Returns are Many with These Investments
“IT DOESN’T HAVE to be all about us, you know,” said Robert Hart, SunState Federal Credit Union’s vice president of marketing. “When you help somebody, it comes back.”
Under Hart’s direction, SunState takes advertising dollars and leverages them into projects that help the community. The not-for-profit institution pursues a singular philosophy. “It may be idealistic,” said Hart, veteran of 12 years with SunState, “but we’re a community credit union. We’re supposed to be here for the community and the people in it.”
That philosophy has quietly and steadily propelled the seven-branch credit union from its infancy in 1957 with 10 charter members employed by the USDA and $50 in assets to a 24,000- member credit union with assets of more than $130 million.
Hart invests some of those assets in education.
Since early 2004, some teachers, students and administrators at Mebane Middle School in Alachua have been preparing for the town’s 100th anniversary with a SunState-sponsored school writing project. It culminates in the July Fourth publication of a heritage magazine inserted into the pages of Alachua County Today. Together with a compilation of student articles, and others written by members of the community, the insert will profile Alachua’s past. The school project is unique to the county, said Hart, who developed a similar and ongoing program in Columbia County that schools administrators there have told him helped improve student FCAT scores.
“We have no data on our FCAT scores yet,” said Courtney Mitchell, media specialist at Alachua’s Mebane, who lauds the writing project as valuable for enhancing student writing skills and teaching them the valuable art of interviewing. Together with principal Chet Sanders and two Mebane teachers, Mitchell has been at the core of the eight-grade writing project the school has dubbed Alachua Heritage.
“It’s been such a huge boost for the kids,” she said. Singly and collectively, the eighth-graders interviewed grandparents and grandparent-substitutes from the community to get an older perspective on growing up in Alachua County. “It’s great for the students to get a respect for the past and the lessons that older people can teach us,” she said. The resulting articles were submitted to Alachua County Today, which published one story a week in the community newspaper serving the northern part of the county.
“SunState provided us the opportunity, and we took it,” said Mitchell “We’re always open to things that help the kids be better in any way they can. They got to meet with adults, they also got published, and they had their photograph taken.” In addition, she said, Conestoga Restaurant provided each student writer with a $20 gift certificate.
SunState’s Hart calls it “a great, hometown-type project.” It not only motivates students to write, he said, but it gets children to interact with their grandparents and assures older adults of their continued value. “On many different levels,” he said, “it’s done a lot for the community. Kids love it, parents love it, teachers love it.”
SunState Federal continues to serve the educational needs of the area. Hart and his staff are laying the foundation for creating the SunState Community Foundation, a separate 50l(c)3 entity, says Hart that will funnel grant moneys into development of community literacy programs funded initially through the credit union. His first foundation project? “Financial literacy,” said Hart. “That’s really important. Hopefully, with a program like this, we can save some of our young people who are graduating and going out into the world from ruining their credit and going down that financial hole. We’re just trying to help,” he said simply.
Hart hopes that other people do, too. For as little as $25, he said, anyone can join the SunState Federal Credit Union and become a community partner. Through membership moneys, the credit union develops and sponsors a range of programs that benefit community members of all ages.
“Educating our credit union members about secure banking and identity theft is also something that we do,” said Hart. “We’ve spent a lot of resources trying to protect them.”
Hart suggests that people choose a single, secure outlet for all their loans and other finances and stick with it. “It’s easier to do business because people know you there,” Hart said. “Consolidate. If something goes wrong, you know right where to go, and there’s less chance of stuff floating around.” Online banking, said Hart, is more secure than banking in person and leaving paper trails.
SunState, said Hart, provides secure, online home banking. “That’s where the e-statements reside, that’s where the check copies reside, that’s where all your balances are,” he said. “All your accounts are right there.” Credit union members can also apply for a SunState loan online, make VISA payments online, transfer funds and get loan advances the same way.
“We provide a secure environment,” said Hart. “We even have secure messaging. You can send messages to us online and we can respond without anyone else knowing your business. You go through a lock at the bottom of the screen, not through regular Internet lines.” As long as the lock remains closed, said Hart, you know there’s no one interfering.
Hart cautions that consumers should also choose their ATMs carefully. “Stay away from dark, poorly lit places,” he warns. “Check to see that the area is clear. At our main office in Gainesville, for example, you’ll notice that we don’t have high bushes around. There’s no place close for a person to hide. In fact,” he said, “you can see right around the corner.”
It’s that kind of clear vision that propels the people at SunState Federal to develop programs that benefit not only credit union membership but the community at large. G
Visit SunState Federal Credit Union at any of seven locations to find out more about the institution’s community involvement, security measures and employment opportunities.