UPPER DARBY, Penn. - When a Nor’easter hit here last week and knocked out power at PSTC Employees FCU, CEO Bob Manning stood at the credit union’s door handing out checks to members who needed money.
“You wouldn’t see a banker doing that,” said Manning, who’s headed the $28-million CU for 22 years. “Just like the mail gets delivered in rain, sleet, or snow, the credit union stays open. We have a rail line that runs right past our door that our members work on and I used to work on, and it’s always running. I tell our employees that no matter what the weather is, the credit union stays open.”
This time, Manning gave his staff a break, sending them home when he learned the storm downed a tree on electric lines and that power would not be restored for eight hours.
The outage came at a bad time, around 10 a.m. on May 12, right when many of the CU’s members stop by to pick up share draft checks. Following payday, members often call the credit union and ask to have checks printed and ready with the money they need for the week.
“So here I am standing at the door handing out checks and people are giving me their IDs because I don’t know all of them since I don’t work the teller line,” Manning said. “I had a member come to the door and tell me she was leaving for Europe that day and needed to deposit money in her account. I said, ‘No problem. I’ll get that done for you.’“
Opening at 7 a.m. every morning, the CU closes at 3 p.m., when Manning headed home the day of the storm. But the CEO stopped back later that evening when power returned to reboot the computer system and make sure the CU was ready to serve members the following morning.
In preparation for the next storm, Manning joked, he’s going to remind members about the credit union’s debit card, which not only saves them a trip to PSTC but takes the CEO off the front line the next time power goes out.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to serve our members,” Manning said. “And if that means standing at the door, I’ll be there.”
