SECU What Next? Time For The Heavy Lifting, Time To ...

... get down to brass tacks!

Been dawdling for a few months on less important issues, but now the season is at hand to address the fundamental, critical concern - SECU governance, your rights as a member owner of the credit union. As a member you need to know what you have already lost and to understand what you may well lose in the future. It's important to you!

Before we launch in earnest, lets go back and revisit yesterday's post [link]. Why? Because the excerpt below from the "Chief Legal Officer/General Counsel" is an excellent example of the misdirection and lack of transparency which have plagued SECU in "recent" years.

❋ 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."

"Recent Years"     Member May Speak     Member Resolutions

       2022                  Fully Permitted             Fully Permitted

       2023                     Restricted                     Restricted

       2024                     Prohibited                    Restricted

       2025                             ?                           Prohibited 

Hope it goes without saying that resolutions and participation by SECU members were fully permitted and welcomed from 1937 until 2023. 

With Ms. Plaut's latest proclamation, no resolutions will now be "permitted" at the 2025 SECU Annual Meeting. Ms. Plaut would have been more transparent and genuine to have stated succinctly that SECU members have been "prohibited" in recent years from speaking at or presenting resolutions to the SECU Annual Meeting.

😎 SECU "Newspeak"?  First we had the "no formal proposal proposal", now we have the "new/new" Annual Meeting "recently permitted prohibitions"!

Our "new/new" democratic cooperative?

 

SECU: A One-sided Breach Of A Covenant Is Always A Breach Of Trust.

  

"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...!