Studies show only about 50% of those in the workforce enjoy their jobs. Only half! There is a special spark that keeps credit union professionals excited about what many would call mundane or boring careers. What is it? What is the driving force behind the passion of those in the Credit Union industry?
Prepare to be inspired by the team members of West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union as they give back to their communities.
The donation to the Central Missouri Humane Society that led to the adoption of Phoebe.
Sarah volunteering at Kid Smart with her Girl Scout troop.
How to Listen:
Subscribe on your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode:
Banking on You is powered by West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union.
Transcript
Josh
Welcome to the first episode of Banking On You. I’m Josh Rodriguez. I recently read a quote from Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert McKee. said, Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world. Hm, I really like that. Banking On You is a storytelling podcast powered by West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union.
For a little backstory on the podcast, take a listen to episode zero. There we sit down with our executive producers, Jason Peach and Koren Greubel, and dive way deep into our mission and the reasons behind our obsession with people’s stories and storytelling. Oh! and we take a quick peek into the rest of season one as well.
I’ve been in the credit union industry for most of my career. Some of my favorite conversations are with people who don’t understand what a credit union is or does.
Our name tends to confuse some as they mistake credit union with labor union or trade unions. By the way, we are neither. Others think we only offer auto loans, which we do, but we do a lot more. And then there are many who have never even heard of a credit union. We’re actively trying to change that.
In simple terms, we provide banking services, but we are not a bank. Credit unions are member owned, not-for-profit financial co-ops with a singular goal. Our members’ financial success. That’s all. So, your financial success. Pretty cool, right? For that reason, every decision we make is for the good of our members. Because when one member succeeds, we all succeed. Kind of like three musketeers, you know, all for one and one for all.
I suppose they could be called a swashbuckling co-op of sorts. I don’t know. Maybe we’ll dig in deeper to the differences on a later episode, but in short, credit unions just do banking better. Cooperative banking is better banking because we all win. And winning is nice, right? Today, we’re going to dig in a little deeper as to what makes the credit union industry better than any other industry on earth. I’m serious. It’s true.
I just said it on a podcast and you know everything you hear on a podcast is absolutely true. Anyhow, there is a throbbing heartbeat that drives the individuals in our industry. And here on season one, episode one of banking on you, we’re going to tell you our little secret.
So what is it? What secret lifeblood courses through the veins of every long time credit union professional? What launches us out of bed every morning to face the challenges of our day? What draws us again and again to a workplace many would define as boring, maybe stale? Who wants to do math all day long, right? Yeah, not me. Just so you know, being a math genius isn’t a requirement on any job description I’ve ever seen in our industry. And I’ve seen many. So what is our little secret?
It’s inspiration. That’s right. Inspiration. We are inspired by the work we do. We are inspired by the people we help. We are inspired by the lives we see changed. Who doesn’t love being inspired, right? I’m hoping you do, because you’re going to hear from some incredibly inspiring credit union professionals. Don’t worry. They aren’t going to talk about interest rates, late fees or home equity applications. No, not even close. They… Hmm. You know, I was gonna drop a couple of hints as to what inspires these passionate people who love to surf. But no, let’s dive right into episode one of the Banking On You podcast, simply titled “Inspiration.” I’m your host, Josh Rodriguez.
Josh
First, I’d like to introduce you to Ashley Scroggins.
Ashley
So I have been with the credit union since 2011.
Just
Ashley works in marketing as our graphic design and new media specialist.
Ashley
Follow us on all the things! I always gotta throw that out there. I operate out of our Columbia brand, Tigers Community Credit Union.
Josh
Spend just a little time with Ashley and you will for sure come away inspired and probably laughing a little bit.
Ashley
And one of my favorite things about my job is representing the Credit Union in the community. Whether that’s like volunteering, conducting giveaways, being the handler for our mascot, the Tigersquirrel.
Josh
In case you’re wondering, Tigersquirrel has been the award-winning mascot of Tigers Community Credit Union for more than a decade. Let’s get back to Ashley.
Ashley
So the Credit Union has this employee-driven program called Denim for Dollar. It’s where the staff contributes to great local causes to wear jeans on Fridays. The Humane Society would be the next one to receive a donation. They’re great. Their staff is amazing. They have really cool re-homing and veterinary services and pet food assistance for foster families. It’s really cool. So my plan was like, show up with the real check, show up with the big Michael Scott check and present it for a photo op with some of their staff.
One of their volunteers was like, we have a great rescue that could be in the photo op. And I was like, yeah, bring it out. Everyone loves a picture of a pet, those always do really well on social media. And as soon as I locked eyes with this dog, we imprinted. And I just knew this dog is meant to be in my life. Immediately texted my husband a picture. He says, cute, but no. And I was like, oh, okay, well, whatever. For over a decade, my family was a two dog household. And sadly, towards the end of 2020, we had to say goodbye to my first baby, MaLady.
For a little over a year, we were adjusting to having a single dog life. And they said, well, she has an appointment later today. And if that falls through, would you like us to contact you? And I was like, well, that might be a sign. She’s already up for adoption. If she gets adopted and I don’t hear from them, no big deal. Well, I waited around all day.
Josh
I can imagine Ashley sitting at her desk, sneaking quick peeks at her phone all day long. She was totally taken by this little puppy.
Ashley
They ended up calling me and saying, it kind of fell through. Are you still interested?
Josh
So did you like, you looking at your phone all day long? You were sold, right? It was over.
Ashley
I thought about her the whole time. Oh, wow. Yeah. So they said, well, when could you come out to see her? And I was like, well, I got to pick up my kids after five. We immediately go to the Humane Society to do a meet and greet with her.
Josh
Did they know? Did the kids know you were going to do this?
Ashley
Well, no, no. I mean.
When I picked them up, was like, I have kind of a surprise. And they’re like, what is it? And I said, well, we’re going to go meet a puppy. They kind of fell in love with her instantly. And my husband couldn’t say no after that.
Josh
Bring the kids on board. And then it’s like three against one. So there’s no discussion at that point.
Ashley
We do have a joke now. I’m not allowed to go to the Humane Society for work anymore.
Josh
Little Phoebe is three years old now and is the queen of the Scroggins household.
Van
first thought she might be a normal dog, but when I saw this, she looked like the cutest dog ever.
Josh
It’s hard to argue with that. Inspiring.
Josh
Your financial journey is a story worth telling. We want to walk beside you on the path to your success. Because here at West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union, we’re banking on you.
Josh
James is our AVP of branch management. He’s a great leader. Empathetic, he thinks of members and others first. He loves to empower those he leads and believes in holding others and himself accountable.
He’s a super inspiring guy who, like our CEO, is also a huge Mizzou fan. Nick, one of our branch managers over in Columbia, is also a great leader, but doesn’t really care for the spotlight much. Here’s James.
James
So Nick and I happened to be in Columbia and we had the opportunity to go to the Fisher House, which is a place that allows housing for friends, family members to come and stay in the Columbia area because they have a family member at the VA hospital that may be receiving treatment. It gives them a place to stay right next to the hospital within walking distance of their loved one.
Josh
So Nick and James were participating in our annual all staff volunteer day. More about this later. So think of the Fisher House as a Ronald McDonald house of sorts, but serving families of veterans needing medical care instead of families with children in the hospital.
It’s actually quite an amazing idea. Well, more than just an idea, as we have one right here in Columbia, three in the state of Missouri, and there are 100 total Fisher Homes, including some in the UK and Germany. This Fisher House was only a few months old. So the team of credit union volunteers was helping out wherever they could.
James
The people who founded Fisher House said, hey, these veterans have given us their all. What can we do to help provide them additional support beyond just the VA hospital? So this gives them the ability to have them close. Pretty amazing place. So it was really cool because the Fisher House is almost brand new. So a lot of times we were able to go help paint and stuff like that, but we didn’t really need to do a lot of that. So we went from picking up cigarette butts to cleaning all the windows, cleaning the bathrooms, you know, doing just a full deep cleaner. And then we were able to move to helping out in the kitchen.
They have a full kitchen so that the people who are staying there have the ability to come downstairs and make a meal. So our team helped bake some cookies, other bakery items, pastries, stuff like that. So while all this was going on, Nick was picking the brains of the different people who were working there. “Hey, what do you envision for this place? Where do you see the Fisher House helping?” Sometimes they just want a place to sit down and play a board game.
So the more that Nick and Nolan, the assistant house manager at the Fisher House, talked, they started to go over just very simple thing like this place is awesome but if you could do one other thing what would it be and that’s when Nolan goes you know we have this beautiful patio and we have this amazing place it would still be nice to have something where we could maybe watch football games outside on the patio or do like a movie night and nick didn’t really say much is that would be super cool.
As we finished up our work, Nick found a small time where he was not needed and unbeknownst to any of us, made a phone call to one of his friends at Connection for Health in Columbia. Nick told them about the Fisher House, told them about what they’re doing, told them about how they’re helping Columbia. And the group with no questions asked said, Nick, we have a projector. Why don’t you come over and grab it, donate it to the Fisher House, and they can start showing their movies. So Nick was actually a bit late to our company lunch because he took the time to go meet with that group, pick up the projector, drive it down to the Fisher House, delivering it to Nolan, who was absolutely shocked that it happened in a matter of hours.
So it was really neat how he was able to connect all of those dots together. And at the same time, Nick being Nick, wanted nobody to know and just wanted it to happen and was definitely not looking for any sort of recognition. It actually kind of became a, we need to tell everybody this because that’s the definition of “people helping people.”
Josh
Did you know most of the school supplies in inner-city school districts are entirely depleted by the month of January? Yeah, with more than four months left in this school year, teachers often buy supplies for their classrooms to make up the shortage. That means cash directly out of their own pockets. And we all know no one is getting rich on a teacher’s salary these days. That’s where a nonprofit organization called Kids Smart steps in.
Kids Smart collects school supplies and donations allowing teachers to come free shop for their students when resources have run out. They play a vital role in the education of many underprivileged children. It’s really an incredible program.
Sarah works in our loan department as a loan servicing specialist. Now, Sarah is no stranger to volunteering. She was a Girl Scout for many years and now serves as a troop leader. Her time volunteering at Kids Smart sparked in her a new flame of inspiration.
Here’s what Sarah said. After my volunteer day at Kids Smart, I asked, what else can I do? The volunteer host and I came up with a few ideas and one of them was to host a school supply drive. Kids Smart provides the tools that our schools and teachers need to end the year strong.
Being inspired to do more, Sarah took that info to her Girl Scout troop, and they hosted a fall supply drive where they raised hundreds of dollars worth of school supplies. Now, these are first and third grade Girl Scouts. I’m sure they’re super cute, but not exactly flush with cash. Even so, they collected a ton of supplies.
Sarah’s inspiration was to show her girls firsthand what they can accomplish regardless of their background, where they live, or even their age. You can make a difference, she told them. And they did. Did I mention Kids Smart doesn’t service the school district where Sarah and her troupe are based? It didn’t matter. Sarah inspired her troupe of young Girl Scouts to find meaning beyond themselves. It’s awesome.
Jason Peach (CEO)
We everyday do our work as a creative union, does so much for our communities, but the ability to actually kind of diversify and do something a little bit different to impact the communities is really powerful. So thank you. I know there’s a lot of, you know, physical labor and today.
Josh
I know the audio isn’t the greatest in this clip here, but that’s Jason Peach, our president and CEO, the biggest Mizzou fan you’ve ever met.
He’s greeting the entire workforce of West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union.
Jason
Now we can’t even really imagine because they are doing really tough work and they really don’t have the resources and so we can make a difference. It’s powerful, so thank you.
Lori Hudson
Hopefully everyone had a chance to fill out
Josh
And that’s Lori Hudson, our Community Engagement Manager. The entire staff had spent the day volunteering at 10 different nonprofit organizations across the St. Louis and Columbia metro areas. After enjoying lunch together, by one, groups of employees will stand and report about the work they did that morning. Nothing to do with loans or accounts, debit cards or credit cards. No, they spent the morning raking leaves, walking dogs, sorting clothes, painting, scrubbing, cleaning. They work hard, they get dirty, they get stuff done and they absolutely love it. Enough from me, let’s hear directly from them.
Miranda
So we were there, we deep cleaned everything, we cooked for some of the residents that were there, we painted walls and taken out trash. It’s awesome. I’ve worked for several different companies that have said, you know, they’re trying to make the community better and the credit union is in the community helping community, giving to the community, like at every stop.
Roman
This is volunteering is not, I’m not new to it, but it’s been a while since I’ve been doing it. It feels nice, just as rewarding as it was back then.
Barbara
I’ve been in credit unions and banks for 25 plus years. This is the first company ever that has done something like this. It is, for sure, Talk about giving back to your community, you know, in a part. You know, we truly give to our community.
Yeah, I love that we’re closed for business, but we’re still out helping the community.
Ashley
We are constantly in the community. We partner with the schools here. We partner with other organizations. But the All Staff Day is really so interesting because you get to get out and co-mingle with different departments a whole lot. You really get to know your coworkers outside of a whole different atmosphere. You’re volunteering with somebody that you may not really know that well and it just like really bonds you.
A lot of people are starting to look for more now in their work, like in a career. Like you don’t want to just work for a company, you want to work for something that’s bigger than yourself.
Josh
And that’s that’s part of the West Community Tigers community culture. It’s what we are.
Ashley
We call it a commitment to our community, but also we’re committing ourselves to something. And I just I love that messaging.
Josh
You know, people helping people, right? The credit union philosophy. It’s just, it’s really cool to see a company that has created a culture of giving. See what I mean by inspiration? It’s off the charts with these credit union people. Not only are they people helping people during their workday when it comes to loans, accounts, and helping members log into their mobile app. They’re cleaning up messes and arranging donations of electronics and school supplies. It’s incredible. How did all of these efforts come together?
Well, it certainly wasn’t by accident.
Lori Hudson
I saw other organizations out doing similar things and I always thought because we were doing volunteer opportunities, how cool would that be? So I talked about it for quite a few years and people just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that’ll never happen. And then finally, you you make enough noise, somebody’s going to listen and you’re going to break through.
Josh
I sat down with Lori, the mastermind of our community efforts, and Jason to talk about the Employee Volunteer Program and the Annual Volunteer Day.
Lori
We found a federal holiday that the credit union was closed and kids are not out of school that day. So it was easier for employees. The first credit union day that we did was in 2019. It was successful. Everybody seemed to enjoy it. So we thought, hey, we’ll do it again.
Josh
In 2021, due to COVID restrictions, it just wasn’t possible. And another operational disruption occurred the very next year.
Lori
In 2022, we had our big core conversions. So we did not do any of our volunteer efforts that year.
Josh
Even so. The executive team felt our volunteer efforts were vital to the credit union operations. Our devotion to our community shouldn’t be neglected regardless of the existence of a huge internal operational project. So a pivot was necessary. Lori describes what became known as the great employee philanthropy takeover.
Lori
We had all the employees recommend different organizations that they wanted to donate to. Instead of volunteering hours, we donated money to those organizations. And each month we had a different organization that we would pick and then go out and do a donation check to. So we just had to change it up a little bit because it was important to still support the community. We brought it back in 23 and then we had another one, our fourth one here in 24.
Josh
Giving of our time and talents has become close to the heart of West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union. Not only is it inspirational, it’s life-changing.
Jason
It really motivates employees to feel part of something that’s real and impactful. And this is not just a place of work to get a paycheck. We are actually making a real difference and one of the big ways is through community engagement.
Lori
I mean, there’s some people that absolutely love volunteering and they sign up for multiple events throughout the year and then there’s other people that just don’t have the time or it’s just not part of their personal values I guess. I they’ll do it and they’re fine with it and actually once people do do that for the first time they they get bit by the bug I guess too and they find out this is really cool and I really enjoy this and these organizations are great and it’s very rewarding to help out in the community.
Jason
It fulfills kind of that promise credit unions make and West Community makes, Tigers Community in Columbia, to serve its members. It goes beyond making a loan or helping somebody save money, the traditional ways through banking services. We can do so much more. Our ability to reach into the community. We serve members of our community. We employ members of our community. This directly impacts our ability to have a better community.
Josh
During our employee volunteer workday in 2024, West Community and Tigers Community team member serves 10 different nonprofits across the St. Louis and Columbia metro areas. Year round, we serve dozens of great organizations. And over the years of our volunteer program, we have served hundreds.
Jason
That’s very rewarding. And that really feels fulfilling. I mean, it really is at the center of the heart of the organization. And I’m proud of what we do.
Josh
Let me sum it all up in one word. Inspiration.
Josh
Thanks so much for listening to the Banking on You podcast. Be sure to follow us on all the socials at Banking on You pod. For show notes and additional information, visit our website, bankingonyoupodcast.com. Let’s not forget about our incredible team. This wouldn’t be possible without you. JD Sutter is our producer and Gandalf of sound design. Graciously enduring all of my speaking errors with our studio engineer, Dave Powell. You’re a patient man, Dave.
Huge thanks to our marketing and branding team led by Kimberly Berzack, Ashley and Brian, you guys rock. The Banking on You podcast theme was composed by none other than Russ Whitelock. Thanks, Russ. Our executive producers are Jason Peach and Koren Greubel. The Banking on You podcast is powered by West Community and Tigers Community Credit Union. And I’m your host, Josh Rodriguez. Until next time, remember, we’re banking on you.
