DANVILLE, Ind. — After four years in business, the Indiana Cooperative Development Center (ICDC) hosted its inaugural summit to bring together all types of cooperatives from around the state for networking and education.

The summit, a six-hour smorgasbord of presentations and questions – as well as a small trade show – was on Oct. 30 in Danville, at the Hendricks County Fairgrounds just west of Indianapolis. Though, according to Business Development Specialist Chad Martin, ICDC registered about 100 people, far fewer than that attended. (One attendee speculated this might be because co-op employees can’t easily take off work, and more might attend a Saturday summit.)

Leading off the day was Jim Blaine, president of the N.C. State Employees Credit Union (SECU). His message was for cooperatives to make their messages more clear for existing and potential customers, and to provide great service to foster positive word-of-mouth. He said while co-op employees might know cooperatives are the best deal for consumers – with no Wall Street board controlling the business from afar – he pointed out customers may not see a difference.

“We’ve got tellers; we’ve got a drive-thru, just like banks,” he explained, as an example for his particular type of co-op.

“Seems like we make life too complicated. We focus on how the business runs, not what the business does,” Blaine said, adding North Carolina is also headquarters to Bank of America, which is so large that SECU – at $13.5 billion in assets and with more than 200 branches – isn’t even a “blip” on the company’s radar. To try to compete with that kind of bank, he noted, is “kind of like playing basketball against Michael Jordan. You don’t do that.”

To that end, he said his co-op strives to be a first-class credit union, rather than a second-class bank. One way he suggested other co-ops do likewise is to keep things like mission statements and vision statements and strategic plans short and clear.

“Nobody on the planet can quote their (employer’s) mission statement,” he said. SECU’s is simply: “Do the right thing!” Its vision statement, not far behind, is: “Send us your momma!” – as he explained, the one person everyone should want to be treated well by outsiders.

“Our staff can quote our mission statement. And, most unfortunately,” Blaine added, jokingly, “our members can, too. “We get it; our members get it. It sets a whole tone in every policy we have.”

To that end, he also said SECU is based on flat organization – run by an 11-member elected board – rather than a pyramid, with respect to personnel hierarchy. Each employee can make some decisions for customers without always having to consult a higher-up.

“Hire really good people,” he said, “tell them what the rules are and then get the hell out of their way.” Though this will result in some “horrible” surprises, he said overall, not only will management likely have a happier staff, it will get good ideas from independent souls.

Blaine counseled against advertising, at least for his type of co-op. His opinion is that people don’t trust advertising and their most important decisions are made on referrals – what doctor to see, what mechanic to use, what church to attend. He also stressed the importance of being as cost-effective as possible.

“People want it cheaper than Wal-Mart, better than Tiffany’s and they want you to do it immediately,” he said. “I’m sorry; we all shop on price.”

The best thing to point out in marketing, he suggested, is that cooperatives are purpose-driven, not profit-driven. Blaine said SECU does not pay employees incentives for signing up customers for credit cards and other services, because such advice isn’t always in a client’s best interest – and any co-op needs to be trustworthy for its member-customers.

One such way he said SECU is trying to help its members is to offer an alternative to high-interest “payday loans.” If someone needs a $500 advance on their next paycheck, instead of going somewhere that charges a 15 percent fee until the following payday, SECU will make the loan for up to 31 days for only one percent, or $5.

Because 80 percent of SECU’s members use this “Salary Advance” service on a regular basis – 50,000 use it each month – Blaine calculated the credit union may be saving them, collectively, as much as $42 million in a year’s time.

“That’s how much of an effect a co-op can have,” he said. His opinion is that the housing market’s woes with sub-prime mortgages are the result of for-profit institutions selling customers longer, more expensive loans, rather than pushing shorter prime loans to those people who would qualify for them. “They know what they’re doing,” he said of those lenders. “They knew what the end result would be.

“We need co-ops, at least in the financial world.” He said a good niche for co-ops to try to fill, in any business, is to “tell nothing but the truth.”

Finally, in the spirit of helping those who don’t have so much, Blaine said SECU isn’t worried about not having a zero-loss rate on loans, since if it didn’t take chances and incur some losses, it wouldn’t be “reaching out far enough to help people.”