Saint Mary’s president-elect Katie Conboy invites students into connection, commitment and change
Katie Conboy, the newly announced 14th president of Saint Mary’s, began her pursuit of a sense of “belonging” as a young girl growing up on army bases around the world. Conboy, who previously served as provost and senior vice president at Simmons University, as well as a professor of English literature and provost at Stonehill College, will take office this summer. Courtesy of Saint Mary’s College President-elect Katie Conboy, who previously served as provost and senior vice president for seven years at Simmons University, addressed a large crowd gathered for her official introduction in Spes Unica Hall.“As an army brat, I grew up moving every couple of years, and sometimes every year,” Conboy said. “I found that you sort of have to bring your belonging with you wherever you go because you can’t go out in the world looking to have somebody tell you that you don’t belong. You need to arrive with a sense that you belong somewhere.”Conboy said she feels like she belongs at Saint Mary’s, addressing a crowd of students, faculty, trustees and Sisters of the Holy Cross — as well as alumnae and students studying abroad via livestream — in the atrium of Spes Unica Hall.After 13 years at Stonehill College, a Holy Cross institution in North Easton, Massachusetts, Conboy’s career took her to Simmons Universty, a private women’s college in Boston. Conboy said she felt the same sense of belonging during her years at these institutions, though it’s a feeling she said she carries with her as she moves from place to place.“Seven years ago, I left Stonehill for Simmons University in Boston, and I did that because I could see there a very different but equally compelling mission: women’s education as the engine of social and economic empowerment,” she said in her address. “And now, Saint Mary’s offers the opportunity for me to combine my commitments to Holy Cross education and to women’s education in my new academic home. Home is not a word I use lightly.”Her new start in South Bend is essentially a “return home,” Conboy said, as she and her husband Tom met while attending graduate school at Notre Dame. They were married in the Basilica, and both took courses at Saint Mary’s before graduating. They now have three grown daughters: Mairéad, Caitríona and Siobhán.Growing up, Conboy’s family maintained a loose definition of home, relocating about two dozen times to accommodate her father’s military assignments. She elaborated on this traveling lifestyle in her official introduction to the campus community.“I might start a school grade in Fort Dix, New Jersey and finish it in Charlottesville, Virginia, or attend a year of college in Kansas and go home for the summer to Heidelberg, Germany,” Conboy said. “I often think that my own adaptable spirit was forged in the life of an army brat. I tried to bring a sense of belonging with me wherever I go.”Cultivating this sense of belonging is a priority Conboy said she holds not only for herself, but also for the entire Saint Mary’s community.“I’ve spent my career thinking about the ways that a small college like ours with a robust mission can become a true home for its students, faculty and staff — a place where everyone with all their differences intact still belongs,” she said.Today, Conboy said, such spaces are essential and sacred, as well as integral to her vision for the College.“I ask you, three-and-a-half months before I actually arrive on campus, what kind of home do we want to build together? What kind of community do we want to be with and for each other, and also, how can we be open to change even as we maintain our solid foundation?” she said.While these questions could not be answered today, Conboy said, the answers will be more fully realized through her work within the College.In an interview with The Observer, Conboy said she feels a natural alignment between the institutional DNA of Saint Mary’s and her own personal double helix, informed by a life spent surrounded by influential women.“I am one of a family of four daughters, I have three daughters and I think a lot on behalf of women your age and about the world you’re going to inherit,” she said. “Personally, I care about the world I’m leaving to my three daughters, but on a professional basis, I think it’s an incredible privilege to work at a place where I’ll have the opportunity to think about the issues that are most important to women today.”Having witnessed growth at both of her previous institutions, Conboy said she hopes to see Saint Mary’s expand its reach to students from regionally diverse areas, potentially through online access.“I want Saint Mary’s to be seen as a very serious place out there in the world,” she said. “I want students to be seen as serious students and to be taken seriously as students and as people who are contributors to this society. I’m not interested in any fluffy images of women’s colleges or girly images of women’s colleges. Saint Mary’s is a place that began in order to give women access to higher education, and it continues to this very day to do that — but it does that here on a campus that’s bound by who can come and pay tuition.”By pushing beyond this campus-based experience, Conboy said, Saint Mary’s will become recognized nationwide.“I want Saint Mary’s’ name to be spoken in places where it isn’t being spoken right now,” she said.In her address, Conboy offered three hopes for the student body to contemplate in the months before she takes office.“First, I hope we will foster a spirit of togetherness and belonging,” she said. “Second, I hope that our community continues to be one of moral imagination, one that can take its powerful and positive community commitments and model them outside the walls of the College. And finally, I hope we can also work up an appetite for change that we can approach renewing and renovating our Saint Mary’s home with excitement and openness.”Conboy concluded her introduction by reading “The Skylight” by Irish poet Seamus Heaney, which describes a man who has since lived under the claustrophobic confines of his wooden roof, but is soon set free by the installation of a skylight, opening his world up to a brilliant blue sky.Heaney’s poem reminds readers that it’s easy to settle into the familiar, and prefer the arrangements we’ve always known, Conboy said. The speaker resists putting in a skylight for fear that his house will no longer feel like the same home; however, when the slates come off, he experiences a sense of wonder.“[The speaker] recalls the Gospel of Luke, where a paralytic man is lowered through the roof by his friends, to be healed by Jesus, and the feeling among all present is one of one,” Conboy said. “And that’s what I wish for all of us — that we foster a spirit of togetherness and belonging under our Saint Mary’s roof, that we make our walls permeable and share that spirit with the broader community. And that we’d be willing to change to cut a hole in the roof if necessary. To invite wonder and surprise into our midst, and perhaps, to find ourselves transformed in the process.”Tags: 14th president, Board of Trustees, Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, Interim President Nancy Nekvasil, Katie Conboy, Seamus Heaney, Simmons University, Stonehill College
Laura Osnes and Corey Cott will be getting Broadway into the swing of things! The pair are slated to reprise their roles from the Paper Mill Playhouse engagement of The Bandstand when it transfers to the Great White Way in the 2016-17 season. Directed and choreographed by Andy Blankenbuehler (Hamilton), dates, theater and additional casting for the new musical will be announced later.Osnes has starred on Broadway in Bonnie and Clyde, Anything Goes, South Pacific and Grease; she was nominated for a Tony for her performance in Rodgers + Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Additional theater credits include Carousel and The Threepenny Opera. On screen she has been seen in Elementary and The Miraculous Year. Cott most recently appeared on the Main Stem in Gigi having previously starred in Newsies. Film credits include The Intern, The Teacher, Perks Of Being A Wallflower and What You Get.Set in 1945, The Bandstand tells the story of musician Donny Novitski (Cott) who is about to take on the mission of his life: leading his band of fellow veterans into competition for America’s next swing band sensation. When Donny meets a beautiful, young singer named Julia (Osnes), he finds the perfect harmony in words and music that could take this band of brothers all the way to the live radio broadcast finale in New York City. However, complicated relationships, the demands of the competition and the challenging after-effects of war may break these musicians.With music by Richard Oberacker, and a book and lyrics by Oberacker and Robert Taylor, the original score is strongly influenced by authentic 1940s swing music, much of which is played onstage by the characters and band members.The production will feature scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Paloma Young, lighting design by Jeff Croiter and sound design by Nevin Steinberg.Check out Broadway.com’s video featuring interviews with Osnes, Cott and the creative team about the tuner’s Paper Mill world premiere below! Laura Osnes Show Closed This production ended its run on Sept. 17, 2017 Related Shows View Comments Bandstand Star Files
By Stephanie SchupskaUniversity of GeorgiaKate Smith has had lots of dirt under her fingernails as a horticulture graduate from the University of Georgia. And some of that soil has been certified organic. She and Kelly Broderick stepped across UGA’s graduation stage in December as the first students to complete UGA’s new certificate program in organic agriculture. “It’s made me realize that having my hands in the dirt is something I need in life,” Smith said of the program. “It was an incredibly rewarding experience.”Smith graduated with a bachelor’s degree in horticulture in December. She’s moving to Washington, D.C. this month to hunt for a job in agriculture policy.Broderick, an ecology graduate, plans to get a master’s degree that focuses on sustainable agriculture. But right now she’d really “love to get a job on a farm working,” she said. Broderick eventually wants to go into education and develop a science curriculum based around agriculture.Organic at UGAOrganic agriculture is farming with minimal chemical inputs. It emphasizes management practices that restore, maintain or enhance farmland. And before UGA’s program started a year and a half ago, the scientific study of organic agriculture was something missing from Georgia’s college curriculum. The program has grown to include 20 students, approved classes and an organic farm and greenhouses.Smith said the program helped her “see through the romanticism of agriculture.” And that’s one of UGA horticulture professor Marc van Iersel’s goals in teaching organic agriculture.“There are a lot of myths surrounding organic agriculture. I hope this program gives them a more science-based approach,” said van Iersel, who is based in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. One of his students is already testing his organic agriculture knowledge. Economics major James Hamilton is starting a two-acre organic farm in Cleveland, Ga. This year, he’ll set up a small CSA – community supported agriculture – and provide produce to paying subscribers. “Hopefully what I’ll grow will be a lot of heirloom” plants, he said. “They taste better, and they’re more interesting to grow. I’m not so concerned with yields. I’m just seeing what will grow.”UGA’s certificate program in organic agriculture has four required courses and six hours of electives. The certificate is similar to a minor for undergraduates, with faculty from various departments and colleges teaching in the program. Van Iersel would like to see 25 to 30 students enroll in the program each year or a total of 50 students in the program. “If we consistently attract that many students, it would be time to start thinking about an organic major,” he said. He’d like to see the program springboard into both a minor and a major in organic agriculture.Using the programUGA students in the organic certificate program apply their knowledge in a variety of ways. “This program could benefit anybody who has an interest in growing of any kind,” said Dain Goedeke, a UGA landscape architecture major. He plans to apply the soils knowledge he gained in his future design projects. “I don’t think a lot of landscape architects do that.”Horticulture major Jacob Adams’ master plan is to have “a micro farm with my family and an integrated restaurant and grocery store.”But not all of van Iersel’s students are pursing careers in organic agriculture. French graduate Rick Power took a job with a charitable organization. He took several organic classes but didn’t formally complete the certificate program. Now living in Massachusetts, Power works for Heifer International, a non-profit organization that’s goal is to help end world hunger and poverty through self-reliance and sustainability.For more information on UGA’s organic certificate program, visit www.uga.edu/organic.(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
“We set up a true hospital complex in the middle of the jungle, which is why it is so important to have the support of the FAB and the EB…It’s cutting-edge technology for indigenous communities in the middle of the jungle, where nothing is usually brought in.” “The indigenous people painted themselves. We gathered in a circle and received their spiritual leader. It was a very strong experience. We cried, and the chiefs said in their language that an alliance had been established between us (the expedition) and the Yanomami people.” That effort proves a challenging task. Armed Forces officials and representatives of Expedicionários da Saúde began planning the operation in April with an initial travel expedition, called a precursor, to the target region to obtain the indigenous leaders’ authorization. Gaining that permission is a sign that they’ve earned the trust of the local residents. “They are able to see the day after getting the surgery,” Abdala said. “Then we ask what they are going to do, and the answer is always, ‘I’m going to hunt, to fish.’” Every day, the FAB transported indigenous Brazilians from villages in the areas of Inanbú, Maiá, Marauirá, Marari, Médio and Alto Paduari, Cachoeira do Araká, Araká, and Ajuricaba to the field hospital. A total of 239 procedures were performed, the majority of which were cataract and hernia surgeries, and 2,863 consultations were carried out in the areas of pediatrics, gynecology, orthopedics, and dentistry, with each day lasting from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. to meet the demand for services. FAB aircraft took off at sunrise to pick up patients, who could be flown from the villages in groups of 20; the round-trip flights lasted approximately 50 minutes. “If they do not want us to come in, we don’t do anything,” Abdala explained. “Given that they already know us and like us, after 12 years in operation, there aren’t any problems. Our name is well-known among the ethnic groups, but the beginning was difficult because the leaders did not believe in us.” Local residents who underwent surgery stayed in Maturacá overnight as part of their post-operative recovery. The Yanomami have had a lot of problems with cataracts, which also limit their ability to work, according to indigenous Brazilian Davi Kopenawa Ianomâmi, of the Yanomami Association of Roraima and Amazonas. By Dialogo September 28, 2015 Congratulations. May it serve as an example for other countries. Hi, I am an Environmental Federal Agent. I have observed the Brazilian Army supporting voluntary projects and providing very valuable and important services to people with no means for survival, living in remote places far from the reach of political leaders, living a precarious life in the Amazon rainforest. The healthcare in Brazil is the worst it can be, but the love and consideration for others is still strong. In Brazil today, where on a daily basis, we witness the military police killing people in large cities, mostly youth from the periphery, simulating self-defense, the work of the Brazilian Army, saving lives amidst the forest is a contrast… it brings us some encouragement and hope that the country’s security forces are mobilised to defend life, social well-being and the rule of law. Congratulations to those professionals who have worked or are working on humanitarian expeditions. The integration of the Armed Forces with the needy population greatly benefits the communities in need of health care. I am a retired nursing assistant. I work in administration in the MTE. I’m glad that there are still compassionate people who bring physical and mental support to the needy. Congratulations. I am Reserve Parachutist No. 25046, year 1972, commander of the Gal Brigade. Hugo de Andrade Abreu. There you are compatriots. I’m happy to know at the moment that our Army is involved in this noble mission to save lives in Amazonia. Congratulations. The agent needs to improve his Portuguese. The Armed Forces can’t manage to fight small time Brazilian crooks. Now, they want to try and put things in order. That’s just ridiculous, right. When the Armed Forces do not have a purpose in a ‘Military Doctrine’, there are many political or economic groups willing to use them for purposes other than the nature of their organisation and training. – by Humberto Castello Branco. In Amazon territory belonging to Brazil, there are more than 20 million Brazilian inhabitants. What is strange in Brazil is that there are so many organizations financed with significant resources, but very undefined purposes to defend some Brazilians, according to their ancestral origins, already well integrated and suffer from the same shortcomings of millions of citizens in the same area. Thomas Friedman, in “The World is Flat,” sees no more room to isolate countries, regions and peoples, and in the next 50 years, “uncivilised” Indians will be rigorously adapted to the cultural standards of the entire world. However, their descendants will have the privilege of living in large territorial areas inherited from their parents. 4/24/2013• Terra – Interethnic clashes leave 21 dead in Chinese region of Xinjiang. THIS IS WHAT THE MEDIA NEEDS TO SHOW INSTEAD OF THE WAR AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS IN THE FAVELAS. THERE ARE ANONYMOUS HEROES THAT PEOPLE SHOULD GET TO KNOW. WHY NOT ON THE TV PROGRAM, FANTÃSTICO, ON SUNDAYS? Congratulations to all the anonymous and voluntary people who bring available assistance to our needy, indigenous brethren in the far corners of Brazil. Bravo Zulu. It’s great to help those people in need of healthcare. By doing that, you’ll be blessed. Thank you, Santos, for so much joy Helping those in need is an act of kindness. If people showed a little love to others, the world would be different. How wonderful…South America showing the world how easy it is to live in unity, taking care of the needy in their homelands! Congratulations Chile, congratulations Colombia, congratulations to the big and powerful Brazil. I am proud to be Brazilian, and I am very proud of neighbouring countries like these. It’s great to see our brothers being welcomed in their homelands. GOD BLESS YOU ALL. RIVA, don’t do that. Don’t talk bad about the respected Armed Forces of Brazil. I make this point because I was trained by the Armed Forces of Brazil to defend my country and I’m letting you know that the military cannot intervene in urban conflicts involving thugs, but instead, in conflicts involving fighting. We are also trained to take care of our countrymen, as you have just seen in the missions completed. The ones who have the obligation and duty to fight the thugs that you mention are the military and civil police, ok? My name is Neves of the Command Platoon of the 51st Jungle Infantry Battalion in the Amazon in 1977. Warm regards to all. Congratulations to all who participated in this mission. It’s so beautiful to see people showing love to others! They are bringing so much good to these villages! Congratulations to the organisers. May God bless them! Good. Keep up this wonderful project. I very much admire it. Congratulations. May our politicians lead by these examples and be ashamed of themselves. Thank you Armed Forces of Brazil… Let this subject be an example for our leaders pursuing better living conditions for deserving citizens. This is really good. My comment is that Globo News only talks about France, even with a lot going on in our country with the loss of people in Minas Gerais. They don’t talk about that. It’s quite a shame. They’re a bunch of ass-kissers. Surgical mission “I work in a search-and-rescue squadron, and our routine is to save lives,” said Air Force First Lt. Tiago Vargas Nascimento Silva, a pilot from the Harpia Squadron of the 7th/8th Aviation Group who took part in seven days of medical consultations during the mission between July 31 and August 8. “It’s gratifying to be able to contribute in some way to improve the quality of their lives.” The infrastructure at the field hospital included small offices, tents with two operating rooms, waiting areas for patients, toilets, showers, and areas for overnight stays and meals. Residents of local communities used forest materials to help build barracks, which are now used by the village. “The use of helicopters is ideal for this type of mission, particularly to reach the most isolated indigenous tribes. Only rotary wing aircraft or small planes are able to land in these places.” “We don’t stop,” Marcia Abdala said. “The operating room is constantly busy. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, given that we don’t know when we’ll return to the region. We saved many indigenous Brazilians who arrived in highly debilitated conditions. If necessary, we would also transport the patient to a hospital in the region.” “Any action that seeks to improve the quality of life of Brazilians has backing and support of the Army, especially in border areas and in the poorest areas,” said Colonel Dower Jerônimo Morini Borges, Chief of Staff of the 12th Military Region of the Brazilian Army. “We have the Picumã mosquito here, which comes from the river heads,” he said. “They bite the indigenous people and cause cataracts. The doctors heal us.” “The doctors often say that operating in the field hospital or at the Sírio Libanês hospital is the same thing: It’s all top of the line, and the doctors work hard,” Abdala explained, adding that there are over 250 volunteers registered to participate in missions. The NGO and the Military’s plan included the EB mobilizing 100 Troops from the 5th BIS to assist with transportation to and from the villages. The FAB also assigned 40 Troops from the 1st/9th GAV Arara and 7th/8th GAV Harpia, based in Manaus, and the 1st/2nd GAV Condor, based in Rio de Janeiro; their coordination was carried out by the General Command of Air Operations, which manages the entire fleet of aircraft. The mission was important to the region’s people who find it difficult to obtain medical care in their villages, according to Kopenawa. “The expeditionary volunteers are the only ones who do this.” Military helicopters transport tribes’ people Their cataract treatments have proven effective. Saving ‘highly debilitated’ patients With the most recent expedition, the project has provided a total of 5,460 surgeries and 35,092 medical consultations since inception. The tribes are in the vicinity of the Pico da Neblina, the highest mountain in Brazil, which reaches 2,294 meters. It was the first time the expedition reached the area, popularly known as Cabeça de Cachorro [Dog Head] due to the shape of its border with with Colombia and Venezuela, which is to 6,500 indigenous Brazilians. They live in hard-to-reach or isolated areas in the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, 852 kilometers from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, where the EB’s 5th Special Border Platoon is housed. Members of the Amazon project, including 20 physicians, five dentists, 10 nurses and 20 support staff, embarked on July 31, also from Campinas, covering the 3,400 kilometers to São Gabriel da Cachoeira on board the FAB’s C-99. The C-99 transported the expeditionary volunteers to Maturacá, headquarters of the Special Border Platoon. Meanwhile, logistical support was provided by the 12th Supply Battalion, part of the 12th Military Region, and the Amazon Military Command Vessel Center, both in Manaus. In São Gabriel da Cachoeira, about 100 Soldiers from the 5th BIS provided assistance. As a consequence of the indigenous patients’ health needs, the mission’s medical professionals worked virtually around the clock. At the end of the expedition, indigenous leaders held a celebration in accordance with their ethnic group’s thanksgiving rituals. With the approval of the villages, the NGO contacts institutions linked to the state and federal governments, including the National Foundation for Indigenous Affairs and the Special Indigenous Health District, as well as the Indigenous District Council. The Ministry of Defense is the final link, who they call for support before the FAB and EB are included in the plan. The Armed Forces have been supporting the NGO since 2005. Post-expedition ritual First Lt. Silva piloted a helicopter to transport 365 passengers between tribal communities and mission headquarters in Maturacá, where Expedicionários da Saúde had set up a field hospital to provide medical treatment to the indigenous population. “The region where the villages are located is mountainous, and navigation in the area needs to be accurate.” Abdala compared the operation in Maturacá to the organization and execution of the Olympic Games. The field hospital is equipped with the latest equipment to perform non-invasive ophthalmology procedures and minor general surgery. Mobilization for the Maturacá Expedition began on July 17 when the C-105 Amazonas of the 1st/9th Arara Aviation Group (GAV), based in Manaus, flew to São Gabriel da Cachoeira loaded with 15 tons of food, materials, and equipment. There, they stored the provisions at the 5th Jungle Infantry Battalion (BIS), an Army unit based in the area. The volunteer doctors are experienced members of the medical teams at some of the country’s major hospitals, such as the Sírio Libanês and Albert Einstein hospitals in São Paulo. The work of the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) and the Brazilian Army (EB) was crucial to the success of the latest mission of the non-governmental organization (NGO) Expedicionários da Saúde (Health Expeditions), which provided surgeries and other medical care to residents of 35 villages of the Yanomami ethnic group, located in the country’s far north. This was the 33rd edition of the Operating in the Amazon mission, dubbed the Maturacá Expedition; the NGO and the Armed Forces conduct several such operations each year. 
11SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr continue reading » In December 2013, the National Credit Union Administration amended regulations §703 and §721 to allow federal credit unions to contribute to charitable donation accounts using previously impermissible investments. Since then, many states have allowed their state-chartered credit unions to do the same.This means your CU can invest CDA funds in certain corporate bonds, securities, and business-owned life insurance that couldn’t be used for that purpose before.NCUA’s CDA rule change gives CUs the flexibility to increase investment earnings while helping to limit risk to their overall financials. The rules also ensure that the majority of earnings are donated to charity. Key requirements for CDAs include: the aggregate annual investment in a credit union’s CDAs is limited to 5 percent of its net worth; assets in a CDA must be held in a separate custodial account or special-purpose trust; a CU must distribute a minimum of 51 percent of the CDA total returns to charities at least every five years; donations must be to tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charities; and accounting for CDAs must follow GAAP principles.NCUA also requires that CU boards document their policies relating to CDAs to clearly show how they will adhere to regulations and to establish their investment strategies and risk tolerances.
3SHARESShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr,Andrew Stevens Andrew Stevens is Global Banking and Financial Services Principal for Quadient, a leader in helping businesses transform their customer experience by creating meaningful connections through digital and physical channels. With … Web: www.quadient.com Details Generally speaking, a key advantage that credit unions have over traditional banks is that credit unions are more likely to share a less formal and more personal relationship with their members. This is a truly differentiating and appealing feature and something credit unions can use as a strong foundation to build on to continually improve customer satisfaction and secure long-term member retention. In addition, consider that financial organizations of all kinds have been facing increased regulatory scrutiny over recent years, and this has to some degree slowed the development of innovation in things like mortgages, loans and even in providing guidance for investing. At the same time, social media has given every consumer a public communication platform to share their experiences with financial institutions in real time. A positive review can go a long way to sparking wider interest in your credit union; but a negative comment, unfortunately, can have a similar but opposite impact. All employees in your organization should be encouraged to bear in mind that every member is a living, breathing individual, perhaps with a family, mortgage, auto loan, concerns about upcoming college tuition and retirement accounts, and/or funding a sudden emergency. No doubt your credit union has gigabytes of both stored and active customer data on hand – usually in several different, isolated databases. If this data can be properly aggregated and analyzed, you can develop a fairly clear picture of every member’s financial commitments and concerns, their interests and ambitions, and even anticipate their needs to truly serve them well. The process of customer journey mapping can help you understand your customers beyond the initial onboarding process and provide insights into the things that really matter to them. This involves developing a virtual roadmap of each customer’s pathway through your organization, including every touchpoint with every department, every contact through various media, every transaction, and their level of satisfaction or lack of it, if you can access their responses. You’ll find that the customer’s journey is almost always very different from the way you thought it was, and that a member may not see the departments as you see them or do things in neat functional siloes.While both your members and your credit union stand to gain through a deeper understanding, customer journey mapping can be an expensive and time-consuming endeavor, and for that reason, it has typically been the preserve of the largest financial institutions. First, data from all departments should be aggregated, and then duplicate documents and errors identified, weeded out, and corrected. Also, customer information can change significantly over time and requires constant updates. Make sure you use the latest information. Technology can help you with this, by automatically “reading” and assessing the data from the various sources and databases in your credit union, and then by tracking the different paths of your customers’ journeys. Collaboration among your internal functional divisions is important to providing insights into the many ways a member does business with you, and every segment of your organization can benefit by gaining a well-rounded view of customers. Even better, when all departments collaborate on improving the customer journey and are able to access a single source of truth in one technology solution, all of them gain a clearer, three-dimensional view that can help you see where a customer might be headed, or where you can offer a suggestion to help them progress toward their goals. In this way, you can map out the potential future of your customer relationships.We’re used to thinking big, because the whole financial world is engaged in an ongoing battle to modernize and transform, both technologically and operationally. However, you don’t need to change the world to make your members smile. Something that might seem as small as a prompt answer to a question, via phone or email, shows that you respect your members and value their time. Noticeable assurances of privacy and security can inspire confidence, particularly when doing business online. Stop and think, if you were in a relationship and your partner only showed that they cared about you once every quarter or once a year, even if they did so in a spectacular way, would you stick around that long to find out how good their appreciation was going to be? Promises of a bonus or gift for opening a savings account or credit card can attract new business, but it’s the day-to-day, ongoing experience with your credit union that will keep the members working with you from year to year. Perhaps most important is to adjust your mindset. Think of the seemingly trivial, everyday things when it comes to showing you know your customers and care about them. The customer journey map serves as a guide for you by revealing the little elements that you can improve or expand upon. And be sure to let members know what you‘re doing to improve their experience as they move through your credit union. They will appreciate your efforts and reward you with added business and their loyalty. 
Sales are vital to the success of your credit union. Your institution requires new accounts and loans to generate the income necessary to cover expenses and build capital. Despite the technological advances in marketing and alternate delivery methods, branch employees continue to be the main point of contact for many of your members. A successful sales program is contingent upon tellers and member service representatives effectively referring products and services, opening accounts and closing new loans.Over the past few years I have worked with many credit unions struggling with implementing or enhancing its sales program. As a training professional who has spent 12 years in the industry, created successful sales training programs and published a book on needs-based selling, credit unions often reach out to me to help improve their sales results. In my experience, your credit union’s sales program may be lacking results because it is falling short in these five areas:1. Lack of Product KnowledgeEmployees must be thoroughly educated on their credit union’s products and services, including product features and benefits, and how each impacts the member’s financial well-being. Provide incentives for employees to use the credit union’s products themselves. Product knowledge is not just about being able to state the product’s minimum balance, fees and perks. Employees must be able to align the member to the appropriate product to fit their financial needs. A good training exercise would be to offer a scenario where a member has a specific financial need, and have the employee describe which product would be the best fit along with the reason(s) why. continue reading » ShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr
(CIDRAP Source Weekly Briefing) – How does a global company keep sharp its planning for a disaster that may be long in the making, acute at the onset, months in duration, and bigger in scope than any one-time event?For Don Ainslie, global security officer at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, 2 years of minding avian flu’s advance and planning for a human influenza pandemic has presented just such a challenge.He’s found that preparing for a pandemic requires attention to another kind of threat–planning fatigue. Ainslie, whose organization provides tax, audit, consulting, and financial advisory services to clients worldwide, has used two strategies to cope:Delivering just enough information to just the right audience.Keeping his team of 15 planners thinking about more than a pandemic.Avoid information overload”Part of the challenge and the responsibility that we have is to sift through information and make sure our message reflects accurate information,” he said. His team relies on the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) for primary information. The team also searches through local news reports.When an e-mail is sent out to a particular department, any information not relevant to the targeted employees is excluded. Recipients get only what is useful for them. At the same time, Deloitte has an avian influenza preparedness Web site made available to Deloitte partnerships located in over 150 countries to ensure everyone can have access to critical information when they go looking for it. Deloitte is made up of some 80 member firm partnerships with 130,000 employees worldwide.Give the planners variety”Planning for a pandemic helps you plan for other events,” Anslie says, and his team knows this. “When you plan for a terrorist act or an earthquake, it does not help you plan for a pandemic.”Nevertheless, focusing time only on pandemic plans can lead to a sense of being overwhelmed by the topic, rather than overloaded with planning work. Because the team has responded to such events as the bombings in London and Hurricane Katrina, everyone has had a chance to step away from a concentration on pandemic planning.So while it may seem counterintuitive, to stay best prepared for a pandemic, the Global Security Office team members focus on multiple projects. So far, he says, for his virtual team (with employees working from such places as the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom), pandemic planning fatigue has not been a problem.
A strategic agreement has been signed between Thomas Cook and Expedia that will provide new opportunities for customers for both companies. As announced by Thomas Cook, a multi-year partnership with Expedia, one of the world’s largest travel companies, will provide travelers with more destinations to choose from when planning their holiday.With the latest agreement, Expedia will contribute to expanding Thomas Cook’s business opportunities by supporting European sales with a large number of available hotel and city offers, as its booking platform will directly connect more than 60.000 accommodation facilities.This will allow Thomas Cook to provide his clients with wider leisure opportunities, at a lower cost. “The combination of Expedia’s portfolio of hotels and the best online classic technologies will transform citybreak travel and hotel offerings to clients, thereby helping our business and one important step forward in delivering our strategy for profitable growth. Joining forces with a company that has the global reach and expertise of Expedia will enable Thomas Cook to further simplify our systems and processes. ”, said Thomas Fankhauser, CEO of Thomas Cook.On the other hand, Expedia will use its experience and technology to secure the best bookings through all of Thomas Cook’s marketing channels. In this way, the company will increase its visibility and distribution. “We believe that our collaboration will improve our ability to help more people go out and see the world, while increasing each of our competitive positions in the European market. Expedia’s Global Partner Solutions business revives the ability to harness the power of our technology and operations for our partners, introducing leading brands with private labels, agencies, web services and operations for all travel products, including accommodation, flight, package, and car rental “, Added Aman Bhutani, President of the Expedia brand.Otherwise, Expedia the group introduced a new direct communication tool “Expedia PartnerCentral Conversations ” which encourages direct communication and engagement between hoteliers and guests who have booked their accommodation, providing a personal and personalized experience for guests. The goal of the new tool is direct communication of the guest with the hotel in order to inform and request additional services and facilities of the hotel.Related news: EXPEDIA LAUNCHES A NEW COMMUNICATION TOOL FOR HOTELS
The country’s banking industry recorded 5.93 percent loan growth in February, the lowest expansion since November 2009, according to Financial Services Authority (OJK) data. The figure is lower than the 6.1 percent booked in January.The non-performing loan (NPL) rate jumped to nearly 2.8 percent, the highest since May last year.The OJK and Bank Indonesia (BI) previously set a loan growth target of around 11 percent this year. The central bank recently slashed its projection to between 6 and 8 percent.Despite the projected decline in Indonesia’s banking sector, Aviliani expressed optimism the country’s financial sector would remain resilient, unlike during the 1998 financial crisis. The banks, she added, should start making projections of their liquidity, as many businesses would ask for loans to be restructured amid the economic crisis.“Let’s say if 10 percent of their customers file for debt restructuring, what sort of cash flow is needed? The banks should be prepared, so they will not face liquidity problems if their customers withdraw their money,” she said.The SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has forced the government to call on citizens to stay home, causing disruption to businesses and harming people’s purchasing power.The government projects the country’s economy to grow 2.3 percent this year under a baseline scenario, which would be the lowest rate since 1999, or contract by 0.4 percent in a worst-case scenario.Besides calling on banks to anticipate liquidity issues, Aviliani also lauded the government’s efforts in maintaining stability in the financial sector through the issuance of a regulation in lieu of law (Perppu) on the COVID-19 response, calling it “a step in the right direction”.“This Perppu not only regulates the financial sector but also helps the real sector through incentive policies such as corporate tax relaxation, expediting tax returns and import fee waivers,” she said.President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo issued the Perppu on March 31, which activated a crisis protocol, widened the state budget deficit limit beyond 3 percent, cut corporate income taxes and allowed BI to throw lifelines to the government through purchases of government bonds through auctions, among other measures. Indonesia’s banking industry is expected to see a drop in loan growth to around 4 percent this year as the COVID-19 pandemic batters the economy, an economist has said.Senior economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), Aviliani, said Indonesian banks had become hesitant to provide loans to new debtors, as both the national and global economy had been disrupted by COVID-19.“I think loan growth will be around 4 percent and new loan disbursement will begin to return to normal in March 2021. The banks are hesitant to channel loans as demand will remain low until December,” she said during an online discussion on Friday.
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