Review And Reflection - Part 11: SECU Board - Missing In Inaction #2

   

SECU employees go under the bus, the SECU Board remains silent.

😎 How does one go from "gruntled" to "disgruntled"? 

With me, the Fireside Chat responses [see "LGFCU proposal" example] raised concerns over the judgment and lack of transparency of the SECU Board. The response clearly wasn't the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Why would the SECU Board approve such a response? Why did they do that?

✅ A second example? A Triangle Business Journal article (3/6/2023) quoted the SECU CEO as stating that SECU hadn't updated its technology since 1983! Here again is the quote from TBJ: 

"But the Raleigh-based credit union has not been known as a forward-looking IT organization, Hayes said. Changing that perception requires investment, and to do it safely, it also requires three to four years. SECU hasn’t updated its systems since 1983, and change won’t happen overnight.”

Former SECU CEO Mike Lord and former SECU CIO Chris Ayer took great offense - as one might suspect - and called for a meeting with TBJ Editor-in-Chief Sougata Mukherjee to demand a retraction.

Evidently it was a fairly contentious meeting lasting 2 hours! Lord and Ayer presented a lengthy and extensive list of major technology changes which have occurred at SECU over recent years.  Mr. Mukherjee listened closely and agreed it would be pretty hard to end up with internet service, mobile apps, ATMS, call centers, voice recognition, remote deposit capture, etc. - technologies which didn't even exist in 1983! - without having made "at least a few" technology changes.

✅ The SECU Board refused to retract or clarify that inaccurate quote; instead choosing to permit hundreds of SECU IT staff to be publicly ridiculed and slandered ... and casually pitched "under the bus".

How do you know the statement supported by the SECU Board was not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? - (not even close!): 

Exhibit 1: [Click here] to see a list of proudly proclaimed SECU tech achievements from the SECU website. "SECU hasn’t updated its systems since 1983..." - really?

Exhibit 2:  [Click here] to listen (@4:45) to 2021 SECU Chairman Bob Brinson praise the soaring success of the SECU mobile app, including the recent addition of remote deposit and other features. Mr. Brinson is a current SECU Board member and  IT professional.  "SECU hasn’t updated its systems since 1983..." - really?

Exhibit 3: [ Click here] to watch the SECU mobile app video announcement and [click here} for the SECU announcement of remote deposite, alerts, etc features. "SECU hasn’t updated its systems since 1983..." - really?

Exhibit 4: Here again is the SECU CEO at the Fireside Chats (replete with several giggling SECU Board members in tow) [link at 16:00] truthfully stating that part of the SECU core technology has been in place since 1983, but that "it is a tank, it's solid. it's reliable, I get it...". Need to be replaced, yes; still used by many large banks, yes - because "... it's solid. it's reliable..."- and other tech projects have been given priority.

✅ Reheck exhibit 1 again  [Click here]... reread the TBJ quote. Is that quote the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

😎 Disgruntled? You betcha!  Hundreds of SECU employees - real, honest, dedicated people - and the reputation of SECU were unnecessarily trashed by the endorsement through  their silence (all giggling aside) by the SECU Board.

If you are an SECU member or employee, why doesn't this matter to you? If the truth doesn't really matter any more, then I apologize to you for being an old fogey.  I was taught it was important.

Why would the SECU Board approve such a response? Why did they do that?

Review And Reflection - Part 10: SECU Board - Missing In Inaction #1

...  deadly silence. 

Picking the story back up: 1) The SECU Board in 2021 decided a change in direction and culture was needed, 2) an improbable CEO was hired to lead the change,  3)  consternation among members and staff swelled in 2022, 4) the membership approved a resolution requesting a Board explanation: "Where are you leading us, why are you taking us there, how will it benefit the members?", 5) the SECU Board answered the concerns with Fireside Chat response meetings...

So what's the problem? The problem for me was that I knew - definitively - that much of what had been put forth by the SECU Board was simply not true.  Part 9 [link] provided the well-documented example of the SECU Board Fireside response on the merger proposal with LGFCU. The #1 question became: "Why would the SECU Board approve such a response? Why did they do that?"

The Lutheran Minister Martin Niemoller confronted this same type question when dealing with a new-style German government in the 1930's. As you see from the quote, he chose not to act nor ask. He didn't bother, because he believed the "Why did they do that?" didn't affect him. Too late, he found out it did.

To me, every SECU member and employee should ask - and deserves an answer to - that #1 question: "Why would the SECU Board approve such a response? Why did they do that?   

As member-owners of the credit union, each of us does have the right to ask and be heard, that's a core principle of a cooperative - or any democracy, isn't it? But perhaps, you don't need to bother, you don't need to ask or act because it doesn't affect you as an SECU member or employee... (or perhaps it already has and you just haven't realized it yet?).

Should we give the SECU Board a break? Maybe this was just an oversight, an unintentional slip up. That doesn't appear to be the case. 

A much broader pattern of misinformation seems to be underway... another clear example tomorrow.

If the SECU Board did not level with the SECU membership:  "Why did they do that?"