The 2026 SECU Election Process Electrifies Debate...

  ... disturbulence!

Yesterday's post about the on-going disruption in SECU Board nomination and election protocols set off a firestorm among commenters [take a look].  One of our favorite anonymice trolls really lit it up: AnonymousJuly 23, 2026 at 4:53 PM! Let's take a look at the troll's "sturm and drang": 

1) "Your vote will not be counted" is a total lie."  The post is about the SECU Board's continuing efforts to suppress member participation in the governance - annual meeting, member self-nomination, elections -  at SECU. Easy answer: As an SECU member did you have the chance to vote for your directors last year in 2025? Was your vote counted?

2) "There is a non-incumbent on the slate this year." That was in response to the statement that the SECU  nominating committee tends to always renominate incumbents for reelection. In fact, no one at SECU can recall when this was not the case. Sorry, all SECU incumbents were re-nominated again this year - there were only two.

3) "Highly qualified" is a very subjective assessment. They all can be "highly qualified", but the MOST qualified are selected". This was in response to the simple statement that the two members  - Browning & Hawes -  seeking member-nomination are well qualified. They are! The SECU nominating committee interviewed the two candidates and qualified both to seek member-nomination by petition!

4) OOPs!... our troll seems to have missed a beat. 

5) "Your post isn't even credible unless you can make an argument why Hawes and Browning are MORE qualified than those selected." Not sure why anyone has to make that "argument". As our troll stated in #3 above: "Highly qualified" is a very subjective assessment." Is the SECU nominating committee asserting that their nominees - Stone, Dillon, Clements - are the "most qualified" folks out of 3 million members to serve on the SECU Board?

6) "You seem to think management experience highly qualifies someone for a Board. It doesn't. Governance is different than management." Would be difficult to find many folks in the world who would agree with these two statements. As a reader do you believe successful management disqualifies a member from serving on the SECU Board?

7) "These people were vetted and interviewed, and you need to acknowledge you don't see that process." Our troll has become so puffed up with self-importance that (s)he entirely misses the fact that  both the nominated slate and Mr. Browning & Mr. Hawes were vetted, interviewed, and fully authorized to run by the 2026 SECU nominating committee!

😎  That's probably enough to keep the sparks flying and the "balderdash stuff" [B.S.] flowing - for now!

✅  Tired of that "balderdash stuff"? Request a nominating petition you can download and mail at: jimblainenc@gmail.com  You will receive a nominating petition for each of the candidates. You will find the name of each candidate printed in the upper right text. Please complete and sign a page for each candidate.*

1. Download and print off a set of petition forms from the return email (as many as you need!). 
2. Complete and sign a page for each candidate.*
3. Mail originals to: SECU Fair Elections, 3192 Cannadys Mill Rd., Franklinton, N.C. 27525
4. Please drop in the mail asap - by July 27th, if possible!

  Still time to help put an end to "troll think"! But this may be your last chance...

  * Your signature is not an endorsement of the candidates, it will simply permit them to run and make their case to the members in September.

 

Preserving SECU Members' Right To Serve On The SECU Board...

 

 The SECU Board is determined that SECU members - that means you! - should not have the ability to reasonably self-nominate to serve on the Board; nor should members have a choice among candidates. In other words, your vote as an SECU member-owner will no longer matter; your vote will not be counted. 

✔ Wait a minute that can't be right. What happened to cooperative democratic principles, "one member, one vote", and all that?  

Here's how it currently works at SECU: 1) To run for the Board an SECU member must apply to the nominating committee, 2) the nominating committee is selected by the Board, 3) the majority of the nominating committee are existing Board members, 4) the nominating committee chooses who can run, 5) one - and only one - candidate is selected for each vacancy, 6) incumbents are always favored - including this year!, 7) other qualified candidates not selected are given 3 weeks to obtain the signatures of at least 500 other members to qualify to run. Get the picture?

✔ But that's not the real problem In September, 2025 the SECU Board of Directors passed a bylaw amendment to try and make the difficult - independent member nominations - impossible. 

✔ Here's an example from the also large Pentagon Federal Credit Union of what those new petition requirements might look like:

  

 ✔ SECU now has over 3 million members. If a formula like this is adopted in the SECU Board approved amendment at 1% that would mean that a qualified member candidate would then have 3 weeks to obtain 30,000+ petition signatures, at .5% it would take 15,000+ signatures, at .2% 6,000+ signatures to be on the ballot. Get the picture?

✅ Two highly qualified, long-time SECU members, Julian Hawes and Barry Browning, are seeking 500 member signatures in order to self-nominate as candidates for the SECU Board election in 2026.  Both applied to the SECU nominating committee but were not selected - incumbents as usual were preferred.

✅ If you would like to receive a petition you can download just send an email request to: jimblainenc@gmail.com  You will receive a nominating petition for each of the candidates. You will find the name of each candidate printed in the upper right text. Please complete and sign a page for each candidate.*

1. Download and print off a set of petition forms from the return email (as many as you need!). 
2. Complete and sign a page for each candidate.*
3. Mail originals to: SECU Fair Elections, 3192 Cannadys Mill Rd., Franklinton, N.C. 27525
4. Please drop in the mail asap - by July 25th, if possible!

 This may be your last chance!

  * Your signature is not an endorsement of the candidates, it will simply permit them to run and make their case to the members in September.