Communicating the Credit Union Message
The power to communicate is the power to influence public opinion and votes. Credit unions have this power in vast quantities and must take advantage of it to ensure that we will be able to serve our members in the future.
There are credit union members in every congressional district in this country. In some districts there are as many as 300,000 members. That's more people than normally vote in many of those districts. After the 1998 general election, 48% of those who voted indicated that they or someone in their household was a credit union member. According to a May 1999 survey, many members, particularly those who use the credit union as their primary financial institution, consider their credit union's position when deciding for whom to vote.
Political communications are governed by state and federal election law but in most cases, we have latitude to conduct four basic types of communications.
| Category | Goes to | Allowable Content |
| General Communications | Members only, such as a newsletter | Legislative Updates Reports on a visit to the CU by an elected official Guest column on legislative issue by an elected official |
| Partisan Communications | Members only, such asa newsletter or a specially prepared mailing | Clearly advocates for the election or defeat of a candidate |
| Issue Advocacy | Public, such as an ad in local paper, radio etc. | Focuses on support or defeat of specific legislation |
| Earned Media | Public, such as an op-ed, letter to the editor etc. | Support or defeat of specific legislation or other political issues |
