Co-op Hall of Fame Tribute:  Honoring Crystal Long's Cooperative Legacy

So the first principle of cooper- cooperative is it's, the credit union's open for everybody.

Doesn't make any difference [clears throat] of their age or their race or their gender or religion, politics.

Right.

It's open for everybody.

So that's your credit union.

You're open to everybody and anybody.

Mm-hmm.

So is it-- It used to be Government Employees Credit Union, now it's just GECU.

Is that because you're open to more than government employees now?

We're open to, yes, we're open to the community and we have expanded into the rest of the USA, uh, very quickly.

So, um, yes, anybody can join and, um, we at one point were kind of landlocked between New Mexico and Texas.

We couldn't really expand, so we changed to a federal charter which gave us the ability to move across state lines.

Okay.

So I'm just trying to get, I think it's the third principle is you put money in, you have a membership fee and then if the credit union is successful in terms of margins, profit margins, then the board and/or the members can decide what to do with that money.

So I'm hearing you say you s- you all spend money to help the community.

Do you ever give back dividends to the members?

Our dividends really come in the form of the community service and also the types of products that members want and need.

So we have so many things that help them to do business from the couch instead of having to come to GECU and, uh, that has been very meaningful to the members, which is one of the things that they asked for and we began really working hard on in nineteen ninety.

So, and I go with that-

Nineteen ninety?

ninety?1990, um, online services and some other, uh, things that they needed and, um, it's helped us to be visible and present for people no matter where they are.

Okay.

So this question goes to listening, and it goes to you were listening in order to open those, those online, but how did you create an organization where employees and members felt comfortable telling leadership what was not working?

Well, we had a survey process that was sent to members.

They were able to give their feedback, um, on what their interactions had been with GECU, and that was really critical information that we could use to make changes inside the organization to make sure they were-- we were meeting the needs of the members.

So the first principle of cooper- cooperative is it's, the credit union's open for everybody.

Doesn't make any difference [clears throat] of their age or their race or their gender or religion, politics.

Right.

It's open for everybody.

So that's your credit union.

You're open to everybody and anybody.

Mm-hmm.

So is it-- It used to be Government Employees Credit Union, now it's just GECU.

Is that because you're open to more than government employees now?

We're open to, yes, we're open to the community and we have expanded into the rest of the USA, uh, very quickly.

So, um, yes, anybody can join and, um, we at one point were kind of landlocked between New Mexico and Texas.

We couldn't really expand, so we changed to a federal charter which gave us the ability to move across state lines.

Okay.

So I'm just trying to get, I think it's the third principle is you put money in, you have a membership fee and then if the credit union is successful in terms of margins, profit margins, then the board and/or the members can decide what to do with that money.

So I'm hearing you say you s- you all spend money to help the community.

Do you ever give back dividends to the members?

Our dividends really come in the form of the community service and also the types of products that members want and need.

So we have so many things that help them to do business from the couch instead of having to come to GECU and, uh, that has been very meaningful to the members, which is one of the things that they asked for and we began really working hard on in nineteen ninety.

So, and I go with that-

Nineteen ninety?

ninety?1990, um, online services and some other, uh, things that they needed and, um, it's helped us to be visible and present for people no matter where they are.

Okay.

So this question goes to listening, and it goes to you were listening in order to open those, those online, but how did you create an organization where employees and members felt comfortable telling leadership what was not working?

Well, we had a survey process that was sent to members.

They were able to give their feedback, um, on what their interactions had been with GECU, and that was really critical information that we could use to make changes inside the organization to make sure they were-- we were meeting the needs of the members.