The chapter is organizing two days when we will greet the troops coming through DFW from Iraq. We are scheduled for Friday and Saturday, August 25 and 26. The flights get in about mid-morning and there are about 275 troops on each daily flight. In addition to having folks there to greet them, we are putting together a “goodie bag” for each soldier. This will include some candy bars, gum, mints etc. Also there will be a note thanking them for their service from the credit unions. We will have a plastic bag for each, with the Chapter Logo on the bag.

We also will need some volunteers to go to DFW on those days and help greet and hand out the bags. Reports from those who have done this indicate it is a very rewarding experience for the volunteers. The troops really appreciate it. It takes a couple of hours each day, and parking is free.

We are looking for cash donations for supplies and a point of contact at each credit union to coordinate volunteers. If you are interested in donating or volunteering contact Nancy Croix-Stroud

In a couple of weeks, we’ll be presenting an afternoon technology training session for the Fort Worth Chapter called Web 2.0 and Credit Unions: Beyond Traditional Websites.

There’s a big shift occurring in how the Internet is being used by some very innovative credit unions and credit union organizations. Today’s “Web” has moved from being an information delivery system into serving as a collaboration system, thus the Web 2.0 moniker.

At a session with the Chapter last October, we fielded a lot of questions about blogs and wikis, and our upcoming training session will dive into these and other free tools that you can use to communicate and collaborate with members, coworkers, and other credit union innovators.

We’ll explain how credit unions are uniquely positioned to take advantage of the openness and transparency of these emerging technologies, and how you can use them to reach members, the underbanked, and the elusive young adult market in a more personal way online.

Also, we’re going to teach you how to manage the information available through these new tools without getting a case of “information overload.”

Hope to see you there!

This training session will be conducted by Matt Dean and Trey Reeme of Trabian, a website development and consulting company based out of Plano, Texas. Their recent client list includes industry innovators such as the Filene Research Institute, Stanford Federal Credit Union, and Fort Worth’s own Tarrant County Credit Union. Trabian also sponsors the Open Source CU credit union blog.

The following just arrived in my e-mail and it’s just too good to do anything but post it word for word here

From: Lucinda Rocha

Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 11:37 AM

To: Walter Furnace

Subject: 2005 Chapter Recognition Program Announcement

Dear Walter:

On behalf of the Texas Credit Union League Chapter Program, it is my great pleasure to announce the Ft. Worth Chapter of Credit Unions as the recipient of the 2005 Chapter of the Year within the group one category of Texas chapters.

The members of the Ft. Worth Chapter are truly an amazing group of individuals whose passion and dedication to the mission and vision of the credit union movement are reflected in the programs and events held within the community you all serve.

Please share this exciting news with your fellow chapter board members and area credit unions. Recognition of this honor will be displayed at the 2006 TCUL Leadership Conference, in the Lonestar Leaguer, and at your next chapter meeting.

Respectfully,

Lucinda M. Rocha

Director of Chapters & Councils

Texas Credit Union League

The Committee for Small Credit Unions was started in 1999 as a Taskforce for the Texas Credit Union League. Over the years, it evolved from a taskforce to a committee, appointed by the Chairman of the Texas Credit Union League. Now there are fifteen members serving on the committee, who represent several geographic locations throughout Texas. The asset categories “A” and “B” League directors also serve on the committee.

At the beginning, the committee focused on organizing and assisting members with training sessions in their local areas. Although education for small credit unions is still the most important goal, there are other areas being addressed for 2006. They are: Advocacy, Communications, Brand and Resources. Rita Dexter, President of NRCS FCU, currently serves on the Committee for Small Credit Unions (CSCU) from the Fort Worth area. She can be contacted at 817-921-9302. Others from Fort Worth Credit Unions who have served on this committee are Kathie Wood and Misty Miller with Member Preferred FCU, and Sandra Syzmanski with Family 1st of Texas FCU.

The May meeting will be held on Thursday, May 11th at 4:00 at Texas People Credit Union, 4613 Wellesley, Fort Worth, TX 76107. This will be an informal networking meeting to solicit suggestions from the group in order to help each other and provide feedback to the Committee for Small Credit Unions to help them meet the needs of the smaller Credit Unions. Currently the group has set meeting dates for the second Thursday of odd numbered months.

Meeting Schedule for the balance of 2006 are on the following Thursdays:

May 11

July 13

Sept. 14

Nov 9

In case you missed this bit of news from last week…...

The Texas Credit Union Foundation (TCUF) awarded its first annual FOCUS Awards to Kathy Crim of Texas Dow Employees CU in Lake Jackson, Security Service FCU in San Antonio and the Fort Worth Chapter of Credit Unions, as the individual, credit union and chapter that best exemplify “people helping people” through financial education. TCUF Chair Curtis Collins and Executive Director Jill Pharr presented the awards at the Volunteers Networking Breakfast at the TCUL Annual Meeting in Galveston last week. Pharr remarked that each winner exhibited “uncommon” commitment to financial education.

The chapter FOCUS Award went to the Fort Worth Chapter of Credit Unions for their extensive work in the Fort Worth and nearby school districts, providing financial education curriculum, as well as supporting the Newspapers In Education program in Fort Worth. Each year, chapter credit union volunteers provide NEFE instruction in the classrooms throughout Tarrant County. Donna Couch, former President and Board Member of the Fort Worth Chapter, has served on the Board of Texas Jump$tart for many years. The chapter has formally adopted financial education as a core initiative and continues to be active in promoting and volunteering. Current Chapter President, Walter Furnace of American Airlines FCU and Chapter Vice President Kathie Wood, CEO of Member Preferred FCU, accepted the FOCUS Award on behalf the chapter.

Related article from November 2005

Mentioned in CUNA News Now

Congratulations to Bob Rogers, President of EECU, recipient of the chapter’s Distinguished Service Award. As most of our members know, Bob will be retiring at the end of April and the chapter took the opportunity to thank him for all he has done to support the chapter, especially our school Christmas parties and Credit Unions For Kids. Bob’s family was able to join us for the occassion and his grandson was his constant companion throughout the night.

A couple of quick plugs:

Our next meeting is on a special night – Monday, May 15th. Congressman Kenny Marchant will be our presenter.

TCUL has I Love My Credit Union T-shirts for sale. Proceeds to benefit TCUL-PAC.

Check out our photo site for pictures from the April meeting.

The credit union trade press has really taken notice of a recent “Mega Bank” full page ad that ran in the Fort Star Telegram.

CUNA News Now made mention of the ad in a March 8th article about credit union conversions in Dallas and Fort Worth. Mentions have also appeared in the Lonestar Leaguer (password required) and in Credit Union Times (home page)

If you haven’t seen the ad, we’ve posted it here.

A special thank you to Fort Worth Community Credit Union for putting the ad together and for graciously including the chapter logo.

Southwest CUNA Management School is coming up sooner than one might think. Once again, the Chapter is offering scholarships to employees of member and affiliated credit unions. The application and instructions can be downloaded here:

• Scholarship Application

Nancy Croix-Stroud, President of First Class American CU serves as the Chair of our scholarship committee.

Our annual school parties are behind us. As they always do, the days with the kids put all of our volunteers in the holiday mood.

A big thank you to everyone who played a part in making these parties so special. Some gave of their time; some made donations of coats, gloves or money; some baked goodies and some pitched in extra at work so others could be at the parties. To everyone, THANK YOU!

“An extra candy cane in your stocking” for Mark Massey, Bruce Chadwick, Vince Heimann, Sheleah Hughes, Terrie Johnson, Kathie Wood, Raymond Shands, J.D. Shipp, Rita Dexter, Walter Furnace and all the guys who carried the games!

I have hundreds of pictures and only so much space to post them on the site. A few will go up in the coming days, but more may have to wait until after the holidays.

On November 9th we had a great turnout for some very valuable training on the Bank Secrecy Act and accounting changes necessitated by changes in call reporting. I for one had a few things to do when I got back to the office!

John Zasada and Dan Moulton from one of our Preferred Partners RSM McGladrey were the presenters.

For those of you interested in the handouts, here you go!

• John’s handouts in PowerPoint
• John’s outline in Word