Business View Magazine | December 2020

200 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 seminars but they are always held in Merced at the Main Branch in the training room. The goal is to have a room that our members on the west side of the county could enjoy and have seminars closer to them. The west side area where our branch is located is about 45 miles from the Main Branch. It would be nice to have a facility where our members could enjoy some of the things that members on this side of the county are enjoying.” It’s through community-oriented initiatives that the Merced School Employees Federal Credit Union has thrived, and community is at the heart of the institution’s brand. “We are a family,” Deavours says. “A person spends more of their waking hours at work than they do any other place else. And so we celebrate with our families. We mourn with our families. The employees know that we’re all in this together, that we will always be here for them. We have such longevity at our credit union with our employees. Every year at our annual meeting we recognize employees who are celebrating a five- year milestone. This last year we celebrated 10 employees who had worked with us anywhere from five years to 45 years. Of those ten employees, the number of years of service with the credit union was 225 years – an average of 22.5 years being a credit union employee. That speaks to the fact that MSEFCU is a great place to work. Not only do we have beautiful working conditions, we have an awesome, amazing board that stays in tune with what is going on.” To that point, the Board of Directors have instituted a program for Associate Directors which enables two members to gain experience into the processes and practices of the board before possibly being elected to the board proper. They act just like a board member; they attend board meetings, planning sessions, and outside activities. They can discuss the items that are presented at the board meeting. They just don’t have a vote. But this gives them the opportunity to see how the credit union runs. If at some future time there was an opening, and