Skip to main content

Part IV - 5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Speaking in 2012.

Don't fall into the Power Point Triangle of Death! I have seen so many speakers, even confident, highly paid speakers, talk to their slides instead of the audience. It’s a dead giveaway that **** Part IV 5 Quick Ways to Improve Your Speaking in 2012.:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Honoring Our Member Credit Unions Ranked Among the Top 100 in 2025

Celebrating Excellence: Honoring Our Member Credit Unions Ranked Among the Top 100 in 2025   Best-performing US credit unions of 2025 At NCOFCU, we take immense pride in the strength, resilience, and impact of our member credit unions. Today, we are thrilled to recognize and celebrate several of our members who have earned a place among the Top 100 Best Performing Credit Unions of 2025 —a testament to their unwavering commitment to service, financial stewardship, and community leadership. This achievement is not just about rankings—it reflects the daily dedication to members, the trust built within communities, and the innovation that continues to drive our movement forward. 🌟 Our Honored Members We proudly congratulate the following institutions for their outstanding performance: #7 – Long Beach Firemen's Credit Union A remarkable top-10 finish that highlights exceptional operational excellence and member value. Long Beach Firemen’s CU continues to set a high bar for perform...

Fire Police City County FCU rebrands to reflect company growth

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – A federal credit union with a long history in the Fort Wayne area is changing its name to something that the company said Tuesday reflects its ability to serve a larger sector. Fire Police City County Federal Credit Union, founded in 1933, will go by Summit Choice Credit Union starting in April. Members and locals will start to notice new signage and aesthetic changes at each branch throughout the month. The rebranding does not affect the credit union’s structure, ownership, or member accounts, according to the news release. Summit Choice Credit Union remains a member-owned financial cooperative, governed by the same principles and operated by the same team.  Its website  reminds members that new cards are being issued due to the rebranding. The credit union was originally formed for the families of local firefighters. Today, it serves employees of more than 350 local businesses around greater Fort Wayne. “Adopting the name Summit Choice Credi...

The United States at 250: How the Country Has Changed in the Past 50 Years

  In July, the United States will celebrate its 250th anniversary. The country’s last major milestone was 50 years ago, at its bicentennial on July 4, 1976. U.S. society has changed profoundly since then. Over the past five decades, the U.S. population has  aged significantly,  with the percentage of people 65 and older nearly doubling. The country has also become  more racially and ethnically diverse,  as growing shares of people identify as Asian or Hispanic. And following more than 70 million immigrant arrivals, the percentage of  foreign-born people  in the population has more than tripled.  Americans are also  less likely to be married  than ever before. Women – who now have far more options outside of the home than they did in 1976 – have contributed to a  boom in higher education  and helped  expand the workforce.  And even though many Americans are financially better off than they were 50 years ago,  econ...

Sunday Reading - Landmine Rat Honored

  Landmine Rat Honored   Cambodia unveiled the world’s first statue honoring a landmine-detecting rat (w/photo) Friday. Magawa the rat lived to 8 years old and identified more than 100 landmines and other explosives from 2016 to 2021.  There are more than 100 African pouched rats deployed in landmine detection operations across the world. To identify mines, the rats are trained to sniff out explosive compounds like trinitrotoluene, or TNT. (The rats are not heavy enough to trigger detonation.) In Cambodia, up to 6 million landmines remain undiscovered, most planted during three decades of conflict, from the Vietnam War era through Cambodia's civil war . Since 1979, roughly 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia, and roughly 40,000 wounded as a result of the mines. Magawa cleared more than ...

Several CU Economists Envision More Rate Increases This Year After Wednesday's Historic Hike

The Federal Reserve raised rates by 75 basis points Wednesday, citing robust job gains, low unemployment and inflation. The Federal Open Market Committee’s unanimous agreement on the increase was on par with economists’ expectations, and followed a 75-bps increase in June that was the largest increase in 30 years. The committee raised its target range for the federal funds rate to 2.25% to 2.50%, and expects it to rise to 3.25% to 3.5% by year’s end. CUNA Senior Economist Dawit Kebede said the Fed’s 75-bps hike puts the federal funds rate at a neutral 2.25% to 2.50%, but its plan to increase its rates another percentage point by the end of the year also raises the risk of recession. NAFCU Chief Economist Curt Long said the Fed was responding to “the hottest inflation numbers in 40 years,” but softening in the economy might lead it to raise rates by a smaller amount when it next meets Sept. 20-21. Mike Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association, sa...

Where are your children banking?

  Grant Sheehan CCUE | CCUP | CEO, NCOFCU The B reach  Between Purpose and Experience Just recently, I came across a story that has stayed with me. It wasn’t dramatic in the traditional sense. There was no scandal, no crisis, no headline-grabbing failure. In fact, it was something much quieter than that. It was simply the story of an eighteen-year-old leaving his credit union. On the surface, that might not sound remarkable. Young people move their money frequently. They open new accounts, experiment with apps, follow trends, and often make financial decisions influenced by the digital tools at their disposal. But this story was different. This young man had been a credit union member since he was a few weeks old, as many credit unions do. His mother has spent her career working inside the credit union movement as an executive. For eighteen years, his financial life was connected to a credit union. If anyone might be expected to remain a lifelong member, it wou...

Employers should take note, as company culture starts with professional development.

Employees and employers alike may have thought they understood company culture, and likely did until recently. Coming to work, knowing company values, interacting with others are all no brainers when it comes to the driving forces that make up company culture. Buy a seismic shift is occurring on two fronts. One, various generations are working together in multiple industries and two; the pandemic has changed attitudes about where work can occur and how that may or may not affect culture. The Linkedin Global Trends 2022 report says more freedom to work where and when employees want, as well as attention to wellbeing, are important demands employers need to consider. Consider the numbers: when picking a new job, 63% of professionals put work-life balance as the top priority. Sixty percent are interested in compensation and benefits and 40% say the colleagues and culture they will be working with are their top priorities. Employers should take note as company culture starts with profess...

Fed Gets Green Light for Interest Rate Cuts as Unemployment Rate Jumps to 4-Year High

The Federal Reserve is now seen as likely to   cut interest rates   multiple times before the end of the year, following another weak jobs report that showed unemployment jumping to a four-year high. The U.S. economy added just 22,000 jobs in August, less than economists had expected, the  Bureau of Labor Statistics  reported Friday. The unemployment rate rose to 4.3%, up slightly from 4.2% in July but hitting the highest level seen since October 2021, when the economy was still recovering from pandemic-driven layoffs. Although the new jobs report was troubling news for the economy, for prospective homebuyers with secure jobs it likely means further easing in  mortgage rates  in the days to come. Mortgage rates hinge primarily on the yields of  10-year Treasury notes , which plunged Friday to their lowest level since early April, when President  Donald Trump 's Liberation Day tariff announcement sparked panic in financial markets. It signals furth...

Long-Stalled Credit Card Competition Act Moves Forward In Senate Clarity Act Markup

WASHINGTON—A long-stalled bipartisan push to boost competition in the credit card market moved closer to becoming law late Friday, as Sens. Roger Marshall (R-KS) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) advanced a new amendment attached to the Senate Agriculture Committee’s markup of the Digital Asset Market Structure and Investor Protection Act, commonly known as the Clarity Act. Dick Durbin The amendment, a core component of the long-debated Credit Card Competition Act, would prohibit major credit-card networks and large issuing banks from enforcing network exclusivity on credit cards. Supporters argue the measure would expand transaction-routing competition, weaken the dominance of the largest payment networks, and reduce swipe fees that merchants say inflate consumer prices. The renewed momentum reflects President Trump’s recent backing of efforts to rein in credit card costs, a shift that has altered the political trajectory of legislation that has struggled to advance in prior Congresses. With Tru...

USPS Defends Banking Pilot, While Opponents Call It Illegal

  By David Baumann - July 11, 2022 Program has faced opposition from the outset, including from credit union groups, and has struggled to gain real traction. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) argued this week that the controversial pilot program it is operating i...