FARMERS BRANCH, Texas – Ding, ding, ding. At 3:17 p.m. Jan. 24, the group of about a dozen volunteers rang a bell and declared victory in their first ever telethon to raise funds for Texas Credit Union League's Political Action Committee. The $21,750 generated in one day of dialing for dollars hopefully will help ensure another victory in March for credit union-friendly political candidates in Texas political primaries. TCUL PAC has an ambitious goal of raising $261,000 in 2006. Exceeding the telethon's goal of $20,000 for this first fundraising event of 2006 was especially encouraging, coming so closely on the heels of TCUL CEO Dick Ensweiler's skydiving fundraiser at the end of 2005. TCUL PAC trustees and TCUL Advocacy Department employees manned the phones, calling all credit union CEOs in the state to ask for their financial support. "We raised more than half our goal before noon," said Pamela Stephens, TCUL PAC Chair and CEO of Security One Federal Credit Union, "probably because Gretchen (Ziegler, TCUL PAC Director) said we wouldn't get lunch until we hit $10,000. "One of the nice things we encountered was a great number of first-time contributors who said they'd be happy to contribute," said Stephens. "No one had ever asked them before." TCUL PAC notified CEOs in advance that they would be conducting the telethon, according to Stephens. Callers took pledges, but most people made immediate contributions through the PAC's secure online contribution page on its Web site. Ziegler deemed the effort a success after acknowledging they were uncertain what results to expect. "So far we are off to a great start. The more money we raise for PAC, the more credit union-friendly candidates we are able to support," she said. In addition to Stephens, PAC trustees Lesley Bradstreet, Velocity CU; Mike Kelley, City CU; Fermin Acosta, GECU; Gus Thornton, Red River FCU; TCUL CEO Dick Ensweiler and TCUL Advocacy staff were part of Ziegler's calling team. PAC contributions can still be made online. -

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