Military Saves Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

Military Saves Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes

July 23, 2014

Attendees

In person:

Adam Knapp, SEC

Alan Sorcher, SEC

Andia Dinesen, AMBA

April Crews, Military Saves

Beth Merlot, DCUC-Defense Credit Union

Brenda McDaniel, DOD

Brenda Linnington, BBB Military Line

Bud Schneeweis, FINRA Foundation

Cheri Nylen, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

Dan Butts, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society

James Lander, Military Saves

Jennifer Riley, BBB Military Line

Katie Bryan, CFA

Lisa Johnson, Coast Guard HQ

Nancy Register, CFA

By phone:

Arthur Lyons, American Mutual Aid Association

Brian Kaelin, Pacific Bank & Trust, Little Rock, AK

Colleen Cunningham, Army

Colleen Tressler, FTC

Elyse Newton, Navy

Fred Davis, Navy SIC

Gale Johnson, Army Financial Readiness and AER Program Manager

Ken Worthy, National Credit Union Administration

Kendra Buksas, Pacific Marine Credit Union

Laura, Operation Homefront

Michael Windsor, Airforce

Rhonda Banks, Pacific Bank & Trust, Little Rock, AK

Robert Izzo, Navy Federal Credit Union

Stacy Barnes, Reserve Affairs-OSD

Brenda McDaniel 2014 DOD presentation

Military Saves Week 2014 was successful. The campaign gets bigger each year.
Regarding the memo, she is hoping that it will be signed by the end of August 2014.
This was the eighth year of the Pentagon Financial Readiness Fair.
There will be a Financial Readiness Roundtable on July 30th at the Mark Center. FINRA will present, and there will be two panels: The Relief Societies will be on the 1st panel; Service-Level PFMs will be on the 2nd panel
Topics to be discussed: Results of media research on how millennials access information, and financial behaviors based on the 2012 survey.

Questions from Attendees

Nancy Register: When can we begin working with the DoD regarding a communications plan for Military Saves Week 2015.

Brenda McDaniel: August, the memo and strategic plan will be available. Gene Gibbs and Barbra Lowendrowski will lead the communications effort

Pacific Marine Presentation on Military Saves Week 2014 Efforts- Kendra Buksas

They offered savings products that included an APR of 4% when opening an account with a minimum of $100 deposit; $5 -500 could go into the certificate monthly.

Encouraged savings to new marines by planning a budget and to help them go from being in the red to in the black and to help them get out of living paycheck to paycheck.

Questions from Attendees for Pacific Marine Credit Union:

James Lander: How did you expand on regular branch initiatives to support Military Saves Week? Response from Kendra:

Because contact with new marines is limited they provide Military Saves certificates year round, with a promotional rate during Military Saves Week.
For Training Day 53, they talk about services offered and stress setting up savings for overdraft protection. This is when they are able to capture the servicemember audience.

Kendra continued her presentation citing challenges and areas of improvement for Military Saves Week that included:

Not everyone wanted to fill out the pledge form
During training days, servicememnbers have no access to phones or computers.

James Lander then asked Rob Izzo of Navy Federal Credit Union, the winner of one of the banking awards to speak about products that were most effective for reaching servicemembers during Military Saves Week. His response was the following:

Custom Club accounts
Save First accounts designed for small savers who can pick their own maturity date of 3-5 years and open an account with a minimum of $5.

Military Consumer Protection Day presentation - Colleen Tressler

49 partner agencies were recruited – up from 27 in 2013
Core partners were DoD, CFPB and Military Saves, who all participated in the Twitter town hall/tweet chat on July 16th which was very successful.
MCPD media hits included:
800 results for the #MCPD2014 hash tag on Twitter
540 Google search results
FTC commentary was well received
4 Military Protection fairs are planned for later this year
James Lander added that on July 19th, Navy Federal Credit Union held shredding events, as did Armed Forces bank

First Arkansas Bank & Trust presentation - Rhonda Banks & Brian Kaelin

The bank had a 20% increase in pledges from 2013
Participants took a Survey Monkey financial quiz

Questions from participants to First Arkansas Bank & Trust (responses are bolded)

Andia Dinesen: How many people took the financial quiz? Participation was very competitive; will get the exact number of participants to James.
James Lander: How did you engage your community partners? We reached out to the attorney general’s office and mayor and other community leaders, and had a luncheon the last day of the competition.
Andia: Is relationship with the squadron officer instrumental in success of the campaign? Yes, Lt. Col. Upton was very helpful.
Nancy Register: What were the products that were offered and what was the impact?
We reduced the number of types of accounts to keep things simple
Reduced the dollar amount required to open accounts
Gave away gift cards
Were open to building a relationship with servicemembers; getting on their level and seeing how they live and how we can help them.
Michael Windsor: Did you record the number of civilians that participated? No. we didn’t track the numbers of civilians who participated.

Military Saves Week 2015 Planning presentation - James Lander

PFMs are valuable components of the campaign.
We want to integrate Military Saves as part of the workshops like the Army does.
We have a lot of work to do to get more pledges from the Marine Corps, Navy, National Guard and Coast Guard – these branches had the lowest numbers of pledges.

James Lander ended the meeting by reminding everyone that servicemembers can get a free credit score from FINRA when they take the Military Saves pledge and this is available year-round, stressing that this can drive servicemembers to the Military Saves website.

Quarterly Advisory Committee MeetingJuly 23, 2014Page 1 of 3