CEO Year-End Message: We Never Took Our Eye Off Of You, Our Members

What a year it’s been. Looking back to my first message to you as CEO almost 12 months ago, I wrote about the mountains we each were preparing to conquer. No matter our background, beliefs, or positions on topics in our country – we can likely agree that this year has been harder to climb than we all expected. But despite all the challenges of 2020, one thing is for certain…MSCU never took our eye off you, our members.

As COVID-19 started to disrupt our community, we made the decision on March 17th to invoke our business continuity plan. We quickly made arrangements to enable our back-office staff to work remotely and incorporated additional safety measures in our branches to protect our team and members. By the following week, long before the governor asked the financial institutions to step up, we had an entire ensemble of COVID-19 relief loans, programs and resources available to our membership to help with whatever challenges may arise. I am proud to say since then, we haven’t missed a beat.

Just like the Avengers proved that a group of superheroes are stronger and more powerful than a single superhero, MSCU’s financial first responders have gone above and beyond during these unchartered waters to highlight the CU difference. Our team has come together more than ever before to make sure our members receive the level of experience they deserve and should expect from their credit union. What’s been reinforced this year is we are strong and built to weather these types of uncertainties.

In a year with so many needing additional help, I could not be prouder of my colleagues who volunteer their time and talents to serve the needs of our community. From delivering donated milk to local food banks, hosting a neighborhood food drive for a food pantry or adopting families for holiday giving, our staff lives out the true credit union philosophy of People Helping People.

It’s important to note, the credit union philosophy and our tagline, elevating our community, know no boundaries. The protests around systematic racism this year pointed out humanity faces a tremendous challenge in creating a socially just world. As an organization, we continue to reflect on what this means for us, and how to further educate, train, and support staff and our members in our ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts. In 2021, we have already set into motion a number of internal diversity-related efforts such as global diversity training.

2021 will be an exciting year. We will have a new president in the White House, the first female and woman of color as vice president, a COVID vaccine and glimmers of hope to begin a new normal way of living.

From the lessons learned in 2020, we have updated our brand positioning statements to appropriately reflect who we are and where we want to be. We will continue to build upon the successes of the past while always looking for ways to add more value to your financial cooperative with our constant focus on you, our member.

From the MSCU family to yours, I wish you good health, prosperity and lots of laughs in 2021 (We surely need all of that after the year we’ve been through). We have so much to look forward to in the coming year and years to come.

Sending you blessings for the new year,
Hank

Hank Baum
Chief Executive Officer
Mutual Security Credit Union