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The knowledge and expertise of Maine's credit unions was recently positioned and reinforced as the result of your League's coordination with a media outlet. Due to your League's strong relationship and reputation for being responsive to inquiries, WABI TV 5 in Bangor contacted your League seeking advice and expertise that it could provide to consumers and small non-profits on how to prevent fraud. The result was a positive story that featured Maine's credit unions as the sole representative from the financial services industry.
In the story, Mark Young, COO/SVP of Maine State CU, appeared alongside a business practices expert from Thomas College. “The treasurer should be bringing statements to the meeting along with written reconciliations and it doesn’t have to be anything fancy. It can be this is what we started with. These are the expenses, this is the income, and this is the ending balance. Get consensus from the group about who’s going to be on the account. We also recommend at least two people on the account in case there is an inconsistency, more than one person can follow up on that. If a member calls you or contacts you and says I paid my dues, my check cleared but for some reason I just received a bill for my dues, obviously that’s a red flag,” explained Young.
"This story presented the opportunity to position Maine's credit unions as consumer-friendly, knowledgeable and experts on a variety of topics. We successfully accomplished all of these points in this story. Additionally, the TV station was very appreciative at our responsiveness and ability to provide assistance for this story so quickly," remarked Jon Paradise, your League's VP of Governmental & Public Affairs.
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