Bator Training & Consulting, Inc., here has developed a conference to address specific issues relating to credit unions that serve law enforcement officials. The event, scheduled for July 15-16 at the Palmer House Hilton in downtown Chicago will be hosted by Chicago Patrolmen's Federal Credit Union and facilitated by BTC.
"To our knowledge, this is the first conference to concentrate solely on credit unions that serve the law enforcement community,'' said Kenneth C. Bator, BTC President. "The credit union industry offers a number of quality conferences, trade shows, and events but few as specific as this.''
Bator said previous training and consulting projects with Chicago Federal Credit Union highlighted nuances particular to CFCU and other CUs that serve police officers that he thought could be explored on a larger scale.
"I kept hearing about the airline credit unions and the Big 10 university credit unions that have their own associations,'' he said. "It makes sense that police officers credit unions could do the same.''
Bator said research lead him to 75 credit unions across the country with more than $1 million in assets whose primary members are in law enforcement. He sent surveys to each asking about their interest in such an event and the issues that they would most like to see addressed.
Of the surveys returned-"More than 10% came back,'' Bator said-the majority cited debt-related issues and credit as their top two concerns. In addition, several said they would like more ideas on how to market to this particular FOM.
"One of the challenges unique to this particular FOM is that they work 24/7,'' Bator said.
CPFCU CEO Scott Arney, who will deliver the keynote address, said he considers it an honor to serve police officers and looks forward to the conference to brainstorm with other like-minded executives.
"We are always looking for ways to better understand the unique financial needs of our membership and improve our service levels,'' he said. "I think this conference will provide the type of forum that will help us do that.''
Bator said the event would include several sessions that target individual topics, a roundtable marketing discussion and lots of opportunities for networking.
"One of the things we made clear in our letter (for input about the conference) is that the primary purpose of this event would be to allow CU executives and board directors a forum to network with each other.''
Since announcing the meeting, CNBS, the credit union brokerage firm, has signed on as the meeting's "premier sponsor."
