Turns out this was a one-year experiment by Capital One, which has just recently ended. What they are going to do next is anyone’s guess.
Here’s a nice summary article explaining the experiment.
Thanks again to Susan for bringing this to our attention shortly after it came out last year.
Welcome Luis Barros, board member of $430m Merrimack Valley FCU in Massachusetts, to the credit union blogosphere. Luis has launched the blog Credit Union 2.0. I had the pleasure of meeting Luis at a session on CUs in World 2.0 that I presented at the Massachusetts Credit Union League HQ in Marlborough in March.
Luis has extensive experience in web 2.0 technologies in the health care industry, and is on the technology council of his credit union. He’s got some great ideas for helping his CU utilize these tools. Luis is a graduate of MIT as well as the Sloan School of Management at UMass Amherst.
He joins Ginny Brady of UFirst FCU in Plattsburgh, NY as the two CU board members to be blogging in North America.
It’s pretty amazing when you look around the credit union landscape and realize there are so many passionate, hard-working professionals who are striving to make their members’ lives a little bit better every day.
Recently I had some private email discussion that made me think back to Brent Dixon’s excellent OpenSource CU post on CUs being an Industry vs. Movement. When subsequently the CU Skeptic came on the scene, and got a certain degree of flame-mail for his stance and anonymity, I had to come to his defense to say that his voice is important and likely representative of many others. There are people, both inside the industry and outside, who say that credit unions are really the same as banks… that we are just pushing more debt and doing whatever it takes to bring dollars into the institution no matter what the impact to members (e.g. fees generated via courtesy pay, tap the equity in your home for any purpose), in which case we are no different than banks, right?
Please know that there are few people more passionate about the credit union movement than I am. But more and more people within the movement are concerned about a bank-like attitude that is pervading throughout credit union land, especially at larger credit unions. And they might be afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs. Are large CUs losing their way? Are they a black eye to the industry/movement? Or is a more bank-like approach inevitable with growth?
Or is it that we are just an errand that people appreciate even less than dentistry, and we just create tons of junk mail in the pursuit of making a buck? Are we becoming cutthroat competitors of each other who only cooperate when its convenient? Is cooperation now an anachronism?
If we have lost our way as a movement, who is at fault, our members for not caring about the credit union difference anymore, or our fault for not telling our story in a way that resonates with them?
Update: I just discovered (via comments to the CU Skeptic’s About page) that our Irish friends are wrestling with these same issues.
(If you are a credit union professional, and want to respond in a forum where only your credit union peers will view it, you can do so on EverythingCU.com here.)
The following is an open letter to FSCC, the company coordinating shared branching among credit unions throughout the United States and internationally.
Drop everything you are doing, and run, don’t walk, to get every branch location and ATM into vehicle GPS navigators. Once you have recorded the latitude and longitude coordinates for all 4,000+ locations, make a deal to get it onto TomTom’s web site.
I’m serious. Do nothing else until you get this done. Be where your members are. When your member needs you, most of the time he/she is not sitting down with a laptop, looking up your nearest address. (Speaking of which, FSCC isn’t even providing a tool on its web site to locate the nearest branches TO YOU- just give an alphabetical listing by state. Most states are too big for this to be of real use.) The members who are using shared branching are ON THE ROAD, USING A GPS (if they don’t have a GPS yet, don’t worry, they will shortly.)
So advanced thinkers, like Dunkin Donuts (always known for their innovation, right?), have made all of their locations available for TomTom navigators. That means that not only can I look up the nearest Dunkin Donuts to me, I SEE AN ICON ON THE MAP EVERY TIME I APPROACH ONE. EVERY TIME. AS I AM DRIVING DOWN THE HIGHWAY. Can you see how this is serious coffee temptation? That I see a DD icon every time I get near one?? Holy cow! Pretty soon every national company will be doing this. I hope, for credit unions’ sake, that FSCC/CU Swirl is in the vanguard of this land rush. If they don’t get there soon, they’ll miss out on a big opportunity to leap frog CUs ahead of the game.
Can you imagine how much money credit union members will save on foreign ATM transactions if FSCC can get their shared branching (and ATM network) into vehicle GPS navigators? For that matter, all CU cooperative ATM networks, such as SUM et al., need to get into this game.
I originally wrote this blog entry in December of 2007, but have waited till now publish it because I knew that a photo illustrating this concept would be much more powerful than words alone. With nice weather having returned to New England, I’ve finally snapped a decent photo of this phenomenon.
The amazing thing about having the Dunkin Donuts locations on the GPS is that I can see that there is a Dunkin Donuts nearby on the navigator before I can actually see the real thing out of my car window. Wow. Imagine if that were happening every time anyone with a GPSr passed a CU ATM or branch. Welcome to World 2.0.
If you know someone at FSCC, please direct them to this blog entry. I would love feedback from them on this issue, and hope that they implement this before banks and other ATM networks beat them to it.
There are now two exciting new developments in EverythingCU.com’s Online Switch Kit. Three months ago we added a Spanish-language version to make it easy for Spanish-speaking potential members to join a credit union. Last month we converted the Online Switch Kit to work north of the border for our friends in Canada. We’re delighted to announce that our first Canadian Credit Union has signed on, from the beautiful province of Prince Edward Island.
If you are a current Online Switch Kit client, and you haven’t visited it in a while, check out your new stats page for a much more detailed report of your members’ usage of it.
To make my travel to BarCampMoney NYC easier, which took place on the 40th floor of 1301 Avenue of the Americas on Saturday, April 12, 2008, I packed only my iPhone and did not haul my PowerBook into Manhattan. The following is a collection of what I tweeted during the event:
07:29 AM April 12, 2008 Just made the train at Stamford CT on my way into l:NYC: for BarCampMoneyNYC. Will take lotsa pix.
08:42 AM Did I mention BCMNYC is being held on top of the world? Pix going to my fb page.
09:29 AM FreshmanFund.com is going to help parents and friends put money into 529 plans for college.
10:14 AM In on session about FiLife a new community with info about personal finance. Joint venture between IAC and Dow jones. Launches soon.
10:29 AM David Rose, angel investor presenting on Angelsoft
10:32 AM David Rose explaining difference between VCs and Angel Investors
10:41 AM David Rose explains Angel Groups fit between individual Angels and large VCs.
10:49 AM AngelSoft rocks for both angels and entrepreneurs.
11:45 AM Mike Solomon sharing his experience outsourcing programming overseas, esp. India.
11:47 AM discussion is Ultra Light biz startups ala Digg and Truemors.
01:22 PM discussion is early stage investing in start ups. Moderated by Lili Balfour. Hank Williams and Jay Levy also featured.
01:25 PM Hank Williams has contributed a lot of good stuff to this camp. His blog is whydoeseverythingsuck.com
02:33 PM Early stage biz investor Jay Levy says now is a great time to start/build a company.
02:55 PM Hank Williams is leading a session on the problem with Chris Anderson’s the Free Economy. What do you replace the revenue with?
03:05 PM it’ll never get old when two helicopters fly by at eye level.
03:08 PM Hank Williams just said “freetards” and the whole room laughed.
03:10 PM @guykawasaki Truemors was cited as an example of an Ultralight startup at a session during BarCampMoneyNYC today.
03:23 PM room getting rowdy and fiesty debating the economics of Free. Awesomeness. Hank Williams is a good agitator.
Huge props to Jonah Keegan for spearheading a very, very successful inaugural BarCampMoneyNYC. Turnout was in the neighborhood of 50 people, which should be considered fantastic.
EverythingCU.com welcomed its 6,000th credit union professional today at 11:54 am Eastern Daylight Time. It’s fitting that the 6,000th member is a Junior Marketing Assistant from Wisconsin, who was referred to EverythingCU.com by her boss, a longtime EverythingCU.com member. We’re excited to reach this milestone in the evolution of the credit union online community that is EverythingCU.com.
We are honored to be the facilitators of this amazing community. It’s certainly been much more than I ever expected when starting out on this crazy adventure in 2001. It’s truly a privilege to serve and foster the dedicated professionals who serve their credit unions and membership. I’m honored to have met, and get to continue to work with, such fabulous people who are making a difference, and the team which is making the resource hum here at EverythingCU.com headquarters.
Bryan Sims is at it again, innovating at the intersection between Generation Y and Financial Institutions with BrassTV. I’m excited that EverythingCU’s Matt Taggart has booked Bryan to deliver a webinar on Generation Y for EverythingCU members on Thursday, April 24. Bryan will be telling us about reaching Generation Y, and how this generation is changing the way financial institutions need to do business. Bryan will be packing a lot of valuable and actionable information into this webinar, including what drives Gen Y’s choices, case studies of success in reaching Gen Y, and social media’s influence. I’m really looking forward to hearing the latest from Bryan!
It’s clear that what types of things people buy are a reflection of their personality, how they perceive themselves, or how they wish others to perceive them. That’s a given when it comes to brands in categories such as cars, clothes, and coffee.
Well, I’d like to point out another brand that tells people about one’s personality, and that is one’s choice of URL shortening site. (Yes, the fact that I’m writing about this means that my personality equals total geek.)
URL shortening was necessary in the early days of the internet and text-based email, but then faded away as html email became ubiquitous. But URL shortening has experienced a resurgence as twitter, with its 140-character limit per tweet, grows ever more popular.
The personality types:
What does your preference in url-shortening site say about you?
Update! (May 2, 2008): I just found out about a new type of url shortener designed SPECIFICALLY for twitter with added twit functionality. This now supplants urltea as my personal shortener of choice: tweetburner. Via tweetburner, you can find out the most popularly clicked URLs as well as what is most popular of YOUR tweeted links. Cool added functionality that ties into the network more/better wins.
Well, BarCampBank NewEngland finally happened. It was an incredible occasion, and a huge thank you to the 15 people who made the event everything I’d ever hoped for it, and then some. Fifteen people from all corners of New England, and other parts of the globe (Ontario and British Columbia), made the trek to America’s Credit Union Museum. I’m glad we held the event here, because prior to it, all but one camper did NOT know of its existence. Which is especially surprising considering that the CU movement in the U.S. originated here in Manchester, New Hampshire, and the first CU law, the first CU league, etc. were all established in Massachusetts.
Since this was a small gathering, I’ll say a few words about each of the special people who came.
Peggy Powell - Director of America’s CU Museum gets major karma points on at least four counts: 1.) normally only official CU orgs get to hold events in the museum, but she made an exception for us; 2.) she came in on a Saturday because she’s the only employee; 3.) she gave us a tour despite earlier having a bum wheel requiring ice and elevation, and 4.) she put up with us temporarily converting the 3rd floor into a concert arena for a game of Rock Band on the dual projector multimedia system.
Ron Shevlin contributed wonderful insights as always, and wrote a terrific blog entry about BCBNE here. My favorite quote from Ron came at dinner afterwards when we were discussing bankers in the CU movement: “Just because you change churches doesn’t mean you change religions.” During the day, my favorite insight was that it’s not about your story (meaning the business or organizations’ story), it’s about the story that members/customers tell themselves, and how you fit into that story. And social media is about creating new stories with them. Ron is writing a chapter for the book Age of Conversation Two, and I can’t wait to read his contrarian take on web 2.0. I am eagerly devouring Ron’s first book, Everything they’ve told you about Marketing is wrong.
Gene Blishen - I heard about what a great person Gene is from following BCB Seattle remotely, tweets, and blogs. Now I understand why. Gene is a treasure of the CU movement, is genuine, profound, and walks the talk. His blog is called Tinfoiling. Gene also wins the “furthest travelled” award since he came here on the way back to British Columbia via vacation in Denmark. A really cool thing that Gene shared with us is that Mt. Lehman CU has two event tents available for members to use (for weddings, parties, etc.). It’s a small way that Mt. Lehman gives back to its membership and also weaves itself into those important events in its members’ lives.
David Inverarity - I didn’t know of David of Ontario before BCBNE, but I am very happy to have met him. Ron nailed it when he described David as a Tour-de-Force. He’s a whirlwind and provided the funniest photo of any BarCampBank EVAH. I love that David not only brought his PowerBook, but also his Macintosh Air and iPhone. (And made use of air-quotes frequently.) I’m still not sure what to make of his challenge to try to remove his MacBook Air from the building and he wouldn’t make a move to stop them. Perhaps it de-materializes if someone other than David tries to touch it? Ron thought it would make an excellent frisbee if thrown from the third story window.
Andy LaFlamme - I had been looking forward to meeting Andy ever since his outstanding blog, The CU Loop, came on the scene. Andy has a cogent write-up of the day as well. A special thank you to Andy for so many great photos and recordings of the day.
Adam Lueb - A special thank you to Adam for making the journey to Manchester from Western Massachusetts despite not feeling 100%. Adam keeps EverythingCU.com humming despite our best efforts to overwhelm him with new stuff to make that resource even better.
Ginny Brady - Ginny continues to delight me with her progressive thinking, and to be the beacon of truth and justice for board members to truly represent the members’ best interests. After a full year of blogging via The Boardcast, still the only board member to be creating online dialogue with members via a blog as far as we know. I hope her example paves the way for more board members to engage in dialogue via this avenue. And don’t even get me started about how awesome this photo of her and Louise is. Shout out to Ginny, Linda, Jody and UFirst FCU for sponsoring breakfast. Ginny gave a great description of the events at The Credit Union World’s Best Kept Secret.
Charlie Kroll - Came up from Providence, Rhode Island, representing online account opening and funding operation Andera. Charlie had outstanding questions and insights throughout the day. Here is Charlie’s blog entry on being pleasantly surprised by BCBNE.
Dave DelVecchio - Thank you to Dave for coming to the camp, also from our area of Western Mass. David saw me give a talk to the Pioneer Valley Chapter of the MA CU League and does tech implementation and support for many F.I.s in the region. He gave us some insight into the big I.T. issues organizations are wrestling with.
Mark Vautour - Another young CU marketing professional learning more about the movement every day, who was not aware of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire CU movement’s origins the existence of America’s Credit Union Museum despite working at a Boston area credit union. I got to visit Mark at halftime of my first-ever in-person Celtics game at Boston Garden because we both have the Celtics fan Facebook application. Props to Mark for setting up and handling the event’s registration on Eventbrite.
Debra Trautman - Was the only camper who was aware of America’s CU Museum before the BCBNE event because she had received an award there for her work for the Maine Credit Union League. Debra, like many of us outside major cities on the East Coast, was not familiar with the BarCamp format, and now that she’s experienced BCBNE, is eager to share it with more Maine credit unions.
Jeanine Perrone - Represented Marquis software. It’s great to know there are people who work for CU vendors who are this interested in the movement. Jeanine is also formerly an employee of a credit union.
Christian Mullins - Provided wonderful and detailed insight into credit union mergers, and why they are happening at a rate of about one per day. (46 so far this year alone). He had detailed knowledge of a big one happening in his former area in Madison, Wisconsin
Joe Mello - Arrived in time to catch the second half of the day’s topics. I had met his brother, Steve Mello, in San Francisco the previous Saturday at BarCampBank SF. Joe and Steve are doing some exciting work in the world of wireless banking.
I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves, learned a lot, were re-inspired about this crazy CU movement experiment, and made valuable new connections with like-minded people. I know I did.
If you are an employee of a credit union or league, and want to continue this conversation with thousands of other CU professionals, check out EverythingCU.com. (Full disclosure: we created EverythingCU.com as a resource for you to connect with your peers nationally and worldwide, so we might be biased.)
Shameless self-promotion, part two: I was agog when I first visited America’s CU Museum nearly two years ago. I have since discovered that many in the CU movement don’t know about it, or the history of this amazing movement. To do my part in stamping out ignorance everywhere, I am available to deliver a concise, relevant presentation that connects the dots between this movement’s humble origins and how we came to be where we are today. Send me an email if you’re interested in having me deliver this presentation to your credit union, league chapter, or league.
For more photos of the BCBNE event and the museum, visit the BCBNE group flickr pool.
Please share YOUR thoughts on the day, and what you got out of it, here and on your own blog/twitter/flickr/facebook/crowdvine/wiki.
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Where I'll Be: CUES Experience Speaking & PixelFarms tourguide Minneapolis MN May 14 & 15, 2008 MAC Newport Beach CA May 21-23, 2008 GA Marketing Council annual conference Keynote: Creating PR Buzz in World 2.0 Lake Lanier Islands, GA Friday, June 7, 2008 |
Being discussed on EverythingCU.com now: EverythingCU.com World 2.0 Adventure
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