Why Is The Mask Necessary For Our Leadership At SECU?

      Halloween? Not exactly...

It's been over a month now, since the SECU Board approved new bylaw amendments, designed to further crush SECU member participation and governance rights in their credit union.

How do you know? A check of the official SECU Board minutes would be a good place to start [link]. Our CEO was asked politely - well in advance, as required - at the 2025 SECU Annual Meeting about the amendments [link]. A masquerade of goggledy-gook was offered in a prepared response to the 3 million SECU members.

The SECU Advisory Board system - the members' first line of defense for leadership accountability - was called upon to seek a legitimate answer [link]. But the charade continues. 

What's truly appalling is that the rest of the credit union world already knows what the SECU leadership refuses to admit to 3 million SECU members. Take a look:

✔ "Just A Member" blog: "In a January 2024 blog, I described NCUA’s approval of bylaw changes for Navy and Pentagon FCU’s that effectively eliminated the ability of member-owners to nominate directors for board openings.  (link) "

"In the post Who is Responsible for Credit Union Democracy, I summarized these changes: The two largest FCU’s quietly changed the required number of signatures for member nominations for the board.  In both situations the change removed the 500-signature standard bylaw and replaced it with a percentage of members.  For Navy this new signature requirement was 26,000 and for PenFed 5,800 based on their latest reported member counts. Now the trifecta for the three largest credit unions is complete."  [link - read the whole piece]

👺 So, now you too know. The underlying question for all SECU members should be: Is trickery the cause of such poor treatment of member-owners by the SECU leadership?

 As SECU members, are you trying to leave us holding the bag?

"I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do." - James Baldwin  

 

Where's Waldo?

  

                     Searching for the truth? 

From:		Shirley Bell <delta0560@gmail.com>
To:		"BRADY, LEIGH" <Leigh.Brady@ncsecu.org>"

 October 28, 2025

"Ms. Brady,

As an active advisory board member, and one who firmly believes in interacting with our membership, I have a question asked by a member who asked me to forward the question to you.

"Did the SECU Bd. of Directors approve new bylaw amendments at the September, 2025 board meeting?"

Please just provide a simple yes or no answer for clarification--not asking for details. "

.... [link]"

 

"Look forward to your prompt response.  Thank you.

Shirley A. Bell"

 

 

  Sometimes the truth is hard to find...

 

The Plaut Thickens...

    Official Minutes of the Board of Directors!

Most organizations - whether corporations, civic, church, cooperative, or charitable - have a designated board of directors, elders, deacons, trustees. The group meets regularly and written "minutes" are recorded and approved to officially document the results of the meeting. It's common practice, "the industry standard"!

✅ North Carolina law requires: 

§ 55‑16‑01- Corporate records. [link] (a) A corporation shall maintain the following records:

(1) Its articles of incorporation as currently in effect.
(2) Its bylaws as currently in effect.
(3) All written communications within the past three years to shareholders
generally.
(4) Minutes of all meetings of, and records of all actions taken without a meeting by, its shareholders, its board of directors, and board committees established under section G.S. 55‑8‑25.
(5) A list of the names and business addresses of its current directors and officers.
(6) Its most recent annual report delivered as required by G.S. 55‑16‑22.
(b) A corporation shall maintain all annual financial statements prepared for the corporation for its last three fiscal years, or each year of its existence if shorter than three years, and any audit or other reports with respect to the financial statements.
(c) A corporation or its agent shall maintain a record of its current shareholders, in alphabetical order by class of shares showing the number and class of shares held by each shareholder.
(d) A corporation shall maintain accounting records in a form that permits preparation of its financial statements.
(e) A corporation shall maintain the records specified in this section in a manner so that they may be made available for inspection within a reasonable time.

✅ The SECU Board of Directors regular monthly meeting was scheduled for last night, October 28, 2025 (4th Tuesday of each month). As with all boards, the SECU Board would have routinely approved the written board minutes for their September, 2025 board meeting. The official, approved September board minutes would document the approval by the SECU Board of Directors of those "no amendment amendments", which went unreported to the membership at the October, 2025 Annual Meeting [link]. 

😎 Pretty clear under state law that any SECU shareholder can ask to inspect the official minutes, but...

  Why is this necessary? What is there to hide...

 

According To Confucius: The Truth Is Simple...

  Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.

The North Carolina State Employees' Credit Union is a cooperative financial institution owned by its 3 million members. Each SECU member is an equal owner.

The Board of Directors is composed of 11 members. The Board meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month. In addition, the Board of Directors has appointed 3,000 members of SECU to local branch Advisory Boards, whose purpose is to make sure member questions and concerns are heard by the Board - and addressed.

✅ Remember this post [link - Do take a look]?  Well, here's the email:

"From:		Shirley Bell <delta0560@gmail.com>
To:		"BRADY, LEIGH" <Leigh.Brady@ncsecu.org>"

 October 28, 2025

"Ms. Brady,

As an active advisory board member, and one who firmly believes in interacting with our membership, I have a question asked by a member who asked me to forward the question to you.

"Did the SECU Bd. of Directors approve new bylaw amendments at the September, 2025 board meeting?"

Please just provide a simple yes or no answer for clarification--not asking for details.

And I might add, annual meetings are not nearly as engaging as they once were.

Look forward to your prompt response.  Thank you.

Shirley A. Bell"

 

✔ Let's hope that our CEO Leigh Brady will step up and tell all 3 million equal SECU member-owners the simple truth. Why wouldn't she? 

 

  When is the next Board meeting? Let me check...

 

Delay Of Game...

The beginning of Tuesday, October 28, 2025 has been temporarily delayed by...

   

😎 Not the only game which seems to go on forever! 

  Back with you in a few "minutes"... 

Still Trying To Wash The Hog?

  

 The SECU Board's: "No Amendment Amendments" 

The 2025 Annual Meeting question to the SECU Board : "Would you explain the details and purpose of the most recent SECU Board approved bylaw amendments and advise when a copy will be available to SECU members?"

        The answer from Leigh Brady: "So, state law requires that any new, proposed bylaw amendments be submitted to the Administrator of Credit Unions for approval. The last time SECU submitted proposed  bylaw amendments to the Administrator was in 2023.  Bylaw amendments are only made if SECU concludes that the changes will improve corporate governance and are in the Credit Union's and the membership's best interest. If any future bylaw changes are ultimately approved by the Administrator, they will be shared with the membership as prescribed by the SECU bylaws." [again to hear live - at 1:32.00] 

"Pure swill"! - the classic oxymoron!

 A hogwash, but that "dark spot"doesn't seem to be "coming clean"...

The Hoi Polloi

   ... (from Greek) - "The people".

Opinion from Bill Brooks - activist leader and CEO in credit unions, NCUA regulator, and credit union trade associations

The credit union model had been around for quite some time before it reached the United States. Credit unions were pretty much based on inter-lending amongst people you knew. The model got a big boost when Congress passed the Federal Credit Union Act in 1934 to help provide a source of credit for people of modest means. 

Lending to the hoi polloi was not something that banks cared about doing. There were many loan sharks, exploiters of people down on their luck, but not much else. Credit unions were organized around common bonds based on occupation, association and well-defined communities. For about the first 50 years, the model worked. The credit unions, banks and savings and loans all had their niche. 

Credit unions worked with each other and never used predatory merger strategies as a means to achieve growth. Things were simple. People had a place to go when they needed a loan and everyone knew your name. Things have changed in the last 50 years for financial institutions. Credit unions for many "rational" reasons seem to have adopted growth for growth’s sake and an abandonment of the common bond. 

I have not heard any questions about whether the response is appropriate. I have never heard any public discussions about how well credit unions are fulfilling their mission of making more available to people of moderate means. I have heard chest pounding about how credit union were democratically controlled, cooperatively run organizations. The chest pounding is pure hooey! No greater fraud is put to the public than presenting yourself to be something that you are not! Credit union leadership has focused on competing with banks. No dumber strategy can be wished for. 

Competing with banks and the new financial service providers is not the charge for credit unions. The drive for growth which leads to enrichment of the insiders of larger credit unions is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. Providing goods and services that are reciprocal to what banks offer makes you irrelevant. Authorities are beginning to realize that credit unions are different from their public image. The powers that be will come to realize that they have vested powers in people of general goodwill, but not necessarily good sense to direct the affairs of credit unions. 

HOW DO YOU RATE SUCCESS?

Credit unions were a strategic solution to problems faced by people of modest means. Not sure they are the strategic solution to today’s problems?The focus on A and B paper loans may or may not expand the loan pool for people of modest means. For them, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

  Irrelevant... the new/new "industry standard"?

Leadership By Example: Integrity...

  

  Is there any real difference between not telling the truth and telling a lie?

*A little extra insight [link]  - October 23, 2025

We're Working On An Explanation...

  

          SECU 2025 Annual Meeting  [link - at 1:32.00]

An hour at the October 14, 2025 SECU Annual Meeting was set aside to answer member questions submitted in advance. As you read in the October 9, 2025 post [link], several questions from blog readers were submitted by others registering for the meeting as required. 

The question I submitted on behalf of readers when registering: "Would you explain the details and purpose of the most recent SECU Board approved bylaw amendments and advise when a copy will be available to SECU members?"

The answer from our CEO Leigh Brady: "So, state law requires that any new, proposed bylaw amendments be submitted to the Administrator of Credit Unions for approval. The last time SECU submitted proposed  bylaw amendments to the Administrator was in 2023.  Bylaw amendments are only made if SECU concludes that the changes will improve corporate governance and are in the Credit Union's and the membership's best interest. If any future bylaw changes are ultimately approved by the Administrator, they will be shared with the membership as prescribed by the SECU bylaws." [again to hear live - at 1:32.00]

The problem: The SECU Board of Directors approved several significant SECU bylaw amendments on September 23, 2025 - the month before the 2025 Annual Meeting.

✔ Why does our leader Leigh Brady feel it necessary to "run around" the truth of the new SECU Board approved bylaw changes from the SECU membership?

  Wheel of Miz-fortuune?

 

The Issue Of SECU CEO Credibility: Time For A Straight Answer.

    Take a look! [link]

The 2025 SECU Annual Report tells a positive story about the success of the Credit Union: "Different From the Start". 

One unique feature of SECU over the years has been the active involvement and participation of member volunteers in SECU through local branch advisory boards. The list of 3,000 member-volunteers takes up @half of the 2025 Annual Report! 

Each of the 275 SECU branch locations has a 10 to 12 member advisory board which meets quarterly to provide input to management and the SECU Board on local operations and member concerns. 

The Advisory Boards were created over 50 years ago, because the SECU Board was concerned the Credit Union had grown too large (at that time @$300 million in assets!) and that members might feel they were not being heard. 

Is building bridges for frank, honest, straight-forward communication with the SECU membership still important? Absolutely! Now, perhaps more so than 50 years ago!

✅ So, you've read about the incomplete response provided by our CEO Leigh Brady regarding the most recent SECU Board approved bylaw amendments in September, 2025 [link]. So what is the truth [link]? The lack of clarity in an answer by our CEO Leigh Brady has generated some 🔥🔥🔥 [link]!

✔  As an easy resolution, I have asked the legendary "godmother " of SECU Advisory Board members, Ms. Shirley Bell, to ask Leigh Brady directly for a straight answer on behalf of the entire SECU membership. 

Why ask Ms. Bell to handle this? Not only is she an active advisory board member, Ms. Bell also served on the SECU Board of Directors for a quarter of a century, served as the president of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, on the Board of Trustees of the State Retirement System, local board of elections, NAACP, national sorority leader, numerous civic/non-profits, N.C. Aggie grad and fan, trained chemist, Order of the Long Leaf Pine, church... well, you get the picture. Highly experienced, trusted, respected by all.

✔ Ms. Bell said today she would be happy to do so. 

 Stay tuned...!

 

P.S. Just for the record, Shirley Bell chaired the SECU Board and led the Credit Union through the 2008/2010 global financial crisis with remarkable results:

  

 

Accountabilty....

  

               "The Buck Stops Here!"   

                    U.S. President Harry S. Truman                                                                                                                             

 ✔ Commenter: Anonymous October 18, 2025 at 2:47 PM

"Still waiting for you to provide proof of your baseless accusation. liar."

 ✔ Reply:   October 19, 2025 at 7:46 AM

"2:47 pm  I trust our CEO Leigh Brady to tell the truth. Don't you think that would be the most reliable source?"

Leigh.Brady@ncsecu.org

 

  A presidential Truwoman....! 

 

 

SECU 2025 Annual Meeting: Now We Have The "No Amendment Amendment" ...

 

    ...Trust "We"!

"Would you explain the details and purpose of the most recent SECU Board approved bylaw amendments..." [link]

 

  

 

  Once again "We" have an issue of trust... this time in flagrante delicto [link] !

 

 

 

 

 

SECU: A "Question" Of Trust

                

         SECU 2025 Annual Meeting  [link - at 1:32.00]

An hour at yesterday's SECU Annual Meeting was set aside to answer member questions submitted in advance. As you read in the October post [link], several questions from blog readers were submitted by others registering for the meeting as required. 

The question I submitted when registering: "Would you explain the details and purpose of the most recent SECU Board approved bylaw amendments and advise when a copy will be available to SECU members?"

The answer from Leigh Brady: "So, state law requires that any new, proposed bylaw amendments be submitted to the Administrator of Credit Unions for approval. The last time SECU submitted proposed  bylaw amendments to the Administrator was in 2023.  Bylaw amendments are only made if SECU concludes that the changes will improve corporate governance and are in the Credit Union's and the membership's best interest. If any future bylaw changes are ultimately approved by the Administrator, they will be shared with the membership as prescribed by the SECU bylaws." [again to hear live - at 1:32.00]

The problem: The SECU Board of Directors approved several significant SECU bylaw amendments on September 23, 2025.  

✔ Why does Ms. Brady feel it necessary to hide the truth of the new SECU Board approved bylaw changes from the SECU membership?

  As a member, employee, advisory board member, media... why don't you just ask her?     Leigh.Brady@ncsecu.org 

 

 

What "Time" Is It At CIVIC FCU?

😎 On October 10, 2025, I received an unsolicited email from CIVIC FCU (of which I am a member) to participate in a virtual "Local Connect" meeting with the "big-dawgs"...

 

   

😎 So I signed up for today's October 14th meeting at 11:30 a.m., eager to hear...

  

😎 Still waiting....  

   "You time was valuable."

 

 

 

2025 SECU Annual Membership Meeting

    Showtime!

 ✅  SECU Annual Meeting: Tuesday, October 14, 2025, live stream 1:00 p.m. [link]  

*Note: the live stream is not interactive.

   Relax, you will not be asked to speak or participate! 

The SECU Annual Meeting: Isn't This A Losing Struggle?

            Yes, the SECU members are losing their credit union.

✅ What will "We" think of next?

               At the SECU Annual Meeting: 

 Recent Year     Member May Speak     Member Resolutions

       2022                  Fully Permitted             Fully Permitted

       2023                     Restricted                     Restricted

       2024                     Prohibited                    Restricted

       2025                     Prohibited                    Prohibited 

✅ Stay Tuned for the:

 2025 SECU Annual Wonderland Meeting! 

   

    “People who don't think shouldn't talk.”
               ― Lewis Carroll 

✅ Still to Come for SECU Members? 

"The process has been distorted by leaders with member-owners having no meaningful role at any step.  The so-called member vote is a charade.  But regulators are scared, intimidated or just simply impotent to stop the self-dealing, self-enrichment  and sometimes, outright corrupt practices.  They hold a fig leaf, well the members voted for it,  to hide their private unexamined approvals of the official disclosures required in the Member Notice." 

[https://chipfilson.com/2025/07/putting-the-members-and-democractic-practice-into-the-merger-free-for-all/ ]

 

  Does make you wonder, doesn't it! 

Need A CIVIC's Lesson? Two Opportunities...

  ... to learn more.

As noted yesterday [link], Local Government/CIVIC FCU is still a topic of high interest among SECU members.  The move of LGFCU to the new "CIVIC" name and "independence" in June, 2025  remains a major legacy of the "new/new" culture at SECU.** 

The flight by CIVIC from the 40-year partnership with SECU was a complex, difficult task. Everyone is hoping for success; @ 400,000 CIVIC members in North Carolina have got their fingers crossed.

✅  Chip Filson is a long-term credit union advocate, having served as a state/NCUA regulator, data guru on CUs, and as an insightful commenter/blogger on all things cooperative.  Filson's blog: "Just a Member" featured one take on CIVIC yesterday. Worth a read [link]! 

✅  The second opportunity to learn more about CIVIC is to sign on to its two scheduled "Local Connect" online meetings with top brass at the Credit Union:

"Fall virtual meetings: Tuesday, October 14 and Thursday, November 6. All virtual meetings are from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m."

[Local in-person meetings are available too! Sign up here: [link]

"What to expect
The Civic leadership team will share valuable updates about recent challenges and solutions, digital how-to tips, and other information about moving forward together. Most important, you can ask questions about what matters most to you." 

 

😎 What an innovative idea to allow member-owners to participate and ask questions! 

 

   ** ... that old "new/new" nose-grower - "the no formal proposal proposal" - is now playing out!

 

 

SECU Annual Meeting Questions Submitted...

   Say What?

✅ As you will recall, the SECU Board announced this new restriction on member questions in 2024: 

"Rule 5. Up to one hour will be set aside during the meeting for a question-and-answer session. Members must submit any questions in advance of the meeting. To permit as many members to ask questions as possible, we ask that you limit yourself to one question or topic. Members will be requested to provide us their name and city of residence." 

Last year at the 2024 Annual Meeting, our CEO read out questions and her answers for about an hour.

😎 Suggested a couple of days ago [link] that if any members wished to have a question submitted indirectly on their behalf, to send them on for consideration! Here's a summary:

❌ Good bit of "snark opinions/questions" of all stripes... thought "delete" was best direction on these.

❌ There were many internal questions concerning pay, benefits, unfairness, communications, etc. Really couldn't sort through all that which, for the most part, is "normal" in all organizations. Best left for the HR types.

❌ CIVIC (and the prior CEO!) remain hot topics! Sorry, time to get over it; that train has left the station! 

❌ A flurry of complaints about quality of service ranging from lack of branch staffing, call center wait times, loan denials, failure to correct specific errors or to return calls, etc. Always hard to determine whether these situations were "one-offs" or systemic. Generally the CEO will report on major progress or lapses in service - so lets wait on the official report first. (A systemic problem which goes unfixed is like an active cancer which goes untreated - it doesn't go away).

✔ Questions which were aggregated and submitted asked for information on: 1) the costs new core technology and implementation date, 2) whether SECU is moving to "open membership" 3) details and purpose of new Board bylaw changes, and 4) a definition of commercial lending, in-state only ?

Will be interesting to hear the answers! 

 

 Annual Meeting is October 14, 2025 [link]

 

 

 

 

So, "Here We Go Again"!: This Time The Rule Of Law?

 

To: The North Carolina Credit Union Commission

Caleb Malcolm
Chairman

Members: Jammison A. Applequist, Roger Montes, Lafayette G. Jones, Christopher D. Dillon, Debbie H. Trotter, Michael Conlon. 

October 8, 2025

Re: 2025 SECU Proposed Bylaw Amendments 

Dear Chairman Malcolm,

Hate to bother you again, but not really.

Since 1915, the North Carolina Legislature has adopted laws to define the purpose, organization, and operation of credit unions [here's an easy outline of those State laws]. The citizens of North Carolina have determined by State law what a credit union may and may not do. 

Those laws are there for a reason - to protect the individual members and to assure the integrity of the institutions. An individual North Carolina credit union should not be allowed to "make up" its own laws and rules. Our laws and rules have no meaning if ignored or unenforced. 

Our Legislature - the people of North Carolina - has delegated to you, the Commission, and the Credit Union Division the responsibility to:

§ 54-109.12. [All credit unions] "... shall be subject to the management, control and supervision of the Administrator of Credit Unions as to their conduct, organization, management, business practices and their financial and fiscal matters.

As this Commission, you may believe that the financial soundness of our credit unions is your chief responsibility, but it is not. North Carolina law requires the Commission, to equally control and supervise "... their conduct, organization, management, business practices...".

The fair administration of bylaws by a North Carolina credit union is crucial to their "conduct, organization, management, business practices and their financial and fiscal matters". 

In 2023 objections were first raised with this Commission concerning bylaw amendments approved by the Credit Union Division on behalf of SECU. Those open-ended amendments were subsequently used by the SECU Board to eliminate the ability of SECU members to participate in the business functions of the Annual Membership Meeting, to block the introduction of member resolutions, and to officially ban SECU members from actually speaking at all. 

These prohibitions were the result of the failure of you, the Credit Union Commission, to act to uphold North Carolina law.

In 2023/2024 this Commission claimed lack of authority to act under G.S. § 143B‑439 (c), finding shelter in a catch phrase stating what the Commission "may" or may not do [link], while overlooking what our law actually states the Commission shall do :

"§ 143B‑439.  Credit Union Commission. (c) The Credit Union Commission is hereby vested with full power and authority to review, approve, or modify any action taken by the Administrator of Credit Unions in the exercise of all powers, duties, and functions vested by law in or exercised by the Administrator of Credit Unions under the credit union laws of this State. 

"Vested with full authority" could not be clearer. Despite that duck in 2024, other reasonable alternatives for SECU members to be formally and publicly heard on governance issues were sought. 

In response to a request for a discussion of alternatives, SECU responded with a bizarre legal theory [link] that member resolutions could only be presented to the Board via a call for a "Special Membership Meeting", requiring a petition from @ 300,000 members. Of course, no rules nor procedures for calling such a meeting existed, no discussion of any such requirement had ever occurred in the past at SECU,  nor will you find any such precedence within North Carolina credit union law.

To impose such a new "Special Meeting" restriction will once again require bylaw amendments at SECU and approval from the Credit Union Division. So, "here we go again"! You can be assured that these proposed governance amendments are not the result of an up-swelling of requests from the SECU membership. In fact, the SECU membership is totally unaware of pending bylaw changes.

Hope it strains your credulity to believe that SECU members were so pleased to have lost their governance, participation, and free-speaking rights, that they are back begging you to reduce them further! Believe you're much wiser than that.

Further "inaction" by the Commission is equivalent to endorsement of these undemocratic practices. This is not good for the rule of law in North Carolina, nor the rights of SECU members. The purpose of North Carolina law was not to disenfranchise credit union members!

Would you please require that the upcoming SECU bylaw amendments be publicly disclosed to the members, reviewed, and discussed prior to approval? Thank you.

 Sincerely,

Jean and Jim Blaine

SECU members 

 

...or duck, duck, goose? 

     

 

 

 

 

Today Is Last Day To Register Online For SECU Annual Meeting... And Ask A Question!

   Your only chance to purr-ticipate?

Today, October 7, 2025, is your last chance as a member to register online for the SECU Annual Meeting [link] - and pose a question, which may or may not be answered. 

Impossible to tell, since there is no independent facilitator.  As you'll note, you are also required to submit your name and email address, which will limit the number of questions. But that is the fully controlled, afraid-of-the-dark - there's a member under the bed! - world of the "new/new"! 

Have received several questions which members have requested be asked.  Will do that and post just the questions later this week. 

If you have a reasonable question you wish submitted, please send it along in the comment section below. But you need to do it by mid-afternoon today...  need enough time to round up some friends, relatives and grand-kid members to register and submit on your behalf!

Free speech is getting difficult, kind of awkward isn't it; seems we're in a brave "new/new" world!

  What's the problem? Cat got your tongue...?