On Friday night, November 14, 2008 I was fortunate to be among a small group of Hunter business men and women that enjoyed dinner with Glenn Stevens the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia in Newcastle.

Glenn Stevens gave a relaxed, relatively informal address during the evening with the focal point of his speech being, you guessed it, the international financial crisis.

I guess the 3 key points I took away from Governor Stevens’ address were:

¨         The ‘breathtaking turn of events’ throughout September and October demonstrate just how quickly the economic landscape can change.  Almost overnight we went from a RBA policy of raising official interest rates to slow demand and water down inflation, to a position that has seen 3 consecutive reductions in the official cash rate totalling a full 2 percentile points, with a further rate cut widely tipped in December (and probably more cuts in early 2009!).

¨         Confirmation that relative to other developed (and developing) countries around the world, Australia is in good shape, and well positioned to ride through the crisis without too much “collateral” damage.

¨         The RBA have demonstrated they are prepared to move swiftly in response to external factors and that there is still considerable scope for the policy makers to continue to make adjustments in response to the slowing economies of most of our major trading partners.   This, combined with the Federal Governments commitment to stimulating economic activity, gives me every confidence that Australia will avoid a deep and lasting economic downturn.

With all the talk around being of doom and gloom, it’s normal for people to be feeling pretty uneasy about what the short term future holds for us.  But as Governor Stevens has said, “…..about the worst mistake we could make would be to talk ourselves into unnecessary economic weakness”.  If we, the consumers, all stop spending because of the fear of an economic recession, then we will have a self fulfilling prophecy.

I have every confidence that 2009 will be a year of opportunity for Companion Credit Union and our stakeholders.  From a position of financial strength and stability, we are well positioned to capitalise on those opportunities as they present themselves, and to even create a few of our own.

Ray

November 24th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Movember (the month formerly known as November) is an annual charity event held during November. ??At the start of Movember guys register with a clean shaven face. The Movember participants, known as Mo Bros, have the remainder of the month to grow and groom their Mo, raising money along the way to benefit men’s health – specifically prostate cancer and male depression.  ??Movember culminates at the end of the month at official Gala Partés, Mo-Office and Mo-Town parties where David Boon, Tom Selleck and Chopper Read look-a-likes battle it out for their chance to be the Man of Movember.

The staff of Companion has got in behind this terrific cause with three participants and a host of supporters from the administration staff, branches and members getting in behind the Mo’s.

Ten days in, and a few itchy chins later, more than $300 has been raised by our teams supporters for Beyond Blue and Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia.

Prostate Cancer: because every year 2,900 Australian men die from prostate cancer and over 18,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Depression in Men: because one in six men experience depression at any given time but most don’t seek help.

To support the Mo’ Bros from Companion, go to www.movember.com.au and click on “donate to a team” and either type in the team name (I am a Walrus) and follow the prompts from there.

Alternately, you can donate via the participating individuals, by clicking on “Donate to an individual” and typing in the individual’s name.

Adam Currie (Day 13)
No Walrus’ were harmed in the formation of this fine week 1 effort by the resident IT guru Adam.
He works well under pressure, so big improvements expected in the coming weeks. Dark hair, a considerable advantage.

Adam Currie

Mark Bramley (Day 13)
Slightly hampered by the physics of light reflecting on the colour white. (So Mark says). Big improvements expected for next update from the Executive Manager Member Services.

Mark Bramley

Paul Roderique (Day 13)

Years of living in the harsh climate in semi Antarctic conditions have caused evolution to enable the Lending Manager from NZ to warm his top lip readily. Just like Mundine, Paul is feeling confident about taking on all-comers for the title. Feeling little pressure at this stage, is looking forward to a challenger stepping up in the next week or two.

Paul Roderique

Get Donating, and stay tuned for our week 3 update!
Mo’Bro Paul

November 18th, 2008 | 4 Comments »

Now you’ve had a good look around the website I thought it would be a good time to tell you why we have created this site.

Our own members and non members told us that we needed to update our logo. Non members told us they were sick and tired of being ‘just a number’ at their own financial institutions.

Using this feedback (and much more research) we realised that Companion has a unique advantage, and that is that we are small enough to listen to our customers and actually respond! Hence our new tag line ‘We’re Listening’ was born. This is something we are quite proud of and something we want to really build on in the future. Our staff are always accessible and really do know our members. But we want to know more. We want to listen to what is is that is important to you, and then respond in an appropriate way.

We have begun a new journey which takes us back to the roots of what a credit Union really is – we were created by our members and are owned by our members. Which is why we want to hear more from you! We invited our members to vote on our new logo, and the response has been great. The end result of this exercise is the logo you see today on our website – chosen by our members (and staff) as the preferred logo for us to identify with in the future.

The new logo represents our members, staff, community and other stakeholders/partners all working together – hand in hand – connected as one for the mutual benefit of us all. The majority vote by members ensured we retained the ‘C’ shape from our previous logo to maintain the history we have had with our previous logos which is important to us, and obviously to you too. The new logo represents our relationships we have with our current members very well, and our research tells us that new members will relate to it also – that sense of belonging, being connected is what sets Companion apart.

What do you think of our new logo??
Would you vote on future topics for Companion?

Ray,

November 16th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

Welcome to the new community site created just for the local Hunter and Gunnedah Community to use.

We have set up this blog for our members, staff and the community so they can have a voice and be heard. We will be posting news, comments, tips and tricks from baking a cake to making your savings work harder for you.

The site can be used to promote your local community events, by posting the details on our Community Calendar.

We believe in ‘keeping it local’ so we invite you to promote your local business on this site, we have a special area for member offers where you can promote discounts or special promotions to Companion Credit Union members.

And of course, this is brought to you by a credit union, so it’s only natural to have a page dedicated to all things money! The Makes Cents page is a collection of links and resources to help you make sense of your financial life. Think of it as free advice!

Talk soon,

Ray | Companion Credit Union

November 11th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Cas

Your new Companion Logo

November 11th, 2008 | 3 Comments »