Here is a series on the severe erosion of trust by both members and staff in SECU. [...going to move fast again.] Not much denying that a wide chasm of concern has developed over the last 2 year. Why is this happening?
The "problem lies" with the SECU Board of Directors - not with the "current/former" CEO, nor with the "current/future" CEO. Both of those folks are complicit, but more willing puppets than independent actors. The "problem lies" with the SECU Board of Directors - let's look at some examples and "name names".
First, let's establish a baseline. Prior to September, 2021, SECU had an uninterrupted 85-year record of growth in assets and membership, un-besmirched by sanction or scandal. Regardless of your opinion of the "current/current" SECU, I have heard no one question that statement - which is substantiated by cold hard, provable facts and data. Prior to September, 2021, SECU was prospering. Whatever the "SECU Strategic Plan" was then - worked. Those quaint ideas of "Do the Right Thing" and "Send Us Your Mama" were understood by - and practiced - by the staff and believed by the membership. Fairness was the hallmark of SECU.
But the indiscriminate selection of an implausible new leader in 2021 by the SECU Board of Directors set off a firestorm of controversy, dissension, and distrust among the SECU staff, which was not long in cesspooling out to the membership. How did that happen and then fester?
Although far removed from SECU by retirement and focused on other matters (chickens, daffodils, and sauvignon blanc), the "calls" started coming early in 2022. Ignored those concerns initially, as nothing more than the normal "whining reaction" to change. Change always creates "winners and losers" as new leadership moves into place. Get over it, right? But the calls continued and became more specific, more issue oriented, and more concerning.
Those calls led to the resolution [link to resolution] at the Annual Membership meeting in October, 2022. The resolution asked the SECU Board for an explanation of 6 issues: LGFCU merger, open membership, risk-based lending, commercial/business lending, end of N.C. focus, and tax prep services. The key seventh question was: "How do these changes benefit the current SECU membership?"
The response by the SECU Board seemed promising as "Fireside Chats" were scheduled for late November, 2022.
Let's take a look - in my opinion - at how Chairman Chris Ayers triggered the cascading decline in trust and respect for the Board of SECU - and for the entire credit union. Stay tuned!
On June 16, Alice Garland said, "staff and member reaction to the changes that Jim has been putting in place, has been extremely positive." Maybe some examples of the extremely positive staff and member reaction - would help build trust.
ReplyDelete@11:45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CKBkJmKvsI
Where has Alice been for the past 22 Months? There you going lying again Alice!
DeleteMs Garland, I can't imagine how you could stand before your fellow Kiwanis members and make such statements. Surely you realize the SECU members present at that meeting knew you didn't know what you were talking about. An extremely positive reaction from the staff and members will come from one of two ways; your immediate resignation or your defeat in the upcoming election.
DeleteWhat about all the emails in opposition? and emails in Opposition to your Legislative work on H410 with Dan Schline. Let's not forget all those things. How about how well the call center is running? Operating expenses hitting targets? what about loan losses? How bout that growth growth growth is ALL that matters! How bout how well centralizing things are going? Your vision Ms know-everything Alice, is not working for 2.7 million of us out here. We are most unhappy with the state of affairs. you are scared we will vote you out and have done every thing you and your lawyer friends could manage to hold on to your seat. WHY? We all want to know WHY? The numbers don't lie, and the numbers don't look good, do they? Explain it all to us. And we really want to hear about the 6.5 million NCSECU sent to Andrews. when you gonna bother talking to us peons about how you are wrecking a great institution in North Carolina. Admitting a mistake has never been your forte
Delete@ 4:49 Alice Garland probably needs to answer all these questions above before her name appears on the ballot in October.
DeleteI can think of 6.5 million reasons Ms Garland and Ms Hanford should vacate those seats, before the election will work just as well as after.
DeleteThat’s a pretty accurate summary. And thank you for stepping up. Will never forget how you presented each and every one of us with a test of ethics in our loan officer interviews. We haven’t forgotten and we haven’t lost our purpose, even if “this board” is making it really hard.
ReplyDeleteYou interviewed with the CEO for a loan officer position? Is that standard practice at SECU?
DeleteIt was. every loan officer. had to make certain everyone would do the RIGHT thing.
DeleteIt used to be. He pretty much already knew if you were worthy of the job before you showed up, but you had to show it. He’d quietly establish that you believed in the SECU culture and purpose, and ask you questions in the vein of “which came first…the chicken or the egg?” just to see how you reasoned it. There were always questions with ethical undertones. He knew his people and they knew he was paying attention. Seems odd, but it was a good system. Kept everyone honest.
DeleteYes for decades at SECU all employees promoted to senior loan officer positions interviewed with the CEO prior to receiving their promotion. For the CEO to set aside one on one time with the candidates was taken as a vote of confidence in them and much appreciated by the employees. This is another one of those changes Vice Chair Garland praised Jim Hayes for making, those important interviews are no longer required. The only requirements needed for promotions now in Raleigh is to be recently hired from outside of SECU and possess a willingness to harass the other employees.
DeleteYes V.C. Garland all employees reactions have been extremely positive over this important change.
It was. That kind of investment in us as employees made us take the responsibility seriously. Now? It’s been rough the last two years, being stripped of responsibilities we worked hard for and did well, feeling discouraged and helpless to help people in ways we always did. Being told we had no leadership and no culture when we had the best of both until 2021. Feeling targeted for being “legacy.” I hope things are going in a better direction now, but we’ll see what happens.
DeleteThings will not be going in a better direction because the same knaves are in charge. Only when all 11 are gone will there be an opportunity to return to putting the member first! With these scoundrels running things, members are the last on the list.
DeleteThere is no accountability for all of these bankers that have infiltrated IT! They no nothing about serving members or nor do they care. All are power and money hungry! They take pride in stepping on long term employees. We have lost sooo many valuable employees because they couldn’t take the pressure! This has created a mess because the new ( Bomba and buddies) no absolutely norhing about how we operate!
ReplyDelete"Those quaint ideas of "Do the Right Thing" and "Send Us Your Mama" were understood by - and practiced - by the staff and believed by the membership. Fairness was the hallmark of SECU."
ReplyDeleteThis is evident by all the comments that quote these sayings as well as others. Fairness was evident by the fact all members received the same treatment (see RBL) regardless of their income or "job title". I always got my loans through SECU because I believed in the credit union way. Some leaders you are willing to run through a brick wall for (or work around the clock to get things right). The management at SECU were those type folks. They honestly cared about their employees. I witnessed the change firsthand that those days were coming to an end. I worked too many years to be treated like that. I was afraid of what these fools would do next. I retired ...
All Member and Employee trust in this Board and this Administration at SECU is completely gone. The only remaining trust in our credit union remains shared between the members and the staff.
ReplyDeleteThis volunteer Board of Eleven individuals elected to serve a not-for- profit cooperative called State Employees' Credit Union have completely bewildered this member for the past two years. I have never witnessed the type of behavior This Board has given to the members and employees alike who have valid questions and concerns for the welfare of SECU. Members, Employees and SECU Retirees have all been treated as if they were the enemy of the people. All these folks are the owners of this credit union with many having invested much more of their lives in our credit union than any person serving on this Board or the cumulative service of the entire board. At the Annual Meeting, October 2022, multiple members not just one spoke out with questions about several board decisions which had been made and some implemented several months earlier at our credit union. I must say Board Member Haygood was the only person on the stage who handled herself with grace and seemed to understand the members were well within their right to raise these questions. Chairman Chris Ayers could not hide his level of disgust with the members and he can be assured that feeling is mutually returned statewide. This Board does not own this credit union, SECU does still belong to the members. This Board for the past year has turned a deaf ear to the owners. We have received sparse canned video chats and AI emails. Efforts to contact this Board have been ignored. We deserve better than incompetent directors making vital decisions for the credit union and our families' financial futures in North Carolina.
8:43 pm, I can’t figure it out. What is in it for them as unpaid volunteers? Prestige of being on the BoD of the 2nd largest credit union? Are they benefiting in ways we don’t know? That’s not working out so well for them now with their poorly chosen CEO bailing out after creating nothing but chaos. They have purposefully avoided answering any real or hard questions. You don’t have to avoid answering for your actions if they are above board. They set big goals but have significantly underperformed on every level. They have ignored facts, concerns, knowledge and experience for what exactly?
DeleteThis board wants us to empathize with their unpaid 15 hours a month (ref all staff pro-Hayes/anti-legacy email right before he resigned)That’s nothing compared to all the staff who spent years of their personal family time studying on evenings and weekends for MLO classes, insurance licensing, taxes, investments, financial counseling accreditation, CFP, trusts, etc only to be summarily cut loose and left to explain to members that we can no longer help them and will have to submit a referral because nobody is available to help. The new/new solution to having taken away all this valuable investment in staff knowledge and training? Replace us with people from the outside who know nothing of SECU’s purpose and pay them how much more?
This board will never voluntarily address that. They need to go. Locally available and locally managed staff does not conflict with advancements to digital platforms. They don’t understand that members bring us their devices for digital help all the time, that they tell us they know they can do this online, but they want to talk to us. They know us, they trust us, and that’s the biggest asset we have. Although, how much longer will members tolerate being told we are sorry but we can no longer help them?
@ 9:17 In answer to your very last question from my part of the state I can tell you our members are fed up. They are asking questions we can't answer due to our own job fear. This Board and this Administration has taken away our ability to provide them with honest answers. They absolutely hate not having the ability to see the same employees who have served them for years except for certain services. Employees have been placed in a position that has the appearance of We are the ones turning our back to the members and their needs. This Board and This Administration forced this upon the employees, we had to comply to maintain our jobs. We have tried to stay professional and limit our responses to protect the organization, but we are wearing down.
DeleteThis Board and This Administration may not care what the SECU Membership as a whole think of them, but we the employees do. We are their family members, the friends, neighbors, customers and associates within these communities of North Carolina. What has been done to the members and employees of this credit union over the past 22 months is in fact criminal in nature. You have stolen SECU from it's rightful owners, created enormous losses both monetary and personal for members and employees;
This Board and the Administration has ran SECU into the ground for what appears to be your own personal gains.
12:31 PM- it happens daily that members come in or call and don’t understand why their go to person can’t help them. All we can do is apologize and attempt to find someone who can help them, all the while knowing we ourselves have the knowledge and skills that member in front of us needs but we have been specifically forbidden to use it. Some people trying to help some people, as another commenter said. We’re trying to help with our hands tied behind our backs.
DeleteWhy can't you refer the member's to this blog for answers? It would surely help those very member's restore your job to it's former responsibility level by getting new members on the board of director's who WILL work in the member's interest and not against it--as THIS BOARD does. Members have to know what is going on or the members can not help. If everyone stays silent, THIS BOARD, Hayes, and Brady take ownership of a cooperative. Silence won't help you keep your job---can't you see the writing on the wall? This board intends to close branches, why do they need a branch to run a teller line. Do it at the ATM or on your phone. this Board intends Your job to disappear. Why do you think they aren't giving branch folks raises and only keeping the raises in the echo chamber in Raleigh? This board WANTS you to leave. Stay silent....
Deleteremember, LGCU won't have access to branches either ....
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