Credit unions differ from banks in that we are not for profit organizations owned by their members. A most striking differences between our two types of financial institutions are how credit unions are organized; another one is the democratic elections process. Credit unions provide members with one vote each and we all vote to choose the volunteers that will help decide the direction our financial institution takes in the future.

We need our volunteers

We cannot stress enough the importance of volunteers to our enterprise. Every year these amazing people meet with the staff on a weekend retreat where they look at where we are, and where we want OAS FCU to be in the span of a few years. They brainstorm, they share, they project and from that retreat surge a series of plans that the credit union sets into motion over time.

Then, they meet monthly to look at the state of their fields of work, look at their goals and make plans on how their groups can make our shared goals a reality.

For example, a few years back the volunteers and staff decided that OAS FCU would grow:

• Organically, via the addition of new Select Employer Groups (such as CAF, Friends of the Art Museum of the Americas, or GALA Hispanic Theatre) and via mergers.
• Via fusions with similarly-international credit unions, like was the case with National geographic FCU.

It was through volunteer vision and cooperation that we worked to switch our core processing platform. Volunteers also ensured that we got things like:

• Apple and Google Pay,
• The peer to peer (P2P) payments system and
• Our state-of-the-art online and mobile banking system.

And it is our volunteers who have designed the world-pioneering Volunteer Leadership Program, a training system to educate the credit union (and cooperative) leaders of tomorrow. Our volunteers are so good at what they do that several of them have received national awards in recognition for their work!

OAS FCU needs you

In order for our volunteer team to reach their full potential, OAS FCU needs the help of all members. That is where you come in. You see, we need to vote. Through our democratic elections we choose those people who are going to guide those big decisions. They'll and shape the future of OAS FCU.