In August an essential upgrade of ATMs took place across the BCU network with new colour screens and touch pads installed in most ATMs. These machines had become a very visible form of corporate branding and an important point of contact with members and non-members, providing significant income for our Credit Union. 

 

The last weekend in August saw the staging of BCU’s annual management conference at the Pacific Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour. The general consensus from all attendees was a resounding ‘thumbs up’. Keynote speaker, Colin James delivered an extremely well-received, powerful presentation on change and its effects on people in the workplace and at home. This was recorded and provided to all staff.   

 

In September the North Coast Computer Project (NCCP) based in Maclean received 19 boxes of redundant BCU computers to be refurbished and provided to charitable organisations and other eligible recipients. BCU spent $2.8 million in the financial year upgrading IT hardware and software.

 

With media comment increasing with regard to the US Sub Prime Market crisis and the business practice of ‘non-bank’ lenders, BCU placed full page advertorials in all regional newspapers in September to educate the public about the facts of the ‘crisis’ in every-day language.  This article explained how our community Credit Union was not directly affected by the US Sub Prime crisis because our loans were not funded from overseas, but from our own member deposits and profits.  We used the opportunity to clarify that as an Authorised Deposit Taking Institution BCU was regulated by APRA and governed by the Banking Act, just like the banks. This education campaign continued on BCU’s web-site and in member newsletters for the remainder of the year, and was the focus of a successful “Don’t Get Stung” marketing campaign in January and February.

 

Because our members continued to invest in their Credit Union, it was less reliant on overseas funding than the banks. This meant that BCU could – and did - protect borrowing members from the higher level of regularly increasing loan interest rates as much as possible, and retained rates consistently lower than the major banks.  Lending increased by 12.2% to $749 million. This initiative however, coupled with increasing deposit rates towards the end of the financial year, contributed to a reduction in year-end profit – providing further proof that members came before profit with BCU.

 

The result of the third annual BCU Bill Ussher Agricultural Scholarship was announced at the BCU Pro-Ag Mid-Coast Field Day on Friday, 5 October 2007. Tim Zirkler of Premium Rhones Creek Blueberries near Macksville was the major prize winner, and Rosalie Nowland of Summerland Pecans near Nana Glen was the runner-up.  

 

The nineteenth Coffs Harbour Rotary Cartoon Awards were held in October at the Bunker Cartoon Gallery in Coffs Harbour, which is Australia’s only cartoon gallery. Newcastle artist, Peter Lewis won the BCU-sponsored ‘Best Cartoon – Sports Theme’ category with his entry titled, ‘Tour de France’.

 

1 November 2007 was the anniversary of the introduction of BCU’s loyalty rebate program with an impressive $675,000 in fees and charges returned to members in the first 12 months.  This increased to $714,408 for the full financial year or the equivalent of 15.94% of net profit for the year.

 

Also in November, Shannon Walker, a young and promising indigenous NRL player from Kyogle near Lismore was named the inaugural 2007 BCU Titans Junior Player of the Year. The BCU Titans Junior Development Program was set up in early 2007 to promote junior rugby league, as well as teamwork and healthy lifestyles among young players across the region. Although only 18, Shannon already had some impressive career wins before joining the Titans Junior Development Program, including being selected for the 2006 Queensland Schoolboy team and Australian Schoolboy Tour of Britain. He proved to be a fantastic ambassador for the Titans Junior Development Program, making many guest appearances at BCU functions supporting junior rugby league and promoting BCU Titans community saver accounts.

 

That same month saw two BCU Board-approved sponsorships come to fruition. As reported in the previous chapter, the board approved two separate $4,000 sponsorships for the repair of the Macksville and Bowraville town clocks. The Macksville repairs were undertaken by the Macksville and District Chamber of Commerce and the Bowraville repairs were managed by the Bowraville Lions Club. Both projects were completed to local applause.

 

Following seven years as Director of Big River and BCU Boards, Peter Ellis tendered his resignation from the BCU Board effective from 19 December 2007.

 

In January BCU announced that a new discount wills directory was available on its website. Designed to complement the existing member-to-member discount program, the directory promotes the services of solicitors who offer BCU members a discount on the cost of the preparation of their wills.

 

Also in January, the newly constituted staff focus group held its first meeting. The concept arose from an earlier staff survey which indicated a level of staff dissatisfaction with the current channels of internal communication.  This initiative received the full support of the BCU Board, and staff membership of the group was entirely voluntary. At its first meeting, the focus group renamed itself the “MAD” Team, or the “Making a Difference” Team, and took upon itself the broad challenge of bringing down the barriers to effective communication and creating a better sense of teamwork and participation across the whole organisation.

 

In February, long-serving senior executive, Graeme Green announced his retirement to take formal effect from 1 July 2008. Graeme took advantage of accrued leave entitlements, and effectively finished his employment with BCU on 22 February. While not an ‘old’ man, Graeme was an icon in the credit union industry and must be congratulated on his dedicated service to both Big River Credit Union and BCU over the past 29 years.

 

At its February meeting, the BCU Board made a special presentation to CEO Ray Battle,  to commemorate his 20 years of service.  When Ray joined BCU in February 1988 we only had 5 branches and ATMs would not be introduced to the Credit Union until 1995.  Membership stood at 14,798 and assets totalled $31.6 million.

 

In March 2008, BCU held a gala business dinner at the Pacific Bay Resort in Coffs Harbour to great acclaim by all 300 who attended, which included Titans executives and players, BCU staff and business members. For many, it was a great opportunity to put a face to a name, to meet BCU staff and to network with other business people through their common affiliation with BCU.

 

After giving consideration to the likely retirement within two years of both the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of our Credit Union, the Board set about the task of indentifying possible replacements early in the financial year. A suitable candidate was found in Lyndon Kingston, Head of Northern Region for APRA – effectively the regulator for our Credit Union (and all ADIs in Queensland and Northern NSW), and his services were acquired.

 

Subsequently, David Bevan, BCU’s CFO and Deputy CEO, announced his retirement in April to take effect on 20 June 2008. Always popular with members and staff, David’s contribution to our Credit Union over his 12 years service was incalculable, so was his even longer contribution to the credit union industry as a whole. David agreed to work as required until 12 August to hand over the reins to the new Chief Financial Officer, Lyndon Kingston, and (following his return from an overseas trip) would continue to be available on a casual basis, as needed.

 

On 30 April the BCU Board agreed to the establishment of a new branch in Murwillumbah on the Far North Coast of NSW, increasing the number of BCU branches to 22. The intention was to expand the South Tweed footprint to include growth areas such as Kingscliff and Pottsville. 

 

BCU scored another CANNEX five-star rating in May 2008 when Australia’s leading independent financial services research group, CANNEX, released its six-monthly credit card star ratings report. A total of 279 cards from 71 institutions were analysed and weighted across four categories: habitual spender - everyday spender - impulse spender - big spender. BCU’s Classic Visa credit card was awarded five stars (superior value) in the category of ‘habitual spender’.

 

In May BCU announced to members that security tokens were available for purchase by all registered BCU iBank users. With the worldwide risk of internet banking fraud increasing rapidly, the Board had been investigating many new measures to increase the safety of members’ financial details when transacting over the internet using iBank. One of the measures adopted was the Verisign security token, being a small, easy-to-use electronic device that generates an unique one-time number each time the member logs into iBank. BCU subsidised the purchase cost of the tokens for members and covered the full cost of the annual fee.

 

In late May, Macksville High Year 11 student, Samantha Ryan, joined BCU as part of an innovative business traineeship. Over the ensuing 18 months, Sam should have received on-the-job training and work experience, which would be the basis for part of her HSC assessment. Sam was one of 36 trainees working within different areas of the credit union at the time, demonstrating BCU’s commitment to local recruitment and creating job prospects for young people in our region.

 

Following the launch of security tokens for members in May, BCU continued to expand its suite of new internet security measures. It announced an Australian first by being the first banking institution to offer new multi-award-winning security technology, TrustDefender. The media launch of the software took place in Sydney on 26 June at an industry internet security conference entitled ‘Combating multi-channel banking fraud in an increasingly connected world’.  This generated a lot of coverage in the national and overseas press.

 

Purchase of the TrustDefender software was approved by the Directors at their meeting on 27 February to provide a third layer of internet banking security for members to download from the iBank login page at no cost.

On Sunday, 29 June the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans re-launched its Titans Community Saver Account (CSA) at Kurrawa Surf Lifesaving Club on the Gold Coast at a well attended Titans Family Fun Day. Titans’ players were present to provide support, with Luke Bailey, Jordan Atkins, Billy Ngawini, and Luke Swain signing autographs.  Team mascots, Blade and Turbo, had their pictures taken with fans; the Titanettes provided dance entertainment and the BCU Titans Junior Development team held squad training in the park.  Michael Searle, CEO, and John Cartwright, Coach, of the Jetstar Gold Coast Titans put in appearances and spoke highly of the BCU - Titans relationship on local radio providing significant publicity for BCU  in this new market.

 

For the 12 months to 30 June 2008, BCU made a profit of $4,392,233; membership stood at 54,991; assets at $906 million and outstanding loans at $749 million. In total our Credit Union returned to the community $367,000 in sponsorship over the 12 months or the equivalent of 8.36% of net profit.