Conference 7.286::dcu

	Congratulations, BoD! With this initiative, the promise of real
	reform at the DEFCU will be realized. If this is what you have
	been working on for the past few months, I apologize for being
	impatient!

	On to the nits...

>3) Article V Section 7:
>	4) The member submits at least 500 validated membership signatures.

	Add wording relating the signatures to the material being mailed. 
	You don't want a member collecting signatures on a blank petition, 
	and then turning them in. What you want is "we the undersigned 
	request that "...blah, blah, blah" be mailed."

>The cost of the inserts at the current membership level (about 85,000)
>would be about $650 for single sided, and $1050 for double sided.

	Cost to the requester for the paper/printing, or to DEFCU in
	additional mailing costs?


>10) Article VII Section 1
>Append to first sentence "but not current employees of this credit union."
>
>JUSTIFICATION: This bylaw prevents DCU employees from running for a seat on
>the board of directors. This change would eliminate that possible
>conflict of interest.

	I believe that this restricts the rights of DEFCU employees too much.
	Perhaps handle this the same way as 6 year incumbents, and allow
	a DEFCU employee to run, but only as a petition candidate?

						Tom_K

    I haven't had time to read the text, but I wanted to get in here and
    say, YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT A BREATH OF FRESH AIR THIS IS!!!
    THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!
    
    Bob

Well done.  And worth waiting for.

Thank you.

~K.

				WOW!!!


If the board succeeds in passing these bylaw amendments the journey will be 
completely over.  We, the members of DCU will not only have recovered 
"ownership" of our credit union but the bylaws will be designed to make it 
virtually impossible for us to lose "ownership" again.

I commend the board members who designed these amendments and greatly 
encourage all members of the board to vote for them when the final vote 
occurs.  The membership voted you into office to represent our interest and to 
restore DCU as a true Credit Union rather than a bank.  This document brings 
that mandate to reality.

Thank you!!!

							Gary Hicks

Thank you for a job well done. If these changes get passed, you have done an
outstanding job of turning the DCU back to the people that really own it.

I will not take my money out of DCU and put it into another bank.

Good job to everyone.
Dave

Have a nice day!


PS: Things are finally looking up. Someone is finally doing the right thing.

Wonderful job.  Can't say enough about what these
proposals mean.  I think that they are all right on.

Collis

EXCELLENT JOB!

What more can I say?!?!?

	- mark

    Good stuff.  
    
    One question (same question as .1 had): I assume in #3 the cost of
    printing the inserts will be up to the person/group who wants them
    mailed, and DCU will pay the (possibly) additional postage...yes?
    

It's tough having two full time jobs and only getting paid for one :-)
Thanks for the positive feedback!

Yes, they've been a long time in the making. Remember however, that the
NCUA still has the last say. Our proposals must go to all the regions and
they all must agree to them. :-( I did speak to our region guy and he said
that they'd probably be approved if there aren't any "way out in left field".
Also, I could see the process taking many months.

A few specific answers to .1:

3) I think the rule is the same for any signature gathering, they don't
specifically require that what a person is signing be available for viewing.
Hopefully it'd be difficult to get any significant number of people to sign
a blank piece of paper. Furthermore, an insidious signature-gatherer could
substitute something other than what folks signed to DCU. I think the chances
of these scenarios is small enough that it's not worth guarding against.

cost...
The intent of the bylaw is that the member would deliver to DCU the appropriate
inserts. The member could get them printed wherever he wants to. Perhaps s/he
has a relative that is a printer and could print them for real cheap or
something. Those approximate prices are what DCU pays now for the printing
of their insert. The spec in there is to make the insert just
like the insert a few months ago about the reward offering
for information about Mangone's assets. It's light enough that it wouldn't
cost any additional postage. I wanted to make sure that there's nothing
that DCU could do to force a member to pay significant postage for the
mailing because that would effectively prevent a member from doing the
insert. Remember, we could have done a mailing last fall - all we had to
do was to come up with $25K.

current employees...
I feel strongly that the obvious conflict of interest danger outweighs
the restriction of the rights of the DCU employees. DCU cousel said that
there's a credit union someplace whose board has been taken over by
the employees and they just vote themselves raises all the time.

Lastly, let me add a word of caution. These changes will allow *you*
more visibility into the workings of *your* credit union. But it still
requires that *you* the membership stay interested. The shade over the
window is now open but you must continue to have the initiative to look
through it.

    Why aren't these board memos also being posted in Livewire?
    
    I think anything as important as a discussion of the Bylaws would
    warrant inclusion in the monthly statement.

That's in process as well as being available in branches. I don't do the
posting to VTX so it might take a day or 2 but it should be there in the
near future. The notes file happens first because that's what I have
access to. The branch postings are being set up now too, so they'll take
a few days also.

    Sounds good, Paul.  I didn't ask the first time a board memo was
    published (especially about the VTX) since I figured it was in process,
    but I still haven't seen that first one on Livewire.
    
    How will everyone else know these memos are available at the brances? 
    What about those folks who don't have easy branch access?  I still
    think that anything as important as changes in the bylaws should be
    communicated to the entire membership.

    
    RE: .12
    
>    How will everyone else know these memos are available at the brances? 
>    What about those folks who don't have easy branch access?  I still
>    think that anything as important as changes in the bylaws should be
>    communicated to the entire membership.
    
    Exactly why I voted against the Board memo issue Keith.  I felt it was
    severely flawed in this respect.  What good is all this good info if
    you don't get it out to EVERYBODY it affects?  Members will have to
    call the INFO center and ask for copies.  Hopefully they will see that
    these Board memos exist in the next Network brochure (Jan.).
    
    If members feel strongly that these Board memos should be sent to all
    members, I urge to make that known to ALL your elected Board members. 
    

Admittedly a flawed distribution system, but better than no distribution
system at all. There is a poster at the branches advertising about the
availability of it.
I thought somebody was handling VTX, I guess not. I'll have to check into it.
Something with the next Network would be good too, but we'll have voted on
the changes formally by that time. I felt strongly that the members should
be notified in advance of the formal vote, even tho we didn't notify
all of the members. The notes file, branches, and VTX should notify a good
number of the members who care the most.

    
    Yes, some distribution is better than none.  But if we had none, we
    wouldn't have bothered having a Board memo.  These Board memos will go
    a long way to showing that DCU is changing and the more members that
    know it the better.  This is especially true since the #1 issue with
    DCU members in the last membership survey was assurance.  
    
    If you're going to do something, do it right.  I believe in this case
    all parties would be the beneficiary.  But the ol' "cost of" discussion
    reared its ugly head even though a single page memo would most likely
    not cost additional postage.
    
    We are making progress though.  Who would have thought this would have
    happened a year ago?!
    

Yes, a single page probably won't cost any extra postage, but then, only
quarterly mailings go to all members. I think we need a faster method of
disseminating information. By the time the quarter rolls around, the
information could well be stale. Perhaps a summary of available board memos
would be good to add to the Network News.

    
    Yes, I agree Paul.  We need to get this info out ASAP to the
    membership, through any vehicle available (VTX, notes, branches, etc.).  
    If that means a few more months to reach a large portion of the 
    membership that is only reachable by the quarterly mailing, then so be 
    it.  That is the best we can do and that is all people expect.
    
    As it is now though, the info will be even staler because it still must
    wait for the quarterly mailing for a notice of availability (which I
    doubt will be front page material) and then DCU members have to call
    and request it.  I feel it is extremely important that the membership
    know that they now have a fully engaged Board at the helm.  As we have
    seen in our day-to-day situation at DEC, this is very important.
    
    Oh well, one step at a time.  We're still light years ahead of where we
    were last year at this time.
    

    how about a message box on the monthly statement.  For instance:
    "Board Memo Cites Positive Changes, call 800-xxx-xxxx for a copy."

    I think the effort to disseminate this information should be tailored
    to the information.  For example, what point is there in mailing out a
    notice to all members that non-members can no longer cash checks at a
    branch.  Posting that in the branches would be sufficient.  Bylaw
    changes, on the other hand, should be distributed to the entire
    membership.

	Is stale news better than no news?

				Tom_K

    I see the short form is going out in the next quarterly mailing.  Good
    move, but I question the timing.  The memo states that the changes will
    be voted on at the December board meeting.  I don't think there will be
    sufficient time for member input before the Board votes.

You're right - but input is always welcome and if there were something
major, we could always send an addendum to the NCUA because they're
going to take awhile to approve them anyway. And the changes must be
reworded to look right legally and that'll take time, so it might not
happen by the December meeting, it might be January, but I hope not.

    Why the rush?

Things have a habit of dragging out for a long time. I wanted to get the
bylaws completed as much as possible before my first term is up.

To the Board:


Excellent, excellent work here people.  These changes are
*exactly* the kind of thing that needs to happen.  Thank
you for all the hard work.

./chris