DUBUQUE, Iowa -
Credit Union Journal: Describe your early career and the situation when you arrived at DuTrac.
Sarvis: My first job after graduating from Iowa Wesleyen University was building "bull barns" in northern Missouri. I didn't want to do that, so in 1961 I hopped a plane from Des Moines to southern California. I was making valves at Minneapolis Honeywell in Artesia when I was offered a job as a loan interviewer at Los Angeles Teachers Credit Union, which eventually agreed to my $300 a month salary demand. I stayed until 1966, when the military draft came calling. I moved back to Iowa and enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam.
After leaving the service in 1969, I worked at an Ames, Iowa CU going to work for the State of Iowa as a CU examiner. I did that for 10 years before becoming the assistant manager of what's now Alcoa Employees & Community Credit Union in Bettendorf. In 1984, I was named president/CEO of DuTrac. When I arrived, DuTrac had $48 million in assets and served primarily Deere employees and their families. We offered just the basic savings and checking products to members.
CUJ: What challenges did the CU face?
Sarvis: John Deere was going through major downsizing when I arrived. At its height, the manufacturer employed 9,200 workers in Dubuque. When I got there, that number had been whittled to 4,750 workers, which seriously affected out membership base. The credit union also had a traditional practice of allowing members to borrow, but allowing family members to only make savings deposits. The board had changed that policy shortly before my arrival, which gave us additional opportunity in the face of the growing challenges.
CUJ: What goals did you have for the credit union and how did you achieve them?
Sarvis: My goal for DuTrac was to make sure we had an adequate membership base to help us survive the downsizing. Our first step was to merge John Deere Davenport (Iowa) Works CU into our membership in 1985, giving us access to all Iowa Deere employees. In 1986, the board approved the move to a community charter, allowing us to serve members in five counties in Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin. We were one of the first community charters, which at the time was a fairly unexplored territory for regulators. In addition to facing that challenge, we also had a segment of members who felt we were abandoning our original employee group. However, many understood what we needed to do to survive.
CUJ: How has the CU grown during your tenure?
Sarvis: When I left in June, DuTrac had $311 million in assets and served 35,970 members. We'd grown from 22 employees in 1984 to 136, expanded services to 17 counties, including four in Illinois and one in Wisconsin, and operated from 11 branches. In 2003, we also were one of 6 credit unions to form First Community Trust, a bank founded to provide members with trust services.
CUJ: Please provide a snapshot of your CU today?
Sarvis: DuTrac has always operated from a position of financial strength, with about 13% of capital in reserves. It has a good reputation for high levels of community service and I think it has a very bright future.
CUJ: Anything you wish you would have done or done differently?
Sarvis: I have no regrets. I was extremely fortunate to have extraordinary relationships with my boards of director. We didn't always agree, but the lines of communications were always open. I also had an excellent staff that believed as I did that we were in the people business rather than the money business. Heart decisions, not training decisions drove us.
CUJ: What are your post-retirement plans?
Sarvis: I've become a member of the local chamber of commerce and am working with some others to revive our SCORE chapter. My wife has family in Texas and we have a child and grandkids in San Francisco that we'll probably try and mooch meals off of in the near future.
