The Crossroads Credit Union held its annual informational meeting at the Canora Rainbow Hall on April 4. The meeting was one of three held in the trading area: similar meetings were held in Preeceville on March 30 and in Wadena on April 3.
In offering a message from the board, Murray Bottcher, the president, said: “Throughout 2016, we not only focused on meeting current challenges, but also working forward to ensure the long-term sustainability of our credit union. The Crossroads advantage is even more important than ever.
“The regulatory capital requirements increased by 2.5 per cent,” Bottcher said. “We need to re-examine our ability and redouble our efforts to grow capital.
“A decision was made to suspend patronage payments to equity accounts this year, choosing to contribute only to retained earnings,” he said. “We will continue to carefully monitor and manage growth in order to optimize revenue generation and work towards a strong viable organization both in short and long term.
“Among the more difficult decisions we had to make was the closure of the Margo branch. An increasing growth in electronic transactions coupled with a declining rural population have reflected changes in the way people use financial institutions.
“Our management by a committee led staff and operations through another successful year," said Bottcher. “Management by committee is quite unusual but we felt it gave us a unique advantage. We had access to the collective wisdom of five people instead of only one.”
“In 2016, we faced challenges and changes,” said Linda Osachoff (CEO). “We saw two budgets but despite the cutbacks we had a positive year.”
Rhonda Fullawka, the chief financial officer, read from the report by the auditor and the financial reports. The total comprehensive income reported was $1,338,322 and the assets totaled $243,689,855.
In 2016, the Crossroads Credit Union, in keeping with its commitment to community involvement, provided sponsorships and donations to numerous community organizations. In Canora, those organizations included: Assiniboine River Archery, Buchanan Curling Club, Buchanan Wildlife Federation, Canora Agricultural Society, Canora Children’s Centre, Canora Community Curling Club, Canora Curling Club-Youth Clinic, Canora Golf and Country Club, Canora Golf Club-Big ’N Little Day, Canora Hospital Auxiliary, Canora Junior Elementary School, Canora Ladies Golf Club, Canora Minor Hockey, Canora Minor Hockey-Trip of the Month, Canora Wheatland Lioness Club, Darrell Teslia Memorial Bonspiel, District 18/19 4-H Council, Good Spirit Golf Resort, Good Spirit X-Country Ski Club, Parkland College, Parkland Music Festival-Canora, River Ridge Fish & Game, Sandy Beach-Disc Golf Tournament, Saskatchewan Wildlife Federation-Canora, and Saskatchewan Young Leaders.
Looking to the future, the Crossroads Credit Union management succession plan has been in place for the past 18 months.
Several important components were offered to the management team including professional development, training and situational experience.
The board was pleased to report that the plan has yielded positive results. The Management by Committee team (MBC) will be led by Jeff Bisschop, who will assume the position of CEO effective June 1, 2017.
MBC will also include Wendy Peterson, who will assume the leadership for all of the retail services; Rhonda Fullawka, who will lead finance and risk management; and Cindy Balaberda, who will lead corporate services.
Rob Bilkokraly advances to the position of supervisor of lending services, and Marcia Yagelniski will be the new supervisor of wealth services.
Retiring CEO Linda Osachoff will remain for transition support until her departure from the credit union later this year.
Crossroads Credit Union believes their succession plan has achieved several objectives important to member service including: cost effectiveness, maintaining stability in a changing environment, encouraging staff to pursue career goals and professional development, it was said.
