PayThink

Over the past several years, I have not only subscribed to The Credit Union Journal but have had the opportunity to work with The Credit Union Journal on numerous technology related articles (in particular, Kevin Jepson). I want to express my appreciation for the content improvements and professionalism that I've seen over the past year.

The Credit Union Journal's redesigned website includes a survey that changes periodically. Not only does the survey help track credit union views on current events, it will also be used to help The Journal's editorial staff determine what is important to readers.

Regulatory demands - they affect all of us, but the impact varies dramatically depending on the size of the organization. The regulatory burden falls disproportionately heavier on smaller credit unions than it does on larger CUs. This is especially true for credit unions with less than 20 employees. The Office of Advocacy, a part of the Small Business Administration (SBA), suggests in a 2005 study that smaller businesses spend approximately $7,650 per employee complying with all federal regulations. Larger businesses, those with 500 or more employees, in comparison spent approximately $5,280 per employee.

How often has someone asked you, "Have you seen that TV commercial...," before they launch into a detailed description of the spot's storyline? The problem: they have no idea which advertiser created and paid for the commercial.

I wish you had known him.

Boiled peanuts, sweet tea, NASCAR, and pickup trucks-you know you're in the South. On a crisp October day I took a three-hour drive from Atlanta through the rolling hills of western Alabama to Limestone Springs Golf Club to attend America's First FCU's Annual Charity Golf Tournament.

Another debit provider offering "big incentives" has just approached my credit union! What should I do?

So here's how the trip started: 3:30 a.m. wake-up call in order to get to Orlando airport, catch a nonstop to Vegas and avoid a layover in Atlanta. At 6:05 a.m. the captain's announcement welcomes everyone aboard "our flight to Atlanta." Turns out it's what airlines call a "through-flight," meaning the aircraft continues on to Vegas and the flight number doesn't change. When I ask a flight attendant about it, she cheerfully informs me it's a "one-stop non-stop." Oh. On the Atlanta-Vegas leg I'm two seats from a guy reading a book I see being read by at least one person on every flight to Sin City: "How to Beat The Vegas Casinos at their own Game." Well, obviously, they're taking such a beating they continue to build new, billion-dollar casinos because they're gluttons.

Information security awareness is something that is so prevalent in today's society that scarcely a day goes by without hearing about a new virus, a computer intrusion, or some other risk to our networks and our member's data. Because of this, and increasing regulatory scrutiny, virtually everyone has taken steps to protect their networks and data. Complex passwords have been put into place, firewalls, intrusion prevention and detection, anti-virus software and scanning, multifactor authentication and more.

After thinking about it for a moment I was not surprised to read in Frank J. Diekmann's column about our Apex, N.C. membership in his Oct. 2nd piece, "What Do Consumers Want? What's Ahead? Google Knows" and find that we are "googling" for "credit card debt" quite a bit! In fact, I'll bet folks in Apex tend to "google" for everything a bit more than the average community. Still, it is real nice to know that we are on the map for something (anything!) other than the huge fire we experienced last month.