MADISON, Wis. - It's the type of news most credit unions mightnot be so eager to talk about: a CEO's sudden "resignation," thediscovery that an employee has been funneling money from memberaccounts or a credit union wanting to convert to a bank.

It's how credit unions respond when the press calls for moredetails that sets apart the novices from those that already havesome sort of media response plan in place to handle unusualscenarios. Indeed, having a media response team in place is oneproactive way credit unions can be prepared for the inevitable,according to PR for CUs-Public Relations Strategies for CreditUnions by Lucy Harr and Dick Radtke, published for the Credit UnionExecutives Society. That team can be head by the CEO or another topexecutive and could include staff from other departments such aslegal, office management or marketing.

According to Harr and Radtke, there are five critical steps toresponding to a crisis when dealing with the media. The first moveis identifying the risk.

"Although that sounds obvious, there are still some credit unionleaders who believe their credit union has no significant areas ofrisk, no need for any risk assessment, and no need to create anyplans," the publication's authors said.

From there, the credit union should assign roles and discussduties and then focus on developing loss prevention techniques;risk avoidance strategies; insurance review plans; specific auditsof departments, managers and employees, and other preventiontechniques, Harr and Radtke said. The fourth step is actuallywriting the crisis response plan, which could include putting inwriting definitions of specific types of potential crises andcreating steps to follow should they occur. Within this step, thecredit union determines who will play what role to manage thecrisis and keep the operation running. The final step in respondingto a crisis is creating an incident review subcommittee to assesshow the situation was handled and what lessons were learned toimprove for any similar events in the future.

"Since it's next to impossible to predict when, where, or why aproblem may hit the organization, the group should have everythingin place beforehand," Harr and Radtke said. "It's difficult to dothe work, but it's rewarding to see that the efforts at contingencyplanning will pay off in a pinch." Laying Media Groundwork

In 2004, $558 million Clearview Federal Credit Union underwent anumber of organizational changes: a name change from US AirwaysFederal Credit Union, a switch to community charter, and theretirement of its longtime CEO Joseph Cirelli after 35 years ofservice. All of this occurred within a week's span that autumn. Oneof the trickiest parts was keeping the new name under wraps beforethe credit union had the chance to officially announce the monikerat a press conference. But in the end, the credit union took aproactive stance addressing every question asked about the litanyof changes. Media and members were inundated with the facts behindthe changes including the rarely-seen, but much-appreciated onlinepress kit. Being prepared stemmed from mutual respect Clearview andthe media had built over the years, said Christianne Gribben,assistant vice president of marketing.

"We see it as an ongoing relationship," Gribben said. "Weprovide helpful information to the media. We get the coverage and[reporters] don't have to go digging up information."

Knock-on-wood, Gribben said the credit union, which has a morethan a 50-year tie to US Airways airline, has not had to deal withany major crisis that it could not handle. One scenario that camepretty close is the concerns that members had about the creditunion's status during the period when US Airways, like many otherairlines, battled financial woes including a Chapter 11 bankruptcyof which it has since emerged.

"We wanted to reassure members that their finances were inorder. It was important for them to know that the credit union andthe airline were separate," Gribben said.

Hypothetically speaking, in a time of unexpected crisis, Gribbensaid the marketing department would support senior management withthe mission of "keeping the big picture in mind" and "protectingintegrity at all times." It would also be important to assess thetiming of a response and if the media would even care.

"Every situation is different," said Lisa Weber, ClearviewFederal marketing manager. "We weigh the timing of it. Is itsomething we put in our member newsletter or release to themedia."

Even having "a lousy plan is better than no plan at all," saidHarr and Radtke. The key to success during a difficult moment "liesin never giving up and never giving in," they suggest.

"Better to put some plan into immediate action and follow itthan to flail around with nothing to do and nowhere to go," theauthors said.

Then there's the approach that even bad news can be good newswhen talking with reporters, offered Mike Duffy, president/CEO of$310 million Financial Center Credit Union.

"When we do have threats, we ask `where is the opportunity,'"Duffy said. "If something like a robbery occurs, which you have nocontrol over, it can damage reputations and everything looks bad."But in this hypothetical situation, Duffy said this is a primeopportunity to tell the media about the credit union's safety andsoundness plan in place and how members and staff that may havebeen involved in the robbery were taken care of after theunfortunate situation.

"We would want to get the message out first instead of waitingon [the media] to pick us apart," Duffy said. For those creditunions that are just leery of the press and try to avoid them atall costs, Duffy said he can understand some of their reluctance."Quite often, with local media, they're looking to sell thenegative," he suggested. "They will push and push for what is theselling point. People don't like to look at news that way." VyStarCredit Union recently found itself dealing with the media on apotentially damaging crisis. The credit union had been hit by adata breach that affected 10% of its 344,000 members. The creditunion quickly informed the affected members about the data securitybreach, but not the media. Coincidentally, an affected member was areporter of the local paper. The reporter ran with the story in anegative light in the eyes of VyStar CEO Terry West.

West said the reporter seemed to "want to sell papers that day"and sensationalized the story. West said the CU did not hide fromthe press, it had a team in place to answer questions and Westhimself spoke to reporters. West doesn't think it was the CU's jobto contact the press about the story. "Our first concern was to letthe members who were affected know," said West.

Because trade publications are different, Duffy said FinancialCenter CU sends out different news releases to them compared tolocal press. Credit unions should also consider having resourcesallocated to use a public relations firm if there is going to be abig announcement like a name change or converting to a bank. Thebottom line is credit unions must have a plan and be diligent aboutcarrying it out. "You have to be careful about what you're doingand how you're doing it," Duffy explained. "It's about structure.If we can't get it right, how the heck is the public going to getit?" [email protected]