SECU What Next? Chief "Legaler" Eliminates The SECU Annual Business Meeting?

  SECU is none of your business!

In case you are just joining us, we have gotten down to "brass tacks" [link] on the blog; focusing on the true, critical issues at SECU - North Carolina state law, the SECU bylaws, and the dismantlement of SECU cooperative principles and ownership. 

✅ As a member-owner of SECU, you have already lost your democratic rights to speak and actively participate in the Annual Meeting [link], with the N.C. Administrator of Credit Unions apparently being duped in the process [link].

😎 But there's more!

The "Chief Legal Officer" of  SECU, in her May 19, 2025 letter [link] to a member's lawyer, offered up the following:

"You have inquired about any existing policies to allow for submission of member resolutions in advance of the Annual Meeting. The purpose of the Annual Meeting is for members to elect directors. "  "... there was no process to allow members to introduce resolutions for consideration at the Annual Meeting."

First, note in the last phrase that the "legal" officer forthrightly confirms that you as a member-owner were prohibited from expressing any opinion, suggestion, or resolution about SECU at the last Annual Meeting.

✅ Of greater concern, the "legal" officer has unilaterally decided evidently that: "The purpose of the Annual Meeting is to elect directors." It would appear that the "legal" officer has decided that the election of directors is the only democratic right that members may exercise at an SECU Annual Meeting. 

This contradicts North Carolina state law, the Federal Credit Union Act, and the core legal principle that the annual meeting is the required yearly business meeting for the credit union and its members - true for all cooperatives.

No true legal authority disputes that principle and that fact of law - except evidently the SECU Board and its "legal" counsel.

 ✅ "Why does the SECU Board fear the members?"

... hold tight, even more to come!

SECU What Next? How The Lawyers Stole Your Right To Speak...

    We don't need to hear you!

How did the SECU Board get away with prohibiting the right of SECU members to speak and participate in the Annual meeting [link]? It would appear at first glance that the State regulator rolled over [link], but maybe not so fast.

The Administrator of Credit Unions may in fact have been played the "patsy" (from the Italian pazzo, meaning fool) with those 6/30/2023 SECU bylaw amendments she approved. Here look again: "... (iii) authorize the Board to establish upon notice to the membership policies and procedures governing the order of business, format and conduct of the annual meeting."  

Looks pretty plain vanilla doesn't it! But take a look at the before and after.  Here is the SECU Annual meeting "order of business", enshrined in the SECU bylaws for 85 years prior to 2023: 

✅ The North Carolina Standard Credit Union Order of Business

(a) Ascertainment that a quorum is present.

   b) Reading and approval (or correction ) of the minutes of the last meeting;

  (c )Report of directors.

  (d) Report of the financial status

  (e) Report of the loan activity.

  (f)  Report of audit/examination.

  (g) Unfinished business.

  (h) New business other than elections.

  (i) Report of nominating committee.

        (j) Elections

        (k) Adjournment

 

   😎 SECU 2023 "New/New" Order of Business:

1) Call to Order/Confirmation of Quorum/Polls Open
2) Approval of 2022 Annual Meeting Minutes
3) Recognition of Board members and current and retired SECU employees
4) Report of the Chair & Bylaws Update
5) Report of CliftonLarsonAllen
6) Report of Nominating Committee
7) Report of SECU Foundation
8) Report of the President and CEO
9) Voting Concludes
10) Member Feedback Forum
11) Election Results
12) Adjournment

✅ In case you don't see what the internal SECU "legal predators"  with SECU Board approval have done to your democratic rights as an SECU member:  1) the SECU member may no longer speak at the annual meeting, 2) the SECU member may no longer discuss SECU operations with the Board under old business, 3) the SECU member may no longer suggest new directions or resolutions under new business, and 4) the SECU member may no longer participate in the #1 purpose of the annual meeting as a business meeting. 

😎 And it was .. "An Inside Job"! [link] "Why does the SECU Board fear the members?"

  Make you proud of "your credit union"?

 

 

 

SECU What Next ? SECU Board Strips Away Member Rights...

  ... starting with freedom of speech.

As you noted in the "Brass Tacks" post [link]; over the last two years, the SECU Board first restricted and has now prohibited SECU members from speaking or pre-submitting resolutions at the Annual Meeting.  How has this happened? 

😎 Several commenters asked the appropriate question: "Why does the SECU Board fear the members?"

✅ The SECU Board took these core membership rights away by submitting a series of bylaw changes to the NC Credit Union Division (the State CU regulator) in mid-2023. In part, the SECU Board requested the following amendment to: "... (iii) authorize the Board to establish upon notice to the membership policies and procedures governing the order of business, format and conduct of the annual meeting." 

The SECU Board passed the proposed bylaw amendments at its evening meeting on Tuesday, 6/27/2023 and submitted them to the NC Credit Union Division for approval on Wednesday, 6/28/2023.   

The proposed SECU bylaw amendments were approved by the Administrator of NC Credit Unions on 6/30/2023, two days later - an unheard of regulatory turn-around for non-standard bylaw proposals. After approving the bylaw amendments on 6/30/2023, the Administrator of Credit Unions then retired at the end of the day .

Without the "middle of the night" by law approvals, the SECU Board would not have been able to restrict and then prohibit  member free speech at the Annual Meeting - reversing binding, fundamental member rights which had been in place since 1937.

😎 Why is the SECU Board purposefully stripping these basic rights from the SECU membership? "Why does the SECU Board fear the members?"

  Down to brass tacks... with more to come!

 

 

 

SECU What Next? Time For The Heavy Lifting, Time To ...

... get down to brass tacks!

Been dawdling for a few months on less important issues, but now the season is at hand to address the fundamental, critical concern - SECU governance, your rights as a member owner of the credit union. As a member you need to know what you have already lost and to understand what you may well lose in the future. It's important to you!

Before we launch in earnest, lets go back and revisit yesterday's post [link]. Why? Because the excerpt below from the "Chief Legal Officer/General Counsel" is an excellent example of the misdirection and lack of transparency which have plagued SECU in "recent" years.

❋ According to Ms. Cathleen Plaut:  " ... the rules for recent Annual Meetings have permitted members the opportunity to speak or submit questions - but there was no process to allow members to introduce resolutions for consideration at the Annual Meeting."

"Recent Years"     Member May Speak     Member Resolutions

       2022                  Fully Permitted             Fully Permitted

       2023                     Restricted                     Restricted

       2024                     Prohibited                    Restricted

       2025                             ?                           Prohibited 

Hope it goes without saying that resolutions and participation by SECU members were fully permitted and welcomed from 1937 until 2023. 

With Ms. Plaut's latest proclamation, no resolutions will now be "permitted" at the 2025 SECU Annual Meeting. Ms. Plaut would have been more transparent and genuine to have stated succinctly that SECU members have been "prohibited" in recent years from speaking at or presenting resolutions to the SECU Annual Meeting.

😎 SECU "Newspeak"?  First we had the "no formal proposal proposal", now we have the "new/new" Annual Meeting "recently permitted prohibitions"!

Our "new/new" democratic cooperative?

 

SECU: A One-sided Breach Of A Covenant Is Always A Breach Of Trust.

  

"Covenant": An agreement, an understanding, a contract between people.

With the May 19, 2025 letter from Ms. Cathleen Plaut [link], the SECU Board and Executive Leadership Team (ELT) seem to believe that they may "change the rules of the game" willy-nilly. 

That attitude does not appear to be in keeping with "the foundation documents" - the organizational charter, the by-laws, nor the statutory requirements - of SECU as a member-owned cooperative. 

 How did  SECU and the SECU membership arrive at this point?

 ✅ Baseline. Prior to September, 2021, SECU had an uninterrupted 85-year record of growth in assets and membership, un-besmirched by sanction nor scandal.

 ✅ Timeline.  🔺September, 2021 "New/New" arrives at SECU. 🔺Yearlong, 2022 Chaos Ensues. 🔺October, 2022  Annual meeting resolution. 🔺November/December, 2022  Fireside Chats.  🔺March, 2023  H.410 - Push for open membership/commercialization. 🔺April, 2023 Board election rules - independent nomination prohibited. 🔺June, 2023 CEO Exits. 🔺July, 2023 By-law amendments - cover of midnight. 🔺October, 2023 Annual Meeting - Contested election, incumbents out - 15,000 vote.  🔺January, 2024  Financials - Most "profitable year ever", member deposits plunge. 🔺April, 2024  Annual Meeting limits - members no longer may speak. 🔺July 2024  H410 fails. 🔺October, 2024 Annual Meeting - incumbents prevail, 100,000+ members vote.  🔺December, 2024 Financials - Soaring Budget/Delinquency/Charge-offs.  🔺March, 2025 - H187 - the "new" H410 introduced. 🔺 May, 2025 -  Member annual meeting resolution procedures request - do not exist, no longer allowed.

❋ According to Ms. Cathleen Plaut:  " ... the rules for recent Annual Meetings have permitted members the opportunity to speak or submit questions - but there was no process to allow members to introduce resolutions for consideration at the Annual Meeting." 

😎 Lawyers should be expected to be explicit with the truth. The statement above is not true and is on behalf of the SECU Board with a copy to the chief regulator of credit unions under North Carolina law. 

 

Where do you think we should go from here?** 

  **  "To hell" is not the right answer... already there...!