By Lisa Hochgraf

"Selling stock to the federal government seemed like a good deal when three western New York banks took TARP funds in December. Today, all three are either exploring or on the verge of leaving the program early."

So began the article "Banks bow out of TARP program" by staff writer Diana Louise Carter in Sunday's Democrat and Chronicle, the local daily here in Rochester, N.Y.

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

By Lisa Hochgraf

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Did you ever have one of those experiences that underscores something obvious? My recent work on the CUES membership campaign reminded me that the face of an organization may be just as much digital as personal.

Posted by Christopher Stevenson

By Ginny Brady

No matter which social media application I use--Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn--I inevitably end up with friends/followers/connections that I don't know well, or at all. It rarely turns out well. I friend/follow/connect with them because they seem interesting at first blush, but too often they turn out not to be. In the worst cases, I've fallen in with "diarrhea posters," those people who can't resist posting their every thought; the updates keep on flowing until I can't stand it any more.

By Brad Garland

I'm lucky enough to get to speak about Web 2.0 across the country and at the beginning of my talks I like to establish which employee roles are represented in the crowd. More often than not, the majority of people are from marketing. Most have the same story: They have been tasked by their bosses to find out what this whole Web 2.0 thing is about and are trying to figure out what technology they need to best engage their members. I respond with two key points:

By Christian Mullins

As credit unions plan for their future, there are plenty of avenues for growth and expansion. Since I entered the credit union industry in the mid 1990s, community charters have become commonplace. Auto lending, the cornerstone of the credit union loan portfolio, has been joined by mortgage lending. And small business loans, currently capped at 12 percent of total credit union assets, may soon be a presidential signature away from becoming the industry’s next great lending frontier.

By Shari Storm 

These are my three daughters. They are five, three, and one.