Internet Archive Credit Union – an exploration

Today I am hoping our reviewer trades the stereotypical mom for my mom.   Despite growing up in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the US, my mother had complete faith in my ability to navigate what Piri Thomas called “these mean streets” of NY.    Everyday I loaded up my green string backpack and walked off all alone along a path that few others would tread.   My mom had, and I believe still has, faith that I would not do anything to put myself in danger and that I would return back safely.   Every day at 3pm I endeavored to prove her right.   Despite the occasional scare I always managed to avoid the dangers and get home safely as I wanted to be worthy of her trust and faith.

So far the NCUA has been our mom but more the super protective stereotype.   They want to be sure we are well capitalized – thanks to generosity of  the Internet Archive can check that one.   They want to be sure we have mentors to guide us and stay in compliance – with no less than 5 Credit Union presidents guiding us, two active mentors, and the regular input of people with a combined 100 years of credit union experience – think we can check that one too.     They want us to be able to operate efficiently – two words CU*Answers, with their support: Check.  They want to be sure we have community support – we doubled the number of people they wanted surveyed (who overwhelmingly wanted us to open) and did it in just 10 days, we have letters welcoming us from local church leaders, business leaders, community leaders, academics (we are near Rutgers), and even the Mexican Consulate general has promised his support – think we can check that one too.

So on the day our reviewer said he would pass our charter onto the final review step: the region, all I have to say is:  Mom can I go outside and play now?

Possibly explaining my quirky personality, when I was a kid my dad was not big on any of the traditional places to take a kid.  Parks – biking – penny arcades – play dates – HA.  Most of my formative years were spent at the race track.   At the risk of incurring the wrath of MAH (mothers against horse racing) I would posit that this was a great way for a kid to gain the necessary tools for life.   I could read a racing form before a newspaper and hence have a life-long love of numbers.  I was outdoors most of the day and my first heroes Buck Passer, Dr. Fager, later Secretariat never ended up being wife beaters or looney anti-semites like figures in the literary and entertainment world (you know who you are Naipul and Gibson).   It was a clean meritocracy full of tradition.   A horse won not because he played golf with the boss but because at that moment on that track with that guide of a jockey he or she was the best one.

Nearing the end of the chartering process I feel like foal having been tested, timed, and pushed to be an enduring credit union by the NCUA, who rightfully wants to see if we can go the distance.   Now, in my favorite of all race track traditions, the trumpets are blaring. This means: Be prepared, it is time to line up at the starting gate.   So I check my gear. Place to open – identified. Amazingly strong board – check. Equipment to open – ordered. Marketing materials – working on it. Community support – check, and growing. Support from sponsor – check. Ok folks, looks like we are headed to the starting gate….

My first memory of aspiring to a profession was at age 7 when I thought I could make a living out of being Six Foot Two Inches.   I am not sure how I thought I would earn a living just being tall but I thought that if I did hit that height I would have a secure future.   Having missed by three inches, my next goal was to be a talk show host.  As ubiquitous as this profession is now, when I was growing up there were essentially two talk show hosts: Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett.  Being limited by the number of positions open and my obvious lack of talent my final idea that I clung to throughout high school was to be a world-renowned writer.

Though my dream of being a world-renowned writer died on the vine of practicality, I find myself consumed by writing in our quest to open a credit union.  Phase one was to author – edit and compile – a now 600-page application.    Hopefully the last version of this went out at 2am EST today.  But concurrent is my new task of writing all the marketing material for the credit union.   As we will be reaching out to communities not used to banking at all, much less understanding all the products and services we want to offer, I have to create documents that explain what Credit Unions do. They need to be geared towards people whose native language is not English, a student population whose language is English but is probably equally unaware of the benefits of Credit Unions, and an elderly population whose needs are different again.

Like all authors I am of course guided by pre-existing material, but in my case there seems to be a dearth of good marketing information for Hispanic immigrants, students, and the elderly.   Never fear, through Teresa and the Mexican Consulate I have a sounding board and access to community focus groups that can help shape the material for a largely Mexican audience.  Through a dean at Rutgers I am hoping to get the same for the students.   And through a liberal minister am hoping to gain insights on the local elderly population. Wish us luck. There is much to do when chasing down a dream….

I am surrounded by a Mariachi band, a DJ pumping out Mexican disco and 50 Mexican party goers.  Above the din I am talking to a woman dances in the Ballet Folklorico and whose husband is one of Mexico’s foremost authors .  Next to her is a foreign language professor from Rutgers and various members of the New Brunswick City Council.   What is the occasion, you ask?   Not sure it really matters, but I think it has to do something with Teresa’s kid’s birthday.

Teresa is our new friend who runs an organization called Lazos.   She is the Mexican Embassy local representative to the community, and like us cares deeply about getting the community out of debt and educating them on how to handle finances.  We are working together to develop courses on financial education and seminars on how to stay out of debt.  I am even developing a standardized financial counseling kit that can be administered in one in one counseling sessions.   More on that next blog.

It is a sign of how much the community values the Credit Union that Teresa has even offered to split the space she rents with us for an amazingly low rent and to allow us to operate under her wing.   The invitation to the party is another symbol that we are being welcomed into the community.   Make no mistake, amidst the home-made roasted pig and fresh guacamole that I am relishing, this is one well-connected crowd and it is an honor to be invited.   I meet more community leaders in a few hours than I could have in months of knocking on doors.

The credit union is all about communities and we will only succeed in our missions, like helping with affordable housing and reducing debt, if we can garner the support of the people I am currently singing Mexican folk songs with.   In a way I am being tested on fitting in.  Having spent a lot of time in Mexico it is not too hard.   I like my companions and when they ask me for the traditional Oxacan toast I agree.   So OK I’ll volunteer and put chili on a lime, bite and knock back the Mezcal in home made bamboo glass in front me any time.  After all someone has to drink it….

I was thinking about bias in the media this morning.  People always argue about whether the media is right -leaning or left-leaning but to me it is not about politics its just all about the money.   Whatever sells the main stream media will hammer us with.  From a picture of a bloody knife that would have given me countless nightmares as a kid on yesterdays front page for all to see, to unending pics of vapid celebrities at their ugliest moments, if it fits their target audience the media will lead with it.   Though this is annoying what I resent is when media fails in their basic mission: to inform us about events beyond our individual sphere.

Once upon a time we learned about what was going on in other villages from travelers that brought news of the outside world.   Then the first newspapers put information that local and national governments wanted us to know in a recordable format.   Later the advent of telegraphs allowed us to bridge long distances with essentially SMS messages.   Then newspapers began to lay the whole world at our breakfast table and shape our view of lands we would probably never visit.  Since we’re not able to physically meet people around the world to filter our views first hand, our perceptions are still filtered by the mass media. My gripe is that in an effort to get more of us to consume their brand of news the mass media injects more and more bias on what is reported.   Rather than allowing to form our own conclusions about the world we do not come into contact with everyday through objective reporting, we are told what to think.

What has this got to do with our little credit union you ask?  With all the bias, sometimes you don’t realize how much you are affected until you meet someone like Jose.  After years of being pounded in the general media with a perception that the Hispanic community does not value education as much as their European counterparts yesterday I was confronted with my own version of stereotyping when I met Jose, who will possibly be our first part-time hire.

Jose, who is Mexican, is interviewing with me to be our first customer service representative.   Jose strolls in wearing a broad smile, shorts and a Rutgers t-shirt and I catch myself thinking I am not sure he will work out.   Just a few minutes into the conversation and I realize how wrong a first impressions can be.  Jose is a recent grad from Rutgers and when I ask what he majored in he tells me he was an economics major, but his favorite courses were in 3D Calculus and Linear Algebra.  We talk about how mathematical equations can relate to real world challenges.   We talk about how starting a Credit Union is like a simple regression model: the key is to find the right mix of products and services to get the most people in the local community engaged at the least cost.  We banter ideas on the challenges we face, and how to overcome years of mistrust of financial institutions (over 35% of the local immigrant community has no bank account at all).  Jose is fun, bright, and a great to link to the local community.   Next time the media runs a story on Hispanics and education perhaps they should meet someone like Jose.  I am glad I did.

Like the words to Dayenu,  I’m not sure I remember the plots to the cartoon Speed Racer.   What stays with me is his shifting into higher gears to win.   Well we are in the dual shift mode.   On the one hand there are more charter questions to answer – though I have to say the last set of suggestions from Jim were most helpful.   On the other hand I need to start prepping for the fact that we could actually get our charter soon.

The first step was to find a space, and we may have found a good one.  Steps from town and at the right rent.   Now we have to look for bilingual people to join our merry band.   I am meeting Jose, a recent grad in economics, on Monday to see how well he might fit.   We spoke only once but he sounds promising.   The New Jersey League is also reaching out on our behalf.   I know the economy is tough but bilingual credit union folks who will work within our budget are not that easy to find.    Should you know any, please send them our way.

Next up are brochures that can explain to both the Mexican residents of New Brunswick and the students and elderly what the Credit Union is all about, and why they might like to join us. Teresa has promised free translation and review with us.   She is also setting up meetings with other local leaders to talk about what we would like to accomplish.  This will allow us to run some of our ideas and marketing programs by them to gain, as they say in lawyer speak, advice and consent.    I’m meeting with Teresa today to set schedules, then visiting local credit unions to see how they connect with their members.

It’s starting to take shape and be fun.    It is nice to shift out of second to third gear.  Wait till you see what we are like in fourth, fifth and sixth gear.  Go speed racer Go….

P.S. In case you missed it, here is Friday’s CBS evening news profile of our sponsor Brewster Kahle:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7405466n

Well, we are two steps closer to preliminary approval, but I have to tell you, sometimes I feel like I am Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass.   One of the great things about the regulators is that they guarantee member deposits up to $250,000 per account.  So if your credit union goes belly up for any reason they will make sure depositors get paid.   The only thing standing between depleting govt funds and paying depositors is what is known as secondary capital.   Our secondary capital is being put up by our patron Brewster Kahle.  You would think the more secondary capital he put up the better, but in a looking glass sort of way this is not exactly the case.

The funny thing is I have been dealing with the regulators so long that, like Alice, I am beginning to not only speak the language but sort of understand the logic.   When I start citing regulations by number you know it is time to buy me a drink.  Anyway, after our hero of the legal set Michael Edwards reviewed our latest set of Secondary Capital docs (three cheers for his bosses in being so nice as to even encourage to help small folks like us), the docs now sit with the regulators General Counsel.

Tea anyone?

P.S. For more on our patron, this is Friday’s CBS evening news profile: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7405466n

I am continually amazed at how easy it is to network into meeting just about anyone.   After a attending a seminar a few weeks ago on how to provide financial services to the Mexican American community, I managed to get a meeting with the Mexican Consul General in NY – Senor Sada.   He got me in touch with Teresa Jose – a Mexican community leader based in, you guessed it, New Brunswick.

Teresa is a one-woman dynamo who manages to get things done when every one else says “no way Jose” – ok. I was dying to get that in.  Teresa is amazingly good at providing services for the Mexican community that nobody else thought possible.  She started and heads up a not-for-profit called Lazos America Unida or the American Ties That Bind that has been a central part of the 10,000-strong Mexican community for more than 10 years (see link below for more on Teresa and her organization).

We are having lunch and chatting about immigrant life in New Brunswick and how the Credit Union can help the community.  Having been burnt by gringos before, she is wary and wants to make sure our motives are pure.  Fair enough.   So we trade dreams over horchata and find lots of common ground.   This will just one of many meetings I am sure.

After lunch we retire to her facilities, which take up the whole second floor of a church less then a 5 minute walk from the main drag of New Brunswick.   I am not sure who proposes we share space but it seems a natural match.  It is a place that people in the community are used to going, it is open all during our late hours, it has internet, it is spacious, and yes it is cheap J.    Keep your toes crossed – things are looking good.

PS For more about Teresa: http://blog.nj.com/iamnj/2010/12/teresa_vivar_helps_strengthen.html

It’s Sunday, and the revised charter application is due to Jim by 7:30amMonday. Left to do is change the Macros linking eight worksheets across two spread sheets, review a 280 page Masterdoc (down from 350 pages), and pull together a list of everything submitted in response to their requests over the last 2 months.

I plan to divide the days in three parts.   8:00am-4:00pm will be reviewing and editing and Masterdoc.   5:00-10:00pm will be for the spreadsheets.  10-11:30pm will be for getting together the list.   Armed only with tea and ice cream I set forth.   Part of the problem with reviewing documents is you keep wanting to improve them.    Somewhere around 2:00pm I decide it’s time to go for a walk and clear my head, and somewhere around 7:00pm I decide I need more ice cream.    By 10:00pm I pronounce myself done with part 1 and go for a walk to think about anything I might have missed.  By 11pm I decide this part is done.

Ok, now for the spreadsheets.   I switch to a stronger blend of tea, Russian Caravan, and I switch into second wind gear.   Around 4:00 I have finished the macro review and combined everything to just three workbooks on one spreadsheet.  “Yaaay”, I say to my dog who is saying “can you keep it down”.   I offer a walk and she says, “it’s 4:00am, are you serious?”   She is a truly sarcastic dog.   So I suck it up and knock the remaining document by 5:30, send everything to Jim, congratulate myself on getting done early, and head off to slumber until 9:30 when I have a call.   Who said college is not good prep for the business world….

The funny thing about working on the other coast is that no one remembers the time difference not even your own body.     Call at 530am because it is 830am in NY – no problem I was awake because my body said so.    Flying in and making a 22 hour day of it by staying up to your standard 12-1am because you have to write something out for others to review – why not, its my normal bed time.

After a long Thursday I got what I needed out,  and was rewarded with a nice drive to Petaluma  while Nick reviewed it on Friday.    If anyone can turn you from a tea party person railing at government bureaucracy to a wow these guys do care voter -it would be Nick.   He has been helping us in addition to all his other work.    Over the next 5 days including weekends I am on the phone with Nick between 830am and 11am and from 930pm to close to midnight EST every day.    In between he does his regular job and I do mine in re-writing our charter application into better NCUA speak.

Oh yes my friends you will still need us even though our perseverance has changed the way NCUA reviews promising apps (no thanks necessary but Ice Cream gratefully accepted).    These days I track my work by numbers.  When your revisions go from single digits to alphanumeric you know a lot of time was involved.   There is a whole language that is either correct or not and hundreds of regulations that are interpreted like the Talmud.    Oyy when speaking to Nick who is explaining it all I feel like I should have a long back coat and a beard as we split hairs on how to interpret the dead sea scrolls of NCUA regulations.  The scary thing is that it starts to make sense with Nick as a guide.  Jim’s requests were always reasonable my problem was that because of his schedule they were months apart.  Now we have a live NCUA guru to bounce things off every day.

Its now been seven days (4 back on east coast ) of wake revise – talk – revise – write write and talk to midnight about more documents that are necessary  and I am starting to go a bit nuts.   Gosh I hope Jim who ultimately reviews all this likes it.    As for those of you who want to go ahead with a Credit Union all this writing really can help you and we do really want to help.    Well tomorrow is it – the last day before the resubmission and I am taking my self out for a nice lunch ahead of schedule.   Ok and maybe some home made ice cream too….