1 CU, just obtained a community charter for 11 more of California's 27 counties! Why leave six counties untouched? I do realize that everyone has differing views of success and obviously differing views of what is good for members. I also find it interesting that a multi-billion dollar asset credit union can mention the phrase "economy of scale." Is Stan Hollen, president/CEO, insinuating small credit unions should become a SEG of the Golden 1 to achieve an economy of scale? I was under the impression that our trade association (CCUL) was to provide that for their clients. It warms my heart that Mr. Hollen, is looking out for everyone's welfare by reminding the underlings that his monopolistic credit union's move into their county won't hurt much! (Yes, I saw the article in the April 3rd issue of Credit Union Journal regarding the Golden 1 funding a technology grant for small credit unions, kind of ironic huh?) It must be noted that the largest credit union in the state of California was conspicuously missing in supporting the CCUL's Statewide Advertising Campaign, which failed to garner enough support from our so-called cooperative movement earlier this year! It is tragic that a once noble movement is quickly becoming its own worst enemy. Give `em hell, smaller credit unions! George Davis CEO California State & FECU...

The largest credit union in the State of California, Golden 1 CU, has obtained a community charter encompassing 21 of the state's 27 counties. Now they have 77% of the state including 83% of the state's population. The Golden 1 said their invasion of other credit union territories with their expansion plans "won't hurt much." The key word here is "much." May I ask: How "much" red must a credit union bleed before it hurts "much?" Credit Union Times reported Stan Hollen, president, The Golden 1 as stating the economy of scale will greatly help in serving members. Are they seeking economy of scale or rather economic cannibalism? Are they after the same economy of scale as the now defunct billion dollar banks like: Security Pacific Bank, First Interstate Bank, Home Savings, or Glendale Federal Bank that merged to provide better customer service? Is this the same credit union that got spanked in a member class action lawsuit as reported in Credit Union Times for violating certain federal bankruptcy laws? Was the fine really $5 million? Let's all hope in the credit union community that The Golden 1 manages this statewide expansion monopoly better than they manage their own collections department. We don't need any more bad press at a time when we are trying to accomplish bankruptcy reform. And where is our cutting edge trade association? The California Credit Union League reports a policy of non-involvement when issues of CU overlap and CU charter encroachment. A question, for CCUL: Is the tail wagging the dog? Respectfully submitted, her majesty's loyal opposition. Stuart Perlitsh CEO Glendale Area Schools FCU...

Thinking outside the box may be just another catch phrase of the decade, or is it? For years we, as marketers of our products, have been struggling with differentiation and diversification. What can we do different than our competitor? How can we attract members or customers better than the next guy? How is our company better than theirs? In our haste to one-up our competition, we must remember the primary issue, "What's in it for me, the consumer?" When it comes to financial services, there is no doubt that everyone is fighting for your member's dollar. The key is to make the credit union your members' first line of thought for their every financial transaction. There are three key ways to grab your members' attention and keep it: * Technology: You've heard the expression, "We can send a man to the moon, but we can't..." Well, now we can! The sky is virtually the limit in today's technology driven marketplace. There are so many more avenues to reach members than ever before and if you don't take advantage of them, someone else will. Instant gratification can easily sum up the wants and needs of today's consumer. Through avenues like ATMs, audio response, and more recently the Internet, they have been conditioned to expect self-service and instant results. When developing a business or technology strategy, keep this in mind, "If you don't take care of your member, someone else will." Every day there are more mortgage lenders seeking to help your members consolidate their debt, there are car dealerships looking not only to sell your member a product, but to gather interest by financing it as well. More and more companies are competing on your playing field. With the wide-range of technology available to credit unions today, it is possible to stay in the game and even to win! There are so many ways to reach your members; to make their lives more convenient. Take for instance home banking. Members are able to do almost all of their transactions on-line, and while they're at it, they can apply for a credit card, consumer loan, or even a home mortgage. In some cases, an on-line loan application can be approved within 24 hours; some even less! That is the instant gratification that your members are craving. Within the next few years it will become an expected service by your members. Another way to reach members at their convenience is to put branches "in their way." A "virtual" branch may be just the ticket in gaining repeat business, as well as new business, without the cost of a new facility and additional staff. A step up from the traditional ATM machine, a virtual branch combines the flexibility of home banking with the cash dispensing capability of an ATM. Put this branch in a local shopping mall, grocery store, college campus, or even their place of employment and you've got a new point-of-sale for your credit union without the cost of the "brick and mortar." Technology is a big part of bringing you together with your members, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Never before have businesses been able to serve their clientele with such a range of services without requiring the staff to support it `round the clock....

WORLD WIDE WEB - Credit Union Times' third annual credit union Web site contest, the eAwards, is now open for entries....

The system in place to appoint individuals to one of three positions that constitute the National Credit Union Administration Board is pathetic. Credit unions deserve better. These facts are well-known in credit union circles: * Credit unions are far down the pecking order in the national political scheme of things. Let's face it, an appointment to the NCUA Board does not rank right up there with an appointment to the FDIC or U.S. Supreme Court, for example. Not even close. * NCUA is not exactly a household word in the White House from which Board appointments emanate. In fact, NCUA is best known for controversy rather than accomplishment. * The person supposedly recommended by the President of the United States does not have to know anything about credit unions, doesn't even have to be a member of a credit union, doesn't have to be qualified in any way other than to be alive, breathing, and be in the right political spot at the right time. * An appointment to the NCUA Board, like all political appointments, represents payback time to an individual who did something on behalf of the sitting President. Like current Chairman Norm D'Amours who helped Clinton get elected in New Hampshire. * An endorsement of an individual for consideration by CUNA or NAFCU is usually the kiss of death for that candidate. Is it any wonder, then, why so many past NCUA Board appointments have taken the credit union world by surprise? And why so many of them have started out like fish out of water? To the credit of some past unqualified appointees, they were quick learners and early on did some homework to find out at least a little bit about the industry that they were put in a position to regulate. To the credit of credit union people, they were polite, patient, and even helpful, during the new appointee's learning curve period. But that begs the real questions: "Are credit unions always getting the caliber of individual that they need and deserve for each of the three NCUA Board positions? Do recent appointees reflect the tremendous changes and improvements that the credit union industry has undergone? Has the political appointment process improved in any way since NCUA was first created?" The obvious answers are "no, no, and no." Unfortunately, no one, but those directly involved with credit unions seem to care who gets the appointment. Politics continues to overrule qualifications. A case in point is the recent revelation straight out of the blue that Goeff Bacino is the hands-on favorite to get the White House nod to move into the NCUA Board position currently occupied by Norm D'Amours. It may be done as quickly as the Easter holiday as a recess appointment. If that happens, from the time Bacino's name was dropped on the industry as the favorite son of the Democrats, until an actual appointment, it will have been accomplished in record time. I am on record as predicting that D'Amours will be gone by the end of this year. With a Bacino appointment, he will be. However, a Bacino recess appointment has almost no chance of getting confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. Obviously, Republican Senators feel confident that their man, George Bush, will be the next President of the United States. That happening, President Bush and his new cadre of White House aides will expect to make their own appointments, especially since under that scenario the board seat in question is mandated to go to a Republican as would likely the chairmanship. Depending on the Bush-Gore outcome, the Bacino appointment could well be a short term appointment at best. But the system that thrust Bacino into the forefront is the larger issue because of the grave injustice it does to credit unions. Nothing against Bacino personally. He has been a long time associate and friend. Nevertheless, there are certain nagging questions that need to be addressed. Such as: * How and why did his name as a shoo-in come out of nowhere with little or no warning? As many credit union observers know, Bacino has lusted after a spot on the NCUA Board almost since the day he could spell credit union. Every time there has been a Board opening, his name surfaces only to quickly disappear. His personal lobbying for a Board position is well known. What is different this time? * Does he have the backing of CUNA? Of NAFCU? If not, who does? Is Bacino's appointment backed by D'Amours? Why? At what price? Is he supported by influential politicians? Which ones? Does he have high-placed contacts in the White House? Who? * Not that it really matters under the political patronage system, but is Bacino qualified for such an influential position? What is his track record with credit unions? With the National Association of State Chartered Credit Unions which he helped found and which disappeared after a short and largely unsuccessful existence? With credit union consulting firms? With the National Association of Share Insurance Corporations? What "get even" baggage would he bring to such a position of power and influence with NCUA? * If appointed, would he be another Norm D'Amours? Does he have an alliance with NCUA Board Vice Chairman Yolanda Wheat, a Democrat appointee, who is rumored to be slated to become the next NCUA Chairman if the Bacino scenario plays out with a Gore win? How ironic that credit unions have been propelled into the national spotlight by virtue of new leadership and major legislative victories only to be given cursory attention once again when it comes to appointing someone to the three-person NCUA Board. What's wrong with this picture? What's probably most wrong is that credit unions have almost nothing to say about the selection of three people who can greatly influence the future of the credit union industry. How pathetic! Comments? Call 1-800-345-9936, Ext. 15, or Fax 561-683-8514, or E-mail mwelch@cutimes.com....

Tooele Federal Credit Union, Utah, has named Jeff T. Shaw vice president of accounting. Rogue Federal Credit Union, Medford, Ore., has re-elected directors Rollin Hogge, Jack Jones and Mike Piels to three-year terms. Matador Federal Credit Union, Northridge, Calif., has elected Steve Johnston, Margaret Steiner, and Kanaiya Mahendra as board members. Community ONE FCU, Las Vegas, Nev., has made the following appointments: Larry Palochik, executive vice president and chief operating officer; Shannon Dalton, vice president of human resources; Sherry Farris, vice president of member services; and Sidra Kain, vice president of marketing....

United Teletech FCU, Tinton Falls, N.J., has re-elected Ruth Ann Kluin chairman and Cesar Carrero first vice chair. In addition, UTFCU has elected the following to its board: Ann Weingartner, second vice chairman; Frank Kudenchak, treasurer; and Michael Hou, secretary. Virginia Credit Union, Richmond, has promoted Robert F. Warren, Jr. to senior vice president and chief financial officer. Chartway FCU, Virginia Beach, Va., has announced the following appointments: Bobbie Ivan, director of office operations; Diane Cole, sale manager; Michele Gladu, sales manager; Cindy Taylor, sales manager; Suzie Dull, sales manager; Christine Olson, office operations manager; Jeannie Dugger, office operations manager; Karen Phillips, office operations manager; Wendy Frank, office operation manager; Rebecca Workman, office operations manager; Bridget Taylor, office operations manager; Lisa Deubler, office operations manager; Cindy Nyberg, office operations manager; Emily Pursel, office operations manager; Donna Craig, office operations manager; and Ann Austin, office operations manager. University of Virginia Community Credit Union, Charlottesville, has named Rhonda Edmunds marketing coordinator/business development specialist. New England Credit Union, Southborough, Mass., has promoted Craig P. Roy to senior vice president of business development and lending strategies....

Arkansas Federal Credit Union, Jacksonville, has named Dennis Gibson senior vice president of service delivery and Patricia Fuquay West Little Rock branch manager....

San Antonio City Employees FCU, has announced the election of Rosalie O. Manzano, Joseph Martinez and Earnest Mass to its board of directors. Security Service Federal Credit Union, San Antonio, has made the following appointments: Rosemary Davis, manager; Henry Ibarra, manager of the SW Military branch; and Mary Ticknor, manager of the Culebra Service Center branch....

Education Credit Union Council, Spanish Fort, Ala., has named Teachers and Community Credit Union CEO Kenneth Saunders, the recipient of its first Annual Conference Scholarship. The Memorial Scholarship program provides scholarship assistance to credit union staff to attend CUNA Management School. Burbank Federal Credit Union, Calif., has awarded $2,100 in scholarships to the student volunteers of the Student Credit Union, a limited branch of BFCU. Award amounts ranging from $600 to $250 were presented to the six recipients. Bell-Tell Credit Union, Orlando, Fla., has awarded four $1,000 scholarships to the winners of the Paul H. Higgs Memorial Scholarship contest. High school seniors Thomas H. Gill of Orlando ; Kristen R. Murray of Geneva; Melanie Murray of Orlando; and Jennifer A. Pate of Leesburg were selected based on their academic achievements and essays written on the "Credit Union Philosophy"....

Teachers Federal Credit Union, Farmingdale, N.Y., has reached a landmark event with the addition of its 100,000th member, third grade teacher Melissa Marsh. TFCU now has the largest membership base of any Long Island credit union....

Grand Rapids Federal Credit Union, Mich., has presented Chairman Daniel H. Ocharzak with an award recognizing 25 consecutive years of volunteer service. Peninsula Community FCU, Shelton, Wash., has selected branch consumer loan officer Russ Couraud as its 1999 Employee of the Year. PCFCU has $96 million in assets and serves 19,803 members. Gulf Coast Community FCU, Gulfport, Miss., has been named the Medium Business of the Year. The award is based on a business' contribution to the economy, leadership and quality of life within its community as well as labor management relations and recognition within its own industry....

Central Florida Educators FCU, Orlando, has participated again in this year's Rotary Street Painting Festival. Proceeds from this annual downtown Orlando Rotary event will benefit the Inner City Games, one of the community's youth programs. The credit union has also raised over $2,200 for Junior Achievement, a program that provides practical economic education to students. Seventy -six CFEFCU employees, family members and friends registered to support the Junior Achievement's 17th Annual Bowl-A-Thon. CFEFCU has over $451 million in assets and serves 112,033 members. Affinity Federal Credit Union, Bedminster, N.J., will host its third annual Golf and Tennis Invitational to benefit the Adult Day Center of Somerset County, a nonprofit agency providing affordable, quality medical day care and other respite adult day services for disabled and elderly residents. The invitational will be held June 19 at the Stanton Ridge Country Club. Royal Credit Union, Eau Claire, Wis., has raised over $15,400 to benefit sick and injured children treated at local nonprofit hospitals of the Children's Miracle Network. The campaign raised funds through the sale of paper links and hearts. Each link or heart included the name of a credit union member and a loved one they wanted to remember in a special way. RCU's Chain of Hearts was part of a statewide fundraising effort for CMN by 351 Wisconsin credit unions....