By John Redding, Dick Kamm and Ralph Catalanello

As strategic planning consultants, we are often struck by how much time and effort credit unions spend looking at what the next guy is doing. This is especially true if the next guy is a high performer with a track record of great performance. The thinking seems to be, “if we’d only do what these guys do, we’d have the same results.”

Credit unions considering adding remittance services will want to check out a new report from Appleseed, self-described as a non-partisan, non-profit network of public interest law centers. According to the report, Mexico is the largest remittance market in the world with immigrants expected to send $20 billion there in 2005. Cost to send the money? An estimated $948 million.

By Michael Neill, CSE

By Mary Martha Fortney

How financial institutions around the world conduct business--and what we can learn from them.

By Franck Schuurmans, Ph.D., CAE

Teachers and coaches often talk about the "teachable moment," an opportune time for bringing home a lesson to a student or athlete. Credit unions reaching out to unbanked consumers may find tax preparation season to be their own "teachable moment," a prime time to interest unbanked families in CU offerings like savings or checking accounts.

By Mark Meyer

By Barb Kachelski, CAE

By Dr. Harold M. Sollenberger

Remember, it’s not about you—it’s about them.

By Denise Wymore

It’s not about me? This was perhaps the most difficult lesson I learned as VP/marketing of First Technology Credit Union—it wasn’t about our cool online banking products, or our rates-as-low-as-barely-nothing-point-nothing-percent or our Totally Free (no really, ours was the freest) checking account. It was about the people we served. The members—the founders of the credit union.