A dear friend of mine once said:

The person in a relationship with the least amount of interest has the most power. 

He said this 10 years ago in reference to the power shift that was occurring with the internet. The example he used was his first home loan. Before the world wide web, the mortgage company had all the power. You dressed up to meet with the loan officer. You said “Yes ma’am,” and “No ma,am,” and did not call them – you were told “We will call you.” 

Pretty quickly you could get a mortgage loan on your cell phone while charging you dinner on your VISA card tied to your current home’s equity line that exceeded the value by 10%. Not a great idea and clearly the root cause of the economic crisis we’re in – but I digress.

In marketing – the power has shifted. And some credit unions not only get that, they are leveraging it in amazing ways. 

Two such credit unions are in the same marketplace. Seattle, Washington. Both are amazing women who have harnessed a cause and are bringing like minded member/owners together. They’re done assuming what they think their members want, and instead are letting them take control. 

I’m so proud to know Shari Storm and Jill Vicente. 

They win the Best Practice Award of the decade for Verity Mom and the simple but elegant continuing education of the 7 Cooperative Principles.

The best practice I’m referring to is Web 2.0. Making that giant leap from the electronic brochure website to providing and hosting space for others to define. They are shifting from spending thousands of dollars on printing material that quickly becomes outdated (encyclopedia/brochures) to providing that same information and saving tress (Encarta/website) to letting others own it (Wikipedia/Verity Mom). 

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Now that’s cooperation!