TONIGHT 11/3 How To Move Your Money from Wall Street to Main Street banks Presentation by Bill Moyer

November 5 is Move Our Money Day. I think it is wonderful that so many people and groups are talking about moving money out of the Wall street banks. I want to share with you a unique story about an organizing project that helped an entire community move its money and is now providing an organizer's toolkit for replicating their model. [Confession - it is my community of Vashon Island, WA where this takes place - and - Backbone Campaign has published the toolkit.] 

"On Vashon Island, Washington a group of community members banded together to try to start a credit union. They called their project CUVashon. The enthusiasm for the idea was overwhelming. In the end, the best solution was to join forces with an employee-based credit union that had recently expanded its field of membership. The credit union, PSCCU (Puget Sound Cooperative Credit Union) got a dramatic increase in members, deposits and new loans. The community got a full service branch, three board positions, and innovative lending programs on alternative energy and conservation, and a dynamic relationship with community organizations. 

The Vashon branch of PSCCU opened on March 1, 2011 recruiting the management team from a local Chase Bank who are much happier now. Already, $10 million has been moved from Wall Street banks into PSCCU, allowing the credit union to lower interest rates on mortgages. Over $3 million has been loaned to community members. AND an amazing 1,000 Vashon community members have joined, i.e. approximately 10% of population. 

CUVashon avoided having to raise $1 million in start up capitol and delivered a swift victory to the community at almost no financial expense to the organizers. There must be thousands of stable-but stagnant employee-based credit unions across this country. Organizers and community activists that want to deliver a victory like this to their community now have access to all the educational outreach materials,           community surveys, and the story of CUVashon to use for free. Download editable versions of these resources and read articles from the local Vashon newspaper tracing this amazing story at http://CUOrganizer.org 

[CUOrganizer.org is a project of the Backbone Campaign to help spread creative strategies developed in its local laboratory of Vashon Island. For information on trainings, action support and other projects visit http://BackboneCampaign.org ]

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Backbone Campaign
P.O. Box 278
Vashon, WA 98070 

At 5:25PM (Pacific) Dial (218) 339-4300,