A brief history of eAst KootenAy Community Credit union

eKC: stArting yeAr 60

Together through Life

by Anne Edwards

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Cranbrook in 1950 was a small city of 3,621, less than one-fifth of what it is today. its largest employer was the CPr, although other people worked in mines and forests and served the trav-elers passing through. Located at significant cross-roads, its location mattered: there were 21 filling stations in the city and more motels than in most cities its size. Already three banks served the community: the royal Bank of Canada, the imperial Bank of Canada and the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Some of the citizens wanted to build or buy houses or businesses or occasionally needed a loan to get them from payday to payday. that’s when the banks looked formidable, spoke sternly, and often did not respond with help.

A group of 10 men, confronted with the need of one family man to build a house, decided they could dig into their own pockets to finance his needs. But since he was no rarity, they also decided to formalize their arrangement and, with $100 in all, they established Cranbrook Savings Credit Union. A simple certification dated December 14, 1950 officially confirmed that Cranbrook Savings Credit Union had been incorporated under the Credit Unions Act.

CsCu foundersJan W. Mooy Howard J. McDonaldAllen F. Dunn robert A. SuttonHoward J. White William AtkinsonMark B. Kennedy roy g. MacdonaldVictor Veline Douglas W. r. Cockett

that small credit union took root like a dandelion, and although it had some years when it needed a little help to keep blooming, it thrived and grew, adding new services

– insurance and financial management – and new branches at Elkford and Fernie. its assets today are $202,363,179, its retained earnings $9,983,174, its deposits 100% insured, and its decisions still made at home by a locally elected board of directors. Members can rightly say that no Canadian member has ever lost his or her deposits in a credit union.

What did it take in the Cranbrook of 1950 to start the east kootenay Community Credit union – our multi-million-dollar finanCial institution With 9500 members?

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Zane Beam joined the credit union in 1953, got on the credit committee and then on the board of directors for more than a decade, and he said the credit union “started me off on a life of prosperity. Before that, i would go to the bank because i needed $500, but they wouldn’t give it to me,” and it wasn’t like that with the credit union. the Credit Union wasn’t all sweet roses, but people would get their loans. He recalls a friend “who needed to build a house. He didn’t need much-

-$4,000-4,500 would build a good house in those days. He’d take a couple of hundred dollars but have to wait till some more (deposits) came in; then he’d get another couple of hundred.”

it was that kind of trust – and that kind of response to the needs of ordinary people – that prompted the Credit Union in 1976 to finance the mortgage of a house for a woman who came to town with her unemployed husband and two children. She had a job with the BC government, but not a high-paying one, so she was not a “preferred” risk. Later, she served on the board for a decade, and she will tell you of a number of occasions where the CU went out of its way to help her and her family with loans.

nelson Smith, one of the early directors, a long-time board member, recorded his memories of the organization of which he was so proud that he arranged visits to local schools every year to explain how a credit union works. He moved to Cranbrook from Fernie soon after CSCU formed, with Mr. H.J. McDonald as president. Mr. McDonald soon moved away, but his successors were unable to keep the CU afloat, and in 1952

“the inspector of credit unions shut it down because there were no funds and it was completely unorganized.” Smith re-ports that the inspector approached him, and thus he agreed to join a group who “formed a slate of officers and board of directors. My account was #100.” that year was the first of 17 years on the board for Smith, five of them as president. But back in 1952 when Smith joined, Allan Downey had begun his

eight years as president, Alfred Spenser had taken on the job of treasurer for three years, and John Sherrett had started his 13 years as secretary or treasurer.

boArd ChAirs1951 H.J. McDonald1952–1959 A. Downey1960–1962 n. Smith1963–1964 S. Willicome1964–1966 n. Smith1967–1968 g. Austin1969–1971 W. Manion1972–1973 W. Belding1974 A. Manjak1975–1976 W. Belding1977–1986 W. Molnar1987–1988 i. Downie1989–1992 D. Brost1993 W. Molnar1994–1999 D. Lackey1999–2003 J.A. Debreceni2004– D. Holt

“We started to hold meetings in board members’ houses,” continued Smith. “Mr. Spenser collected half the money owing and we were in business. that was a busy time for two years. it was all volunteer service, and progress in 1953 was much better.” in fact, CSCU operations and dividends were reinstated before 1954, and after that “the Credit Union expanded from $2,000 in 1954 to $200,000 in 1969,” Smith recorded.

From the beginning, the members were included in the credit union gatherings. Said Smith, “in 1953 we held our meeting in the KP Hall with Betty Smith and Mrs. Jones as cooks. We set up for 100 at $1 apiece. the board was re-elected.”

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“in 1954 we had another dinner for $1 with the same cooks. that year 150 took in the dinner, half the Credit Union mem-bers.” After that for nine years the L.A. of Branch #24 of the royal Canadian Legion catered to the meals upstairs in the old Legion hall.

the reports from each of the annual meetings shows that the practice of having an inexpensive dinner carried on for decades. the pattern was to have dinner, then the meeting followed by a dance. Cost to members: $10 for the dinner, meeting free, and dance $2, then $3, and finally $5 as better known bands began to be a draw. But as the numbers and the city grew, members started to go home before the dance, and fewer came to the dinner and meeting, so dining and dancing was left out after the 50th annual meeting in 2000.

Attractive door prizes – sometimes sponsored by area busi-nesses, such as a 3-day weekend at Fairmont Hot Springs, but sometimes cash or investment prizes or credit on services, occasionally accompanied by a bottle of fine wine – also drew attendees. And as long as there were generous quorums of 50 to 150 members plus guests, there were nearly always nominations from the floor of people to run for office.

John Sherrett followed Alfred Spenser as treasurer, at that time a volunteer’s duty, but later a fully paid position. Directors remember that the office was, in effect, Sherrett’s house on 14th Avenue near 4th St. South and office hours were when you could corral Sherrett. Wilf Molnar, who felt the CU kept his young business afloat in 1966 and who later served on the board for 17 years, 10 of them as president, recalled a time when Sherrett worked for Molnar. “He would be on the phone, stop and look at me to ask if he could take a half hour off. then he’d run home to meet the CU member and be back when he was done.”

in the late 1950s CSCU bought two lots at 20 – 11th Avenue South and completed its first building in 1963, cost: $13,605. the next building, at 24 – 11th Avenue South was completed in 1978, this one costing $225,000. it lasted until 1991, when staff moved into premises at 920 Baker Street. the building

cost $1,125,000; the two lots on which it sat, $75,000. As members gather for the 60th annual meeting, EKC adminis-trative staff has just completed a move to the second storey of the former toronto-Dominion Bank at the corner of Baker Street and 11th Ave. the ground floor will be rented out for revenue, and staff of the Cranbrook branch will have better space for their work at their Baker St. location.

the growth of CSCU led the investments made in land, build-ings, technology and staff. in 1963 “the inspector was going to close us down again,” recalled Smith, “So we changed managers that year. Our delinquent loans went down and more interest was taken in the Credit Union.”

mAnAger–treAsurer1951 W. Atkinson1952–1954 A. Spenser1955–1964 J. Sherrett1965 g. Austin1966–1968 K. Helland1969–1970 r. Helland1971–1973 D. Hellrud1974–2001 D. Hill2002– J. Burk

Otherwise, progress was recorded in notations such as: 1959 – new Burroughs posting machine; 1966 – board members increased from 7 to 9; 1970 – CFi and CPr payroll commenced; 1973 – Plan 24 daily interest savings offered; 1974 – Annual general Meeting of BC Central Credit Union held in Cranbrook, and also free chequing offered; 1976 – service six days a week; 1977 – Co-operators insurance opened in new building; 1981 – new gEAC data system; 1984 – first institution in B.C. to offer Autoplan financing in conjunction with insurance business, now called Crancu; 1988 – 3-minute service by tellers guar-anteed; 1992 – interest-free Christmas cash loans to shop at area businesses; 1994 – opened branch in Elkford; 1996 – new VisionWest data system; 1997 – telephone banking available; 1998 – internet banking available (EKC opened the second AtM in Cranbrook); 1998 – opened financial planning centre

in Cranbrook; 2004 – opened new branch in Fernie.

Darryl Hill had become manager in 1974 and oversaw many of those events. Hill came from the Bank of Montreal, and he noticed one differ-ence almost immediately. Because it had taken him nearly a year to justify buying a small office machine at one of the branches he worked at for BMO, he meticulously set out the case for a second calculator at CSCU.

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there was only one in the office, and he, as manager, needed one, too. Based on all the criteria that had earned him BMO approval previously, he crafted a complex proposal for the first board meeting he attended. it took him many evenings as well as daytime hours. Directors listened patiently. When he was done they said, “Okay. Buy it. What’s next.”

One in three Canadians are members of credit unions and caisse populaires (in Quebec). the movement has been in-novative, introducing loan approval based on character, open mortgages, loans to women in their own name (in the 1960s), daily interest savings, full-service AtM networks, home equity lines of credit and registered educational savings plans among a much longer list of first-such-services in Canada.

For EKC, everyone was instituted to follow its Mission Statement: “We provide our communities with quality service from a secure financial base in a professional and caring manner.” Or, as mem-bers will say when talking of their credit union: it’s for service, not for profit, and members are individuals, not just numbers.

the principle that EKC’s primary purpose is to serve people is clear in all the recollections of long-time members and directors and in the activities of its staff and members. One well-worn story brought out by former directors was “the story about the horse.” Evidently the chair of the credit com-mittee approved a loan to a man whose security was a horse, and he never heard the end of it. “it wasn’t the horse; the man was of good character,” said Al Connah, whose decision as credit committee chair was approved by the board and acted on by the staff as usual. “All our decisions are made right here,” is a precept to be heard many times and sincerely supported.

“But the horse was in Montana,” teased one of the directors in a video former directors made for the CSCU. “the owner was a man of good character” said Connah. “it wasn’t the horse i was evaluating.” the loan was repaid and the member “…still a member today.”

Director Beam told of a time when Cranbrook had an influx of Hungarian refugees, one of whom had a loan at the Credit

in 1994, after the bankruptcy of one of the coal companies, a major strike at another, and a whole rearrangement of the Elk Valley economy, the only bank in Elkford, the royal, decided to withdraw. that meant no local bank to receive pay cheques or manage mortgages. the community asked CSCU if it would open a branch. “Usually a new branch doesn’t contribute revenue for four or five years,” said Hill, but the community arranged for inexpensive rental costs and otherwise helped CSCU become East Kootenay Community Credit Union after it opened its Elkford branch. Although Fording Coal had bought all of its employees’ mortgages and helped them that way, EKC’s establishment was “one of the better things that hap-pened” in Elkford that year, according to Bud Clarke. Clarke, a fire protection officer at Fording and deputy chief of the volunteer fire crew, agreed to serve on EKC board in 1994 and stayed until 1998.

EKC manager Hill retired in 2001, after the credit union had celebrated 50 years of service, making way for Jody Burk, who had come from nelson & District Credit Union to manage the Elkford branch and now continues as CEO of EKC.

By 2004, EKC was ready to open a branch in Fernie. Mayor Cindy Corrigan, who has been on the credit union board since 2006, says the credit union is much more receptive to small business than the banks in her city: “We make decisions right here.” Both Clarke and Corrigan appreciate the community ap-proach of EKC, not only its sponsorships, but the participation of its staff in organizations and clubs.

Part of EKC’s commitment to serve the community shows in the scholarships it has established. the first, the Fred Marasco schol-arship presented to a Mount Baker Senior Secondary graduating student going on to post-secondary education, started in 1971 as a $150 prize, but has become a $1000 annual scholarship. it has been joined by the nelson Labonte Smith scholarship, now also $1000 and also presented to a graduate of Cranbrook’s Mount Baker Secondary School. One $500 scholarships and two $250 scholarships are available to graduates of Elkford’s high school system, the $500 one is named for Wilf Molnar, long-

Union and a job cutting fence posts with a fellow in Yahk. the employer wasn’t paying, and the chair of the credit committee asked Beam to talk to him. “Just because he doesn’t pay you doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay the Credit Union,” he advised.

However, he also offered good advice to the member which helped get him through the crisis; he repaid the loan and became a good friend of Beam’s for years afterward.

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belong to hundreds of local organizations. in 2009 the first community organization award of $25,000 was awarded to the Cranbrook organization, East Kootenay Foundation for Health. Organizations were asked to apply for the award; a committee vetted the 17 applications to a short list; mem-bers voted for the finalist, and that organization got the $25,000. this year, Elkford and Fernie organizations have applied for an award of $12,500 in each community, and you will tonight honour those winners.

Don Holt, who now chairs the EKC board of directors, has been a credit union member and supporter all his life. “We do more than the banks,” he said. As an example, in the re-cent economic downturn, EKC allowed members to postpone loan payments based on individual assessments, particularly for people who lost their jobs. His pleasure is in working as a team and in giving back to the communities that support the credit union.

the membership continues to be a major beneficiary of credit union operations. Patronage rewards and refunds have been distributed back to the members every year on the fees and

interest paid. A recent calculation showed that since 1998, EKC has returned just less than $3.8 million to its members while it has still increased its size and holdings to better serve those members.

But best of all, as former board member Kathy Simon put it, reflecting on the fact that no organization is perfect, “What i will treasure as long as i am here is that this is an organization where someone like me can be elected a board member of such an influential company.”

EKC holds an annual strategic planning session in January. this year the board and management reviewed the strategic direc-tion – the mission, vision and principles of our credit union. in deciding if our strategic direction was appropriate – whether it represents our credit union, how we operate and how our members look at us – we debated our vision of who we are and who we want to be. Our consensus: our vision for the future is living the successes of our past and helping all of our members through all stages of their life. We agreed on a new vision for EKC: “together through Life.” it represents our basic goal of supporting our members as well as the determination to keep that objective for a very long time.

time member and volunteer. And EKC’s board also supports one $500 annual scholarship for a graduate of the Fernie high school.

its commitment to not only serve but act as part of the community shows in the many sponsorships it offers every year and the number of organizations in which staff participate. Since 1994, when the Elkford branch was established and covering the Fernie branch establ ished in 20 04, EKC has contributed $500,000 back to our communities in donations and sponsorships. Staff and volunteers

Cover photo: Brian Adams