I didn't watch the proceedings of the 30-year anniversary hearing of the Community Reinvestment Act, but stories recounted to me were mixed with regard to credit unions' treatment. With no credit union witnesses on any of the panels, the banking trades and even the Connecticut regulator were free to suggest that credit unions should be subject to CRA at the federal level.
True, most credit unions don't have direct experience with CRA, but the opportunity for the bankers was obvious; a credit union representative should have been there to make the case that the credit unions are already doing more for their members than the banks do under CRA. And, if the hearing was intended to be truly commemorative in nature, it should have been kept on point. If credit unions weren't testifying because they had no experience with CRA, then their lack of CRA coverage should not have become a recurring topic of discussion at what was meant to be a "look back" over the years.
Every week, we receive dozens upon dozens of news releases and calls touting credit unions' good deeds, more than one even from the same credit union. That tells me that credit unions are doing a lot of work for their communities and working to get their message out. Others still need to work on accepting their bragging rights and putting them to work for themselves and the credit union community as a whole. This is the type of public relations work all credit unions should be doing all the time to help prevent situations like the CRA hearing. When credit unions effectively get their message out, everyone will be aware of credit unions' good deeds.
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LA DOTD Federal Credit Union has opened the doors on its third in-school branch, actually training the eighth-graders how to run the shop. This experience
is invaluable in so many ways to those kids in learning real-life job skills, professionalism, financial management, and, I would suspect, higher self-esteem. However, the effort and expense will return to the credit union as well in community relations, better-educated members, attracting younger members, and potential employees or volunteers. And, it shouldn't take much to get a picture of some schoolchildren taking in deposits of a few coins and handing out withdrawals in the local paper–a vision likely to catch the eye of members as well as members of Congress.
But garnering good PR for your credit union doesn't stop there. Suncoast Schools Federal Credit Union CEO Tom Dorety personally sent me an e-mail touting his check card program that will contribute five cents per transaction to the local schools, which he expects to total around $1.2 million by year-end. Excellent work from the donation perspective as well as PR. He also returned the call of our reporter who was following up on the story in a timely manner. Another plus.
GECU CEO Harriet May has been named the winner of the Herb Wegner Award for Individual Achievement. Her credit union will spend a couple of years, she said, working with a member until he or she is able to qualify for a home loan. That amounts to a lot of resources, time, and energy spent to get just one mortgage, but it will come back to GECU in a number of ways, financially and in goodwill among the membership and in the community.
May also worked to found the El Paso Affordable Housing CUSO to help her credit union and others in the area do more to promote home ownership. This is precisely what distinguishes credit unions from banks and exactly what credit unions need to be highlighting in their local media.
One last point on May's efforts–she's politically active. She's pictured in this issue of Credit Union Times on page 6 with President George W. Bush and Hope Founder John Hope Bryant, who started his organization to cultivate financial empowerment. I've also seen her testify before Congress before. Political involvement is a direct way credit unions can take their message to members of Congress and other policymakers.
Credit unions are also celebrating five years of expanded SBA opportunities this month. Credit unions have an opportunity here to really shine–show how they lend money to start up a mom-and-pop coffee shop or for a landscaping company to buy a new piece of equipment. These stories should be shared with the local media and the membership.
But credit unions should also be careful not to pigeonhole themselves strictly as small potatoes because these businesses grow and credit unions should be able to maintain that relationship when that coffee shop becomes the next Starbucks. Credit unions' desire to increase the member business lending cap is something that should be shared with Congress.
Credit unions perform all these good deeds, not because they are required to under CRA, but do them because it is their mission. CUs need to place all of these efforts on a pedestal for their members, and members of Congress, to see.
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