Shows
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 372 Tansley Stearns and the CEO SeatSend us a textTansley Stearns had been working in a credit union for maybe five years when a big idea grabbed her: she decided she wanted to be a CEO of a credit union.For a young woman who had grown up on a farm in southern Michigan that was a very big idea.Three years ago she made it happen, when she was named CEO at Community Financial Credit Union, a Plymouth MI headquartered institution.
2025-10-0142 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 318 James Robert Lay on Banking on ChangeSend us a textJames Robert Lay is back with a new book, Banking on Change, and a message that will rock credit union executives out of complacency: “The Age of Artificial Intelligence spares no one from its transformative power.”This podcast is a fast paced, 40 minute romp through the changes that are transforming banking as we’ve known it into something that looks entirely different.Consider the words: checking account. Or even more obscure: sharedraft accoun...
2024-09-1845 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks with Kirk Kordeleski Episode 17 - More on PARC Street and SERPsSend us a textThe transition from OM To PARC Street Partners continues smoothly, says Kirk Kordeleski who explained that the group inside OM that had been focused on creating SERPs for senior credit union executives have all moved to PARC Street. Kordeleski’s message: there have been no disruptions in service.Not everybody in credit unions has gotten the message however so Kordeleski is actively spreading that message.Along the way, in this show he talks about crafting retirement plans for cr...
2023-11-1335 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 274 Peter Duffy on Sacred Cows Make the Best BurgersSend us a textSacred cows make the best burgers. It was some 25 years ago when I first heard speaker and consultant Robert Kriegel throw out that phrase and he even titled a book with it. It’s a good read and still in print. Every CU c suiter should read it.That’s because we have entered an era where what worked yesterday…doesn’t. Survival is the issue.In today’s podcast Peter...
2023-11-0859 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks with Kirk Kordeleski Episode 16Send us a textListeners to this podcast know that Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, is a busy guy. That became vivid one recent day when I signed into LinkedIn and saw a Kordeleski post where he announced he had become a partner in a new company formed to create SERPs for credit union executives: PARC Street Partners, where PARC stands for Pay Attract Retain Compensate.Kordeleski of course had been involved in SERPs at OM Financial, but he - and...
2023-10-0943 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 268 Kirk Kordeleski on Getting Real Results from Industry Events aka How to Make Meetings Work for YouSend us a textHave you ever spent two days at an industry meeting and on your flight home you found yourself wondering, why did I go there? Did I get a thing useful out of this?Join the club. Events regret is widespread.And then there is Kirk Kordeleski, former CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union which he grew into a colossus and now he's an executive with O.M. Financial, where he helps credit unions create c...
2023-09-2749 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 15 with Kirk Kordeleski on So You Want To Be A Credit Union CEO Part 2Send us a textAsk Kirk Kordesleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union where he pursued an extremely aggressive business strategy designed to double the size of the institution in five years, to mame a key challenge facing credit unions right now and he is blunt: a new generation of leaders has to be prepared and prepped and there is no time for delay.The Baby Boomer generation of credit union CEOs is fast retiring. The youngest are 58. The oldest are 76. The...
2023-08-1450 min
A World In TensionS2E9: The Tension of Jesus' Humanity w/ Robert RowWelcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions.
Over the course of history, many have studied the unique life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. He is like no other, fully God and fully man, a true enigma. In our quest to understand Jesus more deeply, the details of His humanity are often neglected and overlooked.
On today's episode we speak with Robert Row, Student Ministries Coordinator for seeJesus Ministry. Robert shares his perspective after spending several years of focused study on the most...
2023-08-0839 minA World In TensionS2E8: The Tension of Aging w/ Dr. Robert BeldingWelcome to Season 2! Come join us as we explore Stories of Tension: Real People, Real Stories, Real Solutions.
No matter how hard we try to avoid it, or how we may try to circumvent it, none of us can escape the simple fact that we are all getting older. In this episode, we speak with Dr. Robert Belding to examine the tension of aging.
Although many of us want to steer clear of this uncomfortable topic, at some point we all must come to grips with our own mortality. Come join us as we consider...
2023-07-2536 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 14 with Kirk Kordeleski on So You Want To Be A Credit Union CEOSend us a textSo you want to be a credit union CEO?This is your must listen podcast.In the show, Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union which he grew to be among the nation’s biggest, tells his path from starting as a part time teller at Bank-Fund Staff Credit Union in Washington DC (created for employees of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) to rising to the top at a hu...
2023-07-2443 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 13 with Kirk Kordeleski on Retirement Planning for Executives at Smaller Credit UnionsSend us a textAre generous pension plans for credit union executives only for those who work in the biggest institutions, the ones at the billion dollar plus credit unions?Do only the rich get richer? What about the many executives toiling in the thousands of smaller credit unions?Much of the discussion in past shows in this Money Talks series with Kirk Kordeleski has in fact been focused on pension options for the senior most executives at the biggest credit unions.
2023-06-1239 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 12 with Kirk Kordeleski on Today's Changing Retirement Age and the Impact on Financial PlanningSend us a textWe have entered a brave new world of retirement planning – and that very much includes planning in the credit union c-suite. Maybe the biggest change: there today is no fixed retirement age. A generation ago, for most executives, 65 was the target. That was widely accepted in retirement planning.Now we have executives who want to retire early. Others want to stay on past 65, perhaps to 70 or longer. Exactly how does this impact executive retirement income packages such as SERPs and 457Fs, the two most common c-suit...
2023-05-1532 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 11 with Kirk Kordeleski on Common Misconceptions About SERPs: What Don't You Know?Send us a textAsk Kirk Kordeleski, onetime CEO of Bethpage Federal Credit Union on Long Island. How SERPs – supplemental executive retirement plans – figure into credit union strategic thinking and he comes back with a blunt answer: Talent retention. Face this reality: today credit unions are at war but this is a war with multiple enemies – big banks, community banks, other credit unions, non banks, you name it. Many kinds of institutions want to hoover up your members’ money and nowadays it is the better institutions that are winning. Why are the...
2023-04-2553 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 10 with Kirk Kordeleski on Cashing in a SERP Early - Can It Happen?Send us a textRetirement, face it, is a hugely complex issue and that is why we are fortunate to have Kirk Kordeleski on the show. He’s the former Bethpage Federal Credit Union CEO and now an executive with OM Financial Group which specializes in c-suite retirement plans.Kordeleski knows SERPs and in this show he tells about the issues facing executives - and their boards - when they want to cash in a SERP early, for health reasons, maybe, or because they want to...
2023-03-2942 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 9 with Kirk Kordeleski on Knowing Your Risk ToleranceSend us a textTalk about Hatfields vs. McCoys. In the world of credit union c-suite retirement planning there are two major competing scenarios. There are SERPs based on whole life policies. And there are IULs, indexed universal life plans.In this intro I am not going to tell you the difference. That’s because this is a complex topic and on the show is Kirk Kordeleski onetime Bethpage Federal Credit Union CEO and now an executive with OM Financial Group which specializes in c-suite re...
2023-02-2048 min
Stories Matter! - Helping Leaders Transform LivesS12 E17 Intangibles Customer Equity with Gayle Turner & Robert McGarveyUnderstanding intangibles is one of THE most important skills for 21st Century management. - Robert McGarvey
Neo-Liberalism has run its course. Normative Theory is rooted in the dynamics of social dynamism. “Greed is Good” has run its course and Ayn Rand’s false dichotomy of Extreme Individualism on one side and Collective Socialism on the other as the only choices for contemporary society has been proven to be fallacious.
Understand the value of your organization’s intangibles. Explore what your customers’ value and why they do business with your organization.
Initiate a customer survey. Do...
2023-02-0912 min
Stories Matter! - Helping Leaders Transform LivesS12 E18 Intangibles Human Capital with Gayle Turner & Robert McGarvey“The most important thing that we entrepreneurs have is our human capital. If we exhaust it, we make bad decisions.” — Arianna Huffington
Some organizations are built on the premise of human capital as interchangeable cogs. For others, this is a recipe for disaster.
Understand the true value of your human capital and the costs of high turnover.
Dig deep into your costs of lost productivity during transition periods as new hires are integrated into your organization and brought up to speed and compare those losses with your recruitment, and training expenses.
Start co...
2023-02-0912 min
Stories Matter! - Helping Leaders Transform LivesS12 E19 Intangibles Human Capital with Gayle Turner & Robert McGarveyTrust is the cement that bonds all relationships. -Stephen Covey
When there is distrust between employees and management it causes friction and slows flow. Which in turn makes doing business more expensive.
The quality of the relationships between a company and its employees, customers, suppliers, the communities where they operate and their investors are treated as intangible.
But, you need to know these “intangibles” have serious impact upon the worth of a business and they need to be treated with respect. They need to be measured and monitored, so they may be managed.
...
2023-02-0912 min
Stories Matter! - Helping Leaders Transform LivesS12 E20 Intangibles Hidden Millions with Gayle Turner & Robert McGarveySpending money on R&D is only an expense when talking to the taxman.
Accounting as a management tool is best served when investments in the intangibles, but nonetheless real assets, are measured and monitored so they may represent an accurate picture of an enterprises true situation thereby supporting sound decision making.
Restating an organization’s books for different purposes is a sound management practice.
Then reach out to Robert McGarvey to have a conversation abut creating a set of accounts congruent with GAA where your marketing, R&D, branding expenses are restated as...
2023-02-0912 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 8 with Kirk Kordeleski on Why Low Pay for the CEO Sets Your CU on a Path of FailureSend us a textPick a number and here’s the question: over the last 11 years CEO pay in credit unions has gone up 2% per year, 5% per year, or greater than 10% per year?Take a deep breath now. The answer is 7.5%, said Kirk Kordleski, past CEO of Bethpage Credit Union, one of the nation’s biggest, and now a consultant specializing in retirement plans with OM Financial.If that number rocks you, grab tight now becau...
2023-01-2442 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 7 with Kirk Kordeleski on Revisiting a Now Out of Date SERP or a 457F Retirement PackageSend us a textLucky you. You negotiated a satisfactory SERP (Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan) or maybe it was a 457F bonus package.Just one problem: Ballooning prices in today’s economy coupled with the fast paced growth many credit unions have experienced in the past five years probably have rendered those plans as woefully too small.Remember, the standard goal of much retirement planning is to give the retired executive an income equal to about 65% of his/her last three years’ inco...
2022-12-0145 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 6 with Kirk Kordeleski on How to Persuade a Board on Executive Retirement PackagesSend us a text Here is where the pedal hits the metal. In this show credit union executive retirement compensation expert Kirk Kordeleski tells how the credit union senior executives can persuade their board to agree to market rate retirement plans that may well involve multiple millions of dollars for the executive team.That's big money. It takes a smart argument to persuade. Kordeleski tells the argument and, in a bonus, he tells how he in fact convinced the board of Bethpage Credit Union to enact a market rate retirement plan for Kordeleski and other s...
2022-11-1547 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 5 Kirk Kordeleski on the Five Generations of Credit Union Leaders, Their Compensation, and Surviving RecessionSend us a textToday's credit union leadership - especially at the nation's best and biggest credit unions- is professional and deeply versed in financial services. But that wasn't always so in credit union land. This episode opens with Kirk Kordeleski - onetime CEO at Bethpage Federal Credit Union, one of the nation's biggest, and now an executive at OM Financial Group, which specializes in SERPs which are building block retirement plans for key credit union executives - giving us a history lesson on the five generations of credit union leadership. He starts way back when everybody...
2022-11-0354 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks Episode 4 Kirk Kordeleski on Interest Rates and A Credit Union's Executive Retirement PlanSend us a text The stark reality is that as interest rates edge up - and already in much of Europe inflation has climbed above 10% in the year and interest rates will follow - a fresh new look is being given credit union executive retirement plans.It is just is exponentially harder - and more expensive - to plan retirement in a high inflation world.Accept that funding such plans will cost more. Maybe a lot more.But not funding it has its own costs starting with lo...
2022-10-2443 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Kirk Kordeleski Money Talks Episode 3: CUES and Its Executive Compensation BombshellSend us a textThe latest CUES executive compensation numbers for credit union executives are out and this explosion still reverberates across the industry. Total median executive comp in 2022 was up 14.9%. For CEOs the total median compensation was $515,602. Understand: those numbers are from a time when inflation was not a concern and most workers in most industries were happy to get a 2 or 3% pay hike.Now every worker wants a big pay hike to stay even with inflation. You can bet credit union c-suiters will too.How did this ha...
2022-09-1239 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast 215 Robert Johnston CEO of Adlumin on Cyber War and Your Credit UnionSend us a textRobert Johnston was a Marine and that is where he honed his skills at waging war in the cyber dimension - and you better believe that is where a lot of warfare now happens, from Russia knocking out ATMs in neighboring countries through nation state hackers targeting financial institutions, both to fuel widespread anxiety and simply to plunder others' money.Johnston has a pedigree at this. He led the investigation into the Russian Intelligence Service breach of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 and before that he worked on the hack of...
2022-08-3145 min
The CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks with Kirk Kordeleski Episode 2: Executive Comp As a Strategic InitiativeSend us a textHere's the big, immense, mind blowing idea that is central to this podcast: a competitive credit union has to view executive compensation as a strategic initiative, really no different from putting investment money into a CUSO or rolling out a spiffy new mobile banking app.Understand this: NCUA regulations explicitly allow this allocation of capital.And grasp this: unless a credit union has invested in creating a first-rate leadership team it won't have the staff capabilities to make the most of its capital investments in more traditional vehicles.
2022-07-1949 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Money Talks with Kirk Kordeleski Episode 1 "What's In Your Pay Packet?"Send us a text Are you earning enough at a credit union?Here's the bad news: it's not easy to figure out the right answer to that question. Information about executive pay at credit unions is not easy to come by.Here's the worse news: If a top exec at a credit union is underpaid, very probably most of the executive staff is too - and that is an institution that will find it ever harder to compete against the growing numbers of credit unions that get it, that understand they have to p...
2022-07-0652 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 145 Robert Siciliano on Ransomware and Who Do You Trust?Send us a textPSCU called it a growing credit union threat. CUNA Mutual called it one of the fastest growing malware threats. Security company Arctic Wolf has said there was a 520% increase in ransomware and phishing attacks in the banking sector between March and June 2020. NCUA has even issued a punchlist of steps to take to protect against ransomware attacks.Color me surprised. I had thought ransomware - where hackers "lock" a site or a database and demand a ransom to unlock it - was a thing of the past. Data redundancy in the clou...
2021-04-2136 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 112 Steve Bruyn on the Huge Opportunity For Credit Unions to Win Bank Customers TodaySend us a textBank Transfer Day 2020, Bigger and Better?By Robert McGarveyYou remember Bank Transfer day, that 2011 movement that brought in perhaps one million new credit union members, possibly more.Something a lot bigger may be about to happen.That’s the opinion of Steve Bruyn, CEO of Foresight Research who, writing in The Financial Brand, said that its extensive polling had found nearly a doubling of the nu...
2020-09-2233 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 109 Paul Ablack on Fintechs, Big Data, and New Opportunities in Commercial LendingSend us a text Paul Ablack knows big data and fintechs. He served as CEO at OnApproach, a big data company aimed at credit unions that was acquired by Trellance.Ablack left OnApproach after the acquisition and is now noodling new opportunities in fintechs and especially in commercial lending for deposit rich credit unions. In that latter regard he is bullish on what he sees as major opportunities in lending for new senior care facilities and, yes, that industry has taken a beating in the Covid-19 era but that, too, may well fuel the need for...
2020-09-0143 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 108 Ralph Swoboda from CUNA CEO to Fintech EntrepreneurSend us a text Before he was 40, Ralph Swoboda was named CEO of CUNA in Washington, DC. That was in 1986 and he held the job until 1994. That was when CUNA was a big association, with a head count upwards of 1400 because it provided a lot of assistance for credit unions with back office operations.His next job after leaving CUNA was chairman of the management committee of the Association of British Credit Unions, based in Manchester, England.Later, he moved to CUNA Mutual where he was head of international operations, directing operations in som...
2020-08-251h 02The CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 107 Bert Hash CEO MECU (Retired) A Credit Union LifeSend us a text When Bert Hash, Jr. took over as CEO of MECU in 1996 it was a $400 million institution with one branch that served municipal employees of Baltimore. In this podcast he tells about the institution he took charge of. It had exactly zero ATMs. It did not dispense cash to members - if a member wanted a withdrawal, they were issued a check and most went across the street to a bank to cash it. Hash, who came to MECU after a long career with banks, knew there had to be changes. Within his...
2020-08-1852 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 106 the Credit Union Mastermind GroupSend us a textAre you ready to jumpstart your credit union's successes? How about your personal success?You want to know about the new CU2.0 Mastermind group - which is specifically created to help credit union leader and fintech leaders come together in small, working groups to hash out problems, solutions, opportunities.Listen up: we are in a crisis. A health crisis and a national, indeed global, financial crisis. The impacts of what we now confront will be with us for ye...
2020-08-1150 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 105 Angela Russell CUNA Mutual on Race and Equity and What to Do Now DEI4Send us a text Ask Angela Russell, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at CUNA Mutual Group, a year from now what she would want to be able to tell us about progress made in the year and she did not hesitate with her answer.On a personal level, she said, she hoped her son would be able to go for a run outside without fear.Professionally, she said she hoped that the conversation about race and diversity and financial inclusion would be continuing and that c...
2020-08-0433 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 104 Brad Powell Redboard the Smarter Audit SoftwareSend us a textYou know the feelings - powerlessness, exasperation, maybe even anger - and know that these are typical for credit union staff involved in audits conducted by regulators.Those audits are routine but for many credit unions they are an ordeal.Why? Maybe 8 in 10 credit unions still handle issues that arise in an audit the same way they did in 1990, that is, a lot of email flies around to staff ("Handle the attached request from the auditor") and everything is logged into a tracking sp...
2020-07-2831 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 103 Pablo DeFilippi of Inclusiv on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion DEI 3Send us a text"The credit union industry needs to reflect the community," said Pablo DeFilippi, a senior vice president at Inclusiv, the association for community development credit unions, a past CEO of the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union in New York, and a leading voice in the push for more Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the credit union universe.He points out that, as nation, we are becoming ever more diverse. Indeed, by 2045, the US will become "minority white," according to demographers. The time fo...
2020-07-2140 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 102 Andrew Wang Peach Street on Mortgage ServicingSend us a textThe subtitle for this podcast should be All You Wanted to Know About Mortgage Servicing But Were Afraid to Ask.Our guest is Andrew Wang, CEO of Peach Street, a new approach to mortgage servicing that just may be exactly what many credit unions want.Most mortgages are passed off to third party servicers for two reasons. The servicers know the government regs and how to comply and they also are skilled at cutting costs.Most see mortgage servicing as...
2020-07-1442 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 101 Renee Sattiewhite AACUC on Credit Unions, Race and the US DEI 2Send us a textIs there racism in US financial institutions?Can credit unions make a difference in the fight to combat racism?Yes is the answer to both, says Renee Sattiewhite, CEO of the African American Credit Union Coalition, a founding member of the CU DEI Collective which is centered around this belief: "We believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion is good business and is fundamental to a vibrant, relevant and growing Credit Union Movement."That is the key: practicing DEI...
2020-07-0931 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 100 Coopera's Victor Miguel Corro on Race and Credit Unions in 2020 DEI 1Send us a textSomething is happening, something big, when it comes to the US and race relations and this is making itself felt in financial services.That's the strong opinion of Victor Miguel Corro, CEO of Coopera, a consulting firm - started with support from the Iowa Credit Union League - that helps credit unions meet the needs of Hispanic consumers.That market is huge. In less than thirty years, one in three US consumers will be Hispanic, said Corro. Right now, Hispanics are about 15% of th...
2020-07-0739 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 99 Brad Smith on the Post-Pandemic Tech You Need NowSend us a textCall it a sea change - a massive alteration of the US financial services landscape. Everything seems different today and it is because of the pandemic.What do you need to be thinking abut now to survive tomorrow?An interview I did with Cornerstone consulting firm's Brad Smith for a CUInsight article left me wanting more from Smith and here it is, a one-on-one podcast where we hear what smart credit unions are doing today.Like what? Like r...
2020-07-0141 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 98 James Robert Lay on the Real Meaning of Digital TransformationSend us a textYou want to read James Robert Lay's Banking on Digital Growth. It's a book not about digital tools but rather about the transformation of community financial institutions, credit unions included, into organizations that can compete with and win against the mega banks.Too small to do that? Nope, says Lay. That size can be a strength. It means a credit union can turn on a dime - if it chooses to.It starts with recognizing that the traditional branch first marketing model is b...
2020-06-2432 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 97 PPP Loan Forgiveness: Fast TakeSend us a textDo you have 10 minutes?That's all it will take to listen to this CU2.0 Fast Take on PPP Loan Forgiveness, a topic that suddenly is bedeviling thousands of credit unions as they confront the reality of how time consuming it is to navigate the loan forgiveness process.Make no mistake: you want to get that loan forgiven. Best guesses are that many of the loans that aren't forgiven will in fact default.You don't want that on your...
2020-06-1912 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 96 Steve Winninger Talking Boards and GovernanceSend us a textSteve Winninger is the man to talk with about credit union boards and governance.A longtime credit union CEO - 20 years at Lake Trust - now a $1.6 billion institution based in Michigan - plus he also served as CEO at IBM Lexington and since retiring from Lake Trust he has put in stints as CEO at four credit unions (only one of which merged out of existence).But Steve is a rare CEO. He loves talking about the role of the board and...
2020-06-1744 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 95 Carma Peters, CEO Michigan Legacy Credit Union on Digital, Covid-19 and CU Survival 2020 StyleSend us a textMichigan Legacy Credit Union just may be a unique $220 million institution - it's the product of five mergers in five years, said Carma Peters, the CEO. And now she said the institution is on a huge digital push, an initiative that had been in the works but Covid-19 has intensified the effort.One Michigan Legacy employee has died from Covid-19. So did a former member of the board.All this hits Peters hard and, she said, she tells employees and also members that t...
2020-06-1031 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Episode 94 Nabil Hannan on Cybersecurity, Remote Workers, Mergers and Your Credit UnionSend us a textCybersecurity starts with you."It's about people," said Nabil Hannan, managing director at cybersecurity firm NetSPI when asked when cybersecurity goes right and when it goes wrong. He added in this podcast that Covid-19 and credit union responses have triggered their own cybersecurity issues that are very particular to today.But they also need timely responses to thwart hackers.Case in point: some workers are instructed to take their desktop computer home to work. Question: does that box ha...
2020-06-0340 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 93 Lee Miller Renofi on Smarter Home Improvement LoansSend us a textAmerica's housing stock is old - often over 50 years of age in much of the nation and owners want, need, improvements to live in the home they want.The problem: many buyers stretch to buy their home and they do not have that much equity built up, even after five or perhaps even ten years in the house. But now there are two more children, maybe a grandparent, added to the family and where does everybody sleep.Historically, home improvement...
2020-05-2738 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 92 Sahil Pankhaniya, A Start Up Credit Union at George Washington UniversitySend us a textWhat will blow your mind as you listen to this podcast is how savvy and smart the guest is. That's Sahil Pankhaniya, a 20 year old student at George Washington University in Washington DC who is pursuing the launch of a wholly new, student run credit union credit union at the Washington DC institution.How cool is that.The effort has been written up in Credit Union Times, and here Mr. Pankhaniya talks for himself.Know this: he thinks...
2020-05-1933 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 91 Sherif Hassan Capiform on Smarter Lending NowSend us a textHow could we build a lending tool that anybody could use?That is the driving thought that led Sherif Hassan to form fintech Capiform and the timing could not be better.That's because, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing recession, suddenly credit unions are awash with savings deposits (as investors flee equity markets) and they also see a rush of loan applicants, for everything from Covid-19 triggered SBA loans through equipment leases.How to efficiently handle the...
2020-05-1334 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 90 Bill Kennedy Tells How Many Credit Unions Will Close in the Next YearSend us a textBill Kennedy has spent a credit union career moving from institution to institution. He has worked at 11 - "6 or 7 were turnarounds, 1 was a startup," said Kennedy.Often he's been CFO, and he has also served as CEO. He's seen a lot in his years at and near the top.Know this about this podcast: Kennedy speaks his mind and he doesn't soften his opinions.And he has a very strong opinion about how many credit unions will close...
2020-05-0429 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 89 Bob Meara Celent on Covid-19 and Your Credit UnionSend us a textFrom the future of branches (maybe brighter than you fear) to the profound impacts Covid-19 may have on your credit union, this conversation with longtime banking analyst Bob Meara, now a senior analyst with consulting firm Celent, will get you thinking.For starters, accept that very probably Covid-19 will work lasting changes on how your credit union does business - and very probably there will be growing acceptance of digital tools that will last beyond the pandemic.Face to face as a primary...
2020-04-2928 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 88 Bob Fisher CEO (Retired) Grow Credit Union, Billion $$ BabiesSend us a textBob Fisher, recently retired longtime CEO of $2.8 billion Grow Credit Union in Tampa, opens this podcast by relating a call he had a few weeks ago with the present CEO. Bob said he told him, "I'm calling you with glee. I am so glad I am not in your chair now" and that's because of coronavirus, the global recession, and the upheaval that has remade the world.And yet you can hear this in Fisher's voice: he truly believes smart credit union CEOs will see opportunities, even amid t...
2020-04-2151 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 87 Bill Brooks Credit Union DoctorSend us a textYou have never heard a CU2.0 Podcast like this one. This is a podcast where sacred cows are roasted on an open spit, criticisms are hurled at regulators, huge questions are raised about the wisdom of credit unions emulating bankers, and then there is the giant question about the industry's future.Welcome to the CU2.0 Podcast. This is your host, Robert McGarvey. Today's guest, Bill Brooks, presently serving as a credit union doctor who is helping to save an institution in Maryland. Earlier he worked as an NCUA exa...
2020-04-1443 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 86 Alan Bergstrom Exclamation Services CUSOSend us a textDo what you do best and let us do the rest.That's the one sentence pitch for Exclamation Services, a Wisconsin CUSO that sees its mission as helping smaller credit unions - under $500 million in assets - thrive.Every year hundreds of credit unions, mainly small, vanish - typically in mergers.But what if those credit unions could hire a la carte services such as marketing, HR, IT, and back office - and in fact get higher quality...
2020-04-0738 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 85 Shane Butcher on Remote Workers, Credit Unions, and Coronavirus Part 2Send us a textShane Butcher is a security guru at CUSO Ongoing Operations and lately has been busy helping numerous credit unions safely transition their employees to working from home.The good news: credit unions that approach this methodically, carefully will probably be able to mitigate risks.The bad news: credit unions that rush into this, haphazardly, with inadequate employee training may not.One key: stress to employees working from home that they need to practice the very same security awareness...
2020-03-2336 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 84 Kevin Langford on Remote Workers and Cyber Insecurities in the Age of CoronavirusSend us a textSuddenly credit unions across the nation are ordering employees home, as part of the response to the coronavirus pandemic. And that is triggering a tidal wave of worries about the possible cyber insecurities that will result as newly empowered employees log into the credit union networks.Hitherto, at many credit unions, the workers who had home access to the network were mainly senior, experienced, and both well trained and well equipped.Today's newly drafted home workers often lack the right equipment and their t...
2020-03-1922 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 83 Ron Shevlin, Again, on How to Win in Financial ServicesSend us a textWho will win: community banks or credit unions?War on.A keen observer is Ron Shevlin, diretor of research at Cornerstone Advisors and author of a new report, What's Going on in Banking 2020. It's a data rich report. Download it, read it.Shevlin was an early guest on the CU2.0 Podcast - Episode 21 - and he's back in this wide ranging conversation about credit unions, technology, and ways to win.For instance: can c...
2020-03-1741 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 12 Bill Bynum CEO of Hope Credit UnionSend us a textTalking About the Real Credit Union Mission with Bill Bynum, CEO of Hope CUBy Robert McGarveyHope. That one word powerfully sums up the mission of Hope Credit Union, a Mississippi delta based community development credit union with more than $280 million in assets. And Hope is bringing financial hope to people across the deep south who may not have had a lot of that.How does Hope do this and s...
2020-03-1025 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 82 Jon Ogden MX on the Future of BankingSend us a textDoes your credit union have a future?There's the blunt question. Welcome to the CU2.0 Podcast with your host Robert McGarvey. Today's guest Jon Ogden, head of strategic content at digital firm MX which has recently released two provocative reports, The Ultimate Guide to the Future of Banking and the Ultimate Guide to Digital Transformation.Read them, they are free.But know they may keep you up at night.
2020-03-1034 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 81 Keith Leggett and Bank-Credit Union Mergers and Dancing with the DevilSend us a textWhen a credit union buys a community bank is that dancing with the devil?Welcome to the CU2.0 podcast with your host Robert McGarvey. Today's guest Keith Leggett, now retired Chief Economist with the American Bankers Association who still actively writes his blog, Credit Union Watch.The topic of the talk: bank - credit union mergers.Some banking experts are up in arms about these mergers. Not Leggett. He says community banks that are up for sale generally ar...
2020-03-0335 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 80 Scott Petry Authentic8 on the Tower of Babel in Many FIsSend us a textThey just don't talk well together.That's the surprising conclusion in a report entitled "Surprising Disconnect Over Compliance and Secure Web Use at Financial Firms," research sponsored by IT security company Authentic8. (Download the report here.)Inside many banks and credit unions IT, compliance, and legal just don't talk the same language and often do not see the same problems, according to this report.Read the related CUInsight article about the report here.
2020-02-2635 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 79 Up in Smoke with Dan Mayfield LeveragePoint on Cannabis and Credit UnionsSend us a textWelcome to Up in Smoke, Part 4 - credit unions and weed.Buckle up. Dan Mayfield, public affairs director at LeveragePoint, a strategic communications firm in Albuquerque NM, will be our guide in this podcast to the cannabis business in New Mexico. Cash, public safety, and a $130 million dollar annual business take. That's legal marijuana in New Mexico -- and right now credit unions are scrambling to help serve this market.LeveragePoint has a ringside seat and that's because i...
2020-02-1837 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 78 Paul Stull on Cannabis and Credit Unions, Up in Smoke 3Send us a textToke up - the CU2.0 Podcast is back with another look at cannabis and credit unions, a topic we last looked at a year ago in a two part podcast. Part 1 here, Part 2 here. Welcome to Part 3, 2020 edition of Up in Smoke, credit union style.This is your host Robert McGarveyToday's guest Paul Stull CEO of the Credit Union Association of New Mexico, which is sponsoring the Credit Union Cannabiz Conference, April 5-8 in Chicago.
2020-02-1236 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 77 Shondell Varcianna on the Content You Need to GrowSend us a textWant to grow your member base? Want to target particular kinds of members?Content is your friend, says Shondell Varcianna, a financial services veteran who nowadays focuses on providing select financial institutions with finely targeted digital content - blog posts - for distribution via the credit union website, also social media.Her driving point: content works when it is written to meet the specific needs of a targeted group. It can't be all things to all people.She e...
2020-02-0633 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 76 Matt Johnner BankLabs on Commercial Lending and Your Credit UnionSend us a textIt just may be topic one in credit union c suites - how do we make more profitable loans?Matt Johnner of BankLabs - a developer of cloud based technology solutions for financial institutions - has a suggestion: Go after lending to two of the country's biggest industrial segments, agriculture and construction.And fast track this by using your present member base to segue into commercial lending into those segments.A good car loan experience for a farmer's...
2020-02-0437 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 75 Milind Borkar Illuma LabsSend us a textPasswords are broken. You know that. But do you know call centers are heading that way?Call centers are under attack by criminals. Smart criminals. And they are targeting credit unions.Credit unions are responding by asking more members ever harder questions. Just one problem. As the questions get more obscure - what was the make of the second car you owned - more members give wrong answers.Fraudsters incidentally often can perform q...
2020-01-2836 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 74 Blesson Abraham of Cambio and 2nd Chances at Financial ServicesSend us a textEvery day people - maybe thousands of them - are turned away by financial institutions, credit unions included. These people, by necessity, utilize the periphery of financial services such as payday lenders and bill pay via pricey money orders.It's expensive to be poor.Wouldn't it be nice if credit unions could do more to help these people get back on a healthy financial path?It could in fact be life changing.CU2.0
2020-01-2135 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 73 Joseph Cooper Justice for MeSend us a textJoseph Cooper calls it "the justice gap" and what he is pinpointing is the avalanche of unfiled lawsuits and the unpursued legal matters that the middle class often just lets go untended.The rich pay lawyers. The poor, in many cases, can access free legal assistance. The middle class is out in the cold.Enter Cooper's Justice for Me, where he is creating a system that helps attorneys find clients, helps those clients borrow money to pay for their legal assistance, and just m...
2020-01-1423 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 72 Seth Brecher Edmit on College Costs and YouSend us a textThe tagline of the website Edmit says a lot: Treat college like an investment.Four years at Arizona State - tuition, room, board - will run over $110,000. Four years at MIT will run over $300,000.Big money is at stake and this is why so many students graduate with immense debt loads. The average approaches $40,000.That's a lot of dough and it's a huge burden.Enter Edmit, which aims t...
2020-01-0728 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 23 Gabe Krajicek of KasasaSend us a textIf Kasasa were a bank branch network, it would be the nation’s fourth largest and it says that some time this year it will overtake Bank of America and be the 3rd biggest.Surprised? You bet. Probably you know that Kasasa has been building up its customer base for digital banking products - checking in particular - but now it is big enough where it's tooting its horn.This"branch network" isn’t a consumer facing product - CO-OP...
2020-01-0229 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU 2.0 Podcast Episode 22 Talking Payments and Data Analytics with Trellance's Lou GrilliSend us a textWhat do you think when you get an alert from your credit union offering you a 2.9% car loan - and you already have a 1.9% car loan that you got two years ago from the same institution?Duh, right?Lou Grilli, an executive at payments CUSO Trellance, thinks a lot about exactly those kinds of questions and he believes that for credit unions the solution will come through smarter, faster data analytics.His opinions are rooted in information gleaned...
2019-12-3030 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast - Episode 4 - Talking with Amy DownsSend us a text.Welcome to the CU2.0 Podcast with your host Robert McGarvey.In every episode we probe the massive digital transformation that now is remaking the nation’s credit unions and today’s guest is Amy Downs, CEO of Allegiance Credit Union in Oklahoma.This is a very special episode. The conversation with Amy opens with her remembrance of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah federal office building in Oklahoma. Many of her co-workers lost their lives that day; some 168 people died that day. Amy survived but...
2019-12-1130 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast - Episode 6 - Trudy Soucoup, Board Member WSECUSend us a textWelcome to the CU2.0 Podcast with your host Robert McGarvey. In every episode we probe the massive digital transformation that now is remaking the nation’s credit unions and today’s guest is Trudy Soucoup, a member of the board of directors at Washing State Employees Credit Union, a top 100 institution with about $2.8 billion in assets.Trudy’s day job is as CEO of Homes First!, a non profit focused on low income housing in Washington.The focus of this podcast: what’s it like...
2019-12-1027 min
The Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 25 Michael Peck on Worker Co-opsby Robert McGarvey
There are maybe 400 worker owned co-ops in the US today. How many will there be 10 years from now?
Ask Michael Peck, a founder of 1worker1vote, and he says there will be four million.
That’s no typo. He added, “I really believe we are at a tipping point.”
Worker co-ops now are burning brightest in the constellation of cooperative initiatives. There is vastly more enthusiasm and energy around worker co-ops than any other kind. This year perhaps two or three new credit unions will be chartered. There will be...
2019-09-2649 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 24 Dennis Johnson on Senior Housing Co-Opsby Robert McGarvey
Co-op housing: a better way for seniors?
Where to house the ever expanding numbers of American seniors? Ask Dennis Johnson, president of the Senior Cooperative Foundation in Minnesota, where seniors control their housing destiny.
There are many such co-ops in Minnesota and Iowa and a handful more states, typically in the upper midwest. Why isn’t this housing popular elsewhere? Johnson tells why in this podcast.
The guiding principles behind senior co-ops spell out what make them different, special. Such as: these co-ops “put the well-being of the members ab...
2019-09-0333 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 20 Jake Schlachter We Own ItBy Robert McGarvey
Corruption. Greed. Ignorance. Racism. Sexism. Words you don’t usually hear spoken about cooperatives. But brace yourself because in the next hour you will as The Cooperators Podcast talks with Jake Schlachter, founder and executive director of We Own It, a Madison Wisconsin based organization aimed at energizing the 130 million of us who belong to cooperatives in the US to seize control, to put our cooperatives in the directions we want them to go.
We have that power.
We just have to know it. And use it.
We are...
2019-06-251h 01The CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast - Episode 7 - Vasilios Roussos, DCU Fintech Innovation CenterSend us a textWelcome to the CU2.0 Podcast with your host Robert McGarvey. In every episode we probe the massive digital transformation that now is remaking the nation’s credit unions and today’s guest is Vasilios Roussos, executive director of the DCU Fintech Innovation Center in Boston.The what? You're right: this is a major departure for a credit union and in this podcast you'll find out why DCU launched a fintech incubator, how this is very cool for the industry and what other credit unions can do to achieve similar outcomes.How...
2019-06-2030 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Episode 19 Chris Mitchell on Rural Broadband and Co-OpsIf you live in the sticks and want broadband, Chris Mitchell is the man to know.
If you are a cooperator and want to hear a co-op success story, Chris Mitchell also is the man to know.
That’s because – as director of the Community Broadband Initiative – Mitchell knows the reality of what’s happening in bringing high speed Internet to rural America. He also records a weekly podcast, Broadband Bits. It’s a good listen.
By his estimate maybe 85% of the lower 48 states land mass lacks high speed Internet.
By contrast, 90% o...
2019-06-1838 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 18 Christina Jennings Shared Capital
Need a loan? You want to know Christina Jennings, Executive Director of Shared Capital, a Twin Cities based loan fund that is itself a cooperative and makes loans only to member cooperatives and there are around 250 of them.
In the past 30 years Shared Capital has made around 850 loans totalling $50 million. This year it will make around a couple dozen loans, said Jennings, with an average loan amount a notch over $100,000.
Listen closely to this podcast to hear about the loan application process. Jennings is very explicit about what’s needed to succeed.
As f...
2019-06-1139 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 17 Cliff Rosenthal CDFIsby Robert McGarvey
You want to know about community development financial institutions? Cliff Rosenthal is the man you want to talk to. He literally wrote the book on CDFIs and also the longstanding credit union initiative to serve the unbanked: Democratizing Finance: Origins of the Community Development Financial Institutions Movement.
This podcast also posted to the CU2.0 Podcast series which I run. That’s a professional credit union series but the Rosenthal podcast has wider appeal because – fundamentally – it’s about bringing financial services to the unbanked and underbanked and stimulating more economic activity in communitie...
2019-06-0438 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 16 Felipe Witchger Community Purchasing AllianceBulk buying means lower costs. That’s a fact of life in the US and it also works to the detriment of smaller, community oriented institutions – think churches, charter schools, various non profits.
They are too small to win those discounts so they pay high prices for basic services and commodities.
The Community Purchasing Alliance was formed to solve exactly that inequity for non profits in the Washington DC area.
Right now about 75 non profits in the DC area are saving around $1 million annually on $17 million in purchases of electricity, trash hauling, security, copyin...
2019-05-2827 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 15 C. E. Pugh on Grocery SuccessFor many of us, our warmest, most intimate connection with a cooperative is our local grocer and at the National Co+Op Grocers the business of that co-operative is helping its 145 members, each a consumer facing co-op grocer, successfully compete against increasingly powerful national grocers.
The good news is that most co-op grocers are holding their own.
There had been tough times for co-op grocers, admitted this podcast’s interview, C. E. Pugh, CEO of the National Co+Op Grocers. A big reason is that in the past decade the big national grocers, from WalMart on do...
2019-05-2139 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 14 Neal Gorenflo ShareableCall this podcast a deep dive into platform cooperatives and more broadly the sharing economy. That’s what Neal Gorenflo, executive director of Shareable in San Francisco, spends his days noodling on. This is a wide ranging, largely unstructured conversation but there are headline moments strewn throughout, from Gorenflo’s Road to Damascus epiphany that prompted him to resign a corporate job and become a sharing guru through his bareful perspective on Uber – sizzling stuff – and musing about Emilia Romagna which he sees as something of a polar opposite of Silicon Valley because it’s a place where cooperatives really mat...
2019-05-1456 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 13 Nathan Schneider“Everything for Everyone” – that’s the title of Professor Nathan Schneider’s book that looks at many kinds of innovative co-ops and it’s a book that gave me optimism that there just may be a bold, bright next act for cooperatives in the US.
In some ways co-ops look to have stalled – where are the new credit unions, the new grocery co-ops? There just aren’t many.
Does that mean the end is nearing?
Nope. Schneider in this podcast talks about wholly new energy for what he calls platform co-ops and also reimagined housi...
2019-05-0856 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 12 David Gill Marquette Brewing, Drink Up
by Robert McGarvey
Mark your calendar. Late June is when Marquette Brewing in Michigan is slated to open, making it one of around 10 cooperative breweries in the US.
That number isn’t big but just about all these co-ops have formed in recent years. It’s a growing sector.
Understand, Marquette is a small town, population maybe 25,000, in Michigan’s remote Upper Peninsula. There’s not a lot of population to draw upon in forming a new co-op but over 200 have joined Marquette Brewing, ponying up $99 apiece.
All in the co-op has r...
2019-04-3030 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 11 Mike Reuter on Credit UnionsFrom the Ukraine to Ireland and Dominica, this podcast travels the globe with Mike Reuter, executive director of the Worldwide Foundation for Credit Unions, as he shares stories of the challenges faced by credit unions and also the generous willingness of other credit unions executives to help. Exhibit one may be the rebuilding of the Dominica credit union sector after that island’s economy was flattened in a 2017 hurricane. Credit union execs want to help and they do.
You may think credit unions don’t know that they are in fact cooperatives. I know I think exactly that...
2019-04-2323 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 10 Chuck Conner NCFC on Farmers and CooperativesNo country produces the agricultural bounty that the US does. We eat better, at lower costs, than anywhere else – and most of that food is produced through farmer owned cooperatives. That’s why you want to meet Chuck Conner, CEO of NCFC, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.
Ask Conner what the number one issue facing his members is and the answer is blunt: immigration. The estimate is that the nation’s farms are worked on by over one million workers lacking proper documentation to work legally in the United States. Take them away and, poof, there goes t...
2019-04-1827 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 9 Stuart Reid Food Co-Op Initiative Want to control what you eat? Of course you do. Join a food co-op and become a member-owner.
Across the country there are maybe 350 to 400 food co-ops and, said Stuart Reid, executive director of the Food Co-op Initiative, many more are attempting to form. That’s his turf. The organization has helped some 140 food co-ops form in the past 11 years. Reid knows what a co-op needs to do to actually open and he tells how in this podcast.
A lot has to do with money but Reid tells how many would-be food co-ops are finding su...
2019-04-1130 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast 8 Alex Stone CooperationWorks!Alex Stone’s business is this: helping new cooperatives to start and helping existing ones to mature and do better. That’s the core mission of CooperationWorks! where she serves as executive director.
How is she doing? The podcast opens with a simple question: how many new co-ops form in a year? Stone explains exactly why that question is a lot harder to answer than you might think.
For Stone cooperatives got into her being early, during her student days at UC Berkeley where she lived in co-op housing and was also involved in a food...
2019-04-0331 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementEpisode 7 Frank Shipper on Worker OwnershipWorker owned businesses just are better.
Don’t believe me. Believe Frank Shipper, an emeritus professor at Salisbury University in Maryland and editor of a book, Shared Entrepreneurship.
Shipper is a scholar who has spent years studying worker owned businesses – both ESOPs and worker cooperatives – and he really is convinced that in many cases worker owned businesses just outwork their conventionally structured competitors.
Why aren’t there more worker owned businesses? Partly it’s ignorance. Most of us just don’t know that much about them, and many of us confuse them with communes....
2019-03-2923 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 30 Brett King on Banking TomorrowSend us a textYou don't want to listen to this podcast.But you need to.What banking futurist Brett King paints is a dystopian picture of financial services tomorrow where, increasingly, consumers want frictionless money transactions, they don't give a hoot about banks vs. non banks, and they have no interest in a relationship with a one stop financial services provider.Credit unions still think they are special. Think again, warns King.What matters today is digital. Period. Sure, King, as the founder of digital bank Moven, has...
2019-03-2924 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 28 Patrick Conway PCUA on Lobbying and Much MoreSend us a textConsider this podcast a crash course on credit union lobbying, 2019 style. Our instructor: Patrick Conway, CEO of the Pennsylvania Credit Union Association, a very large league with upwards of 370 members.PCUA lobbies both in Harrisburg, the state capital, and in Washington, DC.A lot of what PCUA does however could be considered credit union education. For instance, PCUA has played a lead role in the new Philadelphia ID card - designed to give Philadelphia residents a low cost ID card. Will it be...
2019-03-2733 minThe CU2.0 PodcastCU2.0 Podcast Episode 29 Teresa Freeborn on Open Your Eyes to a Credit UnionSend us a text$100 million. That's the projected three year budget for the CUNA "Open Your Eyes to a Credit Union" campaign.Teresa Freeborn, CEO of Xceed Financial Credit Union, chairs the CUNA effort which she - make no mistake - sees as crucial in the longterm survival and prosperity of credit unions.The campaigns blends research with marketing - much of it online - to reach out to a generation of consumers that simply may not even consider credit unions as a financial services option.
2019-03-2734 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Episode 6 Melissa Hoover of DAWI on Worker Co-OpsThe deep dive into Workers Cooperatives continues in the Cooperators Podcast. Last week we talked with Esteban Kelly of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives. This week it’s Melissa Hoover, executive director of Democracy at Work Institute, self described think and do tank that is doing a lot of thinking about worker cooperatives and how to form more of them, and how to position them to succeed.
Hoover throws out lots of big ideas in this podcast but a key thought is that just maybe for many of us, as home ownership becomes but a dream...
2019-03-2135 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 5 Paul Bradley on Mobile Home Co-opsOwning a mobile home park is like owning a Waffle House where the customers are chained to the table.
That quip is attributed to a leader in the mobile home industry.
It’s a thought Paul Bradley, president of ROC USA in New Hampshire, often mulls. That’s because his company is in the business of helping mobile home park residents join together into a cooperative to buy the land their mobile home sits on.
Understand the weirdness. Mobile homes aren’t mobile, not usually. If they are, it would cost the owner thousand...
2019-03-1432 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 4 Esteban Kelly on Worker CooperativesPresented by Robert McGarvey.
Listen in here
That sound you hear just may be a tidal wave of worker owned cooperatives.
At least that’s what Esteban Kelly, executive director of the U.S. Federation of Worker Cooperatives, is hoping for and working for and dreaming about.
He believes that just now be the time for worker owned cooperatives.
Why? Because for so many of us our economic lives are grim. Income inequality is the economic buzz work du jour but it’s just that old saying, the rich...
2019-03-0831 minThe Cooperators: Podcasting about the Cooperative MovementThe Cooperators Podcast Episode 3 Daniel Smith, the Cooperative NetworkListen to Daniel Smith talk about cooperatives in the states where his Cooperative Network operates – Wisconsin and Minnesota – and you might think this has to be the promised land. Just about every legislator knows about cooperatives. Most belong to some. Just about every citizen does similar – many belong to three or five or more.
But listen closely and what Smith is discussing are the crucial issues cooperatives just about everywhere face: the war for talent, the struggle for support in government, and life and death issues that ag co-ops in particular now struggle with.
Smith’s Coopera...
2019-02-2832 min