Director's Report

On behalf of the Board of Directors and Supervisory Committee, we welcome you to the 66th Annual Meeting. The Board of Directors is happy to report that 2019 was another successful year for OTIS Federal Credit Union and our membership.

For the 15th consecutive year, the Credit Union gave back a portion of our earnings to our members in the form of a Loan Interest Refund and Bonus Dividend. We are thrilled to report that in 2019, we returned over $520,000 to our members—both our savers and borrowers—and that over the past 15 years, OTIS FCU has given back a total of $5,143,654! For us, this is a true testament to one of the Seven Cooperative Principles of credit unions – Member Economic Participation. Typically, credit union members experience the impact of this principle through lower loan rates, higher dividend rates, and fewer fees, but for members of OTIS FCU, the Loan Interest Refund and Bonus Dividend is a further extension of that cooperative principle.

For us, the unquestionable theme of 2019 was growth. We saw deposits increase by almost $9M, and our loan portfolio grew by $2.3M. We also saw dividend rates grow to all-time highs since 2008. We grew as an organization by adding two positions to the Credit Union. We achieved growth in our fundraising efforts for not only the Maine Credit Unions’ Campaign for Ending Hunger, but also with our new Angel Tree fundraiser which helped to pay down outstanding lunch debts in each school district within our field of membership. Lastly, the overall growth of the Credit Union was remarkable, with our asset size growing to $183,819,387 from $172,685,505 in 2018. We are well on our way towards surpassing the $200M mark in 2020.

We hope our members also feel as though they enjoyed personal and financial growth in 2019. We take pride in offering products and services that fit just about every household – from our First Time Auto Buyer program for someone that may be new to the car buying world, to offering competitive certificate rates for our savers. We truly feel that you work hard for your money, and that it is our job to make sure that you’re able to keep as much as possible in your own wallet. We also understand that we serve a diverse membership of all financial means. Talking about finances can be a difficult conversation, and we are here to help in any way possible. That is why we have partnered with GreenPath Financial Wellness. As a national non-profit, GreenPath can assist you with financial counseling, debt management services, housing services, student loan counseling, and even will review your credit report with you. Sometimes we don’t know where to turn when finances become overwhelming, and we want to let you know that it can start with a simple conversation with a proven company that helps credit union members across the United States. We encourage you to visit our website for more information.

In closing, our growth would be nonexistent without you, our members. We thank each member of OTIS Federal Credit Union for investing in us and choosing us as your trusted financial institution. Your continued loyalty and patronage make us the strong, local financial institution that we are, and we plan to be here serving the people of this community for the next 66 years and beyond. With that, we would like to dedicate our 2020 Annual Report to the 11,059 members that choose OTIS FCU to be their trusted financial partner. To each member, thank you: Thank you for making us what we are today, and what we will be in the future.

Respectfully submitted,

Duane Lake Chairman, Board of Directors