By David F. Rooney
Low interest rates may have kept earnings down but the Revelstoke Credit Union was not unhappy with its past fiscal year, CEO Roberta Bobicki said at the institution’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, April 21.
“In 2014 we achieved good financial results in spite of the low interest-rate environment which saw the spread between loan and deposit interest diminish to less than 1%,” she told the almost 100 members who attended the meeting at the Seniors’ Centre.
The RCU finished the 2014 fiscal year with net earnings of $606,021, down from $679,314 in 2013. Its total assets in 2014 came to $155,553,389. Down from $159,996,042 last year. (Please click here to see the credit union’s financial reports in PDF format.)
“We were pleased that our performance triggered our Member Rewards and Community Giving programs, totaling $200,000 of profit given back to members and the community for the year,” Bobicki said.
Chairman Alan Chell told the crowd that the board was also pleased with RCU’s decision to purchase and renovate the old video store at Campbell Avenue and Victoria Road as the new home for the RCU Insurance Service. “The board made this decision because we believe in the credit union, our insurance service and the community of Revelstoke,” he said. “Customer comments and business growth have shown this to have been the right decision.”
One of the high points of the AGM was the announcement of the 2015 Community Giving recipients. The credit union received 40 applications asking for a total of $106,250. Thirty-nine projects were successful and received grants totalling $50,000. Here’s a list of them:
Bike-to-Work Week received $500; Selkirk Saddle Club received $3,000 to upgrade its outdoor riding arena; the Hospice Society, $1,500, for website maintenance and for furnishing the Palliative Care Room; the Golf Club, $2,000 for its deck enhancement project; Revelstoke & District Humane Society, $1,000, for veterinary services; the City’s Youth Advisory Committee, $1,000 for its outreach project; Bear Aware, $1,000; the Community Response Network, $1,000, for its Compulsive Hoarding Referral Process; the Illecillewaet Greenbelt Society, $1,000, for its sign replacement project and insurance; the Revelstoke Highlanders, $500, for its Piping Hot Drummer School; Revelstoke Youth Soccer, $1,000 for its refereeing course and mentorship program; the Arts Council, $1,500 for the ArtStarts in-school program and another $1,000 for its Heritage Weekend Musical Presentation; the City’s Social Development Committee $500 for an update to its local resource guides; the Skating Club, $1,000 for its annual ice show; Community Connections received $1,000 for its summer day camps and another $2,000 for the Food Bank; the Mount Revelstoke Quilting Club, $750, for its community quilt program; the Model Railway Club, $1,000 for its model railroad construction project at the Railway Museum; the Women’s Shelter, $2,500 for its Moving Forward program; the Community Child Care Society, $1,500 for enhancing its developmental resources; Axis Mundi Music, $1,750 for the upcoming Axis Mundi Harvest; the United Church, $1,000 to replace its exterior doors; Royal Canadian Legion Branch 46, #3,000 for its building renovation project; the North Columbia Environmental Society, $1,000 for its education program; the Folk Music Society, $1,000 to sustain its Coffee House program; the Columbia Basin Alliance for Literacy, $2,000 for its community and family literacy programs; the Early Childhood Development Committee, $2,000 to revitalize the playground at Kovach Park and another $1,500 for its various initiatives; the Theatre Company, $1,000 for costume cataloguing and professional wigs; Revelstoke Secondary School, $1,000 for its upcoming Youth Create Change – 2015 We Day Trip and other projects; the Begbie View Parents Advisory Committee, $1,000 for its breakfast program; the Community Band, $500 to purchase uniform shirts; the Multicultural Society, $1,000 for its Movies in the Mountains film series; Kootenay Carshare Cooperative, $500 for its 2015 annual summit meeting; the Heritage Railway Society, $1,000 to digitize the Railway Museum’s photographic collection; Revelstoke Roller Derby, $2,500 for the Derailers’ Get Suited Project; the Visual Arts Society, $1,250 to help purchase picnic tables for the new gardens at the Visual Arts Centre; and, finally, the Screen Smart Committee, $750 for the 2015 Screen Smart program.
