Bret Weekes, President and CEO of eDOC Innovations, recently met with Joe Bergeron, President of the Association of Vermont Credit Unions (AVCU) for an executive exchange to discuss the technology challenges that credit unions face to meet member needs for immediate satisfaction in a convenience-oriented society, all while still maintaining their philosophical roots as a cooperative business.

“Smartphone technology and what it’s capable of doing is changing the landscape of the community that we have served for many years,” stated Weekes. “How do we reach a new virtual community and stay true to the cooperative principles of helping individuals become financially self-reliant?”

In an article published in CU Insights earlier this year, “It’s time for a new outlook on cooperative community”, which Bergeron referred to in the exchange, Weekes addressed this very question. After extensive research, Weekes exposed, “Statistics are telling industry leaders that overall member preference towards performing financial services on mobile devices continues to grow.”

Both executives acknowledge that it’s a big shift for those conservative credit unions that grew up with lots of paper, but the evolution of addressing the needs of the mobile community is showing that credit unions that are proactive in the mobile community are acquiring new members who have that kind of community expectation.

“We need to be profitable but our profitability is driven by the vision and the cooperative principles that we are helping the member and we just can’t lose sight of that,” concluded Weekes. To watch the executive exchange in its entirety click here.