PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. — One South Florida credit union reached out to its community recently by co-sponsoring a contest that awarded one local business with a free evaluation of its financial platform, in addition to a $1,000 gift card to the office products company Staples, the contest's co-sponsor.

Navy Federal Teams Up With CodeGreen

BINGHAMTON, N.Y.-BCT FCU is reimbursing members who lost a total of $10,000 after providing their account information to a phishing scam using cell phone text messages.

FARMINGTON, Mich.-Dennis DeWitt, CEO of LOC FCU since 1983, is retiring in August.

MINNEAPOLIS-Teacher FCU, the state's fifth largest CU, is changing its name to TruStone Financial FCU June 1, as part of a rebranding to expand membership.

DETROIT-Detroit Municipal CU, which lost $4.1 million last year, has been approved by state regulators to convert to a community charter covering 4 million people in the surrounding counties of Oakland, Wayne and Macomb. As part of the makeover, the $350 million credit union is changing its name to Detroit Metropolitan CU.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.-State regulators reported they have approved the merger of Community Trust CU, the $50-million Modesto credit union, into Self-Help FCU, broadening the Durham, N.C., community development CU's footprint in California.

St. Vrain Valley CU, Longmont, Colo., named Aubrie Novotny branch supervisor, Ann Lemphere teller services, Meredith Logan asset recovery agent and Angie Nielson loan underwriter.

Meetings

WASHINGTON-Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac reported huge new losses will require more government aid, pegged at more than $175 billion now.

FAIRFAX, Va. — Before measuring the effectiveness of any marketing program, the credit union should first determine if a campaign has the building blocks for success.

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Two large greeting cards are circulating the Greater Vancouver area, gathering signatures from people wishing to "thank" Canadian banks for the fees banks charge them to access their own money.

CORONADO, Calif. — DFCU Financial CEO Mark Shobe offered the following advice and strategies for a credit union to build an ongoing Patronage Dividend strategy:

WASHINGTON-The credit union and banking lobbies were uniting last week against a provision that would be included in the credit card reform bill to allow merchants to offer discounts for use of debit cards, as opposed to credit cards, at the point of sale.

WASHINGTON-The House Financial Services Committee will hold hearings this week on the causes of the problems in the corporate credit union system, particularly the failures of U.S. Central FCU and WesCorp FCU and how the problems will affect the 7,800 natural person credit unions.

MAY

Digital Dialogue Launches DigiKnow

WINSTON SALEM, N.C. — Instead of assuming how the economy is impacting consumers, Truliant FCU asked its membership.

CORONADO, Calif. — A single-minded focus on watching its expense ratio and building capital over a period of years has now created a competitive phenomenon for one rapidly growing credit union.

Editor's note: the following letter was written in response to "Bid Would Deter Credit Card Use" (May 12).