CUES Partner Offers Exec Benefits

How was the making of fraudulent construction loans in Florida by recently failed Colorado and Michigan credit unions consistent with the purpose of serving people of modest means?

QUEENS, N.Y. - Police rounded up and charged 38 suspects last week with participation in a credit card ring that bought personal data from a source in China to make bogus cards and used the cards to make purchases in the names of thousands of Americans.

Empowerment in the workplace is an often-misunderstood concept. Employee empowerment is a term that many managers and organizations think they understand, but few actually do, and even fewer really put into practice.

MARCH

Have a problem or question you need resolved? Ask your question and get both the left and right perspective–left or right BRAIN that is. The left brain way of thinking is represented by Roger Ball, CEO of Call FCU, Richmond, Va., or as Kelley Parks calls him, the “bean-counting, bottom-line driven, fact-finding, never-ending filibuster.” The right brain way of thinking is represented by Parks, VP of Marketing & Business Development at Call FCU, or, as Roger calls her, the “creative, head-in-the-clouds, wishy-washy insomniac.”

ORLANDO - Fairwinds Credit Union is partnering with the National Basketball Association’s Orlando Magic to raise awareness and attract new members, with a special focus on checking accounts.

This letter is in response to the March 3, 2008 editorial by JoAnn Johnson, chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, defending the agency’s ongoing rulemaking regarding the conversion of a credit union to the mutual savings bank charter. The editorial was titled: “Why NCUA Has Focused On The Rights Of Members As Owners,” (CU Journal, March 3).

WASHINGTON - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have begun to buy so-called jumbo mortgages, those over the conforming $417,000 loan limit, as part of the economic stimulus package approved by Congress last month.

The Utah Statesman reported on the 50th anniversary of USU Charter Credit Union in Ogden, Utah. The story noted how the credit union’s roots lay in organizational efforts by two Utah State University professors, and how the credit union grew and expanded over the years.

CHICAGO - The Republican Party’s woes continued last week with a Democrat, physicist Bill Foster, winning a special election to fill the usually reliable Republican House seat vacated by former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.

Group Health Credit Union, Seattle, Wash., named John Cruz Iglesias president.

Events

PHILADELPHIA - Six members of American Heritage FCU will race each other through the aisles of a local supermarket this week to see who can come closes to $600 in accumulated groceries–part of the celebration of the credit union’s 60th anniversary.

ARLINGTON, Va. - NAFCU said last week it will oppose a bill that would allow merchants to negotiate the interchange fees they pay to bank and credit union merchant acquires, as part of the agreement for participating in card networks.

CUJ Reader Question: I have a hard time getting certain people on my management team to buy into my ideas. They just seem to be stuck in the past. How can I turn them into believers?

CONCORD, Calif. - NCUA said it is soliciting bids from credit unions to acquire Cal State 9 CU, a once-$420-million credit union that failed last year under the burden of home equity loans that caused a $61.6 million loss.

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin City Council approved a contract between Velocity CU and the municipal-owned Austin Energy for the credit union to offer low-interest loans to residential power customers for home energy improvements.

PASADENA, Calif. - Pasadena FCU last week named Ron Berry, a long-time members of its board and chairman since 1993, as its new president and CEO.

HERMANTOWN, Minn. - In order to make room for a new branch of Members Cooperative Credit Union, volunteers in this community plan to spend a few weeks in April slowly dismantling a house and donating it to Habitat for Humanity. A representative of Habitat said the plan is to salvage as much of the house and building materials as possible, and to sell them through Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore facility in Brainerd, Mass. A group of students from the University of Minnesota-Duluth has volunteered to dismantle the house. The credit union plans to build a 15,000-square-foot facility on the site where the home currently sits. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com