 Good day. Welcome to this hour of little broadcast in honour and recognition of the annual credit union week, month actually, and we are the members of the Senusia Workers' Credit Union with me. I have the president, Mr. Peter Lewis, and a board director, Mr. Ariel Branford. Just for some history, the Senusia Workers' Credit Union was first organised in 1982 by a group of persons who at the time worked with cable and wireless. They were looking for a way to get the maximum benefit, financial benefit, benefit for their workers. At this time, I just want to put in a little plug to recognise those persons who contributed and sometimes may go, you know, un-celebrated. Persons like Norbert Wilson, Carly Manuel, to name a few. And as we go through the programme, we will name others. At this time, I just want to direct some questions. Well, not questions, but to invite Mr. Lewis, first of all, to speak about the credit union. The credit union this year is 36 years old, and of course it's a journey from what we know the credit union started with from a briefcase. And so those guys came together and they put their monies, they took a chance and they got other persons to put in their money and to take a chance. So 63 persons from the organisation where they worked put their money in and they operated with a briefcase and a stamp, right? So 36 years later, you have come in. And so we would like you to sort of bring us up to date. Yes, because then at the first financial statement, they were worth $426. Okay, so you have to give us the figures and tell us. Well, first of all, let me express our deepest gratitude to myself, Mr. Branford, and even for you being here at this period of credit union month 2019. While you were going through the whole history of the credit union, I could not help but recognise that though we're not operating in a briefcase anymore, we are all still putting into that briefcase. To look at it and figure it was $100 and something dollars then, if we go back because we celebrated our 36th annual general meeting some months ago, and so it would mean that the organisation is 37 years old. To put that in context, we are still filling the briefcase, just that we don't have a physical briefcase anymore. We have bank accounts, and we now operate out of what I like to, and Mr. Branford knows I see. We now operate on what is one of the most historical pieces of real estate in St. Lucia, just off from the Derrick Walkout Square. Okay, you jump in and get the saloon, so you want the journey from... No, no, no, no, I'm going to get to that. But what happened is that these 63 persons, albeit they came together and they started the organisation, and they were able to get people to recognise the value of pulling resources together for the benefit of everybody. And that in principle is really what a credit union is. It is built on the precepts of cooperation, on democracy, one man, one vote, on the concept that we are going to manage our resources to the benefit of everyone. And so after this organisation started to grow, undoubtedly it opened up to other entities, and you had people from other organisations joining until the point where it actually went open, it opened its boundaries. And so now we have persons, once you're over 18 years of age and you are a saloon, you can become a member of St Lucia Workers Credit Union. We also have products where we have the next generation we like to call them, which would be the children of members coming in to become members in what we call the young dreamers account. So now our membership stands proudly at a little over 10,000 members, so 63 has become 10,000 and 100 and something dollars has become well over 60 million. So that's pretty much it in a nutshell. Okay, so earlier on I named a few of the stalwarts who started and they were the first board of the St Lucia Workers Credit Union. And at this time I just want to call out Timothy Augustine, Randolph Quinlan, Denison Paris, Carly Manuel, Norbert Wilson, Thomas Ernest, George Louis, Joseph Sandiford and Fred Walcott. And at this time we want to say thank you to those individuals who had the foresight to actually set about to establish the St Lucia Workers Credit Union from $126 to Mr. President. Sixty plus million. Great. So as a board member from a governance standpoint, can you tell the viewers what it is, the vision of this board, what the board has been able to set about to do, to take what has had to be done, to take us from, first of all we were in Conway, then Grass Street and now like you say Price Real Estate on the Derrick-Walkett Square. But of course you didn't just get up one day and we're at Derrick-Walkett Square, right? So you know just to give us an understanding of the dream and how we came from Conway to Derrick-Walkett Square. Okay. Again you know I say this and I'm humble to speak of this because like I've said to other directors and Mr. Branford is here with me to attest the fact that we grow from strength to strength because young people are coming in to develop the organization and I came in just as young as Mr. Branford initially and have been tutored in the business of credit unions and what has happened is that with the growth of the organization you needed a secretariat. So the organization moved to the Union Hall based at Conway. That building still stands and it's in the center of that CDC complex. So we had an office there. The organization again more members, more need for services and need for loans officer, need for manager, need for services to deal with members and their transactions. You needed a bigger place. We moved to Grass Street in the old Udoxies Ice Cream building and then that had to be enlarged and that space, we outgrew that space but in between we felt the need also to decentralize our business and so we opened a branch at Gable Woods Mall and that made it more accessible to other members who either worked in the north or found the difficulty of getting to town to the transactions. For a long time we operated transactions on a Saturday from that location and that worked well but then albeit like they say with growth comes its challenges and so we had to continue to pursue a directive to create a space which we can service all of the members of course have our staff in a location that is safe and accessible and Grass Street proved a little difficult because you could appreciate that the city has changed quite a bit. Coral Street is to be a very busy street. It's not so busy anymore and we're changing and seeking to service the members. There's a need to get deeper into Castries and the opportunity came to move towards the Bourbon Street location which we now have and we seized the opportunity with the permission of our members because remember we were a member-driven organization so it wasn't the board of directors deciding to do so. It was the members stating that we must pursue that action and by the grace of God we were able to deliver that to them not too long ago just a little over a year ago we were able to deliver that to them and formally cut the ribbon and have our ceremony to open the Bourbon Street branch. Thanks Peter. Ariel I don't want you to feel left out. You representing the youth on our board and in the organization I mean the youth tend to feel left out but we didn't Peter to set the foundation for where we're going and so now I come to you because you're the youngest member of the board and you are the voice of the youth. So we just want to get your perspective because you know when people hear credit unions especially the young people they figure out things for old people. So we want to change that mindset there has to be a paradigm shifting the way people think so that we can because we need to bring in members and we are growing organizations so we have things to offer and there are different demographics that we need to tap into and the youth we have recognized is one of them. So you are correct. It's not very attractive to the youth when you mention the credit union and even like you stated me being one of the youngest board directors something like that and especially with the fact that this is a voluntary position it's not very attractive to the youth they would probably prefer some sort of compensation for something like that. However there is compensation there's a lot of compensation it just doesn't come in the form of anything monetary. You get personal development and that is one of the things that being a director has assisted me the most. You get the guidance from like you said persons like Peter who set the foundation they would also let you your views you're not stifled and that's one of the things that young people need to understand as much as we feel as if our voices are not heard if you stay from the outside they will never hear you so you need to actually become members of these organizations put yourself out there and then you can be heard. One of the things was the first year as a director and Peter would tell me no it doesn't work like that IRL I would be very silent I would say to Peter because we go home after the meetings that I listen to everything Peter and then I would see how I could he said no the minute you become a director you will vote it in at the AGM so the membership decided that they want you to be a director your opinion matters so don't feel anywhere you could interject at any time and give us your input we want your input now that is also part of the youth problem we tend to be a little bit shy a little bit timid and not open up so you need to actually make yourself available to some of these things that are out there and put yourself out there so that you could actually be heard and be seen by people across the place. Right and so even as you say that we when you say we have to put ourselves out there the sandwich workers credit union is actually trying to develop products and services that will attract the youth and as part of credit union month we will be hosting a financial forum at our offices on Bourbon Street on the on the first floor where we will be teaching the young people about financial matters that is on this October 4th 14th October 14th right from 5pm so we're inviting the youth to come it's not going to have to pay you just coming you don't have to be a member as a matter of fact it's an opportunity to learn about the credit union and that we would welcome you with open arms so don't feel intimidated oh I'm not a member I'm not going to come no that's not what it is we have recognized the necessity to reach out to our youth because the youth is the future of our nation and we cannot have an exclusive society so we have making it all inclusive for the youth the forum on the 14th at 5pm okay and I real you know even as the youth again I'm plugging into the youth because you have been to carry DE tell our viewers what carry DE is and how it has benefitted you and how the youth who we inviting to come what they can look forward to okay so going back on what I said previously in regards to the compensation there lies one the credit union invested in me to actually partake in a development education program educators sorry and it was new to me and carry DE and everybody who's done it would know when you ask any questions you only told trust the process so I had no idea of what it was until I actually got there but I could tell you what it was it was a university course in a week basically that's what it was you had your day started at 6am and probably ended at 8pm sorry and even on your final days you know you could go into the next morning but what this program did and even at the forum we had the last time and I encourage the directors that were present to send the youth and not only the youth but any person joining the credit union movement it gives you the insight and I would ask somebody if you do CARIB DE if it doesn't give you a zeal to continue the movement and join the movement then you didn't actually do CARIB DE so CARIB DE helped me understand that the credit union is a large family and large as in when you find out that there's hundreds in the United States they're all over Europe it started in Germany then you start to wonder wait a minute this is not a small island thing and maybe that's the sort of thing that discourages the youth as well they don't know these things so it also made me build a networking team I have a group of persons right now that we speak every single day I'd like to mention my mentor Mrs Belze Martina who she's always made herself available and she's still available now to me and that happened because I met her at CARIB DE during this panel discussion today I mentioned to the group that I will be going up and they said to me if you need any assistance if you want to elaborate on any points that we did let us know some of them followed up with me this morning asking me what time is it IRL are you ready you also find that you get ideas from different persons and the experience from somebody in Trinidad compared to the experience of somebody in Bahamas countries so CARIB DE opened me up to that and that was a great experience and you become part of a large family and I really really appreciated that and I would encourage board directors across the Caribbean and St. Lucia please send as many members as you can to CARIB DE because this would ensure that there is a succession planning for when the youth decide to join that you have qualified and understand what it is to be part of the credit union movement okay so you've just given a very excited Erika like a synopsis of what CARIB DE was for you what it has done for you Mr. Luis Peter I would like you to now explain how does CARIB DE how does one access CARIB DE because IRL is talking about the board members send persons but is it only for board members who can go and when you've done a CARIB DE course can you take on the world and tell them everything about the credit unions you know the funny thing is IRL did CARIB DE before me let us get that let us get that in order and that was by design I think CARIB DE represents a transformational process that somebody coming into the credit union movement for the first time gets an opportunity to be the most in terms of what it is the credit union is all about and I say so because IRL spoke about it being a lot about the credit union movement which it is but it focuses a lot on the individual in terms of your personal development what are you going to contribute to this organization that you have certain talents within you that you can learn to this effort which is going to grow this organization the participants are put through many exercises which would focus on team building it would focus on you paying attention to the world so in that short space of time you focus on let's see the sustainable development goals of which we learned that came into force in 2015 and then that came out of the millennium development goals which was both in the UN General Assembly in 2003 so you understand that this credit union movement though it is about dollars and cents it is about people and we like to use the phrase people helping people which is central to what the credit union movement is but beyond that we are dealing with social change we are talking about accessibility to education elimination of poverty and hunger we are talking about appreciation for the environment and sustainable processes to ensure we as humanity continue so all of these are put into sharp focus while developing an individual and discovering certain talents and strengths you have to now come back to your credit union to push an agenda which is going to benefit the general membership so that pretty much is what it is great well at this time we need to go to a break however we invite you to keep tuned to us because when we come back we will be going deeper into the credit union now as an organization to tell you how you can join what we plan what our programs are and what our activities are for this month of credit union month so please stay with us thank you excessive agrochemical use additives and genetically modified foods are harmful to health and the environment join the good food revolution grow buy and consume organic a message from Rye St Lucia and the Ministry of Sustainable Development with funding from the GEF small grants program UNDP good food revolution welcome back and thank you for staying with us we are members representatives of St Lucia Workers Credit Union and we are here on the occasion of the credit union month for October 2019 and of course my panelist Mr. Louis Peter Lewis and Ariel Branford so we back gentlemen and just before the break you were talking about you know what the CARIB DE did and so I think you gave our viewers a very good understanding of the credit union movement so we come back to our little piece of the credit union pie and we moved into what you say prize prime real estate records will show that since we moved from grass street to that you know location and they call us the big blue building on the square that persons have now reactivated the accounts people who did not want to come to the grass street branch just would not use the account and they have come in and every month we have persons open in new accounts or sometimes 100 persons new accounts so that is interesting so I just want to tell the viewers what you think would you know your views and Ariel please I'm addressing Peter at the moment but both of you have to weigh in on this but one of the things is she's right we use the AGM as an example we actually hosted our AGM at our building this year and I believe in 10 minutes or less we had about 100 people we've had AGMs at hotels with lovely refreshments and we were struggling to get the numbers so yeah the new building and you're right when you look at the membership people actually meet you now and they question you because that's the building in town right like you said the blue building and I'll be like yeah they'll be like okay so that's workers and you'll be like yeah so the building has changed the view of the credit union like you said prime real estate Peter loves to say that so I agree with you in the fact that stuff has changed and there were some accounts that were actually dormant and they're now they're active I believe the location and the fact that it's accessible to them is really what changed most of it now remember we did speak about the sustainable development goals and one of the sustainable development goals is access to financial resources so in a way in orchestrating such a move workers credit union sought to be true to that particular goal of access to finance and more than that recognizing the fact that it is the city at the central spot for activity on a Saturday we moved our operations which would be on a Saturday at Gabriel Woodsville to that particular branch and I think increasing that level of access created some level of excitement but I mean while we can talk about workers credit union we heard to speak about that I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that it is credit union month and we have credit unions across the length and breadth of St. Lucia and we are seeing that more people are turning to credit unions you have in library of the library credit union in Monripo you have the Monripo credit union you have Chouazelle credit union you have teachers of course you have civil service credit union and you also have the hospitality else you have farmers and workers general credit union and so what you are seeing is that because of the level of focus and development the push of credit unions the brand is generating a greater degree of trust and so all credit unions are seeing some degree of growth I think now what we have done at workers is that we have tried very much to be relevant regardless the time and to do that you have to correspond with your membership and even now I will speak later probably about some initiatives we hope to pursue not only just to deal with the youth but to deal with all sections of our membership okay so now that we talking about credit union months and we talking about the building and everything we want to invite the viewers St. Lucia as a whole to come out we have our open day on the 17th of October from 8am to 4.30pm you are welcome to come we will be there to welcome you to show you around to tell you about the St. Lucia workers credit union we also have a family funding on the 12th of October which is Saturday on the Derrick Walcott square there will be a bouncy castle so again you come out and you participate Mr. Branford Ariel you were talking about other things that we have in the pipeline exciting stuff that we want to bring forth for our members and to attract new members correct so I am going to stick with the youth again when I joined I noticed there is a room for opportunity in regards to online banking and I was told that we are already pursuing different projects in regards to the ATM and being one of the younger directors on the board I was one of them pushing for it letting the directors know that yes we understand in the credit union movement we are all about saving and financial planning and so forth and some of the more senior directors were against it simply because there was a scare in regards to people having full access to the money and taking everything that they have but I also reminded them that with the way that things are moving and how people get paid it's sort of a deterrent for a young person to say I am going to get paid for the credit union but I have to go and take a line so I used that idea to let them know people get paid on Friday and now we are going to ask them to come to the credit union on Saturday just to access the funds they don't even want all of the funds they just want to make sure that they got paid so trying to get the online banking available would attract loads more and the youth would probably they would definitely see this as something beneficial to them and also the ATM project and having an ATM visa card that is where we need to go they do their online shopping and everything so sometimes the traffic that we have on a Saturday and I also used that as an example telling them it could be reduced if these people have access to the funds and like I stated just to see and sometimes if they just want to purchase something at the supermarket or if they want to make an online transaction they could do that so that is one thing I am trying to help them with and with my background of basically database and so forth going to a system and creating such a database and stuff like that exciting stuff but we have to also remember we have to encourage them to see oh yes yes we have to plug that in as well so you see why we have Mr Bradford on the board so we have balance yes very true I just want to Mr Lewis I go between Peter and if there is anything else that you would like to see in public tools that we have not already said well one of the things is that Mr Bradford was being very generous because you know he does push the board to pursue more creative options and not only that but through our participation in other regional conventions and approaches we are looking at a mobile app of course we are looking at the online banking and facilitating a more tech-savvy operation we can understand of course like we know through history that you know we have to manage our resources a particular way and what we have discovered is that the time couldn't be more right than now to do so because the cost of actually implementing certain technological approaches is actually much better than it was three years ago five years ago so we are currently pursuing and speaking to many agencies that are going to provide services of that kind to our membership and we look forward to being able to deliver that to them because like I explained the function of the creation is really that the board of directors is to respond to the needs of the membership it is really about the membership determining what it is they want and that is something that membership have to do. One of the things I would like to tell people is that they should be very well aware of the opportunities that credit unions provide them. I say that being a member of a credit union you have given yourself another financial avenue in terms of I mean we have this standard banking system and if you don't necessarily happen to get treated the way you want remember you are part owner and so the benefits read down to your personal benefits so you shop at your own supermarket the profits share among the membership so I would encourage them to use the credit union because I personally have benefited I mean at the time when I did my studies I took my own from my credit union and so it is with great pleasure that I can give back in this capacity. I would like you mention our stalwarts and I would like to thank them for their vision but also to that they place trust in us because I was like Mr. Branford in 2006 I was the young director and so now succeeding to lead the board I am humble because I was prepared for this. It was so nice that last week Monday we were able to have an activity for our stalwarts and those who and we had a beautiful buffet lunch and some of them got a chance to meet up with each other but our thing had a special touch I mean imagine you walk in there and you get your foot massage yes so you know it's all in an effort to show our appreciation. We're not only focused on the youth we're not only focused on the working public but we show in our love to our retirees and those who have said the way. Great so as we coming to that point where we want to wrap up I realized I just want you to again speak to the youth let them know what is different about us and to appeal to them because we want to invite them into Senegal's credit union and we are going in that direction so we would like you to you know. Okay well what I would say to the youth is that there's loads of lucrative options out there but you need to actually take some time to do your own personal financial assessment and also get financially educated and I think that's the difference with the credit union. These lucrative options out there will not give you the fine print however they would give you what you want to hear the credit union you will go to the credit union and they will guide you. An example of that is the credit union will let you know what you're asking for currently you cannot get it and with us youth that hurts and that's when they look for other options and they jump on to whichever option is available however the credit union also gives you an option until you we could get there together so we can give you this now we could give you that and then when you finish with this because one of the things the credit union does is and I like to hear them say that they want you to be in a better position than you started so it's like he's like Peter said it's members for members so they would they would assist you in getting to the point that you want to financially but all of this makes no sense if you're not financially educated because when they tell you at the end of your loan you would gain this or that it may not matter to you if you don't understand what they're saying so I would like the youth to take some time to assess themselves assess a need against a want and do some financial education so you when you make your decisions you're making sound decisions in regards to what you're doing financially. Great and even as you talk about what the youth can do we give serious thought and consideration to our corporate social responsibility so while we talking about loans and our bottom line and all of those things we do give back to society and even part of this activities this month we have a poverty eradication exercise where we would be feeding the homeless and so even the youth I know like you were saying earlier on they may not want to participate in certain things because there is no financial reward but I believe that one of the fundamental things missing in our youth is that they have to understand not everything is about money and so poverty is a frame of mind and not a state of being so if we could invite them to come in even on those days to volunteer their time to help us feed those people see life from another standpoint see what those people experience and see how gratifying it is to actually hand this person a plate of food or to put them to sit down or to bring them a glass of water or to just listen to their story. Yeah but it's good that you touched on that because we also have a family funding which we have scheduled for Saturday this weekend and it's about bringing the kids out, bouncy castle, a bit of treasure hunt and so forth and you know uncle is central to that and the kids have a glorious time but beyond just that in terms of fulfilling our corporate social responsibility we are proud at Worker's Credit Union to have been able to give scholarships to the children of our members and some of them have gone on to do fantastic I mean some of them we have one who is soon going to be a who's graduating as a surgeon we have one who's doing very excellent work in her field and so members benefit from that as well we also had the pleasure of hosting annually a kids camp which is two days of fun the kids tell you at the end of the camp and it's all about our members I mean they did I remember coming there one day and the kids went around the square doing their march in the various groups and you know it is very gratifying to know that you are part of a process helping to build your country because let's face it if we as a nation don't have access to certain things if we do not improve the well-being of persons if we don't care for those who are homeless and don't have if we don't care for the elderly and those who have who have laid the way before then where are we going and we must understand that and the Credit Union is into square focus that we must give to get and that is why we pull our resources together for the benefit of the membership and we at Workers Credit Union we've been blessed that we've had directors who have cared enough to pass the battle to somebody like me who will pass the battle to Iriel and maybe your daughter might come on and maybe my son may come on or other young people will come on but the whole aim is to continue to develop this organization so that as it develops so will the nation develop and we can't ask for any better reward than to see these improvements in all these areas. Great, well you know anytime you having fun you have to take a little break so that we can re-energize and come back so we go to break now and we'll be back shortly. The gift of life is in me, the red and rich supply for life that flows and helps us to survive without it I am dying you share it I am living without it I am dying you share it I am living you I am dependent on let me down. Welcome back viewers we are here now we want to just give you some information about the exciting products that are offered at Senusia Wukas Credit Union we in the month this month is a lot of things it is Kuiol month it is Credit Union month and this is also Cancer Awareness Month and in the spirit of keeping up with because the cancer is we don't hide that anymore because it is a reality and Senusia Wukas Credit Union has recognized that one of the challenges with cancer is that persons are afraid to test either they are afraid to test or they can't afford to test so we have what we call a pink loan where the funds for your initial testing is available you come in and you apply and we work with you to get that loan so you can actually go and test so you heard it here first so please come on our open day which is the 17th of October and we will tell you more and we can take your application and you can you know go through and do those tests that you are free to go and get done. I pass on to Peter and Ariel now to tell you about other exciting products available at Senusia Wukas Credit Union. Well Michelle you kind of hit something on you really spot on there like I said we being socially responsible we also have loans where we have we have our Christmas loan special which will be launching very soon and right now we also have the hurricane special where persons can come in and borrow money to help to ensure that their homes are strong and fortified for the hurricane season. We just launched actually a few days ago a snap loan where you can come in and you know without any deposit and so forth and you can qualify for a snap loan but remember we are a member driven organization so you have to seek membership and we and we will continue to develop products that will work to the benefit of the membership we are guided by the theme for this year which is for credit union month which is local service global impact and it speaks to if we develop the country then Senusia and other credit unions will have the kind of impact across the globe that would improve our very life. We don't only have loans there's also stuff like the indemnity plan and that is one of these things that I like to pitch to persons because death is inevitable. Most instances it's unplanned and the fact that you could actually put some money that when something like that happens and actually lost somebody recently you don't notice how expensive these things are until that time. So stuff like the indemnity plan and I'm not going to elaborate on it because we actually want you to come in there's about I think we've added two or three new plans onto that which is basically increasing the amount that's available to you. We have after school study program these things are us trying to give back. So there's other products not just loans available to you so we have a lot of stuff and like Peter said and this is for everybody out there it's members only so it's always good for you to walk in and I could tell you for a fact you walk in and you'd be surprised the assistance you get just to become a member. Well gentlemen we have come to the end of a beautiful session and so I invite you to make your closing comments to our viewers. Well first of all I want to thank you and to thank you for the beautiful job you have done moderating this panel discussion and also Mr. Branford and what I would like to leave with our viewers is I would like to encourage them to become a member of Saint Lucia Workers Credit Union. We also have products for young people. You could open an account for your granddaughter, your grandson, your niece, your nephew and so forth and our young dreamers account and set your loved ones in motion to be part of an organization that will encourage their personal development which would lead to the development of the organization. An organization which cares about Saint Lucia, which cares about our financial well-being and to be part of an environment that they can develop themselves and the country as a whole and we at Saint Lucia Workers Credit Union we want our members to know that we love them. We want them to know that we will continue striving for excellence and we will continue to push the theme local service, global impact. There's not much to add on to what Peter said however I'd like to remind them and ask people to do a little research in regards to credit unions and compare them to the banks and just remember that we don't operate like banks and we consider you a member and not a customer and if you do your research and you look at the history, the last global recession that we had, it wasn't the first one and it's not going to be the last one however no credit union went under. So I encourage people to join the credit unions there's several obviously I'd prefer if you would join the Saint Lucia Workers Credit Union however just being part of the credit union movement is development for the country on our home. That's it for me. Thank you Peter and Ariel and as we close I take this opportunity to extend a special thank you to the management and staff of Saint Lucia Workers Credit Union for their very, their tireless effort for putting this organization to where it is right now it would not be possible without their hard work and we do not want to close this program if we don't say thank you. We also want to thank our members because like you have heard throughout the program this is a member based organization and without members putting their strength behind us then we can talk but nothing will happen. But as you have seen a lot has happened and that is because our members believe in us and have pushed us and we want to say thank you. We want you to actually come out to the activities we've planned for this month. Again it is the youth forum on the 14th of October then we have the Monday then we have the fun day on Saturday the 12th and then the open day on the 17th. So thank you very much for viewing. I have a pleasant balance of October because there's so much happening in October. Thank you.