Alice-in-Wonderland [Alice works for CCUL], pictured here carrying H. 410 over to the State Legislature....
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would
be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary
wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You
see?" [Just like H. 410! Love, Alice!]
😜 From Alice at the Carolinas' Credit Union League: H. 410 "shall limit" membership in North Carolina credit unions to 1) anybody can join and 2) any corporation can join. That's all, no more, no less. Any and all others shall be excluded.
NO "LIMIT" ON MISDIRECTION:
North Carolina was one of the first states in the Country to pass legislation authorizing the formation of credit unions. That was in 1915! [No, get off that age discrimination... I was not there!]
In that original 1915 legislation the definition of who could join a credit union stated: "The membership of a credit union shall be limited to...". Fast forward to 2023 and H. 410 says: "54.109.26 Membership defined. (a) The membership of a credit union shall be limited to..." So great! H. 410 maintains the original concept and principle - dating from 1915! - that North Carolina credit unions would be organized as limited membership cooperatives - and not as public corporations - right? No, unfortunately Alice and the CCUL are trying to hoodwink you. They are hoping you aren't paying attention - are you?
By the way, that limited membership structure was not an afterthought, nor was it optional. As most folks understand, when the law says "shall be" - it means exactly that - no if's, and's, or but's! North Carolina Legislators - from the beginning
- have believed that having sound limits on credit unions
enhances their benefit to North Carolinians and helps assure their
success. History has proved those leaders wise - and right.
The text of H. 410 [which you can find on the H. 410 Tracking page - see 4/12/2023 post] includes a few "minor" changes like adding the letter "s" (the same sound a snake makes "s-s-s-s"!) all over the place. Which by the time you add up common bonds, members, individuals, persons, employees, families, groups, societies, partnerships, corporations, business entities, female bears living in Smokey Mountain National Park, and low income, under-served alligators mucking around in the Dismal Swamp - ain't nobody left out!
For folks trained to read between the lines, that historically sound, "shall be limited to" phrase becomes farce... and North Carolina legislators have just been sucker punched by the CCUL... and led by "Alice" down a rabbit hole!
...wouldn't want to be around when Representatives Howard and Bell start asking some pointed questions! I'd duck...
From WRAL news: "The bill has high-profile sponsors: House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, and Rep. Julia Howard, a Davie County Republican in her 18th term at the General Assembly. The State Employees Association of North Carolina, which has 55,000 members, opposes the bill."
ReplyDeleteNorth Carolina voters will be remembering the names of those in the Legislature voting in favor of H. 410 come election time.
SEANC, Thank you for looking out for ALL North Carolina employees working in the state's financial services business. We can always count on you group to do the right thing.
Highly doubt it. They got an R beside their name you think the voters in their district will chose a Democrat or independent? What you gotta do is blast this on Facebook and Instagram. Boomers love their Facebook.
DeleteNCSECU has always been a wildly successful business. It's kept money in local communities and all politicians appreciate their constituents having money to spend locally. Everyone can agree this is bad for NC credit unions and bad for banks. No divide on this issue!!!
DeletePeople, wake up. When/if Corporation are able to join if H. 410 passes then THEY GET TO VOTE. They will have a say in our credit union. Who do you think the BOD and executive team will listen too? The individual member or a Corporation that has endless streams of funds.
ReplyDeleteA lot of employees also oppose this bill. I believe a lot of our members would appose this bill if they only knew.
ReplyDeleteThe Board and Executive team don't listen to their members now. SEANC requested a halt to SECU's risk based lending, they didn't listen. Bring corporations and businesses into our credit unions, credit unions individual member owners will no longer exist.
ReplyDeleteThat’s exactly right, commercial banking will absolutely distort SECU’s focus… it will no longer be about the working man/woman
DeleteSECU leaders Hayes and Ayers wanting this bill to pass so they can help those people below the federal poverty line, women- and minority-owned businesses and people who live in poorer parts of the state.
ReplyDeleteHow honorable of them, but wait, aren't these two heroes the ones who just implemented Risk Based Lending into their credit unions' auto loan rates for the first time in SECU's history.
Guys, you need to stay on point - do you really care about helping your members who struggle or not? You know what they say about a person that goes every which way the wind blows...
Ok, so if they don't reward staff with merit raises how does that make the leadership look? How many years running has their been merits? And then all of a sudden to take them away because some outside company says staff is paid too much? Staff that love members and would bend over backwards for them and have for many years. How could you stand in front of your employees and speak and folks looking at you knowing you are the first President in 'x' number of years to not have merits. I've been here 12 years myself and always gotten. I'd love to be finishing tax season this week and lots of other staff would love to be doing them still.
ReplyDeleteOnly one thing will make this current leadership look better and the word is
DeleteGone! They are wasting our time and focus on nonsense! We need to get back to taking care of our Members.
West Coast Hazy lines up with Schline and puts SECU in the spotlight- not in a good way. Eighteen months is not nearly long enough to be in the state to start stirring up trouble.
ReplyDeleteThe term for today is "to peacefully Co-Exist and work well together." NC Banks and Credit Unions are two different animals with two different goals. SECU's goal has always been helping People - can't find the words " business or commercial" in there. Let's stay in our lane Gym and continue to be friends with all our smaller credit unions and banks in the state. That's what works for SECU.
NCSECU stayed in its lane and grew and grew and grew. Second largest credit union in the country. The board seems to believe that was all accidental and need correcting so it can only grow-- cut out those pesky member services!! More people, more people, fewer services. Corporations too! And why follow that unusual business model of fairness and equality. Join the crowd, adopt banking processes --- a bank, but with tax advantages! I hope the bankers are hopping mad. They should be.H 410 is "preposterous."
ReplyDeleteMaybe the Board will explain this sudden downward turn in assets and services at the credit union over the past eighteen months, probably not the real reason would point back to them.
DeleteI doubt it. I sent an email to every board member asking for line items as to where all the billions went. Cricket's....haven't heard back from anybody
DeleteAnybody else wondering why we still haven't heard anything on the salary study? I can tell you it's because they say we are over paid while they reduce staffing, pay for commercials, bring in a new executive team and continue to spend money in frivolous things like sunglasses. They have consolidated their hold on SECU with changes to the election process and will continue to take us down the wrong path. Let us focus on our membership!!
ReplyDeleteSunglasses? What?
DeleteHahaha! Sunglasses??? For employees??Is that because we are all embarrassed for where we work now?
DeleteNext will be bags to put over our heads.
DeleteYes, cheap made sunglasses that has printed "your future is bright". Total waste of money for cheap crap.
DeleteCan you upload a pic!?
DeleteCan't upload pic on here. If you have LinkedIn it's on Jimmy page.
DeleteAt this point for Jim Hayes…why stay? You are never going to win over the employees at this point. It’s too far gone. It’s just overkill at this point.
ReplyDeleteHe never cared for the employees. It was all smoke and mirrors. Hayse has placed foreign folks (non-SECU employees) in key EVP positions. These folks are from commerical banks, a lot from first citizens and one from H&R Block who is over branches and MSS. That itself is wild.
DeleteNon-employees mean people who were not from SECU originally.
Deleteand a bunch of BB&T/Truist Finance and Accounting folks who don't quite understand simple math.
DeleteMr Hayes made some big mistakes early on at SECU, but instead of settling in and working through those, he continued making those big mistakes. In policies, in member services, in hiring, in leading. He walked into a perfect setup to give him success - but he has failed past the point of recovery. So I hear, he & his executive team's excuse - those employees are resistant to change. Nothing could be farther from the truth and they know it. SECU employees have always been accepting of change, that's why you see a thrill in their faces when they are sharing a new service or product with a member. I've experienced this many times with different employees in different branches all across the state over the years. His biggest mistake was not realizing the talent he had within the organization, the experience and the dedication to SECU those employees have.
DeleteAs an outsider looking in, I feel Mr Hayes doesn't have the skills needed and he will never regain the respect or trust it takes to lead an organization this size. The sooner he and SECU's Board of Directors realize this, the better for the credit union and it's members.
He doesn’t care about winning over the legacy employees. He wants to replace us or outsource us. Do you want non-SECU employees talking to members because that’s what Jimmy wants. Calls it white glove service. That man wouldn’t know white glove service if it bit him in the ***.
DeleteThe sunglasses help impair our vision so we can’t see the shady business they are conducting lol
ReplyDeleteHonest opinions here: who believes H410 will pass?
ReplyDeleteMy hope is that the NC banks speak loudly against the bill. If so, I can see the bill getting defeated.
DeleteIt is unfortunately going to pass…
DeleteI believe it will pass due to nothing going SECU way recently and with the head guy of CCUL all for it and Leigh I'm sure all in their ear since she's with CCUL also
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping it doesn't pass.
I feel like it will probably pass as well. Mainly because most politicians are not really aware of what is in the bills they vote for. Most rely on the “expertise” of those they consider “experts” on the subject matter rather than trying to educate themselves on the matter. And has been previously stated, the “experts” feel that this will improve the credit union movement in NC.
ReplyDeleteIt's not passing - too much opposition now that legislators have been educated. They don't (shouldn't) want any part of this. It's a bad special interests bill.
ReplyDelete