Conference 7.286::dcu

    Richard is a very straight forward guy and meeting with him is very
    appropriate.   He was very good at getting back with good information.
    
    I would very much like to see an "annual report" that shows where
    the income and expense are.   I would also like to see a statement
    of what the goals and objectives of the credit union are and how
    they are being met.
    
    One of the things that I suspect is that the support of the Field
    even though is in not very good adds quite a bit of expense to the
    cost of doing business.  For example the cost of the circuits to
    put the Easy Cash machines in CXO is several thousand dollars per
    month.  The cost of expanding a DCU must take cash the same way
    expanding DEC takes cash.   I am in favor of that growth and expense
    in both cases but would like to know where the expenses are.
    
    If it reaches the point where the expenses affect the members to
    the point that those will money in the accounts start to withdraw,
    then we will all be hurt as the interest we are charged increases
    and that which we are paid decreases and more will leave and etc.
    
    Bank equation  Interest paid - interest income - profit = 0
    DCU equation   Interest Paid - Interest Income = 0
    
    This leaves out reserves, expansions etc but should apply to both
    in a normal condition.   I the formula (even though simplified)
    is near correct, how can a bank charge less, pay more and still
    have money left over for dividends to the stockholders ?

I'll echo positive comments about Richard.  I've only had to call his
office once and was very impressed.  The incident was one which could
have been avoided, but was rather nasty and deserved a "Ken-call" type
call.  We played telephone tag for a day and at the end of the next
one, I spoke to him.  He listened patiently, explained that he was not
aware of some newly-changed policies, apologized to me on behalf of
the DCU, and promised he'd personally resolve the situation the following
morning.

I started the call feeling angry and ended with the feeling that, indeed,
Richard would fix the problem.  As I said, I was impressed.

Now, I would never even think of calling Richard regarding things like
teller machines, or branch hours, or interest rates.  That's for the
board to hear - they represent us and should be hearing what we say
here.

BobW

     I have  offered to join Ed in the meeting with the President of DCU.
     Having been (and  currently)  a member of many credit unions in Mass
     and  one in CT,  I  believe  that  I  can  offer  some  constructive
     criticism on how DCU may improve.
     
     Since our meeting will be  early  next week and I don't have time to
     extract (and strip out the NODE::NAME,  names,  etc.)  from  many of
     these  Notes/Replies,  if anyone would like to  send  me  MAIL  with
     SPECIFIC suggestions for improvement, examples of how Foobar Bank/CU
     does it better AND is willing to let the  DCU  President  have their
     NAME,  I  will use this material for the meeting.   PLEASE  keep  it
     constructive,  pointing  out  positive  steps DCU could take is more
     likely to  be  receive  consideration than pointing out strictly the
     negative issues.
     
     Len

     Since I know that someone will point  out  that  all  the info is in
     here,  the reason I am soliciting the MAIL  is  that  this  will  be
     explicit approval for me to show the MAIL with  names,  etc.  to the
     DCU  President.    I am aware that normally we shouldn't  print  out
     NOTES with NODES::NAMES, etc.  and give them to non-DECcies and I do
     NOT have the time to edit all the suggestions in this Conference.
     
     Thanks,
     
     Len

    
    Len,
    
    Maybe an easier way of doing this is to start a seperate note that
    would only be used for the suggestion for the meeting.. I am willing
    to take that note with its replies and strip it so only the suggestions
    would be listed. I think this way we might get a better response,
    and at the same time give the people who want to remain nameless
    the opportunity to give suggestions.
    
    Nisreen

        re Nisreen's suggestion - as long as people who reply
        understand that they are giving their permission to have
        their text distributed outside of Digital.
        

    
    RE -1: that's a good point Jim, but it can also be done in a way,
    where those notes are used to make an agenda rather than distributing
    the notes outside DEC.
    
    

     Nisreen,
     
     If you really want to do this, it is fine with me.
     
     My only comment is that if we go in there with examples of less than
     "ideal"  operations  and  we  can't  give any concrete examples with
     names, we  are  merely  stating  that  "some  informed  sources have
     disclosed...", just like  the  newspapers!!  It has less credibility
     than specifics which can be verified.
     
     Regards,
     
     Len

    
    It was only a suggestion. You are going to the meeting, so if you
    feel that the mail would be better for you, then let's go for it.
    
    Nisreen

    its been about two weeks, how are we doing?
    ed
    

    silence is contageous?  what happen?
    ed
    

     Ed Fultz  and  myself met with the President of DCU, Chairman of the
     BOD, and another  member  of  the BOD in late October.  Ed has given
     some  info  on  the   results  of  that  meeting  (#53.39  &  37.41)
     previously, but I will also  offer my comments here.  [Sorry for the
     late response, but I was on  vacation  for two weeks right after the
     meeting and am still playing catch-up in the office.]
     
     The KEY results of this meeting (to  me)  are that DCU is doing many
     of the things we want, **>BUT<** they do  not communicate it clearly
     to their customer-base (US!)!
     
     For the past ~8 years, DCU has been running  part-time  DCU branches
     (people  traveling   to  sites  without  full-fledged  branches  and
     providing some services  on  a  1-2x/week  basis).   FYI:  There are
     currently 215 DCU employees and 74K DCU members.
     
     DCU intends to issue  a BankCard (MC or VISA) in the near future.  I
     have been assured that the cards  will  be self-sustaining (will NOT
     be  subsidized  by other DCU services), and large  losses  (such  as
     fraudulent  scams,  etc.)  are covered by insurance.  Gold BankCards
     will also be issued.
     
     The ANNUAL  MEETING  **>IS<**  publicized in the communication which
     allows us to vote on BOD members.  The ANNUAL meeting is held at PKO
     facilities ~5PM and very few members show up.   We were assured that
     they would LIKE to see many members attend the Annual Meeting.
     
     As Ed noted, they were very  receptive  to our comments and admit to
     the need for better communications.  The  only  "promises" they made
     were to listen to our comments and try to address many of the issues
     they were made aware of (stripped VAXNotes sent to  BOD)  AND to try
     to provide  better communications.  [Please recognize that published
     newsletters have along lead-time, we are unlikely to see any results
     for ~3 months.]
     
     I was told that the software bug (reported in an earlier note) which
     allegedly allowed access to  someone  else's  balances via touchtone
     had been turned over to  Corporate Security for action.  [Other than
     the fact that this reported problem  was NOT ignored, I know nothing
     further on this matter.]
     

.12> I was told that the software bug (reported in an earlier note) which
.12> allegedly allowed access to  someone  else's  balances via touchtone
.12> had been turned over to  Corporate Security for action.  [Other than

    You don't mean DEC Corp. Security do you? If so, what on earth do they
    have to do with the DCU? 
    
    -Glenn-

     RE: .13 
     
.12> I was told that the software bug (reported in an earlier note) which
.12> allegedly allowed access to  someone  else's  balances via touchtone
.12> had been turned over to  Corporate Security for action.  [Other than

>    You don't mean DEC Corp. Security do you? If so, what on earth do they
>    have to do with the DCU? 
    
     Glenn,
     
     YES, that  is  what we were told!!  I don't pretend to understand it
     either, but I  didn't  pursue it any further.  An accusation (by the
     person  who discovered the  bug)  was  made  that  DCU  ignored  the
     problem, all I wanted to  determine  was if they were addressing the
     issue.  Perhaps DEC Security was involved since machines and (maybe)
     software is DEC??
     
     Len

I got a call today from one Susan Shapiro of the DCU BOD - replying to 
some of my notes in this file.  Her data:

Their 'Taj Mahal' building was actually quite reasonable to build, 
completed under budget, and is cheaper than taking downtown office
space.  They moved because DEC told them they had to. 

The 'services' we have been talking about cutting back (mortgages, 
credit cards, etc) actually bring in the profit that allows them to
keep interest rates high. 

They raised the minimum balance on checking because they needed less 
outgo and lowering the rate to achieve the same net gain would have
put the rate below 'street' rate.  Thay want their rates to stay
competitive. [my comment: Does that mean we'll one day see "9% on
checking!!!! {min bal = $10000} I still believe a lower rate would be
ok, as people would recognize that the rate is still competitive when
you take in to account the lack of charges] 

I didn't quite understand it - but she seemed to say that it might NOT 
be cost effective, for a given branch, to substitute 1 ATM for 1 
teller.  One reason she gave for keeping tellers is that people prefer
to use tellers [my comment: Were people asked whether they would trade 
off more tellers against higher interest paid on their acct?]

As noted elsewhere, she said that the 700 signature requirement on 
write-in candidates was state law.

Don't get me wrong, we had a great conversation.  I appreciated her
calling, she was very knowledgable, helpful and informative, and set
me straight on a number of points (though I still disagree with her on
a few others, as stated above).  She also promised that, as soon as
she mastered the REPLY and WRITE commands, that we would see her as a
regular contributor to this file. 

Now, the bottom line:  As noted elsewhere, I got the feeling that DCU
does a lot of things for good, sound reasons, which just aren't
evident to us outsiders. We agreed that DCU has a problem in
communicating to their members what's going on.  I proposed a pamphlet
go out with a statement one month entitled 'answers to the 15 most
asked questions about DCU'.  Anyone want to start a note with
candidates for questions? 

    I was one who reported a bug in the touch tone security code area.
    It still exists today [tried it on my account].
    To date, I have not been contacted for exact details.
    
    I don't think that this needs to be blown out of proportion.  I
    haven't the slightest idea how I could use it to read your account.
    danger runs more wild with only 4 digit code.  This should be
    increased immediately.
    ed
    

    Its been a LOOOON time since 19-Nov-1989 when one of the bod promised
    to be a regular contributor to this notesfile  (ref: 56.15).
    
    WHAT HAPPENED?
    
    ed
    another empty DCU promise!