This week the Texas Credit Union Marketing Council presented the annual Lone Star Awards for excellence in credit union marketing, public relations and business development.

Our chapter was well represented in the awards with several area marketers garnering multiple recognition.

Among the winners:

• Janet Veazey of First Class American

• Bretta Butler of Fort Worth City

• Andrea Powell of Tarrant County

• Rochell Drake and the Marketing Team from Fort Worth Community

• Greg Barnes and Natalie Parish of Unity One

Greg was also named Marketer of the Year! Congratulations to all and thank you for representing Fort Worth and your credit unions so well!

Several chapter members visited recently with Congresswoman Kay Granger. The group thanked the Congresswoman for her continued support of credit union issues and presented a donation on behalf of TCUL-PAC.

Pictured left to right are Scott Ward of Unity One FCU, Ron Fox of Members CU, Bill Gordon of Fort Worth City CU, Pamela Stephens of Security One FCU, Congresswoman Granger, Lonnie Nicholson of EECU and Chapter President Walter Furnace of American Airlines FCU.

I have to set aside my usual Lutheran modesty to post the following. Congratulations to all the recipients, but extra congratulations are in order due to the outstanding representation by members of the Fort Worth Chapter!

CUES HONORS 111 RISING CU EXECUTIVES, SEVEN TEXANS ON THE LIST One hundred and eleven up-and-coming credit union professionals were named as inaugural inductees into CUES Rising 100, the Credit Union Executives Society’s newest recognition program – seven are from Texas.

Award recipients are CUES Members from a cross-section of credit union functional areas, with the exception of the CEO position. The commitment, hard work and talent demonstrated by each has helped their credit union succeed and strengthened the credit union movement.

The inductees from Texas include:

• R. Dean Barnes, Jr. DATCU (Denton)
• William Kelsey, Texas Trust CU (Mansfield)
• Debra Little, First Service CU (Houston)
• Joan Opp, Texas Trust CU (Mansfield)
• Stephanie Sherrodd, Texas Dow ECU (Lake Jackson)
• Keith Sultemeier, Security Service FCU (San Antonio)
• Scott Ward, Unity One FCU (Fort Worth)

The Fort Worth and Dallas chapters will be holding a joint celebration of International Credit Union Day at Lone Star Park on Saturday, October 21st.

To allow us enough time to get tickets distributed we have a deadline for reservations of October 6th. Tickets will be available at our September meeting, you are welcome to bring your form and payment to that meeting.

If you need a reservation form click here

Reservations or questions can be direct to Terrie Johnson

Wow what a month! We’ve all been very busy with chapter activities this month.

Thanks to all the golfers and volunteers who helped make our annual tournament another success! It was a hot day, but everyone had a great time and we raised alot of money for TCUL-PAC .

I didn’t make it to this month’s training session, but I have heard nothing but raves about Patrick Adams. I understand he had alot of great information.

Our joint dinner with the Dallas Chapter that evening gave even more folks at least a sampling of the high-enery approach Patrick has to speaking. Special thanks to Terry Loyd and Liberty for arranging and sponsoring such a great night!

Finally, were the two days of greeting troops at DFW. Thanks to the generous donations of our member credit unions, we were able to provide a goodie bag for troops arriving from the Middle East for their R&R leave. It was great that so many credit union people, their spouses and their kids were able to join us.

As highly as I can recommend a day of golf or seeing Patrick Adams talk about credit unions, taking the time to go out to DFW to greet troops is something everyone should do!

A big “Thank You!” to everyone who participated in a very busy month, especially the volunteers who worked so hard to make everything go so smoothly.

Just a reminder that the annual Fort Chapter of Credit Unions golf tournament benefiting TCUL PAC/CULAC is scheduled for Wednesday August 16th at Fossil Creek Golf Club at 8:30.

For an entry form email Ron Fox or you can get a copy here

Registration is below average at this time, so please participate if you can. This is the chapter’s major fund raiser for our PAC’s so please help support our industry by keeping our legislative efforts strong.

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