Annual Report

56th Annual Membership Meeting Recap

CEO’S 2021 Annual Report

During my career in financial services I’ve seen double digit inflation in the early 1980’s; the Great Recession in 2008; and now the Pandemic of 2020. Through it all, ordinary people continue stepping up to create extraordinary accomplishments. From sea to shining sea, Americans continue to show who we are. Not Democrats or Republicans . . . AMERICANS with an “I can do that” attitude. While this may feel like yesterday’s Patriotic call, I believe this to be in our nature. Regardless of your gender, national origin or race, Americans simply will not quit! And so we must pass this mentality on to the next generation. A belief in ourselves and a willingness to serve others remains the only way forward.

Since taking the reins at Patriot in 2015, Patriot based our corporate culture on a strategy of servant leadership. Why servant leadership? Because the Credit Union belongs to you, our members, and we are here to serve. Therefore volunteers and staff remain committed to three ideals:

And our results speak for themselves. Take note of our progress thru 2021.

Yet time stands still for no one and the only constant is change itself! Therefore, we continue to focus on how best to meet and/or exceed your expectations.

Now there may be some individuals who can’t connect servant leadership with the on-going success we’ve noted above. They’re focused on more tangible changes. And while I’d like to go back year over year to highlight some of the changes, please allow me to focus primarily on the past 12 to 18 months.

In mid-2021, we moved to a new credit/debit card processor to improve our quality of service and to begin offering digital wallets (Apple Pay, etc.). Patriot has noticed tens of thousands of digital wallet transactions monthly. Additionally we began offering a 1.5% cash back rewards consumer credit card. And within the next six months, members will be able to open accounts on-line in under 5 minutes. This is possible through the hard work of many of our employees who focused a great deal of time and money installing sophisticated systems and software necessary to protect members from fraud while scaling our operations to financial institutions ten times our size. It’s taken more time than I’d hoped, but it was required to assure members they’d get the quality service they’ve come to expect.

In late 2021 we opened an office in Frederick County Maryland, known as our Ballenger Creek Office. This is the first office in our new Field of Membership (FOM) to include Frederick County, MD and Berkley, Morgan & Jefferson Counties, WV. We’ve planned additional offices within our new FOM, so stay tuned. And in early 2022 we also opened an office in Shippensburg PA. To date, this has been the most successful new branch opening known to Patriot. A shout out to Team Patriot in our Shippensburg Office. Amazing effort, amazing success!

Additionally in 2022 we’ve deployed a new Home Equity Line Of Credit which allows members to fix portions of their Flex Equity line of credit as a loan. We’ve added business deposit services such as Remote Deposit for Business and ACH processing. And, in June we hired our first Community Outreach Officer, Karla Tellez. Shortly, due in large part to Karla’s knowledge of the underserved members living within our community, members will see membership agreements, disclosures and loan documents in Spanish. We’ve made promises to our regulator in good faith to better serve these communities and give them the opportunities that many of us have enjoyed . . . a promise I intend to see to its fruition before my expiration date.

Finally, speaking of my expiration date this will be my last Annual Report. After 43 years in financial services, I’ll be retiring shortly. So before my retirement, I wish to thank our Board for their support; the employees for everything they do on behalf of our members . . . but most of all to you our members. You’re simply the best!

Currently our Board is working to select my successor. When the time comes, I will leave knowing that the next CEO will be supported by a wonderful staff, a strong executive leadership team and a committed board of directors focused upon building on our progress as they continue to be serve your financial needs.

Sincerely

Brad R. Warner, CEO

I began my career in financial serves in 1979, some 43 years ago when things were very different. There were no personal computers, cell phones, Internet or any kind of computer chips. Today, we take all these technological advances for granted. Yet I’ve never taken members nor employees for granted. Financial services, then as today, remain all about serving you – our members. Without members, there would be no need for employees. And without Patriot’s wonderful staff and volunteers, we couldn’t exist. So as I pen my final Annual Report, allow me to begin by thanking the wonderful people I’ve had the privilege to get to know at Patriot. Some remain here, others have moved on, some retired and some the good Lord has called home. You will never know how much you’ve all meant to me. But it’s my time to pass this torch on to the next CEO.