"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...!
