CU Journal’s Business Development Conference: Community Charters May Be Mistake

BOSTON–Among the undercurrents readily expressed during the Credit Union Journal's Business Development & SEG Conference here is concern by credit unions that have gotten caught up in the mass move to community charters that the move may have been a mistake. A number of attendees indicated they are worried over the costs involved in moving to community, the expanded competition, and the feeling by many members who joined as part of SEGs that they have been abandoned. Many of the new community charters have been unprepared for the transition, agreed Paul Lucas, a Virginia-based consultant. If you're a SEG-based credit unions and you can't market to them effectively, how in the world can you do it as a community charter? asked Lucas. Don't look at your members as members, look at them as consumers. It's getting tougher to get your message out there. If anything, when you go community you should step UP your SEG marketing.