Seeking Balance When Things Are Upside Down

Some things just take time, like making calzones or me trying to grow a beard. Other things should take no time at all, such as the response from area credit unions after the absolutely tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a few weeks ago.

Crisis communications and crisis thinking – it's just how I'm wired. And any time there's any sort of big breaking news (good or bad) I immediately pull up a map to find out how many credit unions are in the vicinity of that particular big news. Within moments of hearing details trickling out of the Broward County Sheriff's Department, I notified our reporter Peter Strozniak and sent him the map of potentially impacted credit unions. As a parent – hell, just as a human – these things bother me deeply. Peter and I had a quick chat about the potential personal tragedy for credit union employees and members. As we were in our news mindset and digging around talking to sources, the story Peter gave back to me with gave me some balance that I desperately needed. There's good happening inside and around our communities. I was quickly thankful.

What Peter found was that not only was there one credit union located near the school that was quickly responding to the crisis, but 11 credit unions in the area were doing the same. Eleven!

Here's a quote from Peter's story from an interview with Dustin Jacobs, vice president of marketing for the $462 million BrightStar Credit Union: "I can assure you that every member that we have, every staff member that we have, this morning felt differently when dropping their children off for school. It's very close to home for all of us."

Jacobs and his credit union stepped in almost immediately and donated directly to the Broward Schools to help cover the costs of emergency and ongoing grief counseling. It took no time at all to make that decision, because it was an immediate and logical need to be filled for the school's staff, students and parents.

There's a group of credit unions in that area who are part of the Broward Chapter of Credit Unions. This group is holding a fundraiser for the victims' families. Amy McGraw, chapter president as well as the vice president of marketing for Tropical Financial Credit Union in nearby Miramar, Fla., said they've donated $5,000 to help out. But McGraw is expanding the view of giving into concrete needs of the moment. In part, McGraw said in an interview with Peter, "I'm suggesting things like restaurant gift cards so that the families can order food and not have to think about it, or anything else that we can do to fill those tangible needs that we are not aware of now. Once we found out what those needs are, we'll spread the word around the chapter …"

To BrightStar Credit Union, thank you. To Broward HealthCare Federal Credit Union, thank you. To Connect Credit Union, thank you. To Coral Community Federal Credit Union, thank you. To Memorial Employees Federal Credit Union, thank you. To Pompano Beach City Employees Credit Union, thank you. To Power Financial Credit Union, thank you. To Priority One Credit Union of Florida, thank you. To Sun Credit Union, thank you. To Tropical Financial Credit Union, thank you. To We Florida Financial, thank you.

There are times I get too cynical; this group and what they're doing and have done, brought me back into balance.

In a strange way, this news led me down a thought hole of where and how credit unions earmark money for not only community emergencies, but for sponsorships, schools and culture events, and just how flexible or set in stone are credit union dollars allocated?

Credit unions do the normal slow-burn of sponsorships called "brand awareness" for Little League teams and baseball fields. And that also spreads over into Farmer's Markets and fundraisers. When you look at a community need or a culture, credit unions are doing some amazing things to make sure that brand awareness is there. For instance, there's a vice president of marketing and business development person at Heartland Credit Union in Madison, Wis., Robin Marohn, who believes in developing culture and highlighting the local aspect of the city. You know Robin, the really tall guy at all of the credit union events? Yeah, that guy. Anywhos, Heartland has been on a focused mission to promote "local" businesses, food, issues and culture. One big aspect of this push in recent years has been supporting local music and music events. There's a fantastic event they help put on called "Live on King Street," a free concert series during the summer months. An entire street in downtown Madison is shut down for the stage and thousands of people. The brilliance behind this is all of those people enjoying the free show (performed by some nationally known and local bands) are shopping, eating and drinking at all of those local businesses on King St. and the surrounding area.

It's a smart move and not one of those quick marketing decisions about what's right for the community.

I understand that your credit union is most likely hounded by a number of people to sponsor this event or that group or this team. And those decisions, I believe, should reflect who you are as a credit union. Simple enough.

Credit unions have the ability to be nimble and leap into action when the community needs them to. Credit unions also have the ability to be smart and look at a broader scope of what's needed to keep towns, cities, members and families feeling supported, cared for and appreciated.

When an emergency does happen in your community, what's your plan? When there's an urgent need, or a natural disaster, or even a school shooting – what's the plan?

We've watched credit unions jump into action a lot these past 12 months after hurricanes destroyed neighborhoods and nearly an entire island. Wildfires have leveled houses and businesses.

I absolutely and truly hate the news of these mass shootings. For me, the silver lining only comes in the form of what credit unions are doing when they need to step in immediately and when they see a broader and brighter world view that we all want for our communities.

Michael Ogden is executive editor for CU Times. He can be reached at [email protected].

NOT FOR REPRINT

Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.