COVINA, Calif.-John Meeks does not want to offer excuses, he wants to offer his members the services they expect.
Meeks, CEO of $15.2-million San Gabriel Valley Postal CU for the past two years, said "everything we do here is a juggling act to offer the best possible products and services" to its 3,180 members.
"I feel squeezed because we don't do everything a full-service financial institution does," he lamented. "It bothers me that there is no debit card, and that we have online banking but no bill pay."
The current goal, he said, is to get three switches turned on by June 2012: bill pay, a debit card and a Visa credit card. "We want people to want to bring their children here, and technology is very important. Sometimes costs are a real struggle for small credit unions, but in order to be successful and grow you need to be technologically savvy."
In addition to postal employees, if someone is a member of the Covina Chamber of Commerce or AAA, they are also eligible for membership in the credit union, which gives it access to a number of potential members.
Meeks said the credit unions currently is leading with low auto loan rates, and he has personally gone out into the local community to speak with a number of car dealerships.
"I have built relationships with several used car dealers over the last 18 months," he said. "Our loan growth has been phenomenal, in terms of numbers and dollars. We are up a couple-million dollars in loans. Used car loans have been excellent."
Doing 'Door Knocks'
The growth SGV Postal has experienced in lending not only has been good for the top line, Meeks said it has brought in new members to whom it can market checking accounts. "We have been proactive in that area, which has really helped. We would not have gotten all these loans without being proactive," he assessed.
During the depths of the recession and slow recovery SGV Postal's delinquencies had gotten up to 4% or 5%. Meeks said at that point he began doing "door knocks." As the name implies, a representative from the credit union performs a home visit. But rather than showing up in the middle of the night to repossess the vehicle, "We tell them we are here to help them and try to get them to make payments again. Everyone is shocked that three full monthly payments gets their loan current again. Our delinquencies have decreased drastically and members are staying on track."
In its June 2011 Call Report SGV Postal had a net loss for the first half of $10,875. In 2010 it posted net income of $30,541 prior to assessments. It paid $17,468 to the NCUSIF and $18,599 to the corporate stabilization fund, leaving it with a net loss of $5,526.
Its net worth ratio at the end of 2010 was 9.65%. As of June 30 that figure was 9.35%.
"Our capital ratio has stayed about the same for my two years," Meeks said. "We are now at 9.47%. Our membership and loans are up slightly, and we have a goal to get capital ratio into double digits."
At its next board meeting the credit union is expected to, for the first time in its 39-year history, approve risk-based lending.
SGV Postal has just one branch and six employees. Meeks said he has attempted to change the expectations of the staff from waiting for something positive to happen to proactively making it happen.
"The staff I inherited is used to staying inside the credit union," he said. "I am trying to create an environment where people are going out and bringing in business. They need to have a sales and business development mindset. At the end of the year we will be losing an employee after 17 years, so I am looking to hire an individual who has operational skills and business development skills."
Small credit unions "have to be really efficient" in their operations, Meeks observed. He said SGV Postal had seven employees when he started and shortly thereafter one woman retired after 20 years. Instead of replacing her, he recalled, the others simply absorbed her work.
"It is important to have the right employees servicing the members," he said.
The biggest positive of working at a small CU, Meeks said, is how "rewarding" it is to know its members as well as the staff does.
"At a large credit union people fill out their slips and do their transactions. Maybe the tellers know the members, maybe they don't. Here our tellers have the member's account up before the member gets to the front of the line. You worry you might lose that piece if you get large."
At times, Meeks said, the atmosphere at SGV Postal's branch is almost like a local bar: members might chat with the tellers for 20 minutes before going on with their day. "We have a really good staff and they have been around for a long time. If you can't be positive at a credit union, you shouldn't be working at a credit union."
Meeks will be attending the California CU League's Annual Meeting and Convention in San Diego this week. He said the AMC "is important" and is the only meeting he attends with credit union funds.
"I went to last year's meeting and it inspired me," he declared. "We placed it in our budget because it is important to network. The Shapiro Group [an affiliate of the CCUL that assists CUs with $45 million or less in assets] helps us a lot. I came from a larger credit union so I was unaware of it, but it has given us grants for development, technology, building maintenance, facilities improvement, and strategic planning. We used them all and I'm on the Shapiro Network every day seeing what other credit unions have questions on. It helps with compliance, which is almost a full-time job."
