MADISON, Wis.-With hurricane season over, what should CUs do to prepare for next year, or any potential disaster?
"It all comes down to planning," said Mike Retelle, CUNA Mutual's corporate property and casualty claims manager, who talked about having foresight in choosing locations and insurance coverage, and preparing the entire staff to take action in the event a disaster strikes.
In all of the instances in which Retelle has worked with CUs to recover from storms, he still hears the same thing: "The credit unions always tell me that they never expected the storm to be as bad as it was, or that the (storm or flood) would reach them. I hear that time and time again. Basic planning is so essential."
That planning includes sharing responsibility-including the board-for managing through the disaster, and not placing the burden on the shoulders of one or two individuals.
"Following a disaster those individuals are under such tremendous pressure," said Retelle. "They are trying to get the credit union up and running and often their own personal lives have been impacted...I have never seen an unsuccessful credit union recovery from a disaster. But I have seen individuals who are responsible for the recovery retire or quit. And they have quit not because they were not successful or good managers or CEOs. It's because they just could not stand the stress from the recovery."
