I attended the Sunday Special Meeting of Columbia CU. Your article in your online edition (www.cujournal.com, March 30), "Employees Rescued Embattled Directors," stated that the paid staff has volunteered their time to support the board. No employees were paid to support the board.
The statement that "Another employee nearly broke down in tears when she recounted how the credit union gave her a cake on her birthday" is a gross exaggeration of the facts. Also, at no time during the meeting was there any mention of the annual bonus. So the statement "employees were also enthusiastic about an increase in their bonuses from $50 to $300" is completely false.
Obviously someone unhappy with the board of directors was personally feeding information to your reporter, but to infer that this was something that came out during the meeting is false.
Additionally, we were given this bonus as a Christmas bonus. It was paid in December, after the vote for conversion and long before we ever knew about the special meeting. Your reporter would have everyone believe that we were PAID for our vote. This is clearly wrong. Maybe you should look to interview both sides in the future. I must say that I am not surprised by your article as it has been consistently one sided.
Julie Smith
Columbia Credit Union
Vancouver, Wash.
