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| Pam Melton is the NC Credit Union League Director of Political Affairs. |
League representatives and credit unions worked together during this election season to promote and strengthen the political initiatives of credit unions. The first approach was to educate using the League’s electronic resources. “In addition to education, we wanted to encourage credit union members to vote by offering non-partisan voter registration drives,” said Pam Melton, NCCUL Director of Political Affairs. “Whether it was an article examining Super PACs, providing an election analysis or offering a convenient and easy way for credit union members and employees to register or update registration information, the League believes all these things were important elements of our political initiatives.”
League representatives also traveled across the state visiting state and federal candidates by attending political events or inviting candidates to credit unions. “It’s extremely important to connect with candidates prior to the election, because it starts the foundation of building effective working relationships,” explained Melton. “Whether it’s visiting an incumbent who is an officer of a key state legislative committee, reaching out to the likely winner in a federal race or volunteering for a political campaign, our industry took advantage of many opportunities to promote the credit union movement during this election cycle.”
The League worked in conjunction with credit unions to participate in opportunities to help Congressman Kissell’s re-election bid. While his campaign for re-election was unsuccessful, we are very proud as an industry to stand with our trusted friends.
“We believe this type of advocacy and loyalty to our champions sends a very positive message about our commitment to elected officials who are our advocates,” explained Melton.
Credit union political advocacy efforts continued during this election cycle as representatives from the League and area credit unions met with Robert Pittenger.
“We wanted to connect early with Pittenger, instead of waiting until after the election,” explained Melton. “Our meeting with him proved to be a positive one and hopefully will lead to a great working relationship for credit unions.”
“While this was a long and emotional election season for many, I believe the credit union industry demonstrated positive political advocacy at its best by welcoming all opportunities to participate in the election process,” stated Melton. “Whether it was Dan Schline, SVP Association Services, spearheading volunteer efforts for Congressional candidates or hosting meet and greet sessions between them and credit unions; Lauren Whaley, our Director of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs, meeting key legislators to help promote our state legislative efforts; Pam Melton, Director of Political Affairs hosting voter registration drives and providing election analysis and results; or Jeff Hardin, Director of Communications, communicating the latest political news, the League’s Advocacy in Action covered all aspects of political outreach.
“Our array of political initiatives were fully integrated by our governmental affairs team and credit unions with the ultimate goal of turning the credit union movement into a political powerhouse.”