AUGUSTA, Maine — Members who spent the better part of a year fighting against the possible conversion and merger of KV Federal Credit Union here are basking in their victory after a successful campaign.
The credit union recently announced that a majority of the membership voted against the plans to convert to a bank and merge with Kennebec Savings Bank, much to the delight of the spokesperson for KV Members Matter, a group opposed to the plan. "We were the underdog," said Lucille Cloutier. (But) apparently a lot of people felt the way that we did."
Last year the $53-million credit union's board unanimously approved the conversion and merger plan; the question was then put to the members and it turned into a full-scale political campaign in recent months. Passionate members put together radio and television ads, paid for full-page advertisements in the local newspapers and wrote numerous letters to the editor in an attempt to sway the membership.
KV Members Matter blasted its motto of "protect your choice" for a number of months and gave away lawn signs that "went like hotcakes." Cloutier helped put the organization together after the lack of communication between the board and the members about such a critical issue rubbed her the wrong way.
"My feeling and the feeling of a lot of people is 'why didn't they go before the membership (in advance)?'" she said, noting that the board could have floated the question in the quarterly newsletter before voting last winter. "The fact that they kept it very quiet until they were ready to roll really irritated me and my husband."
Repeated attempts to reach KV FCU CEO Beverly Beaucage and Kennebec Savings Bank President Mark Johnston were unsuccessful. But the credit union released a letter to the members defending the conversion and merger proposal, but also parsing its position.
"The board believed a merger would be in the best interest for the members and the best course for the credit union for the long term," the letter said. "At the same time the board believed that the proposal would not be in the best interest unless there was a broad consensus in support of the board's view, even if a majority of members voted in favor of the merger."
Cloutier said the local rumor was that the vote was very close, but the credit union did not release the final vote tally and indicated to the local media that it will not do so at all - the KV Members Matter spokesperson also noted that the credit union "vehemently fought us all the way."
At other credit unions that have gone through controversial conversion proposals, the death of the conversion led to attempts to "clean house" at the board level to remove those directors who favored the move, but that currently isn't the case at KF FCU, where no one has called for any such ouster. But at least one change is imminent: in the letter to the membership Beaucage indicated she would retire at the end of March — in addition to her capacity as CEO, she is also the board's secretary.
With the vote coming down in favor of remaining a credit union, KV Members Matter is now defunct, having achieved its mission "We don't want to add fuel to the fire. We're hoping that things will settle down, we're not trying to personalize it." she said.
However, the credit union's annual meeting is in the spring of next year and, Cloutier noted, there are several parties who opposed the merger that are interested in running for the board.
