Published by the New Jersey Credit Union League, www.njcul.org

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In this issue

1. The New Jersey Credit Union League Advertising Coop Needs YOU!
2. Board Members Announced
3. Good Work for A Good Cause
4. A New Year … January Educational Opportunities!
5. Introducing Quick Bites! What are Quick Bites?
6. January Quick Bite Topics
7. Upcoming Conferences: Save the Dates
8. Are You Connected?
9. The New Congress
10. New Jersey’s Delegation to the 110th Congress
11. A New Face on Capitol Hill: Congressman Albio Sires (D-13th Dist.)
12. A New Face in Trenton: Assemblyman Silverio “Sal” Vega
13. Do Your Members Count?
14. Is Your 2007 Budget Finalized?
15. Save the Date: CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference & NJCUL’s Hike-the-Hill
16. NCUA Revises Official Share Insurance Sign
17. League Releases Record Retention Guide for Credit Unions
18. DIEBOLD’S New OPTEVIEW™ Defines the Next Generation in Service Delivery
19. Get On The E-List

The New Jersey Credit Union League Advertising Coop Needs YOU!
The NJCUL Ad Coop is depending on YOU to help spread the word about the good work credit unions do. Join our efforts by adding the voluntary contribution (based on asset size) to your annual League dues. Show your support! For more information visit http://www.njcul.org/members/index.asp or contact Sharon Dilling, NJCUL Director of Marketing & Communications at 609.448.2426 x110 or email sdilling@njcul.org.

Board Members Announced

• Northern District – Lourdes Garcia of North Jersey FCU was elected for a 3 year term. (There are two vacant seats in the Northern District. Please contact directors Steeves, Malley or Garcia at 609.448.2426 x115, if you would like more information.)
• Central District – Rina Pantano of NJ Gateway FCU was elected for a 3 year term & Christina Olender of Parlin Dupont FCU was elected to a 3 year term
• Southern District – Cindy Rein-Zima of Hamilton Horizons FCU was elected for a 3 year term

Good Work for A Good Cause
In addition to raising more than $9,000 for the Youth Involvement Board and Small Credit Union Committee, $480 was raised at the convention auction Friday evening for Children's Miracle Network. Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make this year’s event so successful!

A New Year … January Educational Opportunities!

• CEO Summit in Naples, Fl. - January 13-16, 2007. If you are planning on attending, please note that the room block release is December 12.
• Branch Management Strategies II – January 17, 2007 (rescheduled from August 2006). Don’t miss this opportunity to network with other managers while learning how to become a better leader, coach, planner and visionary. Take away knowledge and tools that will help boost productivity and profitability at your credit union!
• Don’t Get Squeezed: Increasing Revenue and Net Margins – January 24, 2007. Learn how to maximize your credit unions earnings potential. This course will include discussions on investments, shrinking margins and alternative revenue sources.

For more information contact Barbara Agin the League’s Director of Education and Training at 609.448.2426 x111 or email bagin@njcul.org.

Introducing Quick Bites! What are Quick Bites?
A Quick Bite is an audio only teleconference presenting pertinent Credit Union topics over a quick one hour period. They are “bite” size pieces you can implement at your credit union. The internet link allows you and your staff members’ access to the audio archive replay of the live session for 14 days after the live version. This enables you to replay the session for additional staff members that were not available to listen in on the live version.

Many credit unions register just to get the archive link so they can hold the session for multiple staff members at their convenience. All that is needed is a speaker phone to access the live session and Internet access to for the audio archive replay.

Just one registration is required per telephone connection for unlimited listening access. The time slot for the live session is always 11:00am-12:00 pm EST.

January Quick Bite Topics:

• Service: How to Keep Members Rushing Back for More –
  January 9, 2007
• ABCu’s (teaching our educators, students and parents) –
  January 17, 2007
• Getting Over the Supervision Blues – January 30, 2007

For more information contact Barbara Agin the League’s Director of Education and Training at 609.448.2426 x111 or email bagin@njcul.org.

Upcoming Conferences: Save the Dates:

• CUNA’s Compliance School is coming to Albany, NJ –
  March 12-16, 2007
• 2007 Leadership Conference at the Borgata in Atlantic City –
  April 16-18, 2007

For more information contact Barbara Agin the League’s Director of Education and Training at 609.448.2426 x111 or email bagin@njcul.org.

Are You Connected?
The League’s new bi-monthly government affairs newsletter Capitol Connections keeps readers plugged-in to the public policy arena. It includes briefings on important goings-on in Washington (On-the-Hill) and Trenton (Under-the-Dome) and has sections on credit union movement grassroots activities (In-the-Trenches) and key issues (On-the-Soapbox) as well as backgrounders on who’s who (Meet-the-Players), interesting facts (Trivia-not-Trivial) and important calendar items (Save-the-Date).

If you’re not already plugged-in, contact Chris Abeel, the League’s director of government affairs to be added to the Capitol Connections electronic distribution list.

The New Congress
“Madame Speaker” will be heard on Capitol Hill for the first time in US history on January 4th. The Democrats won majority control of the lower house by nearly doubling the fifteen-seat net gain they needed and have elected Nancy Pelosi of California the first female speaker of the US House of Representatives. Although a historic development, it is tempered somewhat by the fact that Representative Pelosi (D-CA-8th) hasn’t always demonstrated support for CU movement positions. She voted for regulatory relief, Check 21 and deposit insurance reform but voted several times against bankruptcy reform. Bankruptcy reform aside, CUNA and the California Credit Union League enjoy a strong relationship with her.

Representative Rangel (D-NY-15th) the current ranking Democrat on the Ways & Means Committee will be the new chair. This is an important gain for the CU movement. Rangel, a tax exemption supporter, replaces retiring Way & Means Chairman William Thomas (R-CA-22nd), a CU movement critic.

The new chair of the House Financial Services Committee will be Representative Barney Frank (D-MA-4th). Frank is a CU supporter and four of the five likely incoming subcommittee chairs are CURIA cosponsors.

Chairman Frank is expected to focus on affordable housing, data security/ID theft legislation, shareholder democracy, and predatory mortgage lending. CUNA enjoys a strong relationship with many of the Democrats on the committee and is optimistic that credit union legislation will be addressed fairly. An area of concern, however, is the traditional support many of these Democrats have demonstrated for CRA.

Of the 117 CURIA co-sponsors who ran for re-election, 112 were re-elected.

The Democrats also won control of the US Senate with a one-seat margin (counting Independents Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who will caucus with them). Democrat Harry Reid of Nevada will be the next Senate majority leader. Senator Reid (D-NV) has voted with the CU movement on important legislation such as bankruptcy reform and the FACT Act.

While it is expected the 110th US Congress will move to the left, with the Democrat’s narrow majorities in both houses only consensus legislation is likely to pass in the near term. A longer term liberal shift could follow if Democrats hold the gains they made around the country on the state and local level. State legislatures will redraw election districts after the 2010 census. The party that controls the majority of state houses then will have considerable influence in determining the political landscape for the decade ahead.

It is interesting to note that out of the twenty-two House seats that were considered “in play” Republicans actually won fourteen. The Democrats picked up numerous GOP held seats that weren’t considered competitive. The 2006 election may well be remembered as more a Republican loss than a Democrat victory.

No further action on CURIA despite its 124 Co-Sponsors or Data Security is anticipated for the balance of the 109th Congress. The 110th Congress convenes on January 4, 2007.

New Jersey’s Delegation to the 110th Congress
New Jerseyans across the state went to polls to select their respective member of the US House of Representatives and a US senator. Our delegation to the 110th Congress will look much same as it did for 109th with seven Democrats and six Republicans in House and two on the Democrat side of the aisle in the Senate. There is, however, a new face, Albio Sires (D) who was elected to the 13th district seat vacated when Robert Menendez moved to the upper house.

When it comes to committee assignments the future is less clear. Senator Robert Menendez (D) has been named to the Foreign Relations Committee but it is expected he will continue his existing committee assignments including the important Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee, now as a majority member. In the House, it is unclear whether will we continue to have majority representation on the Financial Service Committee, a committee assignment that has been held by Republican Scott Garrett. The balance of our delegation’s current and anticipated committee assignments are of far less import to the CU movement.

A New Face on Capitol Hill: Congressman Albio Sires (D-13th Dist.)
Albio Sires, a former four-term member of the state Assembly, the first Hispanic to serve as speaker of the NJ Legislature, and mayor of West New York succeeds Robert Menendez as the US representative from NJ’s 13th District. The district includes much of Hudson County, part of Newark (Essex), Carteret, Perth Amboy, part of Woodbridge (Middlesex) and parts of Elizabeth and Linden (Union).

As Assembly speaker, Mr. Sires led the legislative effort to place a successful public referendum on the 2005 general election ballot so voters could decide whether NJ should create an Office of Lieutenant Governor. NJ is one of only eight states in the country that do not have a lieutenant governor to fill gubernatorial vacancies and absences. In his capacity as mayor, he combined forces with four other mayors to form the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue Department, the state's largest regionalized fire department and earned the "Community That Works" award from the state of NJ for his efforts at "providing innovative and cost-effective services through regionalization."

He was born in Cuba, where he grew up in the years before Fidel Castro came to power. His family fled in 1962 eventually settling in West New York where Mr. Sires became a star basketball player at Memorial High School. He earned his undergraduate degree at St. Peter's College and a master's degree at Middlebury College.

He returned to Memorial High to teach Spanish and English and became involved in politics. In 1987, then Governor Tom Kean appointed him to a position in the NJ Department of Community Affairs, where he led the administration's outreach to the Hispanic community.

Thirteenth district voters had the opportunity to vote twice for Albio Sires. He was actually elected twice, once to the unexpired term in the current session and also to a full term in the 110th Congress.

Representative Sires will have seniority over his fellow 110th’ freshman class members when the new Congress is seated in January, While a seemingly mundane fact, seniority is extremely important when it comes to everything from selecting office space to bidding for committee assignments. NJ benefits twice in this regard. Although just elected, Senator Menendez comes to the 110th Congress with nearly a year of seniority over his newly elected colleagues.

Mr. Sires first ran for Congress in 1986, as a Republican.

A New Face in Trenton: Assemblyman Silverio “Sal” Vega
Silverio Vega was born in Cuba in 1957. He was ten-years old when his family immigrated to the United States and settled in West New York, NJ. Mr. Vega is a graduate of Memorial High School and earned a bachelors degree in physical education from the University of Tennessee. On November 21st he was selected to fill the Assembly seat vacated when Albio Sires was elected to the US Congress. Vega was also tapped to replace Sires as mayor of West New York and resigned his seat on the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

“Sal,” as his friends call him, is a school administrator for the West New York Board of Education. He has been athletic director for his alma mater, Memorial High School since 1997.

Assemblyman Vega is an experienced public servant in both appointed and elected positions. He served as a legislative aide to state Senator Bernard Kenny. His previous public service included tenures on the West New York Board of Adjustment and the Rent Control Board and as a Hudson County Schools of Technology trustee. He has been a West New York commission since 1991.

Mr. Vega was also serving his eighth consecutive term as chairman of the Hudson County Board of Chosen Freeholders, the longest serving chairman in county history. As chairman, he did much to open county government to the people by providing night meetings on a regular basis, some of which have been held in different municipalities throughout the county, and completion this year of a Board website where meeting agenda and other important information will be posted.

Freeholder Vega represented the Board’s interests to the Hudson County Schools of Technology as a member of the Hudson County Board of School Estimate, and for the community college as a member of the Hudson County Community College Board of School Estimate. He also served as chairman of the Finance, Budget & Administration, Insurance Commission, and Public Safety & Department of Corrections committees.

Do Your Members Count?
Are your members among the more than 58 million credit union members nationwide to stand up and be counted? Project Zip Code needs you and your credit union. Help us ensure our state and federal lawmakers understand just how of many of their constituents are credit union members. It takes just a few minutes and no personal data is ever collected.

For more information contact Chris Abeel, the League’s director of government affairs.

Is Your 2007 Budget Finalized?
Did you remember Credit Union House when you finalized your 2007 budget? Credit Union House is an extremely valuable presence on Capitol Hill. More than one-half our Nation’s senators and members of Congress have visited for a variety of special events and functions. It symbolizes the credit union movement’s commitment to an ongoing role in the public policy process. We’re asking each of our member credit unions to support Credit Union House with an annual contribution.

This highly visible, permanent presence sends the message that credit unions, and the credit union movement, are here to stay.

For additional information how to support and utilize Credit Union House contact NJCUL President Bob Walls, who chairs the Credit Union House board of directors, Jill Jarman, CUH manager or Chris Abeel, the League’s director of government affairs.

Save the Date: CUNA’s Government Affairs Conference & NJCUL’s Hike-the-Hill
CUNA’s 2007 Government Affairs Conference (GAC) is scheduled for February 25-28 at the Washington Hilton. On Wednesday, February 28th we will Hike-the-Hill to visit members of New Jersey’s delegation to the 110th US Congress. GAC attendees and those able to make the trip to Washington for the day are encouraged to join us for this important grassroots program.

For additional information on both the GAC and our Hike-the-Hill contact Chris Abeel, the League’s director of government affairs.

NCUA Revises Official Share Insurance Sign
The NCUA Board approved a final rule revising NCUA’s official sign on share insurance on November 16, 2006. Credit unions must replace the old version of the official sign with the revised official sign at required locations, such as each station or window where the credit union normally receives insured funds or deposits in its principal place of business and all of its branches and on its internet page where it accepts deposits or opens accounts by May 22, 2007. Credit unions must replace the old version of the official sign with the revised official sign on each document where it has chosen to include the official sign, including advertisements, marketing and promotional materials, disclosures, and others by November 23, 2007. All federally insured credit unions will be provided by NCUA at no cost an initial supply of the revised official sign. Additionally, a downloadable graphic of the official sign is available on the NCUA’s Web site for credit unions to use on their Web sites. The final rule is available at, http://www.ncua.gov/RegulationsOpinionsLaws/Recen
tFinalRegs/F-740.pdf If you have questions the new rule, call Robbie Thompson at the League at, 609.448.2426 x126 or email rthompson@njcul.org.

League Releases Record Retention Guide for Credit Unions
The League has issued a new publication that will be sent out to all member credit unions. The Record Retention Guide For New Jersey Credit Unions, is being distributed to all members of the New Jersey Credit Union League. The Guide provided information on how long to retain hundreds of different documents, broken down by credit union operational areas. This includes, general operations, personnel records, lending, and member services. All member credit unions will receive a paper copy of this guide as well as a CD version and it will be available on the member sections of the NJUCL Web site. If you have additional questions about this Guide or record retention requirements, call Robbie Thompson at the League at, 609.448.2426 x126 or email rthompson@njcul.org.

DIEBOLD’S New OPTEVIEW™ Defines the Next Generation in Service Delivery- Innovative remote services solution is the first step toward predictive maintenance
NORTH CANTON, Ohio – A new service solution from Diebold, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is redefining service delivery at the automated teller machine (ATM). Diebold’s new OpteView™ Remote Services enables remote troubleshooting and problem diagnosis for the service of ATM networks. Using proven Internet technology to communicate directly with ATMs, Diebold’s latest innovation in service delivery supports the company’s Opteva® family of ATMs and initiates service delivery before a technician is even dispatched to an ATM site.
To read more visit: www.diebold.com/news/

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