Christmas Savings reach record high
Our
members once again beat previous records in 2015, with total collective savings
of £613,000 in their Christmas Saver
accounts (last year's figure was just over half a million). Of course that doesn't reflect the total
funds saved up for Christmas as many members use our Instant Access accounts
for that purpose (the ones with enough will power to resist dipping in presumably!).
This
tremendous result reflects the efforts we’ve put into promoting Christmas
planning in recent years and the enthusiastic way our members have responded to
the call. Many families will surely be glad they did
and as a result fewer will dread the arrival of those post-Christmas credit
card bills or be tempted to take out high-cost short-term credit to pay for
it.
Since
the Christmas Savers were "unlocked" on 1st November, our staff have
paid out £470,000 and are still busy responding to requests. Happy Christmas everyone!
AGM 2015
I
am looking forward to our AGM
next Tuesday - the 8th December - in Hull's historic Guildhall, starting at
5.45 pm. For me, it is like a big
annual "family gathering" when members of our Credit Union family
come together to review all we have achieved, discuss our progress and announce
our exciting plans for the year ahead.
Our
AGM gives us a chance to show members and guests just what we do and share news
and information about our products, services and the people who make it all
happen - our wonderful staff, volunteer and partner team.
I
do hope you’ll be able to come. If you aim
to arrive a little early, there will be some food and drink, (from 5.15 pm) and
an opportunity to mingle with other members.
We will have our ever popular Fairtrade stall to entice you with
festive gifts and treats, plus a free raffle and maybe even some goodies to
share out as a "thank you" for coming.
The
directors and I look forward to seeing you there!
Northern Lincolnshire Partnership
Officer
We're
delighted to announce the appointment of Carmel Seston as our
Partnership Officer for Northern Lincolnshire.
Carmel
is very experienced in financial services, the world of education and the
voluntary sector. As a primary school
teacher she used resources provided by PFEG to introduce financial
capability into the school curriculum.
With Irish family roots, Carmel has always been familiar with credit
unions, which are found everywhere in Ireland.
During 2015 she has been our East Riding Project Officer, working to
establish school savings clubs on the north bank, a role which will run
alongside her new duties.
Carmel
has already started working with the Winterton 2022 project to develop
school banks and community contact points in the town of Winterton. She will also support our growing partnerships
with the Ongo Group, North Lincolnshire Council and North Lindsey College. I know she has already met many members of
the Northern Lincolnshire community and we wish her every success in her new
role.
School Banks News
Our
new Pennies 2
Pounds bank at Appleton Primary School in Hull had a
fantastic launch with 28 savers joining on the first day.
Pennies 2 Pounds Christmas Card
Competition
·
The
schools team ran a competition among the P2P schools
to colour a Christmas Card, which attracted 24 entries. The winners of a selection box and £5 HEYCU
savings voucher were:
·
Key
stage 1 - Leah Pearson (Northfield Primary)
·
Key
stage 2 – Abigail Little (Roos Primary).
·
Everyone
who entered will be receiving a party bag in the next week or so, with our
thanks for taking part.
Credit Unions meet to prepare for
transformation
HEYCU
joined other credit unions entering the transformation phase of the Credit
Union Expansion Project (CUEP) in Manchester for a special conference last
week. Over 70 delegates from 35 credit
unions attended.The Transformation Programme will see credit unions like ours introduce a new range of modern products, services and access channels for our members during 2016.
The conference began with a special message from Lord Freud reiterating the UK Government’s ongoing support for the credit union sector, and the Chair of Cornerstone Mutual Services, Lord Hunt, welcomed credit unions to the event.
Delegates then enjoyed a packed programme of presentations and workshops on topics ranging from the automated lending system known as PowerCurve, how to prepare for migration, credit union governance and the marketing support available for transforming credit unions.
The CUEP is funded by the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Association of British Credit Unions (ABCUL) won the contract to deliver it. CUEP is managed by Cornerstone Mutual Services, ABCUL’s subsidiary company.
ABCUL Chief Executive Mark Lyonette said: “Credit unions have made a very significant commitment in signing up for transformation, and there is a clear determination to deliver products and access channels that will attract and serve a new generation of credit union members.
“As credit unions continue to engage with the project, 2016 promises to be a momentous year for Britain’s credit union movement.”
Board Assessment
Our
members may not be aware of all the work that goes on “behind the scenes” to
make sure our Credit Union is governed in the best possible way.
Each
year HEYCU's directors conduct a self-evaluation survey, to help them monitor
how well they perform as a board, and as individual directors, and discover any
areas for improvement. Each director
completes a questionnaire which is then sent confidentially to an independent assessor,
who collates all the results and presents them with an Assessment Report. The annual survey has now run for three
years, so it's possible to observe trends in each area.
The
areas covered and a summary of the Assessor’s latest findings are:
·
Board performance - here the overall score was 85% in
2013; 85.2% in 2014 and 88.2% in 2015, showing that the directors feel the
Board is working together better than ever.
·
Strategic management - 2014's big increase has been
maintained, reflecting the significant work done on two major projects - the North
Lincs CU merger and the Credit Union Expansion Project (CUEP)
·
Board governance - the score is up to 82% this year
(80.7% in 2014) and only dented slightly by some concerns about lack of
diversity in the Board's membership.
·
Individual director performance - an average
score of 87.7% (84% in 2014) shows a confident and accomplished team of
directors who really do perform well together.
·
When
asked what issues had occupied the Board this year, most directors quoted CUEP,
the merger, business planning and the loans strategy, with the merger being the
stand out success they took special satisfaction from. Diversity and a good mix of skills are key
areas they feel need addressing, while in the coming year they feel the board
should focus specially on increasing the Credit Union’s loan activity, CUEP and
attracting new members.
The
Assessor summed up his report with "Volunteer directors are not easy to
keep motivated and focused yet the results of three years of surveying board
performances show evidence of consistency that would impress the staunchest
Investors in People assessors."
"The leadership of HEYCU must take some credit for the creation
of a cohesive board team" and "this survey ... allows greater
scrutiny of the workings of the Board of Directors than many similar businesses
would allow".
We
hope our member-owners take some pride in these findings, but we will not rest
in our aim of working towards world class standards of governance here at HEYCU.
Business Start-up Loans
Do
you know anyone who is planning to start their own business, or who has been
running one for less than two years? If so, why not tell them about our Business Start-up
Loan? It could be just what
is needed to put their new business on the ladder of success.
Applicants
can be considered for loans of up to £25,000 per business, repayable over 12 to
60 months. The interest rate is a very
competitive 6.19% APR.
We
can also make available free mentoring and other special offers.
Applications
are open to most kinds of businesses – we know for example that people are
thinking about the business opportunities that Hull City of Culture 2017
and beyond will bring.
For
details of the information we will require to consider a loan please visit our web page.
Member Satisfaction Survey Q&As
Here's
another question that a member raised in this year's Member Survey and our
response:
Q: Could members be informed if their money
would be better in a higher interest account?
A: As a Credit Union we are not allowed to
advertise rates of interest on dividend-bearing savings accounts. Returns on different accounts are in the form
of a dividend (share of profits) which is declared at the AGM in December each
year and posted to accounts the next day.
On our website we show the dividends paid on each account over the last
few years, so that members have an idea of past returns (although these cannot
be a guarantee of future returns). The
savings accounts we offer have slightly different terms and conditions (some
are instant access; others have limits on withdrawals etc) so members can judge
for themselves which one is best for their needs.
Get organised for Christmas 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment