ORLANDO, Fla. - There is no "magic pill" when it comes to building that elusive sales culture, but for many credit unions there are a couple of bitter pilles to swallow - they are not organized correctly to make loans, and the people they have in place to sell loans don't have what it takes to do so.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - America's credit unions mark their 100th anniversary this week. On Nov. 24, 1908, St. Mary's Bank became the country's first credit union when it accepted its first deposit. To celebrate the occasion, CU Journal in conjunction with CO-OP Financial Services, and St. Mary's, is recreating that transaction this week inside the original office where it occurred. Watch for coverage in CU Journal and at www.cujournal.com.

ORLANDO, Fla. - Credit unions seeking to boost lending and significantly increase ROA would be wise to do something counterintuitive - significantly slash lending staff, according to one analyst who is reporting robust numbers in credit unions that have done just that.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Ent Credit Unoin has recently named Chris Chippindale to a newly created position, "Director of Enterprise Initiatives." Chippindale is a nine-year veteran of the credit union and recently directed the merger between Ent and Denver's US Alliance CU. Below, Chippindale describes why the position was created and outlines its responsibilities.

Recalled by one CU leader about a bank at which she was working 13 years ago: "Our CEO and senior management staff was approached by a bill pay vendor to offer online bill payment. Considering all the competition between banks, the CEO wanted to be the first to offer the service. This was in 1995, the Internet was still new and this was certainly an innovative idea," she said. So the bank began developing this new service by setting up a list of local utility companies, major department stores and anyone else who would accept this type of payment. The payment for your bills had to be debited out of the customer's checking account three weeks prior to the bill due date. The marketing materials included: a brochure-with a list of all the utility companies and stores, an instruction booklet and several disks with the application program to download to the customer's computer.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Fidelity National Information Services announced three new core processing clients, including two credit unions. The $800-million Oregon Community CU and Memphis Area Teachers' CU, which controls $550 million in assets, will convert to Fidelity's MISER core processing solution. "Our move to MISER will improve overall operating efficiency, while enabling us to offer more competitive products and services to our members and the Midsouth community," said MATCU's president.

SALT LAKE CITY - Indirect Lending Technologies' indirect lending system is getting an overhaul as the company announced a major upgrade to the solution. According to ILT's president, the upgraded version of Professional Indirect Lending System combines the functionality of a direct loan origination system with the convenience of a typical indirect system. This technology automates and manages the loan application whether completed by the consumer or the provider. The system was originally was originally designed to support "lifestyle lending" loans, but expanded usage compelled the company to make some changes, it reported.

MALVERN, Penn. - Akcelerant Software lived up to its name in the second quarter of 2008 by adding 13 new credit union clients, the company announced. "Akcelerant continues to receive very positive feedback on our product strategy of delivering multiple solutions on the Akcelerant Framework," a senior VP said. One of the company's largest new clients is ESL Federal Credit Union - a $3 billion financial institution based out of New York.

WEST CHESTER, Penn. - Halfway through the year, CorePROFIT Solutions, a profitability solutions company for financial services firms, has signed on eight new credit union clients. The firm offers profitability information to credit unions through a series of hosted solutions that deliver insights into the costs and profitability of members, products, channels, and marketing campaigns. "CorePROFIT's strong momentum in the market is a testament to our ability to add significant, tangible value to a credit union's operation," the company's COO said. CorePROFIT Solutions serves CUs that employ a number of core processing platforms such as including Open Solutions, Symitar, Fidelity FIS, and the IntegraSys, Summit, XP Systems and USERS core systems from Fiserv, Inc.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Digital Dialogue, a PSCU Financial Services company and provider of 24/7 call center operations and software solutions, has signed Clearstar Financial CU as its 100th call center client. The $175-million-CU signed up with Digital Dialogue less than four years after the solutions provider first launched its service with three clients-Hanscom FCU, Service FCU and Los Angeles FCU. "We are honored to be Digital Dialogue's 100th total member care client," said a Clearstar VP. "Providing our members with reliable account access - regardless of time of day - is of paramount importance to retain a competitive advantage and meet our members' service expectations."

BELLEVUE, Wash. - Fuze Digital Solutions is teaming with gethuman.com to find out what consumers think about online customer service. Consumers will have an opportunity to give feedback about their expectations for customer care as the survey will collect aggregate feedback about phone, chat, and e-mail channels for more than 1,000 companies. To take the survey, go to www.gethuman.com/fuzesurvey.asp

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. - CU member cardholders who belong to the CO-OP Network will be able to find their nearest surcharge-free ATM on their GPS devices or with their mobile phones thanks to a new service. CO-OP Financial Services, who has 25,000 surcharge free ATMs across the country, launched the service in June. Cardholders with Garmin, Tom Tom or other GPS navigational devices will be able to download the entire database of ATM locations and use them when driving around town or across the nation. Members can also send a text message to MYCOOP with their address or intersection location in the message, and the service will send the user information on the nearest ATM.

WESTLAKE, Ohio - Several years after firing up its Connections Online (COL) solution, Cardwell has put together a three-part webinar to help clients learn how it can help execute the CUs' strategies. The COL webinar series teaches clients the "soft skills," of strategy management, project management, and people management-as well as using the actual product with each of these areas, Cardwell said.

WASHINGTON - iSekurity has signed an agreement with Northwest Federal Credit Union to offer iSekurity's identity theft protection and detection service to Northwest's 97,000 members. "It's important that the Northwest Federal Credit Union take a strong leadership role in the identity theft battle, and a partnership with iSekurity enables us to fulfill this responsibility. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with iSekurity," the credit union said. NWFCU and iSekurity have additional plans for continued collaboration, which will include hosting a number of identity theft-related seminars and events.

SEATTLE - Business intelligence (BI) makes BECU smarter about risk, according to Calvin Bierley, market research analyst at the $8-billion CU here.

RICHMOND, Ind. - Text-message banking may be the way to win a teenager's heart, but first you'll need the kid's mobile phone number.

SEATTLE - The 1,000 employees at BECU start their day looking at a KPI dashboard showing how strong the credit union is, even as the Washington Mutual crumbles across the street, according to Karrie Cunningham, business intelligence architect for the $8-billion credit union here.

HEW FCU Goes With CRI Systems

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The key to good decision making and risk management is having good data, and Schools First FCU here has that in spades.

MADISON, Wis. - Members actually read the homebanking blog at UWCU-100 people subscribe to it, and the main page gets 50 to 100 visits per day, according to Eric Bangerter, director, Internet services at the $1-billion credit union here.