SANTA ANA, Calif. - Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union, the nation’s largest credit union for school employees and their families, officially changed its name to SchoolsFirst FCU April 2.
The CU said the new name is intended to more clearly define its membership base. Over the years, the organization noted that all school employees were not aware they could become members. Although the credit union is chartered for 10 counties in Southern California, many potential members living outside of Orange County often did not realize they were eligible to join.
Jose Lara, the CU’s senior vice president of planning and development, told the Credit Union Journal management has been contemplating a name change for several years. He said discussions heated up in the most recent three years, and the “real work” took place over the last 18 months.
“We gathered the information we needed to gather to make this project work,” he said. “The reality of our prior name, Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union, caused obstacles. We never were exclusively a teachers credit union–it originally was chartered for all school employees in Orange County. People in the office staff, custodial staff or cafeteria staff did not realize they could join. Eventually, we would tell them, but it was a hurdle we needed to overcome.”
The credit union placed notices to members on its website emphasizing the transition to SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union is a change in name only. The credit union said it is not merging, changing its charter or management.
To help members become more accustomed to the new name, the 74-year old CU said it plans a gradual transition. The name OCTFCU will remain in the SchoolsFirst FCU tagline: “Serving School Employees as OCTFCU Since 1934.”
The credit union began notifying area school superintendents in late January. It placed an advisory on its website on March 24.
Lara said the former OCTFCU did “a lot of research” in preparation for the name change. The credit union consulted with several firms for advice, but eventually went with something generic.
“SchoolsFirst is not way out there. We wanted a name that was, No. 1, inclusive,” he explained. “Also, we wanted a name that was not invented. As an educators’ credit union, we didn’t want something that was not in the dictionary. But we wanted to trademark the name, so we couldn’t choose one that was being used by another credit union. We selected the one we felt best described who we were, was inclusive, and we could trademark.”
On April 14, SchoolsFirst will be celebrating the new name with its members. Lara said the CU will have balloons and cake in all 26 of its branches across Southern California, and employees will be wearing the new logo.
OCTFCU/SchoolsFirst FCU has 376,000 members and $7.5 billion in assets.
