Applicant 19: Nate Muniz

Nate Muniz is a 34-year-old Public Relations Manager with Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union ($3.9B) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA.

Synopsis: The Keystone Network is a group of PSECU members who have an interest in legislative and political issues that affect the credit union. My project has already been started and we have a group of approximately 200 members that receive communications strictly regarding these issues.

Over the course of my project I plan to expand and develop the network in several ways. In addition to working to expand the Keystone Network, I will be working to recruit Key Contacts that will serve as the "face" of PSECU in their respective areas. Due to PSECU's structure and size, we have a large geographic membership footprint, but that is not always necessarily visible to elected officials without physical branches. My hope is that by directly connecting PSECU to the officials’ constituents, I can raise the profile of not only PSECU, but all credit unions in their communities.

Some of the other activities in the planning stages are member “meet-ups”, video updates/chats about legislative issues, and development of a curriculum for training members to effectively lobby public officials. The end goal is to have the members tell their credit union story to their elected representatives in their home district, because they can do it far better than the credit union ever could.

An added bonus to the project is that I believe this can serve as an enhancement to more traditional member services and products. Inclusion in such a network of members adds extra value to the member’s relationship with their credit union and further reinforces the cooperative principles upon which we operate. Furthermore, an engaged member is a retained member, which also strengthens the credit union financially.

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