Comments for cuinnovate.ca

Comment on Micro Loans and Lending to the creative sector by Angela

Angela — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 23:05:52 +0000

Thank you for this informative and clear posting. I am in the United States exploring how to provide a similar service the nonprofit arts community where i live. I am interested in creating an alternative funding model that does not reinforce “lack consciousness” for social organizations that exist to provide Hope and possibility. Your posting has given me food for thought.

Comment on Proposed legislation will let them expand outside their home province by The Financial Brand » Best of the Web: ING’s misstep, MyMo and more…

The Financial Brand » Best of the Web: ING’s misstep, MyMo and more… — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:16:18 +0000

[...] Coast to Coast “Credit Union”: Canadians to expand charters nationally? [...]

Comment on Proposed legislation will let them expand outside their home province by Opportunities to Set Up or Expand your Automotive Industry Related Business | My Blog

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:47:27 +0000

[...] Proposed legislation will let them expand outside their home … [...]

Comment on Federal Charter for Credit Unions by rleaker

rleaker — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 13:08:38 +0000

Interesting perspective. If I understand correctly, your position is that credit unions are limited by their size in their ability to provide outstanding local service to their community?
I agree that credit unions, at their heart, are successful because they are community minded and locally run organizations. However, scale does create efficiencies and the ability to provide expanded products and services that not only compete, but in many cases exceed offers provided by the big five.
In many cases, small credit unions are unable to meet the needs of Members and communities due to lending limit restrictions, lack of marketing expertise and executive mind space being spread too thin dealing with regulatory and operational issues. Meridian has balanced their approach by defining their brand around the “difference of being local”. Meridian’s head office is viewed as a support group as opposed to a command and control center for the branch network.
While the details of the legislation are yet to be published, I encourage people to keep an open mind to determine if this is an opportunity to strengthen the credit union system and bring the experience to more Canadians or just political retoric to keep the banking industry on its toes.

Comment on Not Your Typical Best Practices Report by nchubaty

nchubaty — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:59:42 +0000

The download is working – but I’ve posted a link here with the shorter URL… http://bit.ly/c74H8N . Perhaps that will open the file?

Comment on Federal Charter for Credit Unions by David Maxwell

David Maxwell — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:28:08 +0000

I am a new Board Chair, and come at this with a strong philosophical bent. I have been active in the CU movement for 50 years on and off. I see CUs as fundamentally community organisations, at their heart, alternatives to the Big Banks insofar as they are run locally, keep the money local, and are for the mutual benefit of the local population. All these are the direct opposite of huge trans-provincial organisations. I think the attempt to gain Federal charters strikes at the most fundamental essence of what a CU is, and oppose it vehemently.

Comment on Not Your Typical Best Practices Report by Linda

Linda — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 22:52:46 +0000

Hi,

I work in the InfoCentre at Central 1 and someone at a BC credit union asked me to try and download this report for her as she was not able to. I’ve just tried and I’m not able to download it either. Could have a look at it please. Thanks

Comment on Not Your Typical Best Practices Report by Dorothy Watson

Dorothy Watson — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:17:36 +0000

Thanks for posting the paper Robert – I hope now it gets more people reading it as opposed to setting it aside for another day!

Comment on Credit Union Alliances by Shawn Good

Shawn Good — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:21:51 +0000

Great article Shelley. It resonates with both my own thinking, and supports the work of some of my peers on the National Young Leader Committee. I just returned from visiting some credit unions in South America, where I had a long philisophical debate with some of their leaders about value proposition. Where there is great need and/or no access to services, credit unions can quickly make a tangible difference. In developed and affluent countries and communities, there is less need, and its more difficult to differentiate ourselves. In Canada the CU system started in response to the need – average citizens had limited access to credit. Whats the need today? I believe there is great opportunity to leverage the intimate member relationships we have, differentiating on how we provide service, tailoring the member experience and service offering to reflect what they actually want. At the same time, apart from being the right thing to do, there will be an increasing business imperative to collaborate on the back office and other intiatives you list. None of us have the economies of scale on our own to take on a focused bank campaign into retail services in Canada – it requires collaboration. And in terms of egos? Well, I am convinced that the only emerging leadership model that will be successful, will be those who are collaborative, humble, and courageous… courage to do the right thing, not the easy or most personally lucrative. I for one, believe that as a system we CAN collaborate. Thanks for the inspiration.

Comment on Taking Service to the Next Level by rleaker

rleaker — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:10:59 +0000

Yes, Coaching has been foundational to the whole process. We built a managers guide up front to lay the ground work for effective coaching and had field managers for a few months “coaching the coach”. Cultural change requires very strong frontline leadership to encourage desired behaviours. Perhaps I’ll post the coaches guide in a future post. You can always contact me directly if you have further questions,

Robert