President's Message

I started my service as League President on August 19, 2019. Over the last 358 days, we have endured the chaos of a pandemic, a near-total economic shutdown, but that is not all. Let’s take a walk down memory lane: The impeachment of President Trump, Brexit, Palindrome Day: the date 02022020, Harvey Weinstein conviction, Tiger King, the cancellation of the 2020 Summer Olympics, the killings of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks, murder hornets, earthquakes, Tropical Storm Isais, and ...Tom Brady leaving the New England Patriots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Can we just skip ahead to January 1, 2021?

But in spite of all the chaos, credit unions are standing toe-to-toe with 2020 and we haven’t flinched yet.  We helped our existing members manage their debt challenges. We recruited new members looking for financial guidance. We helped businesses seeking PPP loans, many of whom were effectively turned away by their banks. You supported – not once but twice – and at your own cost – Governor Lamont’s mortgage relief initiative, even though you were doing more than he asked and before he asked you to do it. Finally, you joined with the League in calling for financial literacy education as a high school graduation mandate. So it’s no overstatement to refer to credit unions and their dedicated employees as Financial First Responders. From the bottom of our hearts here at the League, we thank you.

Our Financial First Responder campaign began early in the year. The league seized on the concept after I used it on TV and we leveraged it into an awareness campaign that has spilled over our borders. On August 7 (Financial First Responder Day) our social media efforts delivered more than 13,000 impressions and our consumer advertising efforts has far exceeded 1 million impressions and still counting with weeks to go in our campaign. Our T-shirt sales netted thousands of dollars for our charitable foundation to continue carrying out its refocused commitment to train a generation of highschoolers in financial literacy. You can view photos of those who participated in the campaign here.

The Golf Tournament put a wonderful cap on my first year as League President. It was an honor to join together with you in person and in service. As always, thank you for letting me serve you for another year. Here’s to many more great years ahead (just perhaps without all this pandemic/natural disaster/social unrest business, OK?),
Bruce