Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 11

96 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 11 and we have speakers come in on relevant topics of interest, and each committee puts on their own annual seminar or one-day conference. “Our affiliated company, Bankers Cooperative Group (BCG), is in the employee benefits brokerage business. So, BCG acts as a broker for over 50 members of NJBankers for the health insurance needs of those members. They can also get dental insurance, long-term care insurance – a wide variety of employee benefits. We’re able to negotiate more favorable rates for these insurance policies than members could on their own and enhance the benefits they can offer their employees. “Through our associate members, we take the relationship a step further, where we’ll endorse the service of a particular member that we feel is exceptional in their field. We’ll provide their services to association members, usually at a discounted rate. If the associate company is successful, they’ll share that success with the association – that helps us generate revenues and also helps our members serve their customers.” BVM: How do you promote the New Jersey banking industry? McWeeney: “We serve as the voice of the industry and represent the industry with the media and public relations, as we are with this article. We try to get our bankers involved whenever it’s appropriate. Often, we’ll respond to media inquiries – during the pandemic there were a lot of questions about whether the banks were open or closed, what was going on with the PPP program, things like that. So, we do our best to make sure the industry is represented well in the public arena, to tell the industry story. “We’re very much a member-driven organization. We’re governed by bankers, so everything we do is with their best interests in mind, and we rely on them for their guidance and input. When different groups within the banks. This past year, we pivoted and just about everything was virtual. We’re now going back to some in-person events, but we will retain some of the virtual events because they were successful. We have a leadership development program for emerging leaders, as well. “We also have 25+ committees for different disciplines within banks. That includes human resources, chief financial officer, commercial lending, enterprise risk management, and many more. Those committees allow our members at the upper or middle management levels to network with their peers. They meet quarterly