SCMS New Faculty On Board for Summer 2010 Session

Fresh faces are on board to join the Southwest CUNA Management School faculty team and challenge students forward:

· Matt Davis  (AKA "The Credit Union Warrior") partnered with Filene Research Institute, Matt joins Denise Gabel for the 1 1/2 days of Innovation classes with 2nd & 3rd year students.

· Julie Ferguson, JRF Consulting Services brings a wealth of credit union and business development background to Grad School.

· David Goldsmith, MetaMatrix Consulting Group, Inc., is about to have a book published on strategic planning. He’s the final class for 1st year students, charged with sending them out challenged and future focused.

· Mike Petrone, CFE, CFSA joins us from CUNA Mutual Group (CMG) for the 1st year Risk Management course. In 2002, Mike was honored with the 2nd annual Michael G. Hallinan Risk Management Choice Award.

· Shawn Temple (one of last year’s Award of Excellence recipients), Bossier FCU, joins the team to work with students on the project (a two-year strategic business plan) requirements.

· Amanda Vega,  Amanda Vega Consulting brings real world experience to help second year students make strategic decisions related to social media and their  credit unions.

 

For a complete faculty team and course listing, scholarship information (deadline this week), and school application, visit www.scms.coop.

Excitement mounts as registrations come in for this year's first year class. To give you an idea of what students looks like:

• They are coming from Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas and possibly Africa.

• They hold titles ranging from President, Manager, Director, COO, VP, Accounting, Business Services Representative, Branch Manager, to E-Branch Manager and more.

• The credit union asset sizes range from under $20 million to around $1 billion

• The students range in age from early 20's to 50's. They have 2 to 28 years service in credit unions, with 2 to 33 years in the financial services industry.

• Education backgrounds range from Masters Degrees to High School Grads.

Thank you Bossier FCU for enrolling three in the first year class and to numerous credit unions who continue to enroll credit unions year after year!

 

Credit Unions and Small Business Lending

The following is an article and video shared by Winter Prosapio about credit unions and small business lending. A great read and powerful story. Watch and share with your friends. 

As posted on mysanantonio.com by David Hendricks noting that credit unions deserve a bigger role.

"One jobs bill already has been enacted by Congress, giving tax credits to employers who hire new workers.

As Congress mulls a second job-creating bill as mid-term elections approach, it ought to embrace a measure that wouldn't cost taxpayers a cent.

All Congress would have to do is lift the cap on business loans credit unions make for their commercially active members from 12.25 percent of loan portfolios to 25 percent.

Congress also should change the monetary boundaries of micro loans to from $50,000 to $250,000. Micro loans do not count against the current 12.25 percent cap on credit union member business loans.

The 12.25 percent change came in 1998 when Congress passed the Credit Union Membership Access Act. It was an arbitrary figure thrown in to appease the banking industry, which opposed expanded membership fields at credit unions.

The nation's credit unions have pressed for this change before. An effort in 2008 to raise the cap to 20 percent failed even as the federal government bailed out many of the nation's largest banks.

Since then, access to loans has shriveled even more, thanks to the “Great Recession” that stemmed from the banking industry crisis.

The Texas Credit Union League says commercial loans made at credit unions equate to only 1 percent of the commercial lending market. Making the changes the credit union industry wants in an upcoming jobs bill might lift the credit union market share to 2 percent, still leaving banks in almost total domination of the market.

Yet, banks will fight the change. Community and independent banks will squeak and squall. They will say they make loans to small businesses. It is their bread-and-butter business, they will say.

Small businesses say banks don't make enough of them. In the last few years, bank requirements for cash flow, collateral and other terms have risen. Banks avoid financing start-up companies, too."

Click here to read the rest of the story...

Shout back with your thoughts and ideas about credit unions and small business lending.