Oregon Credit Union League
Comments from participants at Financial Management School, Part III
What were the most valuable or helpful parts of this event?
- Learning how to calculate ratios and what they mean in relationship to the financial statement. I thought the idea of a member e-mail database was intriguing.
- Seeing the ratios and analysis applied to real credit unions made the presentations more interesting and easier to relate to
- Understanding real world implications of ratios. Taking numbers and equating them to products and services.
- Understanding how ratios effect different areas and seeing how to improve the bottom line
- Helping me to understand the WHY behind the numbers
- Working with my own credit union's figures. This was a real eye opener.
- Liked all of the hands-on work
- Learning what the different ratios mean and how they compare to credit unions of like size and the idea of matching funds.
- A better understanding of the relationship of all these numbers.
- Understanding the credit union's financial statement and how the figures are related to each other. The spread ratios were very helpful in evaluating the credit union's performance in relation to its peers and what can be done to improve some ratios.
- The idea of looking forward to the next year, instead of just looking back to compare, really stuck in my mind.
- Understanding more ratios and exposure to GAP analysis
- Interpreting the ratios
- Learning about the financial statements and learning GAP and building a business plan
- Presentation followed by actual work
- Some of the interesting statistics.
- Having a clearer picture of what makes up ratios and how the ratios relate to one another.
In what way was the presenter most effective?
- Showing examples. Reviewing the original purpose of credit unions and illustrating how we've strayed from that purpose while presenting ideas for retrieving it.
- Knowledge of credit unions today and where the consumers are heading (i.e., technology)
- He made it realistic, down to earth
- He answered questions in a way that was very understandable
- By going over several credit union examples to explain how the ratios accurately take a picture of the credit union without going through a lot of its finances
- Making us use our own numbers
- He was well prepared and organized
- He really knew his topics.
- Simplifying the information
- Good sense of humor
- Hands-on training was great.
- Reviewing other credit unions
- Lots of great on-line information
- Easy language - he speaks my language - and repetition of concepts
- He talked at a level that was understandable
- Ability to explain clearly
- Allowing everyone time to work on evaluating
- Good visuals
- Good knowledge of material
- Very knowledgeable on subject
- Did a great job!
Other comments:
- You reinforced my ideas since becoming a CEO, that we are not a charity, we are a business and should be run that way.
- I have a lot of good ideas to go back with and grow on
- I think I learned a lot that will help me in my job.
Comments from participants at Financial Management School, Part II
What were the most valuable or helpful parts of this event?
- Going over the steps needed to plan. The discussion that looked behind the ratios first to see where you want your credit union to go
- Realizing strengths and weaknesses in various areas and ways to try and adjust them
- The most helpful part of this session was learning a concise set of steps for a business plan. In the past, our credit union has had difficulty with a business plan, because we had no formal set of procedures to follow.
- The hands-on process of what it takes to get a budget going - the ability to look forward based on past performances
- The hands on work and step-by-step instructions.
- Working on our credit union's numbers
- Repetition and reviewing other credit unions was very helpful
- Exposure to GAP.
- Working on my own business plan
- Sixteen step business plan
- Having lots of examples to practice on..
- All of it
How effective was the presenter?
- He was very organized and concise. I also appreciated his willingness to work one-on-one with the students, especially on the third day.
- Jim was hands-on and willing to answer questions
- The instructor was very knowledgeable and experienced with credit unions.
- Easy terms, lots of examples, good repetition of concepts
- Jim took the time to help everyone individually
- Good humor - used classes credit unions as examples
- Jim knew his subject well
- Great on-line presentation
Other comments:
- I'm looking forward to III & IV, and encourage all accountants and board members to attend as well. Thank you for the great information.
- Great experience, he kept me entertained and interested.