Dear Members,
As stewards of the credit union, the Board of Directors and Leadership Team have a duty to ensure the financial strength and viability of TFCU. Continued growth ensures a healthy, vibrant and thriving credit union now and long into the future.
Our most recent charter expansion in 2018 increased our field of membership to include the counties of Essex, Washington, Warren, Clinton and Franklin in New York and Addison County in Vermont. This larger field of membership will lay the foundation for long term growth allowing us to provide cutting-edge products and services to more members for many years to come.
As we’ve grown to reach more communities, we’ve had to ask ourselves whether the name TrailNorth Federal Credit Union, will continue to serve us in these new counties in New York and Vermont. We first announced the analysis of a potential name change at our 2018 Annual Meeting. We took time with this question, spending over a year involving our members, our coworkers, our communities and the people in our new field of membership.
We weighed our affection for a name that we’ve been proud to carry for all these years against our responsibility to prepare the credit union for the future. In the end, our Board of Directors unanimously agreed, we need a name that lets people in these new communities we serve know that they can be part of our Credit Union. A name that reflects our local roots in an area we are proud to live in as well as our commitment to being a force for good. So, on January 1st, 2020, we will be changing our name to TrailNorth Federal Credit Union.
We will continue to provide all members with more information in the coming months. We encourage you to visit tfcunow.com/trailnorth to learn more about why we're making this change, the source of our new name, and what to expect next.
In the past 65 years, our predecessors made similar strategic decisions with charter expansions and brand identity as the needs of our members changed and our communities grew. While we will always have affection for the name “TrailNorth Federal Credit Union," our new name will enable growth to serve you even better and bring what we’ve all loved about TFCU to more members in the North Country. Doing the right thing for our members has guided us through many changes in the past, and our commitment to our values will guide us through this change as well.
Sincerely,
Shawn M. Hayes Richard J. Carpenter, Sr.
President & CEO, CCUE, CUCE Board Chairman