We’ve received two lovingly-crafted auditions. Check them:

UFirst FCU / The Boardcast’s Ginny Brady

2008 Partnership Symposium Audition – Ginny Brady from Ginny Brady on Vimeo.

Maine SCU / The CU Loop’s Andy LaFlamme

Thanks to both of you for your awesome work.

Earlier today Matt Davis asked “When’s the deadline?” The answer for now is…keep em coming. The more the merrier.

Do you have one up your sleeve, Matt?

(Click here to learn more about auditioning for the 2008 Partnership Symposium)

I apologize for the lack of love OSCU has been receiving lately. As my Twitter-friends know, I’ve been on the road and elbow deep in on-sight client work pretty much constantly for the past month.

But I miss you. I do.

Here are three things we woulda/coulda/shoulda been covering over the past couple of weeks:

1. FinovateStartup

I wish to high heaven I could have attended FinovateStartup this year. But fortunately, I was able to stay in the live-action loop thanks to fantastic coverage by the following folks:

• Brad & Mark from The Garland Group / Banktastic. Their coverage includes reviews of each and every demo and video interviews of presenters.
• Ron Shevlin’s “Notes from FinovateStartup 2008,” in which he tells it like it is.
• Jeff Stephens from Creative Brand’s insightful series of posts.
• Christophe Langlois from Visible Banking’s collection of posts and video interviews. Aside – you should add this blog to your feeds.
• Live-action commentary from the Twitter militia.
• And, of course, the belle-of-the-ball, Jim Bruene from Netbanker’s write-ups.

Congrats to Jim on another hugely successful event.

2. Joe Lieberman introduced CURIA to the Senate

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not a legally or regulatorily-inclined person. I color with crayons and markers for a living. But after doing some research I realized how significant CURIA could be for CU’s ability to impact people. To quote the Cornerstone CU blog, CURIA, which stands for the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act, proposes to:

• Modernize credit union capital standards to permit more efficient capital management while allowing more earnings to be returned to members in lower costs and expanded services;
• Expand the ability of credit unions to make loans to finance their members’ local small businesses; and
• Permit more credit unions to offer needed services in lower-income communities that are not adequately served by other depository institutions.

Learn more about CURIA here.

3. Account portability

When I was at the GAC, I had an awesome conversation with Robbie Wright about data portability – the idea that your data from any given online service (from your Facebook profile to your online photos to your gmail acount) belongs to you and not the service. Groups like DataPortability.org are working to make this a reality, and web services like Wesabe and Mint have applied the same concept to transactional data.

So I was excited when Colin Henderson linked to Better Banking Blog’s write-up on ‘BPAY’s top-secret MAMBO project’:

...the top-secret BPAY proposal could deliver the bank account portability that Treasurer Wayne Swan so desperately wants Australian consumers to enjoy.

Instead of a bank account number and BSB, individuals would register for their own BPAY code which could be used to facilitate payments. Consumers could then port their number from bank to bank without the need to re-establish direct debits or credits, and use it to enable online payments.

Because of your collaborative nature, I think this is more relevant to CUs than banks. The closest thing I’ve seen to this in the states, outside of general back-end consolidation work (which is great), is Filene’s ‘Once a Member Always a Member’ i³ Project. But even that is limited in scope compared to the potential of account portability.

How member-empowering, representative of your cooperative structure, and incredible for retention would this be for credit unions?

William Azaroff is asking for your help.

Vancity is up for a Webby Award for ChangeEverything.ca in the Social Networking category. Those are kind of a big deal. Facebook is on the ballot with them. That makes it a big, fat, hairy deal. The good news is, you can help them win it.

First go here, register, then vote for ChangeEverything.ca in the Social Networking category.

Second watch this video then post it on your own blog along with the instructions from the First thing above:

Voting ends May 1st, so we must fly. It’s a nice world we live in when it only takes 10 minutes to do something that will help our friends in a big way. Their winning the Webby will be epic, considering the behemoth they are up against and it will be some awesome exposure for Credit Unions.

Since last year’s auditions for Guest Speaker at the Partnership Symposium were such a hit, and since it introduced us to Tim and the Gang, who are now our good friends, we are having the auditions again. This year we are looking to double our pleasure with two guest speakers. Quick! you finance folks are good with numbers, tell me, if we keep doubling the guest speaker number every year, how many will we have in 2020?

Themes The Federal Credit Union Act gives this definition for a Credit Union (Hang in there for the first few stodgy lines, it gets romantic in the last three. Emphasis mine.):

...the term ‘‘Federal credit union’’ means a cooperative association organized in accordance with the provisions of this chapter for the purpose of promoting thrift among its members and creating a source of credit for provident or productive purposes;

That statement of purpose is good news, good news we aren’t always good at sharing or remembering. So maybe you can help us get excited and refocussed by speaking to one of these two core ideas.

• Promoting Thrift

• Loans for Provident and Productive Purposes

How to Audition It’s pretty easy, just make a video of why you’d make a good Guest Speaker and tell us which of the two topics you’d like to speak on and why.

Here is a video we made with a few Dos and Don’ts on what to include in your audition video:

To participate, just post a link to your audition video as a comment in this post.

• Going green might be a fad, but what about when it’s accidental? In an attempt to increase employee retention, Navy FCU accidentally built new “green” buildings that use between 25 and 40% less energy. They also decreased turnover from 60 – 17%. Double win. (“The Accidental Environmentalists” via Kottke)
  
  
• Visible Banking’s Christophe Langlois breaks down the 4 types of social media projects.
  
  
• Five credit unions, including Digital FCU, have enabled members to scan in deposits from home. (via NetBanker)
  
  
• Wells Fargo is rolling out vSafe, a web-based storage tool for important documents. vSafe will integrate with their online banking. As someone who loses everything important every time, I love this idea. (via Finextra)
  
  
• First New York FCU’s Walt Everhardt has done a great job of keeping the financial tips and advice coming over at his credit union’s blog.
  
  
• Vancity’s ChangeEverything is up for a much-deserved Webby. Show your love by voting for them for the Webby People’s Voice Award. (via Azaroff’s Blog)
  
  
• Bank of America is partnering with MIT to build a banking innovation lab. (via The Bankwatch)
  
  
• Filed under “another way credit unions make the goodness happen,” the Wisconsin State Treasurer’s Office wants to partner with the Wisconsin CU League to set up an alternative payday lending program. (via CUNA News Now)

Creativity, despite being one of the things that people cite as the reason they love their job, is one of the hardest things to accomplish in a typical financial institution. So many executives and marketing directors get so caught up in the ROI and the numbers that creativity gets lost in the background.

Now, this isn’t meant to fault those people. Tracking the effectiveness of a marketing campaign is essential to their position. What if you could get some help?

When I say “get some help” you might reply, “We don’t have the budget to hire on a bunch of new marketing people!” Let me offer an idea that might kill several birds with one stone.

Innovate Your Institution

The hierarchal structure of most financial institutions makes it very difficult for lower level employees (Tellers and MSR’s) to bring up ideas. Typically the proper channel of communication ends up smothering the idea as unusable, or it gets lost before it makes it to somebody who might care.

Front line staff, MSR’s, and Loan Reps are the people who have the most contact with your member base. Why shouldn’t their ideas be considered just as highly as anyone else’s…if not more? They may see an opportunity where nobody else does.

There is so much creative power located in your teller, member service, and loan departments that almost never sees the light of day. What might come out of this collective group if given the opportunity to throw out ideas in a community environment, bounce them around, and create something of value?

Give people the opportunity to be creative and you’ll find a fountain of unique, interesting, and valuable ideas for products or processes that might have never come to light.

Retain Your Valued Employees

If you are looking to retain employees (tellers especially) there needs to be a sense that their position offers something of value to the whole, especially when trying to retain younger, GenY employees. Giving people, regardless of position or “silo”, the sense that what they have to say makes a difference can be very powerful.

Create a wiki, or discussion board, anything that gives people the opportunity to discus new ideas or concepts in an environment that is free from the fear of rejection. So often people are afraid to share because they feel that their idea will be shot down from the get-go and the possibility of humiliation makes them shy away from unleashing their creativity.

Create an environment that is open, collaborative, and free from this fear and you might just end up with a great source for creativity within your institution.

Your next question might be, “Well how do we get these people to come up with ideas? Do they really care enough to contribute?”

Create Evangelists

Credit Unions have a built in advantage when it comes to encouraging this kind of participation. There is an underlying cause behind credit unions that goes way beyond gaining profit.

I recently made a trip to BarCampBank New England on April 5th. It was held at America’s Credit Union Museum and it has inspired me beyond words. Seeing how it all started has given me new direction, inspiration, and dedication to my work at Maine State Credit Union.

The best way to get people excited about working at a credit union is to tell them the story. Show them what a credit union really is, what it stands for, and why it started in the first place. People find it much easier to get behind a cause than just a company. Share with them the powerful message behind their job. Show them the meaning of the institution and the movement as a whole and they might just be inspired to help move it along. It happened to me, it can happen to anybody.

Create a place for collaborative brainstorming, get people motivated behind the cause, and allow them to express ideas in an open environment where their say counts and you’ll end up with credit union evangelists…who just so happen to work on your teller line.

---

Andy is a Marketing Specialist at Maine State Credit Union in Augusta, Maine. After being a teller for 3 years he was offered the opportunity to bring new ideas on communication and youth marketing to the table. He currently writes a blog, TheLoop, which details his ideas and opinions regarding the Credit Union Industry.

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to interview Cornerstone Advisors’ strategy and tech guru Steve Williams for the very first CUES Experience Podcast.

What can you expect to see happening in the FI tech-space over the next year? Listen to find out:

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The rest of the CUES Experience Podcasts will happen live from the conference from May 13th – 16th. They’ll be hosted by Currency Marketing’s Tim McAlpine, so you know they’ll be great (for a sample, check out Currency’s podcast).

And on a final note, if you’re coming, don’t forget about my tour of Summit Brewing Company. It will be many good times.

Thanks to Christopher Stevenson from CUES for the opportunity and Steve Williams for his time and brilliance.

A few weeks ago Andrew at Jwaala took me through a screencast tour of Jwaala’s MoneyTracker. I’ve been spending the last few days cramming a little more on the other PFMs to get a better picture of the category. Here are a few bullets that stood out to me from my tour and other research. Before I get to those, let me say that I’m not going to try to drop deep, meaningful evaluations of the major PFM products and their implications for the industry. That’s a little outside the area of my knowledge.

So, without further delay, and without use of the terms “game-changing” or “added value”, here are some things I think are pretty cool about MoneyTracker:

Search Their search capabilities are incredibly intuitive. If I’m trying to find a transaction from three months ago at Costco that was around $100, any of these search terms will work:

• costco
• costco last month
• costco last month around $100
• 1/10/2008 to 2/30/2008 costco around $100

I’ve tried similar searches in other apps with less success. That isn’t a specific poo-poo on the other PFM products, I’m just rarely satisfied with any site’s search capabilities (iStockphoto, I’m looking at you. With this emoticon >:O ).

RSS Let’s take the search I just mentioned: “costco around $100.” On the search results page, right next to the search box, you’ll see a link to “make this search an ALERT” which will automatically create an email alert for any transactions meeting those terms. And to the right of that is an RSS icon (image above). MoneyTracker automatically generates an RSS feed for any wild search term you come up with that yields a result. There’s no opening a settings panel or anything. It just makes the feed for you, which brings me to the next feature.

Widgets Now let’s take the RSS feed we just got from our handy little natural language search and make it a widget. MoneyTracker offers a very Netvibes-y, iGoogle-y dashboard page of various widgets displaying the RSS feeds for your specific transactions. You can drag them and everything.

But if there are a few you really want to keep an eye on without having to always be logged into your online banking, you can just as easily plug the feeds into Netvibes, iGoogle, etc.

Ads This is the feature I got the most excited about in terms of it’s relevancy to Credit Unions: Contextual Ads.

MoneyTracker is different from Wesabe and Mint in that is it tied directly to a Credit Union’s online banking system (Surely I’m not breaking that news.). From Jwaala’s home page:

MoneyTracker is designed to deploy seamlessly with your existing online banking solutions (such as Harland and and Symitar etc…). To your members, MoneyTracker appears as a branded addon to online banking that brings a much needed set financial management capabilities.

One of the things we emphasize strongly when speaking on design and site planning is cross-pollinating the site. For example, on your CU’s Auto Auctions page, have a box of action links linking to other services that legitimately apply to the content, in this case, Auto Loans might be a good choice.

Usually all that cross-pollination ends abruptly at the online banking interface. Not with MoneyTracker. You get to continue communication with your members in your online banking software. Aside from visually branding with logos and graphics and color, you can setup contextual ads with an interface very similar to Google’s AdWords, only Google isn’t sending the ads, you are, for your CU’s services. You set ads for all of your different services and let the system serve them up appropriately depending on the content on the page.

So a member searching their statements for “auto” or “home” to see how much they are spending in those areas would pull in ads for your auto loans or refinancing info, etc. And the ads link back to your main site, no one else’s.

As I said, these are just a few of my faves from my tour. Go read more about them and a few more on Jwaala’s Better Online Banking site.

In Monday’s briefing with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on the agency’s regulatory overhaul, Dan Mica said the proposed changes (which include the demise of the NCUA) could mean the end of credit unions as they are today, according to CUNA News Now.

The article goes on to explain Mica’s analysis of the impact on credit unions (and in the end, consumers):

• All institutions desiring federal deposit insurance – whether banks, thrifts, or credit unions; including state-chartered institutions – would be required to obtain the new “federal insured depository institution” (FIDI) charter (report p. 160);
• The recommendation would combine the five federal regulatory bodies into three – the National Credit Union Administration would cease to exist;
• Cooperative institutions could operate under the FIDI charter. However, to qualify for the tax-exemption, these institutions would be required to elect “community status” and meet a series of apparently stringent tests in terms of asset size, field of membership, and service to the underserved. It appears small banks also could meet such tests and claim the tax-exemption (report p. 161);
• A Presidential Executive Order may be issued to all federal regulators expanding an existing interagency working group and directing them to more closely coordinate during the current financial crisis. After the expansion, NCUA will still not be included;
• Finally, there is insufficient information about the new federal regulatory body that would oversee all payment systems.

Is Mica right? Is this the end of credit unions?

• Download the PDF of the Blueprint for a Modernized Financial Regulatory Structure here.
• Thanks to Trey Reeme for the phone call and dialogue about this.

I’ve read a few posts across the financial blogosphere about Starbuck’s user-generated idea site, MyStarbucks Idea, and its relevance to financial institutions as a channel into consumer insight another way to listen.

As usual, the good folks at Vancity are ahead of their game with weallprofit.vancity.com, a (beautifully designed) user-generated idea site that launched months ago.

Their explanation of the site and philosophy hits the nail on the head:

You can call us a financial institution, you can call us a credit union, you can even call us a bank. But the truth is, when it comes right down to it, we’re really just in the business of ideas. An idea for a different way of banking is what got us started. It was the idea of profit sharing that made us grow. And today, it’s the innovative ideas that help make our members financial lives easier and our communities stronger. In short, through good ideas, we all profit.

At Vancity, we believe good ideas can come from anywhere. Which is why we always like hearing new ones. If you have an idea you’d like to share, then by all means, put it on the wall.

Well said.

Vancity’s William Azaroff says the site will be getting a facelift in the next several months. I’m looking forward to the action if/when they begin to implement the ideas they’re collecting.

(Starbucks site via Jim on Netbanker, Robbie on the fi-linx blog, and Brady on Grow Your Bank)

I thought it’d be nice to start the week off with a rant inspired by three things:

1. Jim Bruene’s recent post about the scrappy usage (his word: ‘anemic’) of financial apps in Facebook.
2. My disagreement with this quote from the CUES Nexus blog (sorry, Lisa):

   If you want to reach Gen Y, why not be where they are? The more than 68 million Facebook users (many of them young people) spend an average of 20 minutes a day on the site. And about 250,000 new users sign on every day. Some CUs are already there, waiting to greet them.

3. That there are still high-fives given for credit union MySpace pages.

Social networks…

Are Not:

Real estate. If you look at online communities as an opportunity to park your caboose and head people off at the pass, you’re missing the point. Go buy a TV spot, pop up or newspaper ad – stick to the proven, tried and true methods of interrupting and annoying people.

To brands who treat conversations like billboards: you’re not just old marketers, you’re also posers. (And I should note that I’m not talking about Lisa here at all.)

There are 140 Facebook apps added every day. This is Noise 2.0. The apps that are the most successful are those that help Facebook users do what they came to Facebook to do rather than react to the fact that they happen to be there. More on that in a second.

Are:

Communities. If you bust in on that without immersing, participating, understanding, you are a door to door salesman. If you show up, you and your toothy grin, you’d better be adding value to the community by helping them interact, grow, and have a deeper connection with each other (that’s why they’re all there in the first place). The Cluetrain Manifesto said communites are groups “of people who care about each other more than they should.” And each community/platform is unique, but also interwoven. Engaging the Facebook community looks different from engaging the Second Life community looks different from engaging the Twitter community.

For Example:

Why is Facebook’s iLike so successful (361,568 daily active users, $15.8 million in funding…for a Facebook app)? Because people use Facebook to communicate themselves, learn about and connect with people. iLike enables that and, as a result, enhances Facebook for its users.

This is shown across the board in the numbers too. According to Adanomics data (made sense of by Asi Sharabi) the most widely used apps (44%) are “Identity Formation / Social Comparison.”

Why do I think Fiserve’s MyMoney will not succeed as it is right now? Because, frankly, who cares that you can access your account within Facebook? It is not that difficult or time consuming to open a new window or tab and get to my online banking login. Thank you for saving me three clicks, but until MyMoney brings more to the table I’d rather keep my applications clean.

What if you could use MyMoney to visualize your progress as you saved for a vacation, a new toy, or the secret to time travel. What if a few trusted friends and I could use Facebook’s social tools to build a cross-FI collective overdraft protection account that auto transfers cash in a time of need, notifies each person on the account, and in doing so: 1) saves me fees and 2) builds in the obligation to replace that money as soon as I can?

By the same token, Financially Fun Island™ (not a real thing, but almost a real thing) in Second Life will, at best, attract a lot of industry insiders who are interested in this “innovative new tactic.” But the citizens have better things to do than go to your island and play money games. They’re building an active economy. However, a financial institution that offers home, land, and small business loans in Second Life for Second Life is enriching the in-world experience…not just capitalizing on it.

I’d much rather be enabled than greeted.

Alright, that’s all I’ve got. You can yell at me now.

A few weeks ago we received a couple of comments on Doug’s ‘Haps’ post asking about BarCampBanks. The first was from Sue:

Since the barcamp in Seattle was done some time ago, what tangible accomplishments can be attributed to it?

These conferences take money away from our members and need to provide tangible benefits.

The second was from Juan (read the thread for the full comment, it was sassy…which we dig):

What specifics can you bring to the table about the value of the barcamp conferences and achievements of past conferences relating to credit unions?

“Why BarCampBank?” Great question. I’ll start before that…

What is a BarCampBank?

BarCampBankSeattle, the only one I’ve experienced, was an Open Space-style conference (or “unconference,” whichever bakes your cake). Basically, it goes like this:

1. People gather in a place at minimal cost. To quote Morriss (from the same comment thread), most BarCampBanks “are either free or $25 to cover some basic expenses like t-shirts and coffee.” That’s the first reason I dig them. I’m cheap.
2. Lay out blank sheets of paper on the floor and empty time/room slots on the wall. Our setup looked like this:
   
3. Anyone who wants to fills out a conversation topic, posts it, and…
4. Conversation ensues.

Boom. That’s it.

To see our schedule from last year and the collaborative notes from each conversation, click here.

(...and to learn more about Open Space, visit OpenSpaceWorld.)

Was it worth it?

I have to say, for me, absolutely. The conversations definitely shifted my perspective as a designer, marketer, and a consultant to the financial services industry. There’s no doubt that I changed my approach to designs, client relationships, and brainstorming as a result of BCB.

But more importantly, perhaps, were the relationships that grew out of those couple of days and the ongoing conversation and inspiration that has happened since. Flesh and blood contact always always always beats technology. BCB planted the seed that has lead to friendships and regular conversation with pals like William Azaroff, Tim McAlpine, Gene Blishen, and Robbie Wright.

The only thing I’d love to see different in future BCBs is more participation from people who actually work for credit unions and banks (banker count at the Seattle meetup: 0). The consultant/vendor to FI employee ratio was way off, and a greater FI perspective would have been great.

Was it worth it for the credit union folks who attended? Is it better or worse value than other industry conferences? I honestly can’t tell you, and will have to let them speak for themselves….so I’m tagging Gene Blishen, Robbie Wright, Shari Storm, and William Azaroff to weigh in.

What say you?

(All that said, sadly, I won’t be able to make any of the upcoming BCBs because I’m already traveling for clients. Lame. [Just kidding, clients.])

Over an IM chat earlier today, Trey Reeme explained to me how he used nearly-free tools to set up a mobile site for his credit union in no time (formatting and links added):

It was cake so far – no mobile banking yet, but that’s on our vendor’s end.

I just:

1. Grabbed a wordpress blog
2. Put a couple pages up of plain html
3. Grabbed the rss feed
4. Plugged into a mofuse site
5. It created an iPhone-optimized .mobi site

Here it is: http://tdecurates.mofuse.mobi

It’s just a test site for now – a proof of concept – but it shows that I can build a separate iPhone site in an hour.

There are limitations – advertising plagues the free version. But for $3 a month, the paid version is not bad.

Awesome tip, Mr. Reeme.

Hi, I’m Terrell Meek, Marketing Manager at Verity Credit Union. The following is a true story.

One day in 2006, I typed the name of a restaurant I wanted to visit into Google, hoping to find their website. Instead I stumbled upon Yelp: Real People, Real Reviews™. The site intrigued me from the beginning because I love to write, I love to try new things and I love to meet new people. I signed up, created my profile, wrote a couple of restaurant reviews and have been addicted ever since.

When I first joined Yelp, not too many people in Seattle had heard of it yet and they were in the process of hiring a full-time marketing person to help grow and promote the community. I started to be active in the talk threads, asking and responding to questions, and finally a group of us decided to meet up in person for dinner. More dinners followed, and pretty soon I was meeting up with Yelpers for concerts, plays, coffee, shopping and other events. Some of us even formed a craft club called Sew Drunk, which ironically did not involve sewing or booze.

More and more people joined the community, Michelle was hired as their full-time marketer, and the site improved and added functionality. The talk threads also evolved and became a place where almost any topic could be discussed. One day, about a year ago, I was pinged by Michelle in a private message. She told me that someone was complaining about Wells Fargo in the talk threads and that it would be a perfect opportunity for me to talk about the credit union difference. I found the conversation and gave my two cents, fully disclosing that I work at Verity. After that day, I became a go to person on financial matters. If there is a conversation about banks or debt, savings, credit cards, budgeting, etc., I am usually alerted. I have never told anyone I’m a personal banker, an accountant or financial advisor. They all know I work in marketing, but they trust me.

Recently, I used the talk threads to do an informal survey and asked how people manage their finances. I asked how likely they’d be to use Wesabe or Mint and pointed them in the direction of those websites. I received several emails thanking me for sharing that information. When Verity’s Velocity Checking launched, I found an old talk thread about saving money and bumped it by talking about our new account. This resulted in a flurry of emails, and again, many notes of thanks. Because of the conversations I’ve had with these friends online, I’ve been asked to upload any financial seminars through Verity on the “events” section of Yelp. I have handed out our temporary Passport cards (get two meals for the price of one at local restaurants!) at Yelp sponsored events and they are a huge hit.

People not active in the Yelp community have criticized my actions. Sure, from the outside, it may seem like I’m only online to shill my credit union, but honestly, that’s boring and I don’t roll that way. The truth is, I’m just having fun, making friends and sharing information (which is bringing in new members). Although the site is bigger than it used to be and it’s harder for me to meet everyone and stay on top of all the conversations, I still participate. I am constantly learning things that bring value to my life: great restaurants to try out, where the sales are, what shows are coming to town.

I wrote this post to offer encouragement to other credit union marketers who are wary of jumping into social media. I know how you feel—I’m actually only on a small number of social sites and find some of them intimidating. I would advise that you take a look around your credit union, see who is already using these sites and go from there. You might be surprised to find a staffer among you who is already advocating for you online.

Here is the next installment from the 2007 Partnership Symposium sessions. This time, it’s Shari Storm and Trey Reeme presenting A Credit Union Guide to Social Media, with a brief cameo from Tim McAlpine. This episode is packed with heavy hitters.

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Last one to register for the 2008 Partnership Symposium has uncompetitive interest rates and doesn’t even care about it!