Concerning financial institution websites, Ron says:

On some sites, the blog content might be the central focus of a product’s page, and on others, blog content might be sidebar material. On some sites, blog content will replace the lifestage content that appears on many sites, letting customers themselves dictate the content, tone, and direction of what appears.

Why will FIs do this? Because they’ll learn that engaging customers and prospects in conversations is the best way to sell their products. The trust they’ll build by doing this will outweigh the competitor down the street offering a CD with one-quarter of a percent better rate. That won’t be enough to get consumers to move and switch.

I agree.

The big players get this. Name a big bank – heck, name a billion-dollar CU – who’s not thinking social media right now.

I believe marketing will twist management’s arm to get this done across the board. That said, there will be resistance.

Just like there was resistance to having a website in the first place.

On an Unrelated Note:

Please come say hi to us in Mad-town or Spokane this week at the League events there. Brent and I will have Open Source CU schwag on us and we’re just itching to give it away.

Also, congrats to Team Little Guy for crossing the finish line and raising a small fortune. I had a blast in North Carolina with Jeff and crew last week – even got to meet Dan and Matt!

A hearty “hear hear” goes to the CU Communicator for saying -

Being a large credit union can have its advantages, but big ships not only have a hard time steering away from icebergs … but also have a harder time steering toward opportunities.

So buck up smaller credit unions, and remember that knowing your member’s needs and designing products to suit them is far more important than asset size.

I’m typing this from the Pittsburgh airport, having just spoken to 75 NCUA examiners who work with small credit unions. “Small” meaning $2 million in assets small.

I can’t tell you how surprised I was that this was the most attentive (and lively) group that I’ve ever addressed. I sensed much concern from these examiners about the long-term survivability of many of the institutions with which they work.

If you ever pass through the Pittsburgh airport, look for signage promoting an exhibit commemorating the airport’s proud distinction as “Yesterday’s Airport of Tomorrow.”

Let us never become known as Yesterday’s [Blank] of Tomorrow. Financial institution, consultant, publisher, web developer, tech company, whatever or whoever you are.

Size, as Jeff writes, is irrelevant – and being small is certainly not an excuse to become Yesterday’s Credit Union of Tomorrow.

I wasn’t planning on making a post about CUES Nexus until tomorrow as my inbox is unmanageable and I’m just plain exhausted. But thanks to flight delays I’ve had sufficient time to decompress, and I want to get some things out. (Note: I wrote most of this while stranded at DFW today – bad Dallas weather must’ve moved on to the midwest.)

CUES Nexus was my first conference presenting more than one session. Gotta say I had a blast. From what I heard, many credit unions represented at the conference are seriously considering moving into social media.

That’s why Joseph Jaffe’s keynote was so timely. He got started with, and I quote,

“You (credit unions) are a social network.”

As you can imagine, I had to fight giving him a one-man standing ovation at those words. I won’t give away all of his keynote, as we may cover the details in our podcast or an upcoming post.

You may recognize Joseph Jaffe from mentions in our podcasts and presentations before, so it was great to finally meet the man behind Life After the Thirty Second Spot (an office staple of ours for almost two years now), Crayon, and Across the Sound.

Away from the conference, Brent and I joined a dozen others for a Dallas geek dinner coordinated by Paul McEnany. Oh yeah, while you’re adding Jaffe Juice and Across the Sound to your feeds, Hee-Haw Marketing is a must.

You can see why I’m exhausted: it was a credit union geek’s dream week!

What’s coming up: Brent and I recorded our breakout session and we’ll be releasing parts in our next podcast. Also, we’ve received requests for our slides. Here’s the thing – I built it in Keynote and am just doing a quick export to Flash. Another disclaimer, most of these slides won’t make sense unless you were there (the steroid guy or the big IF, for example).

Give it a download and then a look-see.

Finally, Brent just sent me a link to what seems to be Coast Capital Savings’ discarded/uncut commercials. Very clever ad, and kudos to them for throwing it up on YouTube. I love their sense of humor. Enjoy!

The Rule of Propinquity – the world is run by those who show up.

That is an alluring idea. I like that idea (thank you Representative Bishop for sharing it with us).

There were thousands of us who gathered for the first three and a half hour session. We had a brief break for the standard box lunch with bland chicken wrap and then we hunkered down for another two-hour session.

GAC is not for the weak of backside. If you are thinking of attending next year, I recommend you train for it. Schedule yourself for days of back-to-back meetings (preferably with sales people – or some other medium where you do very little, if no, talking).

Alright, joking is probably not appropriate.

The morning opened with Joe Lieberman (ID – CT). He’s a member of the Congressional Credit Union and understands the role they play in our economy. He vowed to fight any attempt at taxation and committed to supporting CURIA.

Rep. Roy Blunt (R – UT) joked that he drove past several banks on his way to work this morning, and although they were not open yet, he was confident they would be opening today – despite what his banker friends were telling him in 1998. He gave his nod to the movement.

Rob Bishop (R – UT) took the stage and told several delightful stories of DC in days past (Mr. Bishop was a history teacher for over 20 years before entering politics). Scott Simpson, the President of the Utah League, and he are good friends and it is clear that Mr. Bishop is in our corner.

Rock Star Time

Then it was Credit Union Rock Star Time. Rep Paul Kanjorski (D- PA) came out to a standing ovation. If you are like me and you don’t know a lot about politics – know this – WE LOVE PAUL KANJORSKI. He is the representative that wrote CURIA (Credit Union Regulation Improvement Act). He and Ed Royce (R – CA) will be introducing it in about a week. CURIA looks like it may have a good chance of passing this time around (third times a charm) and we have Mr. Kanjorski and Mr. Royce to thank for that.

Representative Steny Hoyer (D – MD) received a very warm reception. He is the new House Majority Leader. He seems to appreciate the idea that 80 million consumers want (and often need) an alternative to profit driven financial institutions.

Hey, did you know that there is a law that no one financial institution can control more than 10% of the US money in circulation? Did you also know that Bank of America is trying to amend that law because they are over 9% right now? Almost one out of every ten bucks in America sits at Bank of America. Shiver. Banks have enjoyed six straight years of record-breaking profits with this year being the best in history. Banks actually made more money than the oil industry. Scary.

Back on point…

Representative James Clyburn (D – SC) was next. He is also a supporter, but urged us to continue to look for products and services to offset the problems of payday lending. In fact, he said he felt strongly that it is our DUTY to find alternatives for people currently using payday lenders.

Anna Escobedo Cabral, US Treasurer, told us a bit about what is going on with the US Treasury and gave her nod to the work that credit unions do.

Gigi Hyland, NCUA, talked of being accused of liking credit unions too much (her father even jokingly gave her a CU cheerleading megaphone when she came under fire last year for this). She seems to know credit unions well, which I think is helpful if you are responsible for regulating them. She also seems to be fair-minded.

Lastly, James Carville and Mary Matalin. Wow. Those two are funny. They are extremely well versed and knowledgeable about their politics (she Republican, he Democrat). They have been married for over ten years. The dynamic is hysterical. If you ever get a chance to see these two, I highly recommend it.

And then we broke for wraps.

The GAC started with a three and a half hour general session.

Three and a half hours is a long time. Three and a half hours gives you far too much information to blog in one post. So I will attempt, from my politically naïve position, to give you highlights.

Allan McMorris (CUNA Board of Directors Executive Committee) opened with great points about the need for membership growth, the need to attract younger members, the need to serve the unbanked and the parallels to credit unions and Harley Davidson fans. I only raised my eyebrow once – when he said credit unions should be on MySpace and YouTube.

We had a surprise speaker – Joe Theisman. He is certainly a charismatic guy. He talked about momentum – how one play in a game, one interception – can change the course of the outcome. He talked about how we can sometimes sense momentum – in a person or a movement – and we are drawn to it. That is a tantalizing concept. Is that happening to us now? With i3, Credit Unions of Washington and all of the other innovative programs popping up around the country?

Brit Hume was extremely articulate and interesting. He did admit (jokingly) that the reason he is not covering the Anna Nicole Smith trials is because he thinks her body was a lot more interesting when she was alive.

JoAnn Johnson and Rodney Hood, both of NCUA, gave insight to what NCUA is working on this year; including Prompt Corrective Action, the matrix for establishing CAMEL ratings and enforcement of by-laws.

And then… drum roll… Martin Sheen took the stage. I am here to say – credit union professionals are not above celebrity worship. There were more flashbulbs going off and more people creeping up to the front of the audience than any of the other speakers combined. Mr. Sheen opened with a quote from Gandhi (movie). He talked charmingly about the time he spent in Ireland last year, working towards his college degree. He also described his favorite charity – the Dorothy Day Foundation.

Then he started talking politics. I’ll put it this way… the liberals loved him and the conservatives hated him.

And I’ll leave it at that.

Celebrity One

Washington Governor, Christine Gregoire, was on our flight to DC on Friday. At baggage claim, I asked for a photo. She was very gracious.

The Washington and Oregon GAC participants are all staying at the St. Gregory Hotel. The conference is held at the Hilton Washington, but there are so many participants that rooms at the Hilton fill up within hours of the conference being announced.

Celebrity Two

There are over 4,000 credit union supporters here. This is the biggest credit union gathering in the world. Speakers at the event include: Allan McMorris, Dan Mica, Brit Hume, JoAnn Johnson, Steven Preston, Rodney Hood, Martin Sheen, Senator Joe Lieberman, Representative Roy Blunt, Representative Rob Bishop, Representative Paul Kanjorski, Representative Steny Hoyer, Representative James Clyburn, Anna Escobedo Cabral, Representative Spencer Bachus, Gigi Hyland, James Carville and Mary Matalin.

It’s a bit overwhelming.

When you walk into our hotel, you are greeted by none other than Marilyn Monroe. I also asked her for a photo.

Celebrity Three

On Sunday night, we attended the 19th Annual Herb Wegner Memorial Awards Dinner. It was an amazing showcase of the best of our industry.

Carol Schillios, President / Founder of the Fabric of Life Foundation won the Individual Achievement Award for the work she has been doing in changing the lives of women and their families in Mali, Senegal, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.

Prospera Credit Union was the Outstanding Program Award for the program they developed that puts reasonably priced pay day lending centers in Goodwill stores.

Lastly, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Barry Jolette, President and CEO of San Mateo Credit Union, whose list of accomplishments are far too long to list in this post.

Watching the video documentary on the three recipients was both humbling and motivating. I was amazed by the tremendous things they have been able to accomplish. It made me proud of my profession and my industry. It also made me want to return to Seattle and do more.

I am about to leave for the Seatac to Reagan International flight. The folks at Trabian asked me to blog the CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference. I can’t lie. I’m nervous about it. I’ve never been to the GAC, and, as much as I hate to admit it, I don’t follow politics very closely.

I was going to have my first post be about the avalanche of marketing material I have received in the last few days, inviting me to vendor booths – many of them enticing me with the chance to win a Nintendo Wii. (Looks like Wii is the new iPod.) However, my boss, and conference partner, Bill Hayes, reminded me that the success of credit unions relies heavily on our business partners. They also do a great deal to off-set the cost of this conference for credit union employees – and – business partners are our friends.

So I will refrain from poking fun at the plethora of postcards I received with Wii puns in them.

The congresspeople I will be meeting with are:

• Congressman Jay Inslee
• Congressman Jim McDermott
• Congressman Rick Larsen

I’ve packed my suits, my snow boots, my Project Differentiation material and my laptop.

See you in DC.

On March 6, Matt and I will be speaking at CUES Executive Technology Forum in Tucson. The topic is Web 2.0 and CUs: Using Social Web to Reach Members in New Ways.

If you’re going to ETF, come hang out!

In May, Brent and I will be speaking at CUES Nexus here in Dallas – we’ll be chatting about “Dos and Don’ts for CUs Using the Social Web.” Joe Jaffe is doing the closing keynote at Nexus, in case you didn’t know.

To illustrate how highly Jaffe is regarded around here, here’s an analogy -

Life After the 30-Second Spot : Brent :: Agile Web Development with Rails : Matt

On Monday, we were received back at CUA, the Central organization for credit unions in Ghana. They had good reports about our visits from the hosting credit unions and were eager to listen to a debrief of our visits.

Each coaching team highlighted the important aspects of the reports presented to the credit unions. The credit unions here in Ghana are similar to others in the world – there are progressive and innovative credit unions and there are some that are entrenched in the old ways. They all understand that change is required, and are wanting to learn where the change needs to take place.

What have I learned over the past 3 weeks? Well first of all, for those that don’t have a sense of the origins of credit unions and applying co-operative principles, this is a place to get a solid grounding. It is truly invigorating to see the volunteer commitment of the boards of directors and the committee volunteers that each credit union has. And they are involved simply because the banks wouldn’t lend to the common folk – the farmers and small business people. A simple loan for a sewing machine for the mother in a household to earn extra income sewing garments is enough to enable a child’s future to be changed so that they can attend secondary school.

And what can a bunch of credit union managers from Canada offer to these small, mostly manual operations? We have such diverse backgrounds, that we are able to provide insight and facilitate a knowledge exchange on many issues. A key learning that I believe we have left behind is for the credit union employees to know that change can be good. Just continuing with the same old way of doing things may be correct, but consider other options. There may be a better way.

Later this afternoon at 4:00 we head off to the airport for our long trek back home from Accra to Lagos to Frankfurt to Vancouver. Barry and I arrive in Vancouver about 1:30 Vancouver time (8 hours difference from where we are). Even though we are the furthest away, we will actually get home sooner than most as we don’t have airport connections to make once we get on board to YVR.

The Coaching Program is an invaluable tool for the credit unions in developing countries and has provided me with a terrific personal development opportunity. I know that is difficult on spouses and children at home, particularly for mine as Wendy works full time, our daughters attend different schools and have basketball and soccer practices and games to get to. I couldn’t be a coach in this program without their help. Thanks, Wendy.

On Saturday, Barry and visited with Aba Hagan, the manager of AAK Teachers Credit Union in Abura Dunkwa, Ghana. Aba was a participant in the CCA Womens Mentoring Program and Prospera Credit Union I hosted her in October. Aba was billeted with me and my family.

Aba is the Presiding Member of the local district council and is elected to represent 7 communities in her geographic region, so she is well known. I had arranged for about 50 pairs of soccer boots and 2 sets of soccer jerseys to accompany me to Ghana. Aba allocated these out to 3 communities including her home village. So Barry and I had our 15 minutes of fame in 2 of the 3 communities.

We were introduced to the chiefs and the school head mistress. We had school choirs sing us a welcoming song, and many words spoken about us in the local language, Fanti. The last presentation was in Aba’s home village and included a meeting with the chief and his tribal council at the chief’s palace. This was a formal affair and we had to be introduced by Aba. Aba was able to do this as she is the queen mother and is in the blood line of the hereditary chief family. Her two sons could become chief of the village at some point in the future.

As part of the honor to speak with the chief, we had to offer up gifts. One was the traditional gift of a bottle of schnapps. The other was 200,000 cedis as a contribution toward the village electrification project. The village doesn’t have electricity and needs to get the utility poles in place before the government will put the electrical line in. Each pole costs about $200 US, and they asked us for more money – we said we would try when we get back to Canada.

I was asked to speak to the local school mistress in Aba’s home village. I provided the “purpose” of our visit to her and the crowd that had gathered at the chief’s palace. She thanked me and then I responded in the equivalent of “you’re welcome” in Twe and that got a roar of laughter from the crowd. I was also interviewed by the local radio station as to the purpose of our credit union visit.

It was a hectic day full of schedules and 2.5 hours driving each way to get to Aba’s credit union. But, I am glad we were able to visit. The villages we visited are very poor, yet the people are so cheerful and upbeat. For many of the local residents, particularly the children, we were the first “obruni” they had ever seen or talked to.

On Monday, we travel back to Accra and have a meeting with the credit union officials at CUA House.

February 13, 2007: Credit Union with an Exciting Future

St. Theresa’s credit union in Begoro has had its challenges and faces many more to come, but they are prepared. Everyone on the board and the mandatory committees is new – they have only been on the job (volunteer) for 2 months. The previous board had lavish spending practices on office and administration expenses and let the loan delinquency get away from them.

With the urging of CUA and the auditors, the members elected a new slate of directors in December. In only two months, the new board has developed a sound business plan with 7 goals in 4 key performance areas. This business plan would hold up to many business plans at Canadian credit unions!

The core membership of the credit union is teachers (the board are all teachers). For this group of members, delinquency and building savings is a non issue as the savings contributions and loan payments are deducted from their paycheques.

However, the membership was opened up a while back and the credit union now has a delinquency of 36% with inadequate loss provisions and insufficient retained earnings to support a delinquency level of 36%. The credit union has sound plans in place to reduce this number to 15% by June 2008.

Some initiatives include informing the delinquent members that their savings will be seized if payments are not restarted. Another tactic includes posting the names of the delinquent members on the wall of the credit union office for all to see. Ghanaians are very proud people and will rush in to have their names removed from the list.

St. Theresa’s credit union impressed Barry and me. They have a new board with lots of energy, commitment and focus. They understand that it will take some time to make the corrections and we told them we were confident they would be successful.

February 14: Happy Valentines Day

Today we popped in to say hello to two of the credit unions I met with last year. One of them is in a new building (Abosomankotere). Look at the first blog entry for a photo of the old building and see the new one on Flickr.

Prosper Aforbu is the manager and he is full of energy and vision. It was his work that enabled the credit union to see into the future and move out of the workplace (they still operate a satellite branch in the hospital) to a street front location. Financially they have had a very good year and have all the controls in place.

He was very excited to see me return and Marcia Greenwood (my partner from last year) arrived later in the day. We went off to his inlaws to see his wife, Elvira and their 6 week old daughter. They are a very happy family.

On Thursday the 15th, we returned to review the credit union’s activities for the previous year. We also visited with Ebenezer Credit Union- one of the highly successful ones in Ghana. They are one of 7 on the country to have a business plan (the second one this week that I have visited).

They had a very successful year income and assets grew – assets by 24%.

We are now in Takoradi which was a grueling 9 hour drive in the hot African sun in a vehicle with manual air conditioning. Whew! The rest of the coaches will gather here and we will exchange notes and prepare a brief report for the CUA meeting early next week.

Tomorrow, Barry and I are off to meet our first Tribal Chief at Aba Hagan’s home village whcih does not have electricity. We will have lunch and then return to Takodori. Aba and her family will join us on Sunday at the hotel. A relaxing weekend…

There were many learning opportunities for us over the weekend. For example, if you buy pirated DVD movies, expect to pay (somehow). Well, they did work, except they skipped and had hideous screech in the audio every minute or so. So we didn’t get to watch the movie.

Our learning took on a cultural flavour when we learned about the role of the village and tribal chief. We will be visiting the home village of Aba Hagan who was in Canada in October as part of the CCA women’s mentoring program. She has told me that we will be meeting with her chief. On Saturday, at a joint board dinner with Tafo and Bunso, we learned about the role of the chief.

The chief is very revered and rules in disputes of all kinds. Petty theft, adultery, land encroachment, estate settlement are among the more serious items. The chief is even used as a resource in the courts if a dispute lands in court. The judiciary will ask the chief to provide advice and counsel in open court when rendering a decision. So their role is not just as a figurehead, but they have a real role in maintaining order.

I also learned that it is customary to provide a gift when meeting a chief and that schnapps is in order. Yeah, right – where am I going to find schnapps? Well, at the local gas station – yes, we walked in and they had a bottle for 50,000 cedis – about 5 bucks. So I am prepared.

On the weekend we also learned that when I present gifts for Aba (shirt, school supplies, etc) that I am to present them to her husband – not to Aba. There is still a lot of gender inequality here.

We visited with Sammy and his mother. She recently had a stroke and is recovering. Part of the tradition is to bring a small gift if you visit, so we brought her a loaf of brown bread. She was pleased.

At the joint board dinner

The joint board dinner was for Barry and me to thank us for our time with the two credit unions from CRIG. Last year, the credit unions didn’t have a dinner for me and Marci, so it must have Barry’s charm. The dinner and socializing was fun and we were presented with several Ghanaian shirts and a smock to bring home to Canada. They will be quite a hit on business casual days at the office I’m sure.

We did a lot of driving on the weekend and of course hit some road construction. This is a big selling opportunity for the vendors as the traffic gets stopped in each direction to allow for the traffic to pass. Swarms of vendors see the obruni (white man) and rush over to try and sell us any and everything. Plaintain, toothbrushes, water, coconuts, bananas, ground nuts – you name it. Then they young kids just want to talk and hear us say a few words in Twe. They laugh … I think more because we try vs. the quality of our speech.

Part of our trip was in to visit with Sammy’s mute brother who is a poultry farmer. We had said to Sammy we wanted to look at some pottery, so he planned to take us to the farm. We had to correct him that we said pottery – but we did go and see his brother’s farm – 120 broilers, 1000 chicks and 37 pigs. The broilers sell for 50,000 and the chicks for 10,000 each. Clearly there is a strong market for chicks.

We are now at our last credit union in Begoro. St. Theresa’s which used to be a teachers closed bond credit union that is now open. There were some “entrenchment” issues with the previous board, and some lavish spending. There is a new board in place now in preservation and correction mode. We can help provide them with some direction.

Tomorrow we are off to Techiman at the end of the day – this is where I was posted last year.

Back to my Ghanaian name, Kofi Mensa Gene. Lets think about this compared to my partner Barry. His Ghanaian name is Yaw.

My name is common to the former Secretary General of the UN, Kofi Annan and we all know what Mensa means. I asked Barry about Yaw, and all he could think of was “wow’.

If anyone is keeping track, Barry lost that one.

Today was sunny and hot. Barry had some school supplies that his wife Ramona sent over. We dropped these off with the school headmaster. They were extremely pleased.

We worked with the cu for the whole day looking at loan policy and how to compete with the banks who are lowering rates to battle the credit unions. We meet with the board tomorrow late in the afternoon to review our recommendations and then have a joint gathering with both of the 2 credit unions we met with this week – sort of a bit of Saturday Night Fever!

Early in the morning, we will plan to golf 9 holes! The course looks fine, although the greens are a little coarse. Sammy our right hand man and driver will join us for his first time ever. Last night, Sammy had his girlfriend, Fortunate, join us for a beverage. She is a fine person and she and Sammy are a great couple. Look for their pix on Flickr.

Tomorrow after golf, we are going to visit a place that makes pottery, yes clay pots!

This year I am placed in the eastern region of Ghana near Lake Volta. This is apparently the largest artificial lake in the world and because of its proximity, we have a shower each day about 4:00 and it is very humid. The temperature is in the mid 30’s but it feels like it is in the mid 40’s. I just drip perspiration and it runs everywhere!

We have started with a new credit union today; TAFO CRIG Co-op Credit Union in Tafo. This credit union had funds stolen in the past by elected officals and thus had some issues. They have recovered very well with new controls in place, a new board, more committee oversight, and a very competent manager.

There seems to be only a few things we can help them with, although they do have concerns with competing with the large banks and we should be able to give them some ideas.

They are located within the grounds of the Cocoa Institute and as such have nice facilites (comparatively) and are right outside a school for the children of the institute’s workers. The children love to talk to us in English, wave at us, and hear us talk to them in Twe. They smile and giggle when the obrunni (white man) talks in their language, but they understand me!

We are in a community where there are a lot of people of Muslim faith and the call has just went out for thier evening devotions. It is blaring in the background right now across the street.

My African name is Kofi Mensa Gene (Kofi is Friday, the day I was born and Mensa is for the 3 son born in a row). The local people are so suprised when we can tell them our African names.

Meko…. (I am leaving)

(keyboard sticks sorry)

Last night on the state tv station, the soccer game from London was televised. This was a highly nticipated match as Nigeria hass for many year been the strongest and highest FIFA ranked team. Ghana had not beatem them in over 15 years. Last night that changed.

WE could hear the people from town singing and chanting in the street from our tv room at the guesthouse. It was cool to ee them celebrate.

WE visited with a beadmaker yesterday….she was 76 and made jewellry by hand from a special rock; there is no English name. She has been doing it all her life and it looked difficult and dirty. See Flickr for her picture.

I have recovered, but Barry is under the weather today. Hope he is able to recover by 5 – we have a meeting and presentation to make to the board on our observations and recommednations.

The people are so hospitable….they won’t even let us buy a beer, yer we are the ones with the means…..