One of the polite requests made in the SECU 2022 Annual Meeting Resolution was for the SECU Board to simply explain its goals in seeking a merger with Local Government Federal Credit Union (LGFCU). (see the 3/22/2023 post for text).
As many of you know, the partnership between the two credit unions goes
back over 40 years and was created to provide access to local credit
union services for North Carolina municipal and county employees. The
partnership benefited both credit unions, by enabling SECU to eventually
reach every county in North Carolina through a cost sharing agreement. A cooperative partnership focused on the best interests of the people of North Carolina, over any "corporate ambitions" of either credit union.
Both credit unions subscribed to the idea that "Members Come First"!
And, what a success that ideal has proved to be, with LGFCU now serving
400,000 members with total assets of $4 billion.
The answer from the SECU Board about the merger proposal was: "SECU never made a "formal" offer to merge with LGFCU."
Mr. Dwayne Naylor, the newly appointed CEO of LGFCU said the following about the merger proposal:
Mr. Naylor: Sorry I was not at the SECU Annual Meeting [25:26]..."because
before the Resolution passed, I would have argued to have removed #2
because there was no factual evidence of that being true. I'm trying to
stay away from the word lie."
CEO Naylor's memory of these events appears to be "at best selective" (to quote Mr. Naylor, "I'm trying to stay away from the word lie."). One of the many reasons contributing to the 2022 SECU Member Resolution was Mr. Naylor's (at the time an EVP at LGFCU) frantic calls to past and present credit union professionals (including at least six "on the record" CEOs), expressing his outrage at the proposed merger offer and disdain for the leadership at SECU.
The electronic, telephonic, and paper trail of those conversations is a mile wide and deep - stretching from Asheville to the coast. Unfortunately for Mr. Naylor - and perhaps fortunately for the rest of us; he has a long history and reputation for discussing his angst over crucial situations with almost everyone he knows. The "informal" merger proposal was no exception.
Mr. Naylor's friends would like to believe that he is "covering up" (again, "...trying to stay away from the word lie".) in order to protect LGFCU and its members from SECU. Mr. Naylor's critics believe he is lying because he wanted the CEO position too much; and now that he has the position, he is willing to throw LGFCU members ["no more branches"] "under the bus" to fulfill his own personal ambitions. Whatever the truth, it's time for Dwayne Naylor to tell it - the consequences to literally millions of North Carolinians are immense.
The appropriate time to tell the truth is at the LGFCU Annual Meeting on Friday, March 24, 2023, live-streamed at 12:30 p.m. You can now [magically!] find that information on the main page of the LGFCU website [link...LGFCU].
Hint: It would be better to address this question head-on, than to be grilled and embarrassed publicly.
... is this beginning to feel like an episode of "As The World Turns" or "Days Of Our Lives", or is it just me?
Here's what the new CEO LGFCU Dwayne Naylor said about the 2022 SECU Member Resolution, at the SECU Advisory Board Fireside Chat Meetings in November 2022. Check it out [link on NCSECU You Tube, Fireside Event -Full - 25:26]: