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for Friday, February 17, 2017
Mark Your Calendar:
Credit Union Day in the Statehouse
Friday, March 24, 2017
Every Vermont credit union is encouraged to be represented to hear from Statehouse leaders, hear advocacy updates, and meet with their local legislators.  Additional details will be coming soon in Newslines Express.

AM Attendee Gift: Caricature Drawing by VT Artist John Gurney
Each year, your Association strives to find a uniquely special way to say "Thanks for joining us!" to everyone who attends our Annual Meeting. In addition to providing each attendee with a nice giveaway item, we also try to find a way to let our guests personalize or choose their gift preference in some way.
For our milestone 70th Annual Meeting, we're excited to announce that we're going to achieve both those goals with the help of Brattleboro author and illustrator John Steven Gurney. AVCU has hired John to be our "artist in residence" from Friday afternoon through Saturday night, during which he'll draw black and white caricature portraits for attendees to take back to their home or office. Everyone attending the convention, including guests of primary attendees, will receive a personalized certificate with their name badge at check-in, which they can present to John to have their caricature drawn.  In addition, each primary attendee will receive a copy of his first published young reader graphic novel Fuzzy Baseball.

John's illustrations can be seen in more than 150 books for children, including 70+ titles in Scholastics' The Bailey School Kids and the Bailey City Monsters series. He's illustrated all of the titles in the A to Z Mysteries and the Calendar Mysteries for Random House, as well as books for Simon and Schuster, Ace Berkley, and Orchard Books. Dinosaur Train, his first book as an author and illustrator, was published by Harper Collins in 2002.

"When I draw caricatures my primary objective is to create a flattering likeness rather than a freakish exaggeration," John told AVCU when we first contacted him. A regular comment he often hears from clients and subjects is, "I never knew caricatures were actually supposed to look like the person!"

AVCU is currently working with John to develop an assortment of background illustrations that he'll pre-print to offer attendees their choice of scene into which he'll draw them during the weekend. We're privileged to have such a gifted Vermont artist at our 70th Annual Meeting and hope our attendees enjoy meeting John and sharing his creativity, wit, and artistic talent.
CU Directors Should Embrace Three Key Responsibilities
More than ever, credit unions need active, engaged, knowledgeable directors to set a sound strategic course for the organization.  But how do you ensure you have the best people possible in your boardroom?

Optimizing board quality is one of three key responsibilities directors should own, along with governing for long-term sustainability and providing members a systematic voice in the direction of the credit union, says Jeff Rendel a financial services strategy consultant and former AVCU Annual Meeting speaker.  He'll be a general session speaker at CUNA's National CU Roundtable for Board Leadership in August.
“Dynamic participation is a stipulation of governance,” Rendel says in Credit Union Magazine. Improving the composition of the board involves not just bringing in fresh perspectives and skill sets, but also determining when current directors no longer warrant a seat at the table.  Yet statistics show most credit unions don’t formalize that mandate, according to the Filene Research Institute. Among credit union boards:
  • 35% don’t have a procedure for terminating an ineffective director.
  • 37% don’t believe they have an effective leadership development process.
  • 61% don’t have a formal board/director evaluation process.
Work to rectify any shortcomings in those areas at your credit union, Rendel advises. Instituting a self-evaluation process that holds underproductive board members accountable and defines needs for development opportunities can pay dividends quickly.

Many credit unions fall victim to overloading a board with too many similar thinkers, Rendel says. That’s an even more distinct possibility at credit unions with roots in a single sponsor, because often the credit union recruits board members who have worked at the same company for decades and have adopted the same philosophies.

Click here to continue reading the full article in Credit Union Magazine.
VFCU Plunges into Lake Champlain for Special Olympics VT
Vermont Federal Credit Union (VFCU) announced in a media release this week that its staff and a record breaking 1,269 community participants jumped into 33 degree Lake Champlain on February 4th for the 22nd Annual Burlington Penguin Plunge to benefit Special Olympics.  The event raised more than $538,000, beating last year’s record by $64,000. This was VFCU’s third consecutive year participating in the event. (Click image for larger version)

Lance Potter, team captain and VFCU Senior Vice President stated in the release, “Our 19 team members had a great time participating in the annual Penguin Plunge. It’s always a great time for a great cause, and we’re already looking forward to next year.  Our team raised over $6,900, a record for our Vermont Federal plunge team. We are pleased to contribute to the record total raised for Vermont Special Olympics,” Potter added.
According to the release, all proceeds from this fundraising event support the Special Olympics sports training and competition opportunities, health screens and leadership training for those right here in Vermont.
Genealogy Project Profile: Green Mountain Credit Union
This is the next profile in AVCU's Genealogy Project series.  If your credit union hasn't yet submitted its data, please do so via this SurveyMonkey form or contact AVCU for more information. Click here to download a preview of the survey questions (88K PDF).
Under the current leadership of CEO Robert Lake, Green Mountain Credit Union (GMCU) serves 4,339 members and has more than $46 million in assets under control (NCUA online data - 2/17/17).  It was chartered under Vermont law in 1959 as Green Mountain Power Employees Credit Union to serve the employees of its sponsor organization, Green Mountain Power Corporation.
 
Foster Berry was the credit union’s first Manager/CEO and Carl M. Jennings its first Board Chair.  Ginny Fleischman, Lake’s immediate predecessor as CEO, served three terms as a director on the Association’s Board from 1994 to 2003, including the officer positions of Secretary (1995-1998) and Treasurer (2002-2003).

GMCU’s present field of membership includes anyone who lives, works, or worships in Addison, Chittenden, Franklin, Rutland, Washington and Orange Counties and select employee groups.  During its 58-year history, the credit union’s organic growth has been supplemented by mergers with five others:
  • St. Anthony's Credit Union
  • Vermont Grocer's Association Credit Union
  • Edlund Credit Union
  • Washington County Employees Federal Credit Union
  • Rutland County Teachers & Municipal Employees Credit Union
Arby's Breach May Have Exposed more than 355,000 Cards
The Atlanta-based Arby’s restaurant chain experienced a data breach at a number of its corporate-owned locations between 10/25/16 and 1/19/17. According to reports, the breach involved malware placed on payment systems only at corporate locations, which are approximately one-third of the company’s more than 3,300 restaurants. An Arby’s official stated that not all of the corporate locations were affected, but more than 355,000 card numbers may have been exposed. Arby's first learned of this incident in mid-January but waited to alert the public at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The story began breaking a week ago when author and security consultant Brian Krebs posted about it on his website.  Two days ago in response, Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Midwest America FCU hit Arby's Restaurant Group with a proposed class action alleging that the company failed to beef up its cybersecurity, allowing a major data breach that negatively impacts thousands of credit and debit card issuers nationwide. The lawsuit seeks damages for the costs of investigating and refunding fraudulent charges and replacing cards affected by the breach.
 
A similar data breach hit fast-food chain Wendy’s in 2016, which Krebs also first reported last January. Wendy’s then said in June that the data breach was bigger than it first thought and that it could have impacted more than the 300 stores.

CUNA and AVCU support strong data breach legislation that includes a strong, scalable security standard for merchants, as well as a notification standard in the event of a breach. Credit unions that have questions can email databreachlawsuit@cuna.coop to communicate with outside counsel who are working with CUNA to address merchant data breaches.
Annual Meeting Presenting Sponsor - CU Direct
AVCU is recognizing and thanking the businesses that are going the extra mile by supporting AVCU and our members through being a Presenting Sponsor of convention weekend 2017.

CU Direct has been a strong AVCU business partner for almost 15 years and has been an exhibitor and sponsor of our Annual Meeting the entire time.  AVCU is grateful to them for being a top level presenting sponsor and thrilled that they've chosen our new Sweet Suite Upgrade sponsorship that will save one of our member credit unions nearly $900 if an Early Bird registrant from their credit union wins the prize.

The lucky winner will be randomly drawn on Monday, 3/20/17 from among all Individual Full Weekend and Couple's Full Weekend early bird registrations submitted on Eventbrite by a Vermont credit union before the Early Bird deadline of 5:00 PM EST on 3/17/17.  Courtesy of CU Direct, AVCU will convert that winner's room reservation into a luxury Studio Suite for Friday and Saturday night, as well as pick up the full cost of the room inclusive of tax and valet parking.

The Studio room offers a king-size bed, an additional sleeper sofa, and a kitchenette featuring stove-top, microwave, dishwasher, Cuisinart cookware and Simon Pearce dishware.  There’s also a stone-framed fireplace, a custom marble-finished bathroom with a separate relaxation tub, LCD flat screen television, complimentary high-speed wireless internet access, an outdoor private terrace, and more! (click image to enlarge)

Convention Update - We've added three registered Exhibitors to our roster this week, so available space in our Exhibitor Hall and our remaining Presenting Sponsorships are dwindling rapidly.  We invite readers to stay top of everything we're doing to celebrate 70 years of cooperative financial services in Vermont via those pages as well as our Annual Meeting page.
Management Minute, Calendar, Jobs, and Updates

Recent Headlines from Management Minute

  • Live Webinar: Card Fraud Trends
  • NCUA Opens CDFI Certification for 2017
  • Brain Hacks to Get Americans to Save
  • January CU Trends Report
Upcoming Education Calendar
Please note: The AVCU offices will be closed on Monday, February 20 in observance of the President's Day federal holiday.
  • Supervisory Committee Academy Webinars
    • 3/15/17 "Effectively Managing Conflicts of Interest: Supervisory Committee Edition" w/ David Reed
    • 4/19/17 "Supervisory Committee Lender Liability & Risks in Lending Today" w/ Bruce Hull
       
  • Credit Union Webinar Network Webinars
    • 2/21 Risk Management Series: Developing an Enterprise-Wide Risk Assessment
    • 2/22 Flood Compliance in Lending Part 1: Loan Origination
    • 2/23 Collection Law Essentials: Legalities, Landmines & More
    • 2/27 Everything You Need to Know About Regulation CC: Holds, Funds Availability, Compliance & More
    • 2/28 Imaged Documents: What to Keep, What to Destroy, What Holds Up in Court?
    • 3/1 Qualifying Borrowers Using Personal Tax Returns Part 2: Schedules E & F
    • 3/2 Compliance Questions & Issues in Deploying Mobile Remote Deposit Capture
    • 3/7 UDAAP Challenges: Practices, Risk Mitigation, Regulator Expectations & Case Studies
    • 3/8 Hot Issues in Cyber Compliance, Including Recent Changes to the IT Handbook
    • 3/9 How to Audit Deposit Operations for Reg CC & D Compliance
    • 3/14 Fair Lending Risks in Third-Party Relationships
    • 3/15 Flood Compliance in Lending Part 2: Post Loan Closing
    • 3/16 Reg E Series: Requirements for Debit Card Error Resolution - Processing, Disclosure & Investigation
    • 3/21 Account Documentation Series:Opening Deposit Accounts Online: Rules, Risks & Best Practices
    • 3/22 Securing Collateral Part 1: Form UCC-1 – Initial Filing & Perfection of Security Interests
Employment Opportunities
Chief Lending Officer, Allegiance (Tulsa, OK) Credit Union (NEW Today!)
Consumer Loan Production Manager, Vermont Federal Credit Union (3rd and final post)
Vice President of Lending, Cannon (Clovis, NM) Federal Credit Union (3rd and final post)
Positions posted in Newslines Express within the previous three months are available here.

Share With Us - We're always looking for pictures, press releases, and news that helps tell the story of why credit unions in general, and yours in particular, are so special to Vermont consumers.  Send submissions to JohnCote@vermontcreditunions.coop.

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