Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Review And Reflection - Part 7: A Crisis Of Confidence - The Smoking Gun # 1

https://hatchardreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/sleight-of-hand-ws.jpg Despite having months to prepare, stage, and edit its response to the 2022 Annual Meeting resolution, the SECU Board failed to level with the SECU membership on most of the questions raised. Why would the SECU Board as a group chose to do that?     

In "The Smoking Gun" post [link] and "Exhibits" [#1] and [#2], you find part of the information - documented and verified, I had before watching the SECU Board-approved Fireside Chat videos. 

What the SECU Board published didn't seem to conform with the facts.  In today's world where everything - like it or not - is "on the record" somewhere, one has to wonder why the SECU Board chose not to give the members straight answers? Lack of transparency by any group - motives, competence, poor judgment? - is "a red flag" that erodes confidence and destroys trust. Why would the SECU Board choose to do that?

Lets study this a bit (again here is the SECU Board's response [link] at 7:41):  

 1) "Meeting on Merger with SECU Jim Hayes  [full text -  #1] - January 11, 2022"

"... a bit more assertive than our earlier dialog.".... "Jim said the merger question needs to be answered"... "Jim said no less than 4 times that SECU already serves our members and have our members’ data."... "It is his custom to frame up issues with the Chairs" ...

😎 So, you see that a) the merger discussion started in 2021 ("earlier dialog" - and if you must know, that prior meeting was at the Taverna Agora in Raleigh),  b) pressure is being applied by the "40-year trusted partner SECU" who - (can I explain this to you "no less than 4 times"!) - already serves LGFCU members and has all their data, and c) Mr. Hayes is actively pursuing the merger in league with his Chairman ("with the Chairs").

😎 As advance guidance to the potential "yes-butters" of this post! To give you an idea of the depth and detail of the 2022 documentation gathered, and now housed in those ""two full filing cabinets, etc, etc", the January 11, 2022 breakfast meeting was at the City Club in Raleigh. Would you like to know the time, who ordered what, the total bill ...whether they are a good tipper? Just for the record, I'm not guessing. You shouldn't either.

In today's world where everything - like it or not - is "on the record" somewhere, one has to wonder why the SECU Board chose not to give the members straight answers?

"Jim [Hayes] asked me how I felt about this. I confessed I am struggling personally. LGFCU is not a bank model where we build a book of business to sell out later for a large payout. Merger feels like failure to me. "

😎 Hope we can all agree that Mr. Smith wasn't pursuing SECU to transact a merger. We all know where this started.

✅ But here's what you really need to look out for as a member-owner of SECU:

The statement about not being "...a bank model where we build a book of business to sell out later for a large payout."  Should give every SECU member a reason for concern. Why? 

😎 Lack of transparency by any group - motives, competence, poor judgment? - is "a red flag" that erodes confidence and destroys trust.

 

... we'll do the other half (May 12, 2022) a little later [Exhibit #2]... nah it doesn't get better. 


2 comments:

  1. This shows the problem with Hayes.i think we can all agree that SECU is better with him gone

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  2. It is somewhat satisfying to me when the truth comes out. By somewhat I mean, the truth is so often disappointing but now I know the internal grapevine was more accurate than the cover-up being told to the public. My spin based on the Smith info is that Hayes was not working to keep LGFCU because having more than one FI requires extra efforts for all aspects (core platform, wires, billpay, etc). Trying to make it easier, cheaper (?), like they did with our website, cramming it into a common template used by other FIs. Outsourcing our mortgage services - don't know the details - but my recent experience has been disappointing. I still want to know who decided to hell with cooperative spirit and and let's hire Hayes. - Charity

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