Mar. 28, 2008 at 1:44pm

Why the CU Skeptic is right

Posted by Jamie Chase in Banks Are Not Hated, Social Responsibility, Strategic Communications
Comments (4)

Last week the CU Skeptic’s blog post was smart. It was poignant and a reminder that innovation and serving consumers should be far more important to credit unions than fighting banker attacks. Thank you, Skeptic for encouraging credit unions to look to their mission for operations and marketing guidance.

A step beyond that, I encourage the CU Skeptic to hold off on revealing his identity.

His blog is getting results. Can you imagine the cultural change if the CU Skeptic was featured as a keynote speaker at a CUNA or state league event? It might be eye opening for CEOs and board members to participate in a discussion facilitated by a skeptic with good intentions asking tough questions, behind closed doors.

Honestly, I’ve been a little wary of the CU Skeptic, which has shown in blog conversations with Tim McAlpine. However, it is not his message that concerns me, rather our response to it in a public forum (blog). This is why a conversation with the Skeptic at a trade association event is ideal. As professionals, speaking about our businesses in a public forum, we have a responsibility to protect our employers. In this case, the employers we are protecting are our credit union members that own the credit union. Their assets are put at risk when credit union professionals make public statements that could be used by the ABA as an argument for taxation of U.S. credit unions. Many organizations have blogging policies to help employees protect themselves and their employers. If you love credit unions, then you must love the free exchange of ideas, which I do! My advocacy for using blogging policies is to help credit union professionals blog responsibly.

I would hate to see any well-intentioned credit union professional see their words used against the movement they love so much.

Blogging Policy 101

Before launching a blog, form a committee to discuss the issue of blogging and social media. By including employees from a variety of departments, such as communications, IT and legal, you will be best prepared to develop an effective model policy.

What if you don’t have a blog, but your employees post comments on other blogs?

As with any activity, employees should use judgment when engaging in online discussions such as blogs. Individuals should carefully consider how their actions might reflect upon themselves, their families or their employers.

Bloggers should:

• Know and use the company’s general conduct guidelines
• Identify and speak for themselves and use a disclaimer
• Respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws
• Be personally responsible
• Protect privacy
• Protect the company’s clients and suppliers
• Respect their audience and co-workers
• Know and reference other bloggers on the site
• Check their facts and correct their mistakes
• Don’t alter others’ posts without informing them
• Use in a way to add value to the company business
• Be interesting
• Write about what they know
• Pay attention to quality of blog content

Bloggers should not:

• Disclose business performance or financial information
• Disclose confidential or proprietary information
• Pick fights

Comments (4)

While we can’t match a CUNA as a national event (last year we had more than 100 key credit union players in the audience), the CU Skeptic will be in attendance at the Partnership Symposium on October 1-2 in Indianapolis. While he has said that he will unveil himself at our event, if he would prefer to stay behind the stage and modulate his voice to get his message across - I am open to it. He will be given an opportunity to inititate or facilitate a discussion to his desire. We see the value in what the CU Skeptic is saying and respect his words and stance. We look forward to the conversation.
3/28/2008 at 8:05 pm
1 | Left by Doug True | Aug. 27, 2008 at 2:00pm

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I’m afraid Forum Solutions has arranged for CU Skeptic to “unmask” at their Partnership Symposium in October (unless he has a surprise in store). One thing I’d add to your excellent post is: “Bloggers should acknowledge comments, if possible, especially negative comments”.
3/29/2008 at 2:23 pm
2 | Left by Ginny Brady | Aug. 27, 2008 at 2:02pm

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Sounds like Jamie knows who he is, and it sound like someone who lives in Seattle and works for a credit union.
3/29/2008 at 8:30 am

3 | Left by Jeffry Pilcher | Aug. 27, 2008 at 2:02pm

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@Ginny-You have a great point!
@Jeffry-I have no idea who he is and it’s killing me.
@Doug-I’ve heard great things about the Partnership Symposium and will try o make it this year. Is registration still open? What’s the link?
4/7/2008 at 11:16 am
4 | Left by Jamie Chase | Aug. 27, 2008 at 2:13pm

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