The President's Perspective

​DakCU awards program is updated and expanding this year! Plus, just one week away from our fall conference, and more Pints & Politics this week in Grand Forks and Williston areas. 

Greetings and happy Monday! We are just one week away from our New Ideas Conference, and we are very excited to be hosting Dakota credit union professionals at Black Leg Ranch here in the Bismarck-Mandan area. We have a terrific lineup of speakers and topics in store, and as always, we are looking forward to reconnecting with many of you.

We are also just 43 days away from election day, and Congress will try to avoid another government shutdown this week. All this, while the stock market continues to plummet, the Fed raises interest rates again, and inflation is at a 40-year high (now at 8.3 percent) as we head into the final quarter of 2022. Will any of this impact voters during the upcoming mid-term elections? Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, the credit union field of membership modernization continues to move forward in Congress as the Senate introduced the Expanding Financial Access for Underserved Communities Act this past week. This bill would allow all federal credit unions to add underserved areas to their field of membership, exempt business loans made in underserved areas from the member business lending cap and expand the definition of an underserved area to include any area that is more than 10 miles from the nearest financial institution branch.

In addition, this week the House is expected to vote on the CUNA-League led Credit Union Board Modernization Act (H.R. 6889) that would allow boards of federally charted credit unions the flexibility to meet at minimum six times per year rather than 12 times per year. Both Congressman Johnson (SD) and Armstrong (ND) have signed on in support of this bill.

Then, the Dakota Credit Union Association joined other leagues and wrote to congressional leaders last week calling for a solution to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund issues. This is a direct response as several CDFI credit unions received notices that their CDFI designations were being terminated without meaningful information or guidance.

In the joint letter, we urge Congress offer a provisional certification to any CDFI credit union that retained certification during the previous recertification year and has an application for recertification submitted by Sept. 30. The CDFI Fund will pause accepting applications from Oct. 1 to April 1, 2023; a temporary provisional status should allow these credit unions to continue serving their previously approved target markets and collect grants and awards through the completion of the application moratorium.

DakCU Award Program Expands
To better showcase and highlight the many terrific things Dakota credit unions are doing, we have updated some of our awards for the coming year. In 2023 we will be expanding the Marketing & Communication Awards category and we have added a new Social Impact Award for both credit unions and individuals. More to come on this – so be sure to watch the Memo as we will soon make a formal announcement. These awards will be presented during our 2023 Summit scheduled for May 9 – 10, 2023 in Fargo.

Making Small CU Life Easier.
Last week, we featured an article in The Memo with ideas and resources for small credit unions. Your association works hard to support our small Dakota credit unions with new product ideas, compliance and policies, training, education, networking, scholarships and more. Our mission is to help you succeed, so please do not hesitate to contact any of our DakCU staff with questions or concerns – we are your first stop for all things credit union related. Click here for more information about Small CU resources.

Dakota Credit Union Foundation Raffle - Half Sold! 
Approximately half of the available tickets for the DakCU Foundation eBike Raffle have now been sold! The prize drawing will be held at the New Ideas Conference on October 4th for the pair of Ride1UP 700 series electric bikes, a prize worth $3,390 – and you do not need to be present to win. Any individual or credit union can buy up to five (5) tickets, and shipping to the destination of the winner’s choice is included and they also get to choose the color. Get your tickets here.

This Week Pints & Politics
Don’t forget to join us for Pints & Politics at either of our two events happening this week: Maurie C. Byrne Chapter will be meeting at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, September 27 at The Spud Jr – Prohibition Room in East Grand Forks; and Williston & Dickinson area will meet at noon Thursday, September 29 for a luncheon at Western Cooperative CU, 1300 Bison Drive in Williston. These events are designed to educate legislators and candidates about the credit union difference and to discuss legislative agenda items for the upcoming session. I hope to see many of you there – you can find more details and other upcoming meetings here or by contacting me or Jay Kruse.

Have a terrific week!

DakCU President/CEO