President’s Corner-August 2010
Thursday, August 26th, 2010As every parent of a school-aged child knows, September is back-to-school time! It’s a busy time for the whole family: buying school supplies and clothes for bodies that seem to outgrow them before Thanksgiving, packing lunches, meeting teachers, arranging schedules that are suddenly more crowded than ever. But it’s a good time, despite the hustle and chaos, because we know that our children are learning and growing and gathering the tools they’ll need to succeed in the adult world.
Learning isn’t just for children, of course. One of the Core Values universal among credit unions is to provide members with financial education and increased financial literacy.
Salal Credit Union strongly believes in making financial information freely available to our members and the public, as evidenced by our free seminars, given throughout the Puget Sound region. Members of our staff teach attendees about creating realistic, workable budgets, managing credit cards, understanding credit reports and purchasing a home or car, among other topics. Salal also recently sent two branch managers to act as counselors and consultants at the Healthcare Pathway of Washington Business Week, held at Pacific Lutheran University. We also provide our members with free access to the services of BALANCE—a confidential financial counseling agency.
Knowledge truly is power, and the more information we can give our members, especially in these uncertain economic times, the more power members have to set and reach their financial goals.
With the school year starting this was a timely piece and it was great to hear that Salal sent some volunteers to provide information at a university. To do similar work at the high school level might also be worthwhile, since many in that population will not move on to college. Several high schools in town offer business-related courses and the teachers are always looking for volunteers to come in and provide “real world” perspectives. Of course, that is a self-selected group of students and most others would benefit as well from learning about budgeting, credit and finance.
Gerrie,
You’re right that generally the first group is “self-selected” and composed of students who are already motivated and very well informed. But we find that word of mouth generates a lot of traffic from others who might not otherwise choose to attend. I think it’s always useful when someone with professional experience adds his or her perspective to the subject matter in the classroom. Thanks so much for your comment!
Shannon