7 Sept 2015

This week’s Blogger – w/c 7 Sep 2015

Summer holidays

I hope you have had a good summer and managed to enjoy a break.  Now it's back to business and I will aim to bring you up to date, every couple of weeks or so, with the happenings at HEYCU:

Member Survey results

A big thank you to all those members who took the time and trouble to complete our 2015 Member Survey.  I won't repeat the survey findings here, as you can read them on our website (About page) but we were very pleased not only that members scored us highly for most of the general satisfaction categories but also had lots of ideas and suggestions to help us improve our (or should I say your) business and do even better in future.   It shows just how much our loyal members care about their credit union and want it to succeed.  How many bank customers would feel the same about their bank, I wonder?

I can assure you that the Credit Union's directors do read all these comments very thoroughly and take note of what our members say.  We had a full discussion on the survey at our Board meeting on Tuesday, and the directors naturally challenged me (that's their job!) to act on many of the findings.  It was very timely, as the September Board meeting is the one where we approve our new 3-Year Business Plan and the financial budgets for the year ahead. 

Over the coming month I shall be sending a personal reply to those members who sent special individual comments or suggestions in the survey - having gone to that trouble, they deserve a response.  It may not always be possible to adopt every idea, but we try to do what we can.  I will feature some of those ideas, and our response, in future Blogs. 

Job Opportunity - Partnership Development

We are looking for a special person, with a passion for the credit union ethos and great organising and communicating skills, to help us develop our business in Northern Lincolnshire.  This exciting part-time opportunity, over a three year period (which could be extended, depending on its success), has been funded by our partners Winterton 2022 and North Lincolnshire Council.  To find out more, visit our Employment Opportunities page.   If you think this is the right role for you, or you know someone else who would match our needs, we need applications by 28 September.  Please use the application form, no CVs will be accepted.

Driffield Tenth Anniversary

We're all looking forward to helping the volunteers of our Driffield branch celebrate their tenth anniversary of serving the town and surrounding community next Wednesday 16 September from 10 am.  If you are in town that day, do pop in and say "hello".  The event is being held at our Credit Union Office at 2-4 Market Walk (that's the Town Council HQ).  There'll be light refreshments and free-to-enter competitions and everyone attending will get a free ticket for a prize draw.  I shall be attending, together with some of our directors, so hope to see you there!

Goole Presentation Event

It was great to attend an event at The Courtyard in Goole last Friday, in the presence of many worthy community groups and organisations, for the Yorkshire Water Goole Community Fund presentations.  The £20,000 Community Fund was created by Yorkshire Water to thank local people for their patience while the company's pumping station at Carr Lane was upgraded after the terrible floods in the town in 2012.   To allocate the funds an independent panel was formed from local councillors and representatives from the media and local college, chaired by Andrew Percy MP.

We were delighted to receive an award to provide a laptop for our Goole Pennies2Pounds School Banks project.  Jo will use this fantastic resource to help us operate our school and community savings points and develop materials for use in educating young people about good money management.   Thank you, Yorkshire Water!  And thanks to Diane, one of our P2P volunteers, who accompanied me to the very uplifting event, to receive our cheque.

Schools - Welcome back!

Just a quick "hello" and welcome back to all our Pennies 2 Pounds School Banks, at the start of another academic year.  We will have some new schools joining us this term and we hope the existing school banks will have another successful year, with lots more savers (junior and adult) enrolled.

Northern Lincolnshire Local Members’ Group

I attended the August meeting of this group and there was a lively discussion about how best to grow our business across the county.  Using local Credit Union champions to encourage interest in the work of the credit union was one idea. The positive "can do" attitude of the staff and volunteers at Scunthorpe branch was commented on.  If you live in the area and would like to join the Group, it meets at the branch on the second Thursday each month at 7 pm.  You'd be most welcome!

Let's Help You . . . find somewhere to live

A new website https://hull.letshelpyou.co.uk/lets/ has been launched to help tenants find affordable rental property across the Hull City Council area.  It's free, quick and easy to use.  You can use it to find one, two, three, four or more bedroomed houses, flats or shared accommodation in an area you'd most like to live.

The website has a useful calculator giving you accurate information about housing allowance rates and you can search in specific areas or throughout the whole of Hull in one go.  You can save property search criteria, such as number of bedrooms, house or flat, postcode, to your profile and store favourite properties, and even opt to get weekly emails showing properties coming up to match your search settings.  That way you can be one of the first to view a tenancy.

Once you find a property, contact the landlord and arrange to view. The service is available to anyone searching for rented accommodation whether receiving housing benefit or not, and there are alternative ways to use it if you don't have internet access, including a free Android app and free iOS app.

Heritage Open Days 2015

Do you like looking round historic buildings, taking part in guided tours or listening to expert talks on local history?   If, like me, you enjoy learning about our fascinating heritage and you are in Hull this weekend (11-13 September), you are in for a treat!

It's that time of year when lots of Hull's interesting buildings throw open their doors and let the public in for free to have a look around and explore our great city's history.  There's about 70 places to visit, ranging from the ever popular Holy Trinity Church to the BBC Building, HM Prison, Annison's Stables in Witham and the factory of Ideal Boilers.  There's some quirky ones to discover too, such as a 1932 Eco-House in Inglemire Avenue and something called the KC Lighthouse, which I've never heard of!  Together with a range of guided history tours such as along Beverley Road and down by the River Hull, there's far too much choice for my liking altogether, so it'll be fun deciding what to miss out. 

We have Hull Civic Society to thank for arranging this family event as always (together with the building owners of course) and more details can be found at www.hullcivicsociety.org.

Other Services page

Have a look at this new page on our website - it gives information about some of the things we offer that you might not know about - including Say Shopping Vouchers and exclusive deals on electrical goods.

Could a Community Account help your club or group?

We have a very handy deposit account for clubs, groups, societies and organisations of all kinds.  Our Community Account offers a "no fuss" way for your group to look after its funds and make payments as they are needed.  And of course you know that those funds are being used for the benefit of your own community.