Judy Wilkinson

Think Alice in Wonderland, the Disney version. The hooka-smoking caterpillar demands of Alice:

?a—who are a-you?"

Now consider the CCB variation, "Who are we?"

Steve and I pondered this question as we represented the CCB under the grant we received to attend a Convening sponsored by CFPB/FDIC. CFPB (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) created by the Dodd-Frank Act, protects consumers in light of the financial debacle of 2008, and the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) established during the depression, protects bank depositors from losing their money.

Both entities offer training packages, and this Convening trained us to train others to deliver them. The FDIC has 11 modules in its "Smart Money" training, ranging from opening bank accounts to "paying yourself first, to purchasing homes. Where on the spectrum, we wondered, do most of our members fit in? For instance, how many CCB members can afford to pay themselves first (i.e. create some kind of savings)? Similarly the newer FCPB offers a 9-module package "Your Goals Your Money," ranging from making it through to the end of the month to areas of consumer abuse such as calls from debt collectors. How many in our CCB community don't know how they'll make it to the end of the month?

Then what a coincidence! Just 3 days after our return from Washington DC, what should appear in my email but the first draft of our CCB Demographics Survey, initiated by our Publications Committee, largely created by its member Catherine Schmitt Whitaker and put in Survey Monkey format and added to by our CEO Paul Shane. This survey will certainly give us the tools to help us decide which modules of the above trainings might be most useful to our members, but more importantly will provide valuable resources for all manner of other benefits to CCB.

Paul, with input from an ad hoc committee, recently put together our Case for Support, which tells donors why they should provide CCB with financial support, and almost as important, tells them who they are actually funding! Unfortunately, we have almost no verifiable data about who our thousand plus members really are! How old are we? How many of us work, or even want to work? What is our average income level?

This, and so much other information will be available to us with your help. We need each of you to fill out this survey online or with assistance from Nicole Pacheco, our recently-hired Operations Manager. All information you provide remains anonymous. By the time you read this, the survey should be live and ready for completion. Watch for instructions and further information on our various lists.

In our ongoing efforts to encourage new folks to join us, our Membership Committee under its chair, Board Member Vivian Younger, will be offering a membership seminar on June 27. Watch for further information. Should you miss that training or if the BC reaches you too late, the call will be recorded for later playback.

We proudly point to ourselves as a "grassroots" organization. Well now let's hear from every single blade of that grass!