Your Weekly Update from Montana's Credit Unions

WEEKLY UPDATE FROM MONTANA'S CREDIT UNIONS | April 11, 2025

Happy Friday! It FINALLY feels like spring out there, so if you're in the spring cleaning 🌷🫧 mood this weekend, we found a list of seven objects you'll never regret throwing away. What would you add to the list?

NEWS FOR YOU

What's a Win-Win at your Credit Union? Nominating a colleague for an annual award. You see, awards are good for everyone at your credit union. The person receiving the award — or even the nomination — feels pretty darned good to have their efforts recognized. As the person submitting the nomination, you get all of those warm and fuzzy feelings associated with doing something nice for someone else. It's a win-win.

And the best part? Nominations only take about 15 minutes to complete. (Does that make it a win-win-win?) So, the next time you're waiting for your lava-temperature Americano to cool enough to drink, spend the time nominating someone for one of our three annual awards:

The Montana Co-op Academy: The Montana Council of Cooperatives is hosting the inaugural Montana Cooperative Academy on May 12-14 in Great Falls. Attendees will learn how to become ambassadors for Montana cooperatives, how cooperative leaders can work together, and how cooperatives work across multiple sectors. We look forward to seeing many credit union friends there!

FOR YOUR DUES

HYPE Workshop Registration Open: Calling all young professionals! Join your peers from around the state for the HYPE Workshop on June 17-18 in Billings. We’re excited about this year’s education sessions and networking events! Check out the agenda, talk to your supervisor about the importance of attending, and register by June 9. Be sure to make your guest room reservation, too. Our rom block at the Northern Hotel expires on May 20.

Empower Your Trainers with Experiential Facilitation Skills: Are you looking for ways to make your training sessions more interactive and engaging? From new employee orientation to staff training, leadership development, and planning sessions, the Personify Experiential Facilitation Training on June 10-12 in Helena will equip your trainers with tools to incorporate experiential activities into existing and new programs. Participants will leave with skills they can immediately implement at their credit union.

Save the Dates for Next Week's Important Events

All events are mountain time unless noted otherwise.

Monday, April 14	Tuesday, April 15
It's going to be a beautiful day to register for ✈️ Power Up!	Courageous Conversations Training an MCU and The League of CUs & Affiliates Virtual Meeting 7:00 - 10:00 a.m. Take the Lead, Year 2 an MCU event in Great Falls 8:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. CU Operations & Compliance Office Hours an Inclusiv Virtual Meeting 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Wednesday, April 16	Thursday, April 1
Take the Lead, Year 2 & Year 1 an MCU Event in Great Falls 8:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. AI in Action: 5 Contact Center Transformation Lessons from Nutmeg State FCU a CUInsight Webinar presented by Glia 11:00 a.m. CU Allies into Action a CU Pride Monthly Educational Webinar 11:00 a.m. Inclusiv’s Weekly CDFI Office Hours an Inclusiv Zoom Meeting 1:00 - 2:00 p.m.	Take the Lead, Year 1 an MCU Event in Great Falls 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Roadmap to Excellence: Understanding Membership Options at Filene a Filene Webinar 10:00 a.m. Succession Planning & Career Path Planning (Week 3 of 4) a CUInsight Mastery Courses with Humanidei 11:00 to 11:45 a.m.

Looking a (Bit Farther) Look Ahead... (MCU events are in blue.)

Millennium Corporate CU Annual Meeting on May 7-9 in Kansas City, MO
UMACHA Fraud Forum on May 8 at Clearwater Credit Union in Missoula
MCUL Trust Collaboration in Wellness Conference on the morning of May 20 at Fairmont Hot Springs
Small C redit Union Workshop on the afternoon of May 20 at Fairmont Hot Springs
Power Up Conference & Expo on May 21-22 at Fairmont Hot Springs
Personify Experiential Facilitation on June 10-12 in Helena
HYPE Workshop on June 17-18 in Billings

What We're Reading, Watching, and Listening to

For Handling the Volatile Market: Jean Chatzky is tackling market chaos and economic uncertainty in a new podcast with guest Karen Finerman.

Credit Union Customer Service Survey Results: A recently released survey from J.D. Power shows that customer satisfaction at credit unions is 74 points higher than at banks. Read more in an article from America's Credit Unions.

This Week's Blogs

Personal Finance Blog: We're in week two of Credit Union Youth Month. On Monday, we shared 12 ways for you to teach kids about money. What would you add to the list?

A Direct Line: In this week's blog, Donya lists five reasons why you should attend this year's Power Up. We're looking forward to everything on the list, and we know you are, too!

Don't Tax My Credit Union: One way to articulate the benefits of the credit unions' unique tax status is through the benefits-to-tax ratio. This measures the economic and financial benefits provided relative to the tax exemptions that credit unions receive. This ratio highlights the value credit unions deliver to their members and the broader economy compared to the amount of tax revenue foregone due to their tax-exempt status.

In Montana, the total benefits-to-tax ratio is 5:9. This means that for every $5 of tax exemptions, credit unions generate $9 in economic impact in financial education, community support, better rates, and more.

This ratio underscores the significant positive impact credit unions have on their members and the economy, justifying their tax-exempt status. Tell Congress, "Don't tax my credit union," and find more resources on our website. (Click to enlarge the graphic; it's important.)

FROM OUR PARTNERS

Business Continuity & Incident Planning: While cybersecurity is about keeping attackers out, cyber resilience is about ensuring that — when an attack happens — a business can keep functioning, recover quickly, and minimize damage. Join TruStage risk professionals and a M3 Insurance Cyber Liability Account Executive on April 23 at noon as they uncover why documented and tested incident planning processes and procedures are critical.

Debit Payments: Challenges & Opportunities: Technological innovation and consumer preferences are rapidly changing the payments landscape. However, debit cards continue to remain popular. Envisant, a NACUSO award-winning CUSO, is here to help! They offer credit unions a forward-thinking debit program along with opportunities to partner with innovative fintech companies. Learn how Envisant can help your credit union become an agile, member service champion.

Webinars for Everyone on your Team: Learn from the comfort of your own office from these webinar partners. Click on each to view a list of upcoming webinars.

THE CREDIT UNION DIFFERENCE

Altana FCU at Billings Senior reality fair

Did you catch the #CUDifference in Billings this week? Altana FCU, Billings FCU, Black Hills FCU, and Valley CU worked cooperatively to deliver a reality fair for Billings Senior High School students. Reality fairs are the perfect opportunity for teens to learn more about "adulting" and finances — from budgeting and mortgages to planned and unplanned expenses. By working together, this group of credit unions also showed the students how valuable credit unions are to their finances and communities. (Click to enlarge all of the smiling faces.)

PARTING SHOT

LOL: Telling our Story

Donya, Ranel, and I attended the annual System Partner Meeting this week in Denver. This is a long-standing meeting of executives from state leagues, America’s Credit Unions, and TruStage. I have participated in this meeting since 2007, and it is one of my favorites of the year. In this important partnership meeting, we discuss issues facing our credit union movement as well as strategy for helping our movement thrive. Executives from the various organizations have a chance to network and learn about one another’s strategic initiatives for the year.

As you can imagine, we discussed what is happening in DC and various state legislatures, including our movement-wide Don’t Tax My Credit Union efforts. We also heard from TruStage CEO Terrance Williams on ways they are supporting credit unions and the entire industry (note: nearly $160M in system support over the past five years!) as well as key updates on various product and program initiatives. TruStage is doing a lot to support credit unions’ ability to serve their members and communities.

During one of the sessions, someone mentioned a saying I have used in the past regarding the great stories our credit unions and leagues need to tell, “load our lips,” or LOL. LOL has meant a lot of things over the years, “lots of love,” “laugh out loud,” and now, “load our lips.” 😊 While I can’t claim full credit for this phrase, I know I’ve used it many times in the past. For us to tell the amazing credit union stories, we need to get them from you! In other words, “load our lips,” so that we can shout your stories from the rooftops across the country. Loading our lips with your stories helps with advocacy, no doubt. It also helps with marketing and community engagement via word of mouth. I’ve found that we are not as good at telling our stories as we should be. “We’re just doing our jobs,” or “why would we tell our story; I’m sure others are doing way more than that” are common reasons I hear. However, along with solid data on how we are serving our members and communities, stories matter... a lot. Please keep telling your stories, and we will keep amplifying them across our channels.

My challenge to you: load our lips over the next week! Tell us how you and your teams are serving your members. If you haven’t already submitted a nomination for our annual awards, please do so now! (Use the links towards the top of this newsletter.) That is another way to “load our lips” with recognition of your peers. We look forward to celebrating with you next month at Fairmont Hot Springs for Power Up!

Here’s a quick story about Montana’s Credit Unions from this week’s System Partner Meeting. During the TruStage dialogue with their executives, Donya was asked to share some best practices within Montana in how we are engaging with our credit unions via podcast. She was one of three league leaders across the country invited to share best practices because of our innovation and engagement with our credit unions. Well done, Donya! Thanks to all of you for your engagement with us. Keep your stories coming.

Enjoy your weekend.

Cooperatively, Gerry

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