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In our continuing series of FCFCU Center Managers, we have a chat with Veronica Ramirez.

Veronica manages our Downtown Center that is located inside the federal building. She started with Financial Center in February 2008. After making my way through federal security, I sat down with Veronica to have a chat.

Eric: What was the last movie that made you cry?

Veronica: Stepmom - You know the one with Jennifer Roberts.

Do you mean Julia Roberts? 

Oh yeah. It is an emotional roller coaster! Bring a tissue!

What do you like about fall?

Trees changing, apple cider, pumpkin carving, camp fires, and friends. But, I dread Winter. Dirty and slushy snow is so gross! I was born in Merriville, Indiana, and I don’t like the cold.

Why are you so cool?

I have a dog with a mohawk! That’s cool. And I get along with everyone because I think I’m a nice person.

What is the best birthday present you ever received?

My car! When I graduated college my car quit and my Dad gave me a birthday/graduation present. It is a black Saturn Aura and it is much prettier than my ’97 Ford Taurus wagon that always broke down.

What is it like to work in the federal building? 

I love it! I have my own staff of body guards! You get to know the people that make the government run. I also like my parking pass and my employees, Missy and Victor, are very entertaining. We see many of the same members and I’ve built a very good relationship with them. I really enjoy it here.

Did you follow a boy band when you were a little girl?

(big laugh) Well yeah, didn’t everybody? Backstreet Boys. Nick Carter is my boy! My Mom is so cool, she took me to the concert in Chicago. It was awesome! I had books on them.

Scary.

What was your worst subject in high school?

History, but who needs to know history when you have Google?

What activities were you involved in during high school?

I was a flag girl in Color Guard. I was definitely not athletic. I played the clarinet in the band, but I wasn’t a nerd! Don’t make me look like a nerd, Eric! I’m really a cool kid!

Is there someone (other than the executives-which we all admire) that you admire at the Credit Union?

Beth Briggs! She is going to crack up at this, but she is so good at finding answers and is extremely polite. She is the absolute best at follow up. I love it when I need her help! 

I have to agree.  Beth is great!

Watch a lot of TV?

Nope, about 3 hours per week. Grey’s Anatomy is my show. I can’t sit still for very long, and I’m not allowed to control the remote. I flip stations too much! 

Are you a gambler?

Not so much. My boyfriend says that I am bad luck for gambling. He won’t buy lotto tickets when I am in the car with him. I’m not great at games, so I think it is better that I don’t play games that I can lose money playing. 

What do you find gross?

Spiders! Creepy and crawly and just gross! I don’t have an issue with stomping on them, but then I feel really bad.

Thank you for being such a good sport! 

In our continuing series of FCFCU Center Managers, we have a chat with Haylee Teeple.

She manages our student-run Center at the J. Everett Light Career Center on the North Central High School campus. Haylee has been with us since June 2008 and she joins us today for an interview.

Eric: Haylee, thanks for the time. Are you a Hoosier? 

Haylee: Yep, Anderson, Middletown, Pendleton High School, and Ball State.

Will you tell me two true things about you and one lie in random order. We’ll try and pick the lie.

My nickname in high school was Skippy.  I’m going to run the mini marathon. I hate reading.

Who was your favorite childhood celebrity? 

Madonna was my first favorite album.

What is your favorite store? 

Kroger! I mean Kohl’s. I like a lot of stores. (Singing) Let’s go Krogering.

If you were stranded on an island what three things would you want?

My Husband, a set of knives, and matches. 

What word describes you? 

Genuine

If you were an animal which animal would you be? 

A lion! I could protect my family and I would be the top of the food chain!

Would you bungee jump? 

Yes, but I would puke my guts out.  And, I wouldn’t parachute out of a plane…

What is the difference?

I don’t know…I just wouldn’t.

What would you do if you won $10 million? 

Oh, man!  I would start a not-for-profit to help needy families, pay off my debts, invest (at FCFCU), buy a fabulous boat, vacation home, a lake house, and cars too. Oh my, I wish I really had won!

Tell me about the first time you did public speaking.  

I won a medal for the best speech in our 9^th grade speech class. It was on flag burning. The next thing I knew I was up on stage in front of the whole school, the local VFW, and my mom!  I was so nervous and just like many speakers it was bad for the first minute and then I just kind of kicked it in and did fine. 

What is your greatest moment?

Being a mommy, a mentor to the kids here, a wife, and just overall helping people.

What radio station do you listen to?  

99.5. Smiley is the man!

What is your favorite TV show? 

Big Brother. I know I know, but it is terribly addicting.

On a scale of 1-10 rank yourself as a chef? 

7. No, a 6.  Not gourmet, but good. My staple is shepherds pie. It is yummy!

What makes FCFCU the best credit union in the nation?    

The commitment to the members is what we all work for and we take that very seriously. We really do want to do the best for our members.  Our involvement in the community and the financial education of our youth really makes us stand out. 

Did you know that FCFCU has 3 student branches in local high schools?  Did you know that these branches educate our local teenagers in banking and personal finance?  These branches were also cited as one of the reasons that your credit union won Federal Credit Union of the Year!

This series will take a look at the many faces of our award winning credit union and let you in on what makes these people incredibly special. First up in the series is Isaac Gaidoo.

Isaac Gaidoo, Park 100 center manager

 Isaac thanks for joining us and for your 4.5 years of service to the members.

1. If we saw you on a Saturday at the Home Depot what would you be wearing? Blue shorts-a Miami Dolphins t-shirt-and sandals- no hat. You wouldn’t recognize me.
2. Do you have any phobias? Yes…Dishwater! I don’t do dishes, the floating food grosses me out! Man that is gross!     Isaac, they have dishwashing machines now.
3. Where were you born? Cape Coast, Ghana. I moved to Canada when I was 3 and then 7 other US States before settling in IN.
4. What is your earliest memory? Flying into Canada and seeing the lights on the ground…it was amazing to see all of the lights of Western Civilization.  
5. Role Model?   Gandhi.
6. If you were an animal what kind would you be? Definitely a Tiger. Why? Huge and Strong and you wouldn’t want to mess with a Tiger. What will people think of that? Hmm                   
7. Do you have any hidden talents? I used to be a rock solid tennis player…used to be that is. 
8. Where did you go to school? Several places but I graduated from Indiana Wesleyan and Kelley School of Business. Currently I’m working on my MBA at Kelley. Physics was my favorite subject in school.
9. Have you ever won a trophy? Many trophies…but my last one was in high school and I won 2^nd place in an indoor shot putt competition. 
10.  What was your favorite band while you were in middle school? RUN DMC Favorite DMC song? It’s Tricky…tricky tricky tricky tricky huhhh!
11.  When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Dr. Gaidoo
12.  If you could have a super power what would you choose? I’d fly! I think about that often. Is it strange that I think about that a lot…    Yes it is Isaac..
13.  Can you eat hot foods! Love it hot! In Ghana people eat with a wet towel on their shoulders so they can wipe the hot spices off of their hands so they don’t get it in their eyes. The hotter the better!
14.  What do you like best about our members? The kinship with members and how they are so friendly to me and the staff.
15.  What is your favorite story about helping a member? Recently I had a member who was looking to buy a car. All of the prices he was getting on the market were too high for his budget. He was in my office talking to me when I realized that the CU just had a repo for the same kind of car he wanted. We were able to sell him the car and save the member about $10K. It was great for the CU and for the Member. 
16.  What is your favorite credit union activity? Helping out with the member education classes. It is fun to help members learn.

Thank you Isaac. So what we have learned here is that you are a RUN DMC loving Gandhi mixed with a flying Tiger that is afraid of dishwater…that explains everything and absolutely nothing. You are an interesting fellow.  Thank you for being a good sport.

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The features of the transfer options in Financial Center Online allow even complex transfer instructions to be managed by the member. Offered to all members by Finance Center, an Indianapolis Credit Union.

A unique transfer offered by Financial Center Online is the Automated Distribution. This Account Service Center is a specialized transfer that allows members to distribute Direct Deposit funds among their accounts at the time they are posted to the account. This is a utility that some institutions have available to their teller staff, but is seldom offered as a member self-service tool. This handy feature prevents the member from having to workout these arrangements with their employer’s HR staff, or from having to create the distribution instructions using other available transfer tools.

A specialized feature of this transfer is the transfer amount for a loan can the Payment Due, or Payment Plus an addition amount. These features allow the payment amount to vary with altering conditions in a loan that would alter its payment amount (advances on lines of credit, balloon payments, re-amortization at rate change, etc.).

An example could be: a member is paid bi-weekly and has self-directed that $500 be placed in Savings, $600 be placed in Money Market, $300 is paid on an auto loan, and the remainder is placed in the checking account.

Recurring transfers is a calendar based transfer option. Within this Account Service Center there is a short list of calendar dates for transfers. These Transfers work like the Automated Distribution – multiple distributions can be selected for these Monthly transfers and Payment and Payment Plus can be used. One draw back to this transfer is that only one funding source may be selected for each listed date. Each item in the list of distributions for a date source can have its own Start and End date.

A specialized item on the Recurring Transfer list is Loan Due Date. This transfer executes the configured transfer(s) on any loan’s due date.

Scheduled Transfer allows the selection of a start-date, frequency, and end date for a transfer from one account to another. Accessed from the Personal Finance Center, this transfer function offers the flexibility of selecting any date, a variety of frequencies, and multiple funding sources. A draw back to this transfer option is it does not offer the distribution option. Distributions can be created but they are created as one-to-one transfers. Scheduled transfer does not support the “variable” payment amount, discussed above, for loans but does default to the current payment amount when transferring to a loan. The Frequency selection allows these transfers to be either recurring or one-time future-dated transfers.

One-time Transfer executes one-time transfers between accounts. This is exactly the same functionality as the Scheduled Transfer, except it executes upon submission and does not reoccur.

The first piece of this puzzle is determining what events and thresholds should trigger a notification. This notification will alert that action may be necessary in an account. Both balance and transaction thresholds should be used to monitor and manage account balances. Balance thresholds notify that a transfer may be required. Transaction thresholds notify when predicted or unusual activity has occurred in the account.

To manage account balances you need to know when an account has excess funds and when an account no longer has sufficient funds. The selection of the threshold amounts is based on a variety of factors.

• What are the regular deposit frequency(s) and amount(s)?
• What are the regular withdraw frequency(s) and amounts(s)?
• What are the minimum balances for the accounts?
• What minimum balances should be kept in the accounts?
• Are there any critical bills (mortgage payment) that auto-debit the accounts?

For the checking account we need real-time alerts when:

• A transaction takes my checking account balance below a set dollar amount.
• A deposit occurs that is larger than a set dollar amount.
• A withdraw occurs that is larger than a set dollar amount
• A transaction takes my account balance over a set dollar amount.

Most of the same alert notifications (with different dollar thresholds) are setup on both the savings and money market accounts. All these alert types are supported in Financial Center Online.

These alerts keep you informed about your balances so you can monitor and take action when necessary.

1. Track every expense.
2. Vacation in the off-season.
3. Cut out investment charges and fees.
4. Cut back on eating out.
5. Downsize your car.
6. Cut utility bills, especially electricity.
7. Make sure you don't have too much insurance.
8. Find cheaper beverages to drink.
9. Examine your phone service.
10.  Stop paying for premium cable.
11.  Drive less and consolidate trips.
12.  Use warehouse stores wisely.
13.  Lay down the law with your free-spending friends.
14.  Find free entertainment.
15.  Consider alternatives to gym membership.
16.  Cut your own lawn. 
17.  Be smart with credit cards.
18.  Annualize your expenses.
19.  Force yourself to save.
20.  Institute a waiting period for major purchases.
21.  Pay bills online. Save on stamps and avoid late fees.
22.  Make sure you're deducting all business expenses.
23.  Buy generic drugs and groceries.
24.  Buy used.
25.  Shop smart.

One of our service promises at the credit union is to make it easy to do business with us. Keeping that in mind, here are some useful tips on how to drive in snow and ice to ensure that you get to our Centers safely this Winter.

• Decrease your speed and leave yourself plenty of room to stop. You should allow at least three times more space than usual between you and the car in front of you.
• Brake gently to avoid skidding. If your wheels start to lock up, ease off the brake.
• Turn on your lights to increase your visibility to other motorists.
• Keep your lights and windshield clean.
• Use low gears to keep traction, especially on hills.
• Don't use cruise control or overdrive on icy roads.
• Be especially careful on bridges, overpasses and infrequently traveled roads, which will freeze first. Even at temperatures above freezing, if the conditions are wet, you might encounter ice in shady areas or on exposed roadways like bridges.
• Don't pass snow plows. The drivers have limited visibility, and you're likely to find the road in front of them worse than the road behind.
• Don't assume your vehicle can handle all conditions. Even four-wheel and front-wheel drive vehicles can encounter trouble on winter roads.

Source: www.weather.com

If you're unable to get loan from your current bank due to the current economic situtation, Financial Center can help.

We are prepared to help you get your next auto loan, home equity line of credit, mortgage or credit card.

If you live, work, worship, attend school or volunteer in Indianapolis or Marion County, you can join Financial Center. We are a local credit union that is committed to your community that you can trust to keep your money safe.

Apply online today for your next loan at www.fcfcu.com.