Merger Updates

Just like your cost of living, the cost of doing business increases steadily year after year. That affects many things you’d expect, like the cost of employee benefits, supplies, and utilities, as well as things like the cost of meeting State and Federal regulations or maintaining the services you rely on.
It’s our responsibility to serve our membership today and make sure we’re building a strong foundation to continue to serve for years to come. Faced with increased costs, fierce (and continually expanding) competition in the Valley, and historically low interest rates, growth with an expanded charter is our best path to ensure we’ll be here for you in the future.
It also means that you could have more options to get the service you need. Our current branch with the staff you know and love, convenient ATM locations, and potentially another branch closer to you.

The reality is this: Our loyal members and potential new members have a lot of financial options – local, larger credit unions, community and national banks, and online financial services, to name a few –that they could choose over CONE. With all of that competition, we’ve struggled to attract and maintain members from our current Select Employee Groups (SEGs).
Expanding our charter (and adding the kinds of new and innovative services that our partnership with Simplicity CU would provide) will give us a bigger target audience and more chances to connect with people who like how we do what we do.

That’s a great question and one that we’ll learn more about over time. Some of it depends on the market and how we’ll attract new members to CONE. Our overall goal is to grow quickly but carefully to control costs and still offer the level of service you deserve.

There are many good reasons to expand, so let’s look at the top two.
First, we want to reach out into new communities to expand our reach of products and services to HERO groups like police, fireman, teachers, and healthcare workers. These professions have unique needs and are often underserved with traditional financial products.
Second, we’re proud of what we do, and we have such a unique and special offering of products and services that we want to be able to offer them to anyone!

We know that a merger sounds like a drastic measure, and that can cause concern. The good news is that CONE has continued to be listed as “Well Capitalized” by both the DFI and the NCUA which is proof positive that we’re not ‘failing’.
The not-so-good news, though, is that we are shrinking and finding it harder to attract new members. Because of that we’re choosing to be proactive and consider the best path forward before we’re forced to act.

Yes! It may seem that the path to a credit union in Central Wisconsin is hard to follow. Your Board of Directors reached out to numerous credit unions, including Fox Communities, to request information and gauge their interest in a partnership or merger. In fact, we contacted nearly all of the credit unions in the Fox Valley, large and small, and several outside of the area, including Simplicity CU.

We felt it was our responsibility to look holistically at the benefits any other credit union could offer our members and choose the best fit.

There are a lot of factors that led us to pursue a merger and bring it to our membership for approval.

Things like the rising cost of member services and employee benefits, the changing demographics of the CONE membership along with the expectations of current and future members, CONE’s inability to invest in new products and services that members want and need, and the well-being of our staff were just some of those considerations. With all of those concerns looming, our ability to satisfy our state regulators’ requirements began to suffer and created a higher sense of urgency.

Simplicity’s financial stability, commitment to the communities they serve, and the ability to meet our membership’s unique needs were certainly important, but that’s not all. Having been able to work with members of the Simplicity Team, we learned that, even though they have a larger staff, they value connection and care for their team and their members just like we do.

They use the name ‘Simplicity Family’ when they talk about their members and staff, and we knew that we would all be welcome as a part of that family.

This merger will benefit current and future CONE members in a lot of exciting ways.
For example, you’ll have more options for how and where you’ll do your financial business with:
• A broader suite of products and services
• Our current branch and branches in Central Wisconsin
• Access at thousands of Co-Op shared branches nationwide.
Plus the confidence of knowing that you have a team of compassionate and innovative experts backed by one of the strongest financials in the state!

When it became clear that we needed to make serious changes to keep serving our members, we left no stone unturned. We explored new marketing strategies to attract new members, reduced expenses by consolidating or eliminating products that weren’t serving you like they should and eliminated some of the perks that made us unique, like our Annual Member Picnic.

Finally, after losing and not replacing three full-time staff in 2020 alone, we felt that we had reached the point where we couldn’t offer you the full benefit of being a credit union member without the help of a partner like Simplicity CU.

It’s smart to think about what you may need to do to continue to get the most out of your membership. We know there will be some changes as we move ahead and work through the behind-the-curtain details but our commitment to you is that we’ll make those changes simple, give you straightforward information as we have it, and work with you along the way. Stay tuned for more!

Yes! All of the CONE staff that you have gotten to know will still be here! We are all very excited to share in the expanded benefits and opportunities for internal promotions that Simplicity will bring!

No! Our branch will remain open. In fact, we hope to open a second branch in the future as Simplicity expands into other communities!

Many of you have already been vocal supporters of the steps we’ve taken for the good of CONE CU members and staff, and we appreciate you.

The next thing we hope you’ll want to do is to participate in the democratic process and vote in support of the merger when the vote happens in Mid-May.
If you’re not ready to pledge your support quite yet, we’d ask that you reach out to the CONE staff and Board of Directors to discuss any questions or concerns you have.

Once the merger is effective mid-year 2021, we’ll keep you informed on the finer details of your account numbers, checks, debits cards, etc. Don’t worry. The CONE and Simplicity Team will handle a lot of the heavy lifting for you and be there along to way to make this a smooth and easy transition.

With a successful vote to merge with Simplicity CU, we’ll begin a gradual process to update things like stationary, our website, signage, and the décor in our branch to match the Simplicity CU brand. We’re confident that you’ll find this new look modern, clean, and refreshing.

We’re really glad you asked. The idea that the branch you like to visit would ever close can be a little stressful, especially knowing that the next nearest branch is pretty far away.

Here’s the good news: the NCUA (the credit union governing body that requires us to send you that notice and one that has to approve our merger) cares a lot about maintaining service to credit union members. So much that they asked us to assure them (and you) that we’re in coming into this partnership to improve your life, not to just get bigger. In this case, the three year time frame is just one way we can demonstrate that.

The truth is, we’re confident that we can help you, your friends, and your family in Neenah and the surrounding areas by committing to the community and building something great together.

You’ll notice that the letter also says “Ultimately, the financial success of the existing branch will direct the needs of a physical presence beyond three years.” Nobody can tell us what the next few years hold, but we have a lot of hope for our future in Neenah. Down the road, that could mean a bigger, better branch with more amazing staff and features you’ll love. That kind of growth could mean a change of branch location, or even additional branches in the area.

We want you to know that, no matter what happens, we take our duty to be the best stewards of the investment you make in us seriously and we’ll be there for you.