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good morning everyone thank you for joining us today for our panel discussion we'll be focusing on the credit union industry today first off I would like to occur it and congratulate everyone here and in the credit union industry for navigating successfully through what seems to be the peak of the kovat 19 storm yeah and there are so many unknowns and it hasn't been easy so congratulations as we know credit unions have completed the reopening process and we're getting ready to move into Phase two of the governor's reopening plan so today we're going to be focusing on the experiences of credit unions as they try to return to some form of normalcy during this whole reopening process we'd also like to look at how the kovat 19 storm has changed the industry as a whole and what we can maybe expect moving forward I my name is Dave Brannan and I am the business development executive here at first call computer solutions and I'll be your moderator today for those of you are unfamiliar with first call we are a full resource technology company we specialize in managed IT services advanced cyber security services network design and implementation VoIP phone services phone systems and we also help small businesses with their websites we have been in the IT world for over 23 years and we have over 40 IT professionals now I'd like to introduce our panel for today's discussion our first panelist is Don Danya parish Danya please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background in the credit union thanks David I'm Tonya parish and I am the vice president of risk management with Montana's credit unions so in that role I've been supporting credit unions for 18 years across Montana a lot of that is through the phone and via email with compliance support resources and training I also get the privilege of managing both the compliance officers community and the directors communities so I work with the directors and do a weekly blog trying to keep them updated on what's going on in the world of credit unions because many of them have other things that that they do for their regular life and so it's it's lots of fun to get to know all the credit unions they all have a lot of differences and they all deal with a lot of the same issues so I'm really blessed to be able to develop those relationships and be a resource for our credit unions well we really appreciate you taking the time to be here today and Darcy would you take some time to introduce yourself tell us a little bit about your background seem to have a little the internet issues you're under see persons and I am can you guys hear me yes we can yeah okay I am Darcy persons I am the CEO of Ravalli County Federal Credit Union um I have been CEO for about five years I have over 20 years of banking experience most of that in lending we have two branches we just opened up a branch not too long ago of lorentz our main branches in Hamilton Montana and we closed our lobbies in March and we just reopened on May 7th so we've had about two weeks of being reopened since kovat okay well like thank you very much for being here and we appreciate your expertise on the subjects Connor would you like to introduce yourself and give your background in the industry maybe I'm CEO of first call computer solutions fourth generation Montana and really I just enjoy technology but I also joy lining it up with organizations I'm super Pro Montana so anything I can do to help the industry I'm all for it some thanks nipple Thank You Connor I appreciate you taking the time to help us out here so today we're going to discuss kovin nineteen's effects on the workplace how it's changing as well as what to expect in the future there's so much information out there leaders in to simplify it so we have put five keys together and we will have some discussion on what it means in practice we will also address what's coming up both in the short and long term and actions that organizations will be able to take also Connor will take some time to talk about technology and how it has helped facilitate this change now before we start I'd like to have both Donna and Darcy maybe give an overall state of what you guys are seeing in the credit union industry what challenges you are facing and as well as any opportunities that's your scene how about you go first don't how about you go first Anya so with the last I think we're into about ten weeks now of this kovat impact you know when this first started I think that there was definitely just an intense focus on what does this mean for members and credit unions we're really scrambling in terms of you know can we do this for our members how can we help them what do they need just to get through the day and as we got into April a lot of credit unions had in place amazing programs to extend loans try to you know help people give their economic impact payments and they put together special loan programs in terms of you know really just helping people get through the next few weeks and I think that with our credit unions one of the positives that's been that's been part of this is that regulatory agencies oftentimes kind of have the parameters in place for the credit unions in terms of what they can and can't do and a lot of that just went right out the window and so I think one of the positives is that the credit unions have truly been given the right to just focus on member needs and not get hung up in the regulatory side of things and you know what does a member need and the recognition that credit unions are there to serve their members and it's been really heartwarming to see a lot of the programs last several weeks there's been some shift more from that panic of how do we help the members to more of you know how do we help the businesses in our community survive what do people really need for their lives and their livelihoods to be viable and and how do we support them in that and we've credit unions that have done SBA loans and credit unions that have been you know purchasing lunch and coffee and trying to support their local businesses so really I think we're at a point finally where I think we kind of see some light at the end of the tunnel not just with the governor's directives but also I think people are able to focus a little bit more clearly on where their community needs them where their members need them and in the middle of all of this there's been a lot of employees stress and the credit unions I've missed been so proud of them stepping up and supporting their teams through all of this so that's kind of what's going on in general across the stage come up on my opening some of them have not quite opened their lobbies they found a lot of success with being able to push things to the electronic and to the drive-through and from my perspective I think that's been great I think that's things they may have thought about and may have wanted to do but this forced them kinda to jump into the deep end of the pool and they're finding out that they swim pretty well so I think that can be some real positives with moving forward with trying to use those services more directly and in Darcy what are what are you seeing you know specifically well overall in didn't in the industry but also specifically with well I think you know and Danya she spoke on as to really what all of us as credit unions what we've all been doing and living and of course the sick thing you know when our women started to happen we all started to really worry of course how our members how are they going to react where are they going to be I think that Cove is gonna be a really long-term event to where we're not going to see you know the effects of this even for a couple of months I know right now we have so many members who are on unemployment and that those benefits they're receiving more than they you know because they've increased the benefits for members who aren't working and so I feel as those unemployment you know checks as they run out is when we're really going to see the wave of delinquencies and we need to be there for our members to help them when that time comes or if they can't find jobs how we can help to support them through that time frame I think our my credit union as a whole that it's been very challenging there's been a lot of course you know even with HR that's been a lot of all of the changes with the FF CRA and the cares Act and different things that that I have implemented here that that's been challenging for me and then also our local economy that we were one of the credit unions that we did we started buying lunch for only local restaurants for staff two days a week while they could only do delivery or pickup and I think that was good it was also good for staff morale just because they also you know they feel part of it that we're helping our community I think that you know the opportunity that comes through all of this again is to where we can check our systems you know Tonya had talked a little bit about where we we got got to check you know to see can we do this can we work remotely I know for me it was very eye-opening because we had a disaster recovery policy but there was a lot lacking in our disaster recovery policy which the pandemic goes right hand in hand with that so you know we've done a lot of testing to where even you know and I'll say this right now we are customers a first call sudden you did a new phone system with them last year and that was a godsend because we also have an all works reach up which is great so we can work out of the office and feel no difference than being in the office we never have that capability before last year so we've got to test that we've got to work remotely and see how that all works so we've learned a lot through this and I think that that opportunity that we it's made us a stronger team it's made us a better team we are not always together but we still work well together and that we can still provide for our members even in times of trouble but I could just recap a couple things one it and I've heard this from lots of different industries relationships between you know the organization and your members or organizations and their clients have gone to another level you know that didn't exist before you know that Trust is stronger than it used to be that awareness and really that reality of you're there to help you know as taking on strong you know obviously a lots of moving parts and flexibility and it sounds like both the Association and your credit union has been able you know to flex well with that and then there's still concerns you know about what's coming down the pike you know both in terms of monetary concerns you know as well as staff concerns and employee concerns yeah and from our perspective at the Association we had started some pure communities about a year and a half ago and we've really been engaging people with those communities over the last couple months and holding weekly calls with the CEOs and I think that those peers are really connecting well with each other and realizing everybody's busy and everybody needs to focus so how can we help each other how can we support each other without everybody reinventing the wheel and we've definitely seen a lot of strength in in those peer relationships and I do think that's a huge positive that's going to continue yeah okay well let's move forward to now with the credit union credit unions obviously have a lot of different functions but many of those functions have changed to do two kovat you know maybe we could go through some of the you know things that have have changed and things that have become more of of of an issue for credit unions yeah would you guys maybe just hit list this real quick talk talk you know just briefly about what each one is and kind of what what you're dealing with as you move into normalization and and going forward you might start nursing sure so I'll just kind of go through the list first deposit operations that is and I know all of us as credit unions because we've have the CEO calls we've all been talking about it is managing all of the deposits that we have received in you know any time of turbulence basically members they kind of hunker down and they want their money to be safe so I know for us here personally we have a lot of liquidity and that's something that we're managing we have lots of deposits that have that have come in to the credit union fraud prevention there is a ton of fraud right now as well which is always scary during these time frames but anytime that there's you know stimulus money to be had any the fraudsters are on top of it and always see like they're one step ahead which is unfortunate and then just another note on that too is that seems to be across lots of industries yeah I know the number of electronic attacks cyber attacks you know fishing you know faking you know we've had a situation where you know somebody's contacted us and you know engaged in our sales process and said they were def and working through that process and then you know you get through it and you find out okay they want connections you know to set up their account and you know it's you reversal unbelievable yeah yeah it is and and it's it's always something like we should know but you just don't ever know that's the other thing too and especially with the stimulus checks and everything that's been coming in that's all brand-new so we don't know which avenue they're going to try to hit so that's been that's been a big right now regulations and compliance that's another thing I would say more I will say NCUA I think they've been very very helpful through this they have really backed off on a lot of regulation which is not always typical again during a timeframe like this but they've been very helpful they've been very understanding you know they've said work with your membership which has been fantastic to where we can give longer modifications for members as long as we're documenting it they're saying help your member don't worry about you know running it as a troubled debt restructure because there are so much complaints that goes into it a lot of the regular elemental shift for it was that a mental shift for you and your members yes I can imagine being in a regulated world where you're constantly told you need to do it this way how was your staff continue through that well I think that's the thing that's funny about it because we all talked about it and we're like can we get that in writing please we've the recession you know and we they will say oh no do this now but then maybe we know what might see him in a year and get written up for these same things that they said was okay so I think all of us are a little bit you know leery of that loosening regulation because we haven't had it but they have been I mean and I hope that's the case I hope when we start to see them when they come in to do our exams that that that's being accurate and so we'll see but that's where they're telling us don't worry about it just work with your members which has been has been very good I can tell you that they are not saying that to the IT people saying lean off you know where we were critical infrastructure are critical infrastructure workers and definitely the regulator's have not been saying you know what just just take a break on that firewall for a while you know that's not happening I'm not sending the same message to my staff you know just take care of people we're an online services that is something that's been I think really good I know for us when I was looking at our numbers you know we only we were only had about 20% of our membership who is using all of our online services which is a horrible horrible number so I think that coded for us a little bit if you're going to take away a positive from it was that you know we did closed our lobbies and our members did have to use alternate means and I'm hoping that after they tried you know online banking or they tried remote deposit capture or they tried our mobile app that that is something that they'll still use in the future and we'll just come back to the lobbies I would I would assume that after they've used it and seen that it's a little easier than they thought that deal you know they're gonna utilize it I agree I agree I'm always hocked you know we have members who call every single day what's my balance and that's it that's all they want to know is what their balance is what they might call three times a day don't know what their balance is and I I'm always shocked that they just did they always remind them if I answer the phone you know we have a wonderful mobile app I was gonna say I bet your app usage is way up I haven't checked numbers on that to see where at but I hope so too and from the again now that we've opened our doors and we haven't had as much traffic in I am assuming that they are using those other means because we were not you know there was not a big huge amount of members in the office so a number of Technology Association groups and kind of the theme that's been going on through those is we've moved into a new era in our industry we're now basically they're calling it the dependence era because the rate of adoption has picked up on technology in so many different industries so quickly in the last sixty days you know that it's now it's like okay you know this is not gonna go back the other way and we really need to continue to build infrastructure you know they can achieve the highest level you know because people are just going to continue to depend on it more would you say that's fair yes well buddy staff I was just gonna say obviously staffs an issue with everybody you want staff to feel feel safe and also the people that come in you want them to feel safe so you know maybe speak a little bit on that well and and that is you know that's what he said big concern and that was of course a big concern when we reopened our lobby as I when we closed our lobbies I think I'm also maybe one of the only credit unions I all of our most of our staff stayed here I had a couple of people work remotely during the koban where we had you know but usually it was typically one to two people out of the office and that was it almost everybody else was here and it was always you know a huge concern and you have to have all of those conversations with your staff of you know I love you guys you have to be safe you know I love you guys you can't travel I love you guys if you do travel you have to quarantine for 14 days when you get back and you have to be honest with me I mean I love you guys you have to start filling out a health screening questionnaire to make sure that you're feeling okay and I'm going to take your temperature every day so for them it's been a huge learning curve to you know where it's not just you're coming to work you're coming to work and you have to be thinking about everybody else that you around and that's a huge shift and then also on the flip side of that they also have to feel comfortable telling our members if they come in and they're visibly ill that they can't be here they have to leave they will not give any services really sorry but they can't come in here I was talking to one of my employees this the other day and she was telling me she had someone in her office who was sniffling and coughing and I'm like did you tell him to leave no you have to they can't be here but it's it's such a shift to everything we've ever done that it's hard to remember that we should be doing those things right and I think if there's an employer mentality or I mean as if as a two two you've got to switch it where instead of feeling like you're letting your employer down by not coming in six you're actually doing them a favor exactly one of our staff came in yesterday and she was she was ill she was throwing up and she came in with her mask on and said well it's not honest [Laughter] ask you to go ask you to stay there's just some of that with that Montana mentality - you got a job to do you do it in the hospital well we can't ever get on the south side of things that there's a lot of staff across the state who were home trying to help their kids with school yeah do their jobs you know so there was a lot of interruption with child care and school facilities that's impacting credit union employees - yes I have a couple of employees who are still they're not home full-time but they're taking time every day to stay home to homeschool their kids I mean that stuff is it became a huge issue for a lot of people and many employers have had to become flexible with that so and that hasn't normalized yet what about call center yeah I would imagine call centers our usages way up due to question we never had a call center but prior to this but we did we implemented a call center to assist and typically they're really in the background for us personally I'm sure everybody else is a little bit different we have them kind of in the background if something did happen you know if I do have staff if we did have if somebody did get ill here and you know and passed around the office and we were out of the office a call center can pick up and take over and the same thing you know again for disaster recovery they're just kind of in the background waiting for that the I think that commercial and consumer were we I think that was just those are you know with your your business side of things and your business customers you know obviously you've had to answer lots of questions you know for them on that standpoint and usually with you know that relationship that's a very face-to-face you know personal type the thing so imagine there's been changes there and then same thing on the consumer you know probably a little bit of pullback in terms of borrowing and that kind of stuff right now yes and the same thing it's like you get to know you know your credit union members and that relationship and that's what you're used to but you know any flexing you've had to do on those two fronts we we've done quite a few loan modifications on for both commercial not so much we most of our commercial members that I've talked to they seem to be most of them seem to be weathering it pretty well which is good because I know that they've all been hit directly but I've been having ongoing conversations with them you know and it's more like call me next month let me know how things are going negative month if we need something done you sure can but let's you know they're kind of in the same ballpark they're like let's just get through the next 30 days as you yeah days at a time and I think this thing with consumer - I am looking we are going to run a summer loan promotion which I really kind of went back and forth on if I should do it but um but people still need to buy cars people I'm sure at this time are also thinking about our fees because they might want to be out camping so I did decide to continue with the summer loan promotion even if and I'm not expecting to have used the normal amount of people in for loans but I am still running it because we deal we do need to do some loans and we you know our liquidity is very high we have a lot going out in investments but I would like to try to get as much out and loans as possible this so just a quick update for your members on that we do a number of different recreational dealerships motorcycles RVs campers boats across the state and there's literally concern right now that they're going to run out of inventory Wow so it's not a bad in the freedom business no there was seek higher ground there a report in the Wall Street Journal and then I heard from a friend too that wanted to buy a bike for his wife and he had to go to Bozeman to find a bike you know was sold out and then the Wall Street Journal the next day said basically bike you know just pile bikes there's no inventory anymore like it's that fast so I think there's going to be a fair amount of demand here in the short term and we all know how short Montana summers are - yeah you know to buy some freedom and Danya do you I mean we don't need to obviously go over things but do you see anything you needed to add to any of this that you're seeing overall you know I think this this last 10 weeks has been nothing if not information overload you know Darcy mentioned NCUA who's our federal regulator and they insure most of our state charter credit unions to they've been great and we've had all of these industries that have been doing a really wonderful job but everything they do is emails and so you get an email and then it's like okay you can do this now and now we've made a change to this and we've added flexibility here so we've all been drinking from this information firehose and so one of the things I've been spending a lot of time doing is trying to synthesize some of that information to a website and then steer people to the website and with our association we've actually added an additional newsletter every week because there's so much information but we've also pulled back on I would say regular communication and we're trying to really help people focus on just things that are coulded related um you know there's been a lot of of training information available for staff so people that were working from home could do webinars that a lot of our partners were providing and you know I think that they've they've found a lot of value in that but I do think that there'll be some shift back to normalization but you know I feel bad for people Darcie because honestly their inboxes are so full every day because changes and that loosening of regulation is great but it doesn't just happen with a snap of a finger it's an email and then another email and then a change of a policy and here's a sample policy and you know it's just all of these steps so that's a good segue to this this next slide I think yes it is we have the five keys so now that we have the functions identified I think it's important to simplify this as leaders number one work is still work if you've had consumer services before you'll still have them now um the norms have changed you know organizations have to also constitute distancing and cleanliness and given the new norms you know we need to figure out how to work best as a team so speaking on that most credit unions have a handle on distancing same goes for cleanliness what we need to focus on is teamwork and what it looks like specific to these functions Darcy given the norms of change talk to us about this notion of teamwork and both of the friction that you are experiencing as well as possibly the opportunity that you see I think with teamwork the thing that has really come out of all of this is just communication I know for me and especially for staff you know that that's been a huge thing and it's really it's good it comes both ways where I think a lot of times even my staff sometimes and it's it's funny because I never have once thought of myself as intimidating or scary but then they're you know I'll hear oh well I'm not gonna go after see this and I'm like well why but I think that's what's been good about this because it's really been an open dialogue with a lot of from my staff asking me questions like well what's going on do we need to worry about being laid off you know all of those questions and in it it's good for them to ask those things because in my mind is he well no I'm not laying anybody offer very you know we're very healthy but that was a concern of them and I I didn't even think that that should be a concern because I thought that I had communicated that but evidently I hadn't done a good enough job so I think where all of this has come about is you know is is checking in and talking to them you know telling them what we're doing sharing the information the other things that have kind of come about I know a lot of our benefits from health insurance have all been it's been very good there's a lot of support for people if they're having mental as well as physical issues which is good but just sharing that being there for them letting them know about the other resources that are available for them now like you know some of my mom's who are home and doing home schooling you know that they have additional time so they don't have to worry about using all of their sick and vacation time because they have additional time that was implemented under the FFC re Act so that's those are all things that have been really good for me and my staff I'm not gonna say that it's easy because it's not I I know there's a lot of stress there's a lot of stress for me there's a lot of stress for them there's a lot of stress for their children and for their spouses and just you know reminding everybody to be kind to each other because we spend more time with each other than we do our families so that's that's the biggest things I think that I can say about the teamwork side yeah there's lots of that emotional element and having that be a positive experience you know that you went through with your team you know will pay dividends in terms of the workplace and the output you know for four years to come what about on the operational side of things I mean we're used to you know if we have a question you know walking into somebody's office or having that proximity on you you mentioned you know the inbox overload and the information overload how is your staff done with with those types of transitions you know to deal both with that I can't just go walk into Darcy's office or you know how do i how do I cut this email box inbox down anything from either of you on that side of things I'll just say you know from the perspective it was probably about day three of our staff all working remotely so still mid March and we had an email conversation and and I won't call it a directive but it was more just an awareness from our leadership that said hey you know we're hearing that people are just being undone dated inundated with information let's keep anything we send to only what we need to let's not you know not that I would call anything we do fluff but more of an awareness that we need to be very conscientious how stressed and busy they are on the other end and how can we tailor what we're doing so we're not just adding to that focus on that to me there's been a big return to the phone you know so it's so easy to write an email and send and send anything you know and again it just can become overwhelming it and for a while people were talking about oh you know people are just gonna text and people will just email all you know and that's how it's going to go and to me I've seen a lot of return to through conversation and you know picking up the phone and having just that the that alright this is the topic you know let's get through it have you guys seen that within the credit unions and amongst association members I don't know that we've seen an increase in phone calls partly because I think people know we're working remotely and we certainly all have our mobile phones I'll tell you one of the things we've seen is I think a lot of our credit unions realize that they need keep morale up and so they've been doing some really fun things or their staff they've been doing some fun things to send out to the members like hey we're okay we're doing all right here we're still here to serve you but some of them have put together some videos and they've done some internal competitions and games and you know so just trying to keep that personal aspect up and even with our own team we're doing an extra weekly check-in that's not business it's just personal you know how you do what's going on what movies are you watching what's the latest on the tiger King you know important things so anything that work it's helping us build that relationship further in terms of being co-workers and being Co supporters to our credit unions and Darcy how are you keeping morale up at your location well I'm not doing anything bad fun to follow evidently I need to be doing more I don't you know my staff I'll just I think we've always been very tight-knit no matter what they in and they know because I tell them frequently I do love them and and we still do have an open-door policy and it is a little bit different for me because I am still I have been here I've only worked from home for one minute seems to be pre the case across banks and credit unions yeah I just I didn't I did work remote and I only did the one week because my son was exposed to somebody with kovat and he had been home so my husband and I both we stayed home you know and one of the timefra e when we needed to we're both fine but otherwise I've been here so it hasn't been I don't think that I could completely do some of those different things because we've all just been here so right perfect well let's speak next on phases you know I wanted to ask each panelist what actions they think need to be taken in the next 30 to 60 days why don't you speak first Danya sure so you know as I mentioned some of our credit unions are still working to open their lobbies they're still rotating some of their staffs so not everybody's in the office at the same time I think that at this point some of our credit unions need to start looking to their strategic plan and their business plan for 2019 and decide you know what is in here that we can still do what has been completely blown up and needs to be just thrown away and you know where's our opportunity you know as Darcy mentioned for a lot of them their deposits are up their lending is down is that going to continue for the remainder of the year do they need to make some adjustments so I think this next 30 to 60 days I think people really see that they can get back to some sort of normalcy and start to focus again on the future well there's operational technical and emotional aspects to all of that Darcy what do you what actions are you going to be personally taken in the next 30 to 60 days at your credit union think she might be having a little internet connection see it's coming um just give it a second hair it looks like she might be coming back while we're waiting for Darcy Tonya what about longer term yeah what do you see happening beyond a thirty to sixty days yes the longer term I mentioned I think you know my hope is that credit unions will be allowed to continue this focus on members and move away from some of that regulatory burden I also think that you know they've really as I mentioned some of those relationships have been strengthened and deepened I think members are incredibly appreciative of the support they've gotten from their credit unions and that will help them build those relationships going forward I think that many of us are still in the mode of trying to decide you know with meetings how are those going to look in the future and we that there's a strong possibility that even if we're doing in-person meetings they might have a remote component to them maybe we'll have a speaker who's talking to us from out of state and not actually traveling in so I think well we've been afforded that flexibility we're going to take advantage of some of what we've seen work I thought Darcy might be back so I thought yeah it looked like it was up there you go Darcy there you are okay yeah do you want do you want to speak on you know what you're gonna be personally doing in the next 30 to 60 days Danya was also speaking about how you know things are gonna change overall with meetings things like that woody what do you see changing at your credit union specifically oh you know I don't this I was thinking a lot about this in the next 30 to 60 days and I think so much of it is just we're still at the mercy of what's going to happen it's hard for me to say in the next 30 to 60 days where what we're going to be doing I mean you know I'm planning for a summer loan promotion I'm I'm you know next week I'm gonna I'm gonna stop travel of restrictions for my staff and I think after those things you know basically in place I think then we just have to see what's going to happen and I feel like that's every time that I start to make a plan or something else comes up so I am having a really hard time addressing you know we're gonna speed in the next 30 to 60 days because I just feel like no matter what happens everybody's gotta watch the need so it's hard to have any long-term planning for me right at this moment right I'm just because I feel like I'm just in a reaction stage that's all that I am is reacting right now and I would imagine too that you know this regulatory loosening you know it's not going to be a permanent fixture there might be some shifts you know but you know the change in kind of behaviors back to okay we've got you know we need to have more controls in place and those types of things you know normalize - well I'll mention to that you know we're realizing for a lot of our credit union staff that this environment that we're in and the news and the unknown is a lot of emotional stress and so we've been working to get out some resources and some some mental health support and you know to be honest I hope that maybe people will continue to realize that people have challenges in their daily life whether it's your coworker or the member who's come in we just don't always know what people have going on and in any way that we can support them and be where they need us is yeah I think mental health support is going to be a huge issue moving forward for a lot of companies providing it for their employees because I think that a lot of that was was displayed during during this quarantine time different organizations found themselves in different places you know regarding their technology and so one of the things that we've been working with organizations on is do we want to continue to react from a technical standpoint or can we leverage kind of this new frame of reference you know all the things that we've learned in the credit union industry about members and their adoption of technology if you're like Darcy and you've got multiple branches you know having to already have technology in place that can deal with different people in different places and so to me it really does start up at the leadership level and that doesn't mean that you have to have this perfect beautiful plan you know on where you're going from a technology standpoint but you do have to begin to take what you've learned in the last 45 to 60 days and begin to assess where you're at and how you can improve the organization both in terms of your inner staff workings as well as you know the services that you're providing to your members so having that general vision and plan and then obviously everybody's got to have commitment to it and a lot of what we've found with the credit unions is you know there's been kind of barraging different points of view around where we should go with technology you know as you guys know you've got trustees and board members that have come from different generations have come work in different industries and may not see technology the same way that people that actually have to do the job see it you know I would imagine that this has reduced that gap would that be fair to say so I I think with that there's an opportunity you know for the leadership of the CEOs of credit unions the CEO hole is the risk management officers you know to come together and say okay here's where we are we've learned a lot we know what was kind of painful but I think the other thing that leaders are wondering about is you know what don't they know and so on that next piece it says data and voice flexibility and there's a lot of talk and lots of industries about remote work and I try and quash that you know to me it's not where you want to head it's not where anybody wants to head where people need to be focused on is simply flexible work being able to work securely and productively you know from the places that you are Darcy talked a little bit about that with you know some of the phone system technology that we've put in place and then there's this Microsoft 365 and Microsoft teams and things along those lines and for many people that's still a buzzword so I think it's important that leaders get a handle on what that technology is how it can reduce your Inbox how it can create better meetings how it can help you collaborate and change your workflow around files and information as well as hit all the regulatory compliance types of needs because when you begin to shift your technology you also have to make sure as a credit union you're staying on top of the compliance components associated with that so really encourage members not to think so much in terms of remote work and that buzzword more think about you know flexible work and and how to make that happen and to do it with all the same things that you guys mentioned less clutter in the email box better connections with people the ability to not just have something so formal as correspondence but chat and you know being able to do a quick video call informally and connect with people that way lots of benefits there the next thing is just cyber security and backups when you begin to change your technology you also need to make sure that the cyber security is in place and the backups are in place as you move things around so one of the things that I think a lot of us as leaders and credit unions fear is the cost associated especially with cyber security and that's been true for you know decades but more and more that cost is coming down as it becomes more mainstream and the threat becomes more Universal and so if you don't have a good vision and plan around cybersecurity and what to do with that from a budget standpoint I think that's an important task to take on to in the next 30 to 60 days and then the last one is is workforce development we see it all the time where people will buy the tool but they don't train people how to use it and then the other thing is they oftentimes try and train people how they think they should use it versus helping them kind of get those aha moments of just like with your consumers and mobile banking it's like I'll just call three times a day and then all of a sudden it's like I have to use this it's like oh I can check my balance real time anytime I want it's a little bit of serotonin that goes off that make people want to keep doing that and if you do technology coaching correctly you you really end up with kind of that aha moment to or people begin to want to use it so really encourage you know the leadership folks at credit unions to be thinking about rethinking their plans you know not just around operations and an employee care but also around you know the overall technology landscape hold on I'm having problems with the screen here give me one second yeah it looks like you're back and happy Oh am i yeah come here I was gonna mention I was on a meeting yesterday a guy from Microsoft was doing an overview of teams and he made a comment that made me feel like one of those old generation saying you know we've always done it this way he made the comment that we have generations that may be coming into the workforce that we may need to teach how to do email because they've grown up with only using these apps and chats and it was kind of a fascinating aha moment for me because email has been such a huge focus of my professional life yeah I mean to give you an example five years ago you know you come into work you open up your email inbox and you start to go through your email that's what you do you know now honestly emails four or five on on that list and it's you know it used to be a list of a hundred emails you know now it's four or five and it's very different you know for me you know being an IT for 25 years but that that shift has certainly happened in Conor we do have a question from the audience we have a trustee on the call and they say they lean towards more the cautious side is in regards to making decisions what would you recommend as far as bridging that gap for modernizing and changing again I think those aha type of moments you know we all have a brand new frame of reference now and so we're more open to the conversation you know then we once were and if you can really take one of the things we do for for our clients is basically set up a virtual environment for them and connect with their people and you just play pretend for a couple hours how do you do this and then show them how it could be done and then bring in some of those other security benefits that come from it as well and that's you know to our type of experience kind of helps close the gap between buzzwords and the potential fear of change that we all have to oh well that's not so bad and you know we could do that and I could really see the benefit of that not only here but maybe over here the way we do things so like anything else change is hard but I think now everybody is aware of better more aware of what change looks like you just kind of got to dive a little deeper now into really considering it okay let's do a review of the key points today basically we know that work is still work we the credit unions have been open for a while we realize that the dorms of chains there's going to be distance involved cleanliness new approaches the teamwork we need to embrace challenge and change of operational technical and emotional we also need to stay connected people industry and market could I just make one more change because we deal with so many industries and the credit union is a neat one in that you've got CEOs you know that are connecting together every week you know through this thing and sharing pains problems and opportunities a lot of industries struggle with that you know because of the potential competition and things along those lines and so you know they've been way more siloed you know then you guys have so I just again really want to compliment your your industry for the way that you have worked together you know to overcome things it's it's a very neat thing and something that you should be proud of competition and we really think that the hidden gems of this industry and people that come in from other industries are always shocked how much credit unions are willing to help each other but at the end of the day they all care about their members success so if they need to share a policy or an employee or building whatever it needs to be there's a lot of willingness to do that super super neat and and I am sure it's a huge part of why you've been able to do as well as you have you know through this thing so think so and next we are going to move on to questions and answers I think we have a couple questions from the audience I do have a question myself personally I'd like to ask for Darcy um I just want to know how you are preparing for phase 2 we know phase 2 starting June 1st I want to know what you know kind of how how you're approaching that what's gonna are you couldn't be changing from what's that does it change anything or just really kind of amongst some of your members it's not going to change much for me I was just kind of talking with staff about it we're going to have a staff meeting on the 3rd just kind of going over it the only thing that's really going to change is I'm removing travel restrictions to be in line with the governor's directive so staff will be able if they want to go out of state they can and they don't have to quarantine I am going to keep in place 10 members in the lobby at a time just because that it makes me feel more comfortable than having a full Lobby and the only other thing that I think is really going to change is is that my board will start going back to regular board meetings we've been doing zoom meetings for those and they've been very antsy to get back to regular for a meeting so that will begin in June as well do we have any other questions Katie we do we have another one and this one I believe goes to Darcy are there any fears around the government not living up to the promises regarding the cares Act that you're concerned about [Laughter] there's so much with the cares Act and there's so many things going on we did not we were not SBA approved for the PPP lending so we were not a part of that Daniel will probably actually know more than that because I knew when that came through I Mackerras act that that was going to be very very difficult for anybody who was doing SBA lending at the time especially for credit unions we're trying to sign up with SBA I did SBA lending when I worked at a community bank so I know there's a lot to that there's so much to how the banks and credit unions are going to you know if they're going to get the funds if the loans are gonna be forgiven if it's gonna be at 1% I'm reading all of it and it just sounds like it's a it's very scary it's scary to me I should be I think it's scary to everybody i should be four minutes left on you any quick comments on that quickly that you know I think that everyone is committed to trying to make sure that this all goes as planned and as Darcy said there's a lot of anxiety around the loan forgiveness nobody's worked harder in this last couple months than the three individuals at Montana's SVA office they've been amazing at supporting our 13 credit unions doing those types of loans and you know it is challenging when you have a giant government agency trying to administer a program they're doing their best and we're just hopeful and and I'll tell you that our congressional delegation is all really committed to making sure that that that works too so we have their back as well and I would just add that don't fall into the trap of you know how politicized this all is I would echo exact my experience has been and lots of other business owners there's wonderful people working hard to make the best of a very difficult situation and and so Trust we use on the part just focus on the positives so yeah I just like to put up the association resources here always happy to send you to our website yes you want to speak on that yeah also there's a lot there and like I said I spent probably a solid six weeks just putting information every hour on the kovat website so we are still keeping up to date you probably triple size your website patient has slowed down slightly or maybe we've gotten better at focusing but yeah there's a lot out there and the fraud perspective as RC said continues it's been a big week for unemployment fraud coming in on the ACH so always encourage people to start there or give us a call well I want to thank all the panelists today for for taking the time both at Danya and Darcy we appreciate all the information also I'd like to put up some technology resources here if you guys need any help any advice you can always call us at first call there is me and Meg who is also a business development executive and Connor as you guys I've already met today we do have three resources here that I wanted to touch on real quick you know the first one is that kovat guide and we've all seen this recovery guide that's out there and so we put together a performance guide more around technology and so if you're going into that planning what's left in 2020 that might be a good resource for you from a technology standpoint to kind of frame where are we and where are we going the next one is around Microsoft teams so it's six ways Microsoft teams can boost your operations you know zoom is a good meeting application but that's not what Microsoft teams is that's part of what teams does and so if you don't understand teams and it's more of a buzzword to you that's a very good short but educational guide you know that you can download and take a look at and then the last one is if if phone systems have been kind of a barrier you know to your operations during this time you know there's a link to our website phone systems Montana comm might be a good resource to any closing words Tonya Darcy okay well about let's all have a good I don't think there as much travel but let's try to enjoy ourselves it is 11 it is our time to say goodbye I just want to thank you guys again thank Connor for taking the time I know everyone is busy and hopefully you guys can help navigate through the rest of this this thing successfully and let's get better okay thank you guys