Earthlings Helping Earthlings

Good day, my loyal followers. I am absolutely thrilled to be able to communicate with you today. Electronic communications is the ideal channel as we maintain our social distancing.

These are trying times, my friends. For the first time since starting this blog, I’m at a loss for words. What could I possibly say to address what is going on around the world, let alone the mortgage lending industry?

As I started tapping on the keyboard, one of my colleagues forwarded me an email—I’m currently relying heavily on the wonderful experts at myCUmortgage to keep me fully engaged. I am, after all, respecting social distancing and working from my spacecraft home office. The email was a message to all myCUmortgage experts from our president, Tonya Coon. For every word I struggled to attain in writing this post, she grasped them to create a message that was impactful, insightful and from the heart.

I’m not going to elaborate on the fine details of her message. Rather, I’m going to focus on what her words meant to me.

Her message was one about defining what success really is; emphasizing the true meaning of teamwork… and friendship; and not letting anything stop us from winning this unprecedented battle. Those are the very messages I want to pass along to you here today.

It’s all about the credit union way—people helping people. Over the past week, I’ve heard many inspiring stories about credit unions, businesses and individuals helping others. Here in Dayton, Ohio, where we’ve lived through and overcome many obstacles thrown our way, people are rallying to help other people.

• Restaurants are pulling together meals for children who rely on going to school to receive lunch or breakfast.
• Individuals are braving the stores to purchase food and necessities for those most in need and at risk.
• An entire neighborhood created a “find the shamrock” scavenger hunt, encouraging children who are out of school and their parents to spend time together and enjoy life.

I could go on and on. Crisis, misfortune, inconvenience, fear, sadness. This is what the pandemic has dealt us. Now, it’s our job to overcome it. As a credit union, you have access to a plethora of ways you can help your members, employees and community.

• Get digital. Encourage members to use the digital resources available to them. Doing so helps ensure social distancing and lessens the load on your staff.
• Appreciate your employees. Your staff is vital to the credit union and the very reason members love you. Make sure they know how much you appreciate their dedication.
• Alleviate member concerns. A fair number of your members have been or will be financially impacted due to places of employment closing their doors, increased child care costs, etc. Look for small ways you can assist. In their efforts, myCUmortgage is waiving or suspending fees for late payments for members impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Trust your partners. At myCUmortgage, our partner credit unions and the services we provide them are always top of mind. If your credit union has questions or needs assistance during this trying time, look to your myCUmortgage experts—trust me, they want to help you however they can. That’s what a true partnership is all about.

So what comes next? What more can happen? Those are the million dollar questions. The answers will only be provided through teamwork, partnership and friendship. Once we embrace those concepts, we will see through the darkness, overcome our fears and grasp the reality that together, we succeeded.

Stay healthy. Be safe. Keep helping.