Supporting the Vancity Community Foundation.

One area of Vancity that I’m excited to get more involved with is the Vancity Community Foundation. I didn’t have much to do with the Foundation until fairly recently when I chose them to receive the donation made in my name when I was named GonzoBanker of the Month back in March.

And then recently, I went to their 20th anniversary celebration, and was in awe of what they accomplish in our communities every day. Brave, inspiring work that reminded me of all the reasons I work at Vancity.

Here are those videos, and I urge you to check them out.

Community Stories
20th Anniversary
Donor Stories

I have written before that one of the main things I love about doing what I do at Vancity is that it is an organization whose presence would be sorely missed by many in our area if it were to disappear. It is an organization that matters, which is not a sense I’ve ever had about the companies I’ve ever worked for before. It is a profound thing.

I’ll be writing more about the Vancity Community Foundation soon, we’re about to launch a very cool way to support their work.

Honoured and amazed…

The Top 10 People of 2009As I was getting ready for work this morning, I looked at my computer a little bleary-eyed and saw this tweet from Jeff Stephens. It was a nice way to start the day.

A few weeks back, Bank Technology News told me I had been named one of the top 10 innovators of 2009. I was humbled, kind of in disbelief, honoured and thrilled.

Today, they published The Top 10 People of 2009. I netted out in the coveted number 2-3-4 spot, along with Aaron Patzer of mint.com and Jeff Carter, CEO of azigo.com and co-founder of the Center for Future Banking at MIT’s Media Lab.

Bank Technology News wrangled us together on a conference call and published this story: Where Innovation Is, and Isn’t, in Retail Banking.

So, I guess this constitutes a good day…

See what’s bubbling up on the CU Water Cooler.

One of my fellow credit union bloggers, Matt Davis (otherwise known as the Credit Union Warrior) recently approached me with the idea of a site where 12 credit union champions would surface relevant, inspiring and forward-looking online content for the rest of the CU world. It was an intriguing concept and I was truly honoured to be among the initial people he approached.

Well give the guy like 10 days and he’s gone from running the idea past us to launching the damn thing.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the CU Water Cooler, bubbling up the best credit union content.

The site is simple. The 12 editors each tag content on delicious, and the site aggregates it all together. There will also be blog posts and radio shows, where we touch on issues affecting credit unions. Matt’s initial post sums it all up way better than I ever could.

Major kudos to Matt for making this happen. I can see this is the start of amazing things Matt will do now that he’s
joined Filene to help credit unions across the globe learn about, implement, and create financial services innovations. Pretty cool stuff.

Check it out, bookmark it, follow it on Twitter, subscribe to the feed and join in the conversation.

PS: Sorry it’s been two whopping months since my last post. I blame it on lots of activity, both professional and personal. Leave a comment to let me know you’re still reading…