✅ Credit unions have long championed our unique difference as member-owned cooperatives versus investor-owned banks. What is that unique difference? It's the "one member, one vote" democratic right to choose. In this instance, SAFE members' democratic right to vote on the demise of SAFE Credit Union.
😎 What should be done if that boast of a democratic right to choose appears to be a sham - "a Hobson's choice"? [As in "Take it, or leave it!"]
✔ "A Hobson's Choice" is a free choice in which only one thing is actually offered. The term is often used to describe an illusion that choices are available.
The SAFE Board of Directors has voted unanimously to merge SAFE Credit Union, one of California's finest, with Boeing Employees Credit Union located in Washington State. [link]
✔ The SAFE Board and CEO claim the merger will bring indistinct benefits to SAFE members. Independent assessments find otherwise:
✅ The "Otherwise" Credibility Scorecard: It has been shown that 1) any benefits of the merger can be obtained for free by SAFE members [link], 2) the SAFE Board has voted to give away a financial institution with a fair market value between $400 to $800 million [link], 3) the current cost of operating SAFE is superior (much lower!) [link], 4) current services/rates at SAFE are equal or better [link], 5) if necessary, there are several better merger candidates in California [link], 6) the "faux-ish" Board commitments of April 21, 2026 [link] with the questionable "34% increase in money returned to them" claim [link], and 7) the absence of an independent market valuation creating a fiduciary breach legal exposure [link].
😎 SAFE members will have the chance to vote on the proposed merger and dis-memberment of their credit union, what will their other choice be?
A few credit unions voted down mergers with the last several months. It’s not common, but increasing. That member, Scott Rose, needs to form a grass roots campaign to educate members on the real facts, not the obvious spin and corporate speak from the CEO’s, especially on the stated benefits, all of which you have debunked or have proven can happen without the merger. We don’t always win, but we saw in the prior Board elections how much engagement we drove with our campaign - with votes at all time highs.
ReplyDeleteSo how do you resist someone who doesn’t believe they’re doing anything to you — who sees your objections as merely a symptom of your failure to understand their process?
ReplyDelete@4:12, great question. Keeping it in a merger vote context, members don’t need to resist and objections don’t need to be understood, or even overcome by management, which will come in the form of the same five bullet talking points. I think it nets out to 1) whether members actually believe they are going to get what they are being promised and 2) why a merger is the only way they are able to get the things being promised. The optimist can take #1 at face value. No case to believe members are being deliberately lied to. #2 is a way bigger hurdle. Mr. Blaine totally blew up a prospective argument from the SAFE CEO and Board that the somehow to need to merge to deliver these benefits to SAFE members with their OWN capital! Voters don’t have to get SAFE leaders to understand them, they just have to inform themselves, rely on others that know the truth, and decide who to believe, especially assuming disclosures to members will not have complete information and the full truth. They tout benefits, but so far no mention of what they will lose. In no merger ever, when you switch systems, does either side get to keep all they had AND get all cool new stuff. They’re telling you there will be 500,000 for home grants. At 8,000 a grant, that will make 63 members happy. They haven’t told them yet that 200,000 SAFE cardholders will lose tap capability because BECU doesn’t have it. We’ll see if that kind of stuff shows up in the NCUA required disclosures.
ReplyDeleteSAFE members need to ask what all the takeaways will be. If they have told members we don't know yet, they are being lied to. They’ve been working on this for months. They know. They’re just trying to figure out how to spin it and when to come clean about it. “SAFE” bet it will be after the member vote.
ReplyDelete