SECU Board's New Election Procedures - Democracy In Action In North Carolina

  Thursday, July 20 was the deadline for members to apply to run for the SECU Board of Directors. As I understand it, more than a half dozen or so members have submitted their application to the SECU Nominating Committee for consideration. So it appears there will be a contested election in 2023.

There will be at least three Board positions on the ballot. Current Board members whose terms are expiring are Jo Anne Sanford, Alice Garland and Thomas Parrish. The Nominating Committee will nominate one candidate for each of the three positions. In the past, the approved Nominating Committee slate has consisted of the incumbents, which would mean that Sanford, Garland, and Parrish would be the anticipated slate.

The Nominating Committee will file its approved slate on August 11, 2023. The  Nominating Committee is composed of Mona Moon (Chair), Chis Ayers, Bob Brinson, Mark Fleming, Ben McLawhorn, and Jim Johnson. All are current members of the SECU Board, except Mr. Johnson, who left the SECU Board in 2019. 

✅ With the changes in Election Procedures (adopted 4/12/2023), the SECU Board has sought to make an independent candidacy for the SECU Board at best an extremely difficult task. 

If not selected to the official slate of candidates, a member who wishes to self-nominate must obtain the signatures of 500 members to be eligible to run. That is not unreasonable, but the "New Election Procedures" have added  a requirement that those signatures must be obtained on an "Official Nominating Petition", which the SECU Board will not release to the member until August 11, 2023 - and which must be returned by August 21, 2023.

✅ Over the last several months, members from around the State have asked the SECU Board for a copy of the "Official Nominating Petition", and when denied have asked for the SECU Board's justification in refusing to provide the form.

Q: "Hello Ms. Funderburk [the SECU Board Corporate Secretary], 

Please email me a copy of the Official Nominating Petition form for the SECU Board at your earliest convenience. Thank you in advance for your assistance."

A: "Thank you for your inquiry.  As set out in the election procedures:

If a member is notified by the Nominating Committee that they were not selected as a candidate, and the member wishes to self-nominate, the member may then email the Assistant Corporate Secretary at board.corporate.secretary@ncsecu.org to request a copy of the Official Nominating Petition for State Employees’ Credit Union Board of Directors (the “Official Nominating Petition”).

The self-nominating packets will be available after the filing of nominations with the Corporate Secretary."Thank you, 

Q: "Ms. Funderburk,

What is the purpose for the delay in providing a copy of the self nominating petition?  Is there any reason other than to suppress my interest in becoming a candidate?   Please provide an honest answer as to why you will not provide the form now. If there is no legitimate reason not to provide the form at this time, then please forward it to me as requested. Thank you."

A:  "Thank you for your note. The Election Policies and Procedures establishes the timeline for distribution of the Official Nominating Petition.  The Election Policy and Procedures were approved by the Board and notice of them was given to the members 180 days before the Annual Meeting (April 12, 2023).  Distributing the Official Nominating Petition according to this timeline is consistent with the Election Policy and Procedures."

✅ If you're like me, you probably haven't really taken the time to study the Election Proceedures closely. When looking at them today, I felt even greater disappointment in the SECU Board. Don't believe anyone who is fair-minded would not believe the new Election Procedures are a flagrant effort to quash the democratic process within the credit union cooperative.

We'll take a closer look over the next few days...

... and just when you think things couldn't get any worse, the SECU Board posted By-law amendments today to attempt to quash participation at the Annual Meeting! 

 

SECU June/2023 Yearend Financials - The End Of An Error, Part 1

SECU's financial (fiscal) year ends on June 30 of each year. The SECU Board will get its first look at the final results for this year (fiscal year - 6/30/22 to 6/30/23) on Tuesday night.

But, thought you might like an advance look. SECU members are no longer provided access to the full monthly financial statements, as in the past. The Board and "current/future" CEO seem to believe that the membership may not understand - and might misinterpret - the financial data. Although this was never a problem over the last 85 years, "things are changing" at the credit union. The SECU accounting department apparently remains willing to "leak" responsibly, when appropriate. Here's the skinny: 

✅  Baseline. Prior to September, 2021, SECU had an uninterrupted 85-year record of growth in assets and membership, un-besmirched by sanction or scandal. 

✅ No one should be surprised that several negative financial trends persisted through June 2023:

✔ Total assets - continued to decline, remaining below the $50 billion mark - off over $3+ billion since June 30, 2022
https://secuvote.ey.com/

✔ Total deposits - same story, off almost $4 billion from 6/30/2022. https://secuvote.ey.com/

❗The SECU Board and management now state they are no longer focused  on "top-line growth"- that's growth in deposits and assets. Can't blame them for that, given this year's results - wouldn't want anyone to focus on that plunge either.

 ✅ The biggest "news" remains the substantial failure of SECU to meet Board-approved budgetary targets, specifically in the areas of operating costs and delinquency/chargeoff controls. https://secuvote.ey.com/

✔ SECU ended the 2023 fiscal year @ 15% over the SECU Board's budget target ("2% of assets") which equals @ $75 million over the mark.  

✔ Actual 2023 operating costs of @ 2.30% of assets are 24% higher than SECU's traditional operating cost range of 1.86% of assets. That 24% increase in the operating expenses is costing members $220 million more every year. https://secuvote.ey.com/

✔ Delinquency and charge-offs have soared in an improving N.C. economy.  The charge-off levels for 2023 are more than twice (which is tens of millions of dollars) the levels experienced since the "New/New" started weaving its magic less than 24 months ago.  https://secuvote.ey.com/

✅ But here's some information which might help you as a member get the full financial picture on SECU [but please don't misunderstand or misinterpret it, ok?]  SECU is required to report complete financial data quarterly to the federal government. Here's how you access it:

1) The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is a federal agency which provides deposit insurance to U.S. credit unions - equivalent to the FDIC for banks. The NCUA requires each credit union to file a quarterly (end of each calendar quarter) financial statement known as the "Call Report" or also as the "5300 Report".

 

2) The quarterly Call Report becomes available to the public 1 month after filing (on Feb 1, May 1, Aug 1, Nov. 1) at the NCUA website: [ www.ncua.gov]

 

3) Go to the website landing page and click on "Analysis' ' (middle of page), then drag down to the right and click on "Research A Credit Union".

 

4) When the "Research" page pops up enter the charter # (SECU - 66310, LGFCU - 24003. CIVIC - 24898) or in the second section you can search any credit union by name, location.

 

5) If you enter 66310, the SECU page will pop up...click on "View".

 

6) When the "Credit Union Details" page pops up, you have several search choices to explore. For the "Call Report", first pick a cycle date (most recent quarter, or go back in history) , then hit "Download" and it will be loaded to your computer. When the report appears, scroll down to the fourth page and you can click on particular financial data or just keep scrolling down through the whole report.

 

7) On the "Credit Union Details" page you can also view some comparative ratios by clicking on "Request FPR" (look down right side). When the financial performance report page pops up select third option ("I want online") and hit OK. You can then surf among the 3 options: Key Ratios, Financial Summary, Historical Ratios. [if you try this right now, you'll probably get a "no data" response because you're asking for the 6/30 data which hasn't been released yet (Aug 1!)... so back up a quarter and try again!]

 

More than you wanted to know, right! ... "give people a fish and you feed them for a day; teach them to fish and you feed them for a lifetime."