Black Rock Federal
I stumbled up Black Rock Federal Credit Union, or soon to be, from Jesse Robbins‘ recent comment on my blog.
It chronicles a small group of individuals efforts to start a credit union. I’m anxious to see how their interactions with the NCUA and vendors work out in their start-up.
I love the fact that Black Rock is starting from a close knit community of Burning Man participants and supporters. So many CU’s are converting to community charters to continue their growth that I’m relived to see a CU start-up that will have such a strong sense of shared ideals, not zip codes or counties.
Aside from a little hiccup about capital ratios and reserve requirements, they appear to be off to a good start.
I’m hoping to see the CU industry drastically change in the next decade and go retro: start CU’s for people with common ideals, not common geographic proximity. Technology proliferation, the spread of high-speed Internet, and recent changes in how people use their money (think ING Direct, Wesabe, or Prosper) should be fuel to change the credit union landscape.
It’s fun to watch, isn’t it?
As a testament to social media, I know more about what this group is doing than my own credit union.
And even the $1 = $16 mistake was handled nicely and corrected quickly.
Great quote about going retro, Robbie. Well stated!
Happy New Year!
I agree that the landscape is changing in important ways.
One of the goals of our project is to empower communities with fewer financial and technological resources to build successful CUs too.
Keep up the great work!
Sincerely,
Jesse Robbins
Common bond is back!! It’s so nice to hear somebody else that gets it.
In an effort to grow “bigger” the credit union movement cleverly redefined the common bond (to include georgraphy) and the result has been giving up, in many cases, one of the greatest marketing tools. Exclusivity.
Question: If there was a club that everyone in the world could join, and everyone did…..would it still be a club?