How to Be an Award-Winning Partner

PARTNERSHIPS

When a local school district honored Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union, Santa Ana, Calif., as its corporate partner of the year recently, it begged the question, "What makes a good corporate partner?"

According to the school district, it's our commitment to honoring the contributions of all school district employees-teachers, food service workers, bus drivers, custodians-and the creation of scholarship and recognition programs that support them.

Ironically, while this commitment and these efforts make us a good corporate partner, they're nothing new for us. Rather, they're part of our everyday efforts to further the mission we originated in 1934: to support and serve the educational community.

Holding true to our motto, "We put educators first," we're 100% focused on educators. Many of our products and services are designed specifically for them. We also participate in and contribute to several recognition programs, including our Educators First Award, the Orange County Department of Education's Teachers of the Year, and classified employee appreciation week.

We also support educators through classroom presentations, district appreciation lunches, newemployee orientations, lunchroom events, and scholarship presentations.

Being a good corporate partner means catering to your field of membership and being fair to all groups you serve by not focusing too much on one segment or another.

And by working with organizations that also support our members, we'll continue to be a good corporate partner and make a difference in the educational community.

JOSE LARA is senior vice president, organizational planning and development, for Orange County Teachers Federal Credit Union, Santa Ana, Calif. Contact him at 714-258-4000 or at jlara@octfcu.org.

Copyright Credit Union National Association, Inc. Jun 2005
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