Hate to be a "bother", butt..!
😎 "Can't Touch This!": "You'll know what you need to know when you know it. "
✅ As you learned in the last post [link] the SECU Board was asked to provide information on its procedures for submitting resolutions at the upcoming Annual Membership meeting. The SECU Board after three weeks had failed to acknowledge or respond to the request. Complete silence.
✅ Up until 2022, SECU members could fully participate in the SECU annual meeting - including open questions, discussion, and resolutions. In 2023 the SECU Board unilaterally changed the bylaws, limiting member comments to 2 minutes, with no discussion, response, nor any new business permitted.
By 2024 no member comments, discussion or resolutions of any sort were permitted Questions from members (limit one!) could only be submitted in advance of the meeting. A complete list of submitted questions was not made available and responses were robotically read out at the meeting - with no member follow-ups or discussion tolerated.
✅ The good news is that the precedence for active member voting by absentee ballot or email has been established and is working (over 100,000 SECU members voted in 2024!). Substantive member resolutions are still permitted for member action and several should be on the ballot for 2025. That's why the request was submitted for a copy of Board-approved procedures. The SECU Board has created a lengthy annual meeting process with strict procedures and timelines which must be met.
😎 In the occasionally ribald back-and-forth in the comments yesterday, one commenter suggested that the SECU Board and CEO had no duty to respond to an individual member (especially one who wrote a blog!). Don't happen to agree with that type of thinking, but fair enough.
✅ Below is an additional request from Mr. Julian Hawes sent today to the SECU Board and CEO, requesting that the procedural information be provided. Mr Hawes received 31,203 SECU member votes in the election at the 2024 Annual Meeting.
Hope the SECU Board will recognize and respect that this is a legitimate request from many SECU members and not from a single individual. The Board has a legal and fiduciary duty to all members to respond as soon as possible.
✅ The Letter:
4/25/2025
Dear Ms. Moon
In planning for the 2025 SECU Annual Meeting, would you please provide
or publish the protocol or approved procedures for the presentation of
several substantive member supported resolutions in the notice of the
2025 Annual Meeting?
Several substantive motions will be submitted for consideration by the
membership. By providing this protocol, The credit union can insure
that the Board still practices the democratic principles at the core of
our credit union. It will also serve to strengthen the credit union and
make it more responsive to its member/owners.
A contested election is anticipated again this year . The transparency
of the issues and member/owners voting benefits all concerned.
Thank You for your prompt attention to this matter.
Julian Hawes/SECU Member
cc: All SECU Board members
Leigh Brady, CEO leigh.brady@ncsecu.org
If members don't really matter anymore, then yes... why should the Board bother with them?
