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The Cutting Edge Newsletter – July 2004

This month in Cutting Edge:

- A Message From The Chair
- Meet our new council Member
- Forget Starbucks Try This!
- Increase Your Marketing Resources By 30 At The Cost Of $0!
- How This Year’s National Election Will Impact You!

 

A Message From The Chair:

Summer has finally reached us here in the Midwest, but things were HOT last month in Palm Springs when the Executive Committee met to discuss the 2005 Conference. We read through the comments that came from the attendees of the 2004 Conference in Miami Beach and assessed your thoughts about conference speakers, session topics and a host of other categories. I assure you that each and every comment was taken to heart. There are so many wonderful ideas and possibilities. I wish we could implement all of the requests. But, since that would make our conference at least a month long, we must cut it down to the most timely and stimulating topics we can put together over three and a half days (including the workshops).

After much lively and animated discussion, the formulation of the conference for 2005 in Palm Springs has begun, with a list of topics that will keep you excited about your chosen profession and give you worthwhile and timely information to take back to your credit union. We already have exciting keynote speakers lined up! Be sure to mark March 16-19, 2005 on your calendars (for those of you that can’t wait for the new year, but purchase the 16-month calendar in June of each year like I do).

The quote “The only thing constant in life is change” is true in every aspect of our lives – both professional and personal. This is also true of our Council and even the Executive Committee. We are sad to say goodbye to two of our Executive Committee members that have left their credit unions recently, Mia Perez and Sandy Brillowski. The opportunity for change in their lives presented us with a change as well.

Two other CMBDC members have eagerly stepped up and taken on the duties as Executive Committee members. Eric Gagliano and Roger Buechler will be filling these terms. Eric and Roger were both candidates in the last election and are diligently working on behalf of the Council with project assignments. Please welcome these new Executive Committee members and be sure to read all about Eric in the “Meet Eric” section of this edition.


Meet our new council Member:
Meet Eric!


There’s a new face in town and it’s Eric Gagliano, the newest CUNA Marketing & Business Development Council (CMBDC) executive committee member.
Eric is Vice President of Marketing for River Valley Credit Union in Miamisburg, Ohio. River Valley is a $112 million credit union serving more than 200 groups and 14 communities. Eric brings a varied and rich marketing background to the CMBDC. Prior to River Valley, Eric worked at an advertising agency and oversaw many and varied consumer accounts.
Eric has also been recognized for his marketing ability by being named the 2003 Marketing Brilliance Award Winner (given by Ohio Credit Union League) as well as being named the 2003 Cameo Award Winner (given by CSCU).
Eric’s primary responsibility with CMBDC is to work with the credit union partners. If you have a vendor that you would like to see the CMBDC work with, please contact Eric at egagliano@rivervalleycu.org.
If you would like to meet all the members of the CMBDC, please visit the Councils website at http://www.cunamarketingcouncil.org/execcomm.html.

Forget Starbucks, Try This!

If you need a daily dose of caffeine to get you started in the morning, try visiting the American Bankers Association’s (ABA) website. It will get your adrenaline pumping. http://www.aba.com/Industry+Issues/OperationCreditUnions.htm
The ABA has created an amazingly scary website devoted simply to attacking credit unions and they have given it the name “Operation Credit Unions”. It is worth the visit to see what credit unions are facing and to make sure, as owners of the credit union brand, that we are correctly and strategically positioning ourselves for this battle.
PS. And another advantage to visiting the ABA website is that it is cheaper than a visit to Starbucks.

Increase Your Marketing Resources By 30 At The Cost Of $0!

With the state of today’s economy, we are all trying to figure out how to do more with less. Well, here is an excellent resource to do that.
CUNA’s website is chock full of all sorts of goodies to make your life easier. The best one is http://buy.cuna.org/marketers_toolkit.html. This little gem will hand you 30 of the industry's most effective marketing tools. Each one has been carefully selected by Credit Union National Association (CUNA) to help your credit union grow business.
Resources include: advertising creative tools, promotional tools, member education tools and strategic planning tools, professional development tools, and member service tools.
Best of all its FREE – so what are you waiting for?

How This Year’s National Election Will Impact You!

Unless you have been living in a box without a radio or TV, you are well aware that this November is a presidential election. What you may not be as aware of is that this is also a big election for many communities at the local level. In an era when credit unions need to be politically aware, it usually comes down to the marketing department to build a political action plan.
Not sure where to start? Not sure if you need to? Come and visit the CMBDC website and read up on the latest white paper titled “Integrating Political Involvement into Marketing Efforts”. http://www.cunamarketingcouncil.org/research.html. While you are there, you might check out some of the other fantastic white papers available to you as well. Topics include marketing on a shoestring and retail branch design.

CUNA Marketing and Business Development website

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