President’s Message
June, 2024
Before the rest of the year gets away from me I wanted to pause for a moment and once again recognize the Credit Union’s service to our members. We celebrated 90 years on March 16, 2024 and I’d like to stop and thank those pioneers all those years ago that decided to start this organization. Back then, as it is today, your Board of Directors have the fiduciary responsibility to protect the assets of the credit union and to make sure that they are spending the profits of the credit union in a prudent and responsible way. The way that’s done is to give back as much of the profits to the members after we meet the regulatory reserve requirements.
You might have noticed lately that we have increased our dividend rates on our shares, money market and certificate accounts. In addition, we have lowered our loan rates on our new and used car loans as well as reduced our 1st position mortgage loan rates across the board. Now that might seem counterintuitive to say that we lowered the one item that generates the most profit but at the same time increased the dividends back to the members. That’s what’s called fiduciary responsibility and your board of directors takes this responsibility to heart, you see because they are members too.
I’d like to introduce your board of directors to you: Dr. Christopher McGinley, Chairman; George Madden, Vice Chairman; Charles M. Whiting, Secretary; Matthew Lentz, Treasurer; Wade Birchfield, Member; Vincent W. Rutland, Member; Marie E. Sejda, Member; Seven J. Turco, Member; Donald M. Woods, Member.
Fraud
If you watch the news channels you will no doubt catch a series from time to time where the authorities are warning us about the various frauds that are being perpetrated on the public. Well, we as members are the public and unfortunately we find ourselves in a position to help members who have fallen victim to these frauds. I’m going to list some of those frauds that our staff helps our members navigate through and they are self-explanatory. Imposter scams, Romance scams, Lottery or Prize money scams, Tech support scams, Employment scams and scams where people are asked to act as Money Mules.
All of these scams have one thing in common: they want to get you to give them money one way or the other. They do it in various ways such as using person to person payment services, mobile payment apps and gift cards to name the most common vehicles used to extort money. You all have heard the phrase that “if it’s too good to be true, then it is.” Please remember that if you ever get approached by one of these bad actors.
Please remember we are here to help. We would never call you and ask you to give up your personal information to access your account. If you are approached, give us a call so we can help stop the fraud before it goes too far.
Service
We are always looking for ways to deliver our services to our members in a more user-friendly and productive way. One such service we installed revolves around applying for a loan. The process in the information we ask for to qualify you for a loan is quicker and the response time back to you is much better. In addition we see where you have other loans and we report back to you how we can save you money. So if you apply for a loan be prepared to talk about saving you money. We could all use a little break today why not you.
Well that’s it for now. I’ll check back in with everyone in the fall. Until then stay safe and enjoy the summer and as always thank you for your membership.
Take Care,
John
