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MoneyWorks = USP

2008-08-14T13:48:00Z

Throughout the last five years or so I have been blogging about an idea I worked on while a member of the Filene i3 group called MoneyWorks. When asked for a one sentence explanation of MoneyWorks, I would always reply that it was Tupperware parties for credit unions. The MoneyWorks program was implemented at FORUM Credit Union as Common Cents and has now morphed in to a program called the Unofficial Spokesperson or USP for short.

I recently heard a USP update from Andrew Spirrison, retail delivery guru here at FORUM CU, and asked him to write a quick update post for this blog. Here are his words…

“Anyone know a good mechanic? How about a reasonable CPA? Even better, ever talked to a USP?? What is a USP?? If you ask them where to go for all life’s financial needs their answer is simple – FORUM Credit Union.

USP’s are “Unofficial Spokespeople” that are proud FORUM members who are recommending the institution that has always been there to meet whatever financial life requirement that has come their way. It could be as simple as a basic checking account to a life financial plan.

FORUM USP’s exhibit the most genuine form of marketing available. If they didn’t believe in recommending FORUM to their neighbor or co-worker they simply wouldn’t do it. Just like the good mechanic or CPA… It is a proven fact…people like to tell people about a good thing.

As a token of FORUM’s appreciation, for every new member service that a USP refers they are paid $5 into an account in their name. In addition, we provide USP’s business cards, sponsor their events, attend meetings with them, conduct coffee hours, contests, publish regular updates and utilize a really cool tool to track their referrals.

Speaking of really cool….FORUM is getting applications from USP’s that represent charitable organizations. All funds raised from referring people to FORUM are being directed to a fund that will be donated to a charity of their choice!!

The FORUM USP program is growing fast…don’t be surprised if your neighbor stops you when cutting your lawn this weekend to tell you all about it.”

platinum, gold, silver, bronze

2008-08-12T14:07:00Z

I guess I should have entitled this just gold, silver, bronze since the Olympic games are in full swing, but Olympic commentary is not the purpose of this entry. Want Olympic commentary? Okay, that Michael Phelps guy is good, really really good. Instead the purpose is to remind you that we would be honored to include you and your company as sponsor partners for our upcoming symposium starting on October 1 and to let you know it is not too late to participate as a sponsor. Here at FORUM Solutions we think it is tiring to see the multi-levels typcially labeled with precious metals as sponsor opportunities. We prefer the simple customized approach here. If you are interested just let us know how you would like to be involved and how much you would like to contribute and we will make it happen. For example, want to offer a prize to the best Nintendo Wii Rock Band competitors at the symposium? Please join great company in ServiceCorp, The Members Group, filinx, and New Ground and help us continue the fine tradition we have going at the symposium. You can contact us at the bottom of our web site.

Branch of the Future?

2008-07-28T14:00:00Z

Ever wonder what the "Branch of the Future" will look like? Perhaps you already have the perfect prototype in your mind - at least in your humble opinion... With your input and a little help from our friends at NewGround, we will be slowly constructing a large-scale model of the "Branch of the Future" through-out this year's Partnership Symposium. Wouldn't you like to throw in your two cents? Come on, what are you waiting for? Sign-up for the 2008 Partnership Symposium, we'd love to see you there!

CU Warrior wins guest spot in the lineup at Symposium

2008-07-14T16:15:00Z

CU Warrior earns his name with a come from behind effort to take first place and win the guest spot at this year’s symposium. The final results are as follows:

417 unique voters:

CU Warrior – Matt Davis claims 41.3% of the votes
The Director – Ginny Brady had a strong showing with 30.7% of the votes
The Vendor – Thrifty CU from Jwaala came in with 18.9%
The Loop – Andy LaFlamme claimed 9.1%

We would like to thank the following:

The candidates for their courage and playfulness. The videos were all fantastic and made it fun to promote the contest. We admire your willingness to participate and hope the three that did not topple the CU Warrior will submit an entry for the 2009 Symposium.

The voters – wow, we didn’t expect 417 unique voters – thank you.

Ron Shevlin for the idea of opening the selection of a winner up to you the voters. Now, please hold true to what Ron communicated to you – show us some love by attending the event – we need you here.

Our FORUM Solutions teammate, Dan, for coordinating all of the videos and the voting results.

Please stay plugged in to this site for more news related to the symposium as we get closer to October.

one day left to vote | results as of 7.10

2008-07-11T03:57:00Z

With 342 unique voters the race is as follows:

Audition 1 – The Vendor – Thrifty CU – 22.5%
Audition 2 – The Director – Thrift 3.0 – 36.8%
Audition 3 – The Loop – Andy Laflamme – 7%
Audition 4 – The Warrior – Matt Davis – 33.7%

If you have been in the undecided space, now is your time to move and cast your vote. We appreciate all who have voted and followed our own little exciting election. Stay tuned for the final results.

only 4 days left to vote and the race is tight

2008-07-08T13:16:00Z

With 302 unique voters the race is as follows:

Audition 1 – The Vendor – Thrifty CU – 23.5%
Audition 2 – The Director – Thrift 3.0 – 35%
Audition 3 – The Loop – Andy Laflamme – 8%
Audition 4 – The Warrior – Matt Davis – 33.5%

Folks, only four votes separate first and second in the polls. Your vote counts – stay tuned for updates.

partnership symposium voting update 7.2

2008-07-03T03:12:00Z

With 260 unique voters the race is as follows:

Audition 1 – The Vendor – Thrifty CU – 26%
Audition 2 – The Director – Thrift 3.0 – 30%
Audition 3 – The Loop – Andy Laflamme – 8%
Audition 4 – The Warrior – Matt Davis – 36%

A close race – only 16 votes separating first and second. Keep them coming.

voting update | 6.30 evening

2008-07-01T03:11:00Z

We now have 174 unique voters who have made their voice heard. I like Ron Shevlin’s descriptions for the contestants so here are the current voting results:

Audition 1 – The Vendor – Thrifty CU – 26%
Audition 2 – The Director – Thrift 3.0 – 30%
Audition 3 – The Loop – Andy Laflamme – 4%
Audition 4 – The Warrior – Matt Davis – 40%

As you can tell we have a hot race for the guest speaker spot. Keep the votes coming and we will keep you updated.

monday morning voting update

2008-06-30T13:19:00Z

Brisk voting towards the end of the week and this weekend has brought the following results after 60 voters (remember one member – one vote):

Audition 1 – Thrifty CU – Jwaala – 12%
Audition 2 – Thrift 3.0 – Ginny Brady – 53%
Audition 3 – Andy Laflamme – 5%
Audition 4 – CU Warrior – Matt Davis – 30%

Polls are open until July 11 so please take the time to vote.

voting booths now open

2008-06-26T18:21:00Z

When Ron Shevlin speaks – we listen here at FORUM Solutions. Ron will serve as the host of the upcoming FORUM Solutions – Trabian Partnership Symposium and has been a big supporter of the event since attending and speaking at last year’s event. Ron suggested that we open up the selection process for the open speaking slot to you, ala American Idol. At the present time, we have four stellar entries to choose from. If there are others out there then please let us know. Please visit this page to view the video auditions and cast your vote. This is important stuff here so take your voting privileges seriously. Just ask Tim McAlpine. We want you to vote for the candidate that will add the most value to the symposium and not just the cleverness of the video – they are all exceptional so focus on the value. We also don’t want any hanging chads or Michigan and Florida delegate issues so we are asking you to enter your name and email address to validate the vote after you choose your candidate. We also wanted to avoid bots being written to vote non-stop in an attempt to sway the democratic process. Stay tuned for the results as we will post them periodically. Rock the Vote!

the power of the network | Randy Karnes speaking

2008-06-26T17:38:00Z

This post was originally a live blogging of an Indiana Credit Union League event entitled, The Power of the Network presented by Randy Karnes, CEO of CUAnswers. Then work got in the way so now three days have passed. The nuggets of wisdom are still fresh and are as follows:

We should follow your own credit union business model when building your CUSO. Randy advocates offering ownership shares in your CUSO along the same lines of your credit union such as one member – one vote. He says it is all about selling excess capacity to vested owners. We did joke about where the heck is the excess capacity at most credit unions.

Dump the “movement”, start a “network”. Randy’s point is well take here, “Movement” ... what does that say to members? “Industry” ... what does that say to members? “Network” – implies consumer value and power? I have never liked the word “movement” as it just doesn’t seem to fit in today’s world. The question will be how can the power of the network translate to the local member so it is more than just a word? In Tuesday’s Indianapolis Star – Business Section the lead article was—Stretching resources via barter networks.

Examples of powerful credit union networks that Randy threw out: PrimeAlliance, Co-op, NACUSO, PSCU, and CUAnswers.

“Because working alone does not seem to be translating into an expanding market share, even when we expand our potential opportunity.” “Our models are too narrow.”

“How far down in to the stack will credit unions cooperate? Sharing a marketplace, promoting like products and services, sharing resources (branches), sharing team members, doing business with multiple memberships, coordinating multiple Boards?” Credit unions internalize resources when we should be externalizing them for the good of the network.

Embrace the concept of unspecified returns. Connect to the right people with a vested interest and the returns will come.

If you want to improve your credit union departments – have them sell their services to others. They will improve given the scrutiny of the marketplace and customers. He specifically called out marketing, training and accounting departments selling their services. I can testify to his statement about this with FORUM Solutions. By selling technology services to others via FORUM Solutions has made us a better technology team for the credit union. It takes one out of their comfort zone and teaches you to embrace entrepreuneurial concepts – in a hurry – to survive.

It is difficult to find an audience with the mindset to leverage a collaborative solution. How true as there is too much of, “I need a template or a blueprint” thinking instead of figuring it out and taking a chance.

Because to truly leverage a collaborative solution, you must be ready to see: patronage as an investment, diversify and doing things multiple ways as effiicent, and negotiating internal and external power structures as innovative.

CUAnswers offers scholarships for credit unions that allows for two years of free data processing service to help a credit union change their business – impressive.

Randy Karnes is a tremendous asset to the credit union network and his concepts are invigorating and hold much promise. He says CUAnswers is crazy for collaboration – I believe him. Although, I must disclose that when we were offering our lending solution, TAPS Lending, to other credit unions we had two credit unions using the CU*Answers core solution and they expressed interest in TAPS. I called CUAnswers to check out the possibility of working together to help these credit unions and was told that CUAnswers was not interested. I didn’t escalate the question like I probably should have and I bet I didn’t get to the right person. I do see CUAnswers as a beacon for collaboration and feel like my personal situation was likely an isolated incident.

Thank you to Matt from Eli Lilly FCU for making this event a reality and to the Indiana Credit Union League for facilitating.

deposit tree

2008-06-17T18:04:00Z

Like Lending Tree, but for deposits – MoneyAisle. This is another example of an innovation that changes the consumer’s experience in conducting their financial affairs. This is also validation that innovation in the financial services area is coming from non-financial service providers. Credit unions need to be following these innovations and thinking about how they might apply to serving our membership.

guest spot on Open Source CU

2008-06-16T15:57:00Z

If you have time, please check out my guest post on the Open Source CU blog as I would welcome your feedback. Please know that this post is an expression of my opinions and should not be reflective of my employer or teammates here at FORUM. I probably should type out some legally correct way of saying that, but I wouldn’t do that to you. Also, don’t think for a second that I am calling out credit unions across the land and saying everything is perfect from where I sit. We have our own challenges and intense competition we are dealing with. What I can say is that I absolutely enjoy a great environment to contribute to the success of the credit union and attempt to offer innovative and relevant offerings for the good of the membership. Thanks Open Source CU team for the opportunity.

Stop what you're doing and register now for the FORUM Solutions/Trabian Partnership Symposium!

2008-06-16T12:31:00Z

All of the speakers at the upcoming FORUM Solutions/Trabian Partnership Symposium are encouraged to submit a guest post to help promote the event. Being the not-so-subtle, highly over-exposed credit union marketer that I am, I thought I would just cut to the chase with an old-fashioned sales pitch. Here goes (best read with a high-energy, monster-truck-loving announcer voice).

Have you registered for the FORUM Solutions/Trabian Partnership Symposium yet? No? What's up with that? This is the hands-down best emerging technology conference in the credit union space. Here are five reasons that you need to stop what you are doing right now, mark your calendar for October 1 and 2, 2008 and register now!

5) The venue is superb! Not only is the FORUM Conference Center an awesome meeting space, it will be transformed into a swank party zone complete with multiple Nintendo Wii stations featuring Guitar Hero and other geek treats.

4) The hosts with the most(s)! Mr. Doug True is a highly connected credit union advocate with a unmatched passion for product innovation and technology. And, Mr. Matt Dean is a silent-but-deadly agent of change. Combined, they represent the new guard of leaders that are making a real difference in the credit union movement.

3) Speakers solving problems, not blathering on! The Symposium features great credit union speakers discussing real-world situations. You will not be subjected to academic 300-word PowerPoint slides. You'll hear from real practitioners who get their hands dirty everyday.

2) The CU Skeptic will be unveiled. This is the most highly anticipated unmasking since Kiss was unmasked in 1980. Doug has even talked about the Skeptic being lowered from the ceiling amidst pyrotechnics.*

1) Ron Shevlin is the on-stage host. Our resident, lovable blog-o-sphere curmudgeon will be going all Oprah as he interviews the speakers at the end of each presentation in an attempt to get to the real dirt.

Bonus Feature
I had the good fortune of being the wild card speaker last year. Luckily for me, I was the only one who answered the call for entries. This year it is a different story! The competition is really heating up with four phenomenal video applications so far.

I am so glad I don't have to complete for my spot this year. However, as I stated above, being the highly over-exposed marketer that I am, I couldn't help but to get involved!

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Sign-up today and I'll see you in Fisher's in October!

Tim McAlpine

*Unveiling may vary.

Tim McAlpine is the President & Chief Strategist of Currency Marketing. You can read Tim’s ‘stuff’ on the Currency Marketing blog at www.currencymarketing.ca/blog.

my old Kentucky home

2008-06-12T20:22:00Z

Thanks to the Gail and Laura at the Kentucky Credit Union League as well as the participants at the annual conference, I felt right at home in Louisville during my one day stay by the river for their annual conference. I appreciate the opportunity to host the conversation on future lending trends. The participation level was great, especially at the first session. As promised here are the links to some of the sites we discussed: SpotYa , Zopa , Virgin Money , Fynanz , Prosper , Red Frog , Home Equity Share , Life Changing Loan , CU Realty Services , and NetBanker . Thanks for the opportunity and please reach out to me if you have any questions or would like to continue the conversation.