In July 1847, Brigham Young declared “This is the Right Place” and soon thereafter the Mormon Pioneers settled the territory now known as Utah. Out of necessity, the pioneers had to be self-reliant and depend on each other for survival. They worked together in the spirit of unity to build thriving communities from their meager resources. Many merchants combined their resources to form cooperatives that helped provide goods and services at lower costs to participating members.

In 1936, seven men at the Ogden Railway and Depot Company pulled together $10.50 to form a credit union that would make small loans to their co-workers. Similar to the cooperatives that had been established by Utah’s pioneer merchants, the credit union was created to serve its members by providing low-cost financial products and services.

Today, this not-for-profit financial cooperative is comprised of nearly 100,000 individuals and is known as Goldenwest Credit Union. We serve our members through 26-branch offices located from Logan to St George, digitally through our online and mobile banking channels, and a nationwide shared-branch and ATM network in cooperation with thousands of other credit unions.

Goldenwest has distinguished itself as a leader in the credit union industry. Our strength has been recognized among the best in the country by SNL Financial, BauerFinancial and Weiss Ratings. As a Utah-based company, we earned the “Best of State” in the credit union category for six consecutive years in-part for our contributions to the communities we serve. Our employment practices have been recognized in recent years by Utah Business magazine, the Utah Department of Workforce Services, and the “Alfred P. Sloan Award” for Workplace Excellence.

Our members appreciate the Goldenwest difference with benefits such as our year-end bonus dividend program, generous Visa rewards programs, and competitive rates and fees on all of our products. Furthermore, we strive to provide the highest levels of service and security for our members.

Recently, Jim Albertson contacted me to discuss our credit union’s philosophy and the reasons why he became a Goldenwest member. Before he joined Goldenwest, he went online and spent several hours researching various local credit unions. Jim and his wife chose Goldenwest because they were impressed with what they learned about our way of doing business. He recognized that our high return on assets and net income were indicators of our financial strength. He appreciated our commitment to building the local economy, citing the example that Goldenwest recently purchased the abandoned Family Fresh Market in Washington Terrace City, with plans to remodel the facility for our growing Operations, IT, Training, and Accounting Departments – bringing more skilled jobs to Weber County. Jim also gave me suggestions for improving our website, and how we can better communicate the many benefits of Goldenwest membership.

It’s always a pleasure to meet with members such as Jim to listen to and discuss their suggestions for improving our credit union. After all, that is why we choose to belong to a not-for-profit financial cooperative – to help and serve one another.

I wish you and your family a fun and safe summer holiday season. As always, you are welcome to contact me at president@gwcu.org and follow me on Twitter at @GoldenwestCUCEO for the latest credit union news.