OMAHA, Neb. – SAC Federal Credit Union is looking to build on its 55-year history of serving members who work for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and the Air Force with a newly-expanded community charter. The second largest credit union in the state recently got NCUA approval to switch to a community-based institution which could potentially serve 700,000 people who work, live, worship or attend school in three counties in Nebraska and one in Iowa. "We're very proud of our heritage and we will continue to serve our founding sponsors," said James Guretzky, president/CEO of SAC. SAC, which has 43,000 members and $210 million in assets, got its start in 1947 at Andrews Field in Maryland. When the DOD moved its U.S. Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters two years later to Nebraska, the credit union followed suit opening a branch there and at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha. For his protection, President George W. Bush flew to Offutt shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks before heading to the White House. A series of mergers occurred in 1979 with Fort Crook FCU that organized in 1944 as the Offutt FCU, merging with SAC FCU. Today, the credit union is a full-service institution with five branches and plans to add up to six more over the next five years to accommodate potential members in Douglas, Sarpy and Cass counties in Nebraska and Pottawattamie County in Iowa. While there are no immediate plans to add additional services or products, Guretzky said much more emphasis will be placed on the credit union's AT HOME Internet banking program. "We're expecting more usage given that our members are all over the world," Guretzky said. SAC FCU has a number of affiliations with auto dealerships and Guretzky is hoping those alliances will help car shoppers become better acquainted with the credit union and ideally becoming members. "In the past, we couldn't buy those contracts unless the car dealer's customer qualified for memberships," he said. "It's going to be much easier for auto dealers to say, `yes, they qualify for membership.'" Talks of expanding the community charter began nearly a year ago as the surrounding counties began to grow, Guretzky said. Having been president/CEO of the credit union since 1984, Guretzky is steeped in the industry having served as a chairman of NAFCU, the Nebraska Credit Union League and Affiliates, the Nebraska Corporate Central Credit Union and as a national director of CUNA. He currently serves as treasurer of the NAFCU Services Corp. (NSC). SAC FCU was also among a handful of credit unions that gave presentations to the Federal Reserve Board in 1999 on addressing the impact of Y2K security breaches. [email protected]