The Jim Schultheiss file
Age: 46
Job: President and chief executive officer of Chaco Credit Union, Inc.
Years at Chaco: Total 17
Home: Fairfield
Education: Hamilton High School and bachelor's of accounting, Miami University
Associations: Butler County Chapter of Credit Unions, Ohio Credit Union League
HAMILTON — Chaco Credit Union was established in Hamilton 70 years ago as a cooperative of the employees of Champion Paper.
It has a different mission today. As a community charter, a member can be anyone who lives, works, worships or attends school in Butler, Hamilton or Preble counties. Chaco has seven locations, including a branch that relocated to West Chester Twp. last year, and three locations it opened in area Walmarts in 2005 and 2006.
Jim Schultheiss has been the president and CEO of Chaco and its 83 employees for seven years. His first job with the company was in filing.
What is your company best known for?
JS: We are best known for our service. My examples of those would be when I'm out I wear my Chaco gear often and if I'm out at the supermarket on the way home or things, people say 'Oh you work for Chaco' and then give me a name of an employee that they're used to dealing with and how great that person is and how wonderful the service is and how loyal they've been as a credit union member. One of the things we do when we hire, I spend time with the employee on the first day, get to know them and welcome them on board and one of the questions I always ask is how did you learn about Chaco and they'll say, 'well, I'm a member.'
What are the major goals the company is currently working on and how is the company working to achieve those goals?
JS: Our goals are the same as they've always been. We try to look out from a five-year perspective of where we want to be, in this case in 2016. Much of the same, it's about building relationships in the community, it's about providing great service for our members and giving back into our community as far as helping out.
What are the biggest challenges facing the business today and why?
JS:
We’re still in what we call the slow-to-heal economy. We’re still working our way out of that. Being locally tied, whatever’s going on around here, it affects us. Folks aren’t working, their demands change from what they’ve been doing in the past and what they’re doing today. Until folks get back to work and home values get back to what they were in 2006 and 2007 and people feel comfortable about borrowing again and expanding their wealth, our business picks up as well.
What have been keys to the company’s success over its history?
JS: Active participation. We've been blessed with a strong board of directors. We are managed by a volunteer board of directors ... We work on strategies and they represent the members. We have 23,000 members.
What do you feel your company does better than its competitors?
JS: From a competitors' standpoint, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If we're convenient because of our locations, if our price is right, if our rates are good, if our service is good, people come back ...
The big difference between us and them (banks) is that we’re locally owned, we’ll always be locally owned, we can’t be bought out, there’s no stocks to be sold, we’re democratically controlled, the members actually vote on their board, they have input in to where the credit union goes.
Where do you see the company in five years?
JS: It will still be here. Our strategy is the same. We still want to build relationships in the community, we still want to meet new people.
How is the company committed to the community?
JS: We have a good relationship with the Hamilton Freshman School, we helped them, they just finished up the Fill That Bus campaign ... We have a long-time relationship with Shared Harvest ... We've done the cancer walks in the fall. We have a good relationship with a few churches in town. We're helping out with the Re-Threads store in Fairfield. We've done Groovin' on the Green the past few years as a sponsor.
What’s the biggest lesson the company learned from the recent recession and how is it being applied?
JS: Credit unions were founded right around the depression time in the United States ... They really started popping up in the 1930s during the Great Depression because banks were tightening their lending standards. People still need to move forward, people still need to borrow money, people still need to make ends meet, and so they pulled their funds together ...
We’ve been around since 1938 under that premise. Well we were kind of taken back to that time here in the last recession ... So it kind of reminded us of what we learned from our ancestors’ reason for putting this together ...
The other thing we learned too is we always being conservative, we plan for rainy days and certainly a recession is a rainy day, but once you’re in it, you’re not sure what comes your way. We did fine, we weathered the storm, but the next one that comes along we’re going to be in better shape.
Why do you think opening locations in Walmart was the best way to expand?
JS:
When members close their accounts, we always ask them why to make sure we understand if there is something we’re missing. There for a while the number one complaint was convenience. When 129 came in and a lot of members moved east out of Hamilton into the township and into Liberty Twp. and West Chester, we weren’t out there ... So the Fairfield Twp. Walmart was a good location for us to reengage with those that moved out that way.
Also Walmart, because they’re a destination .., they bring people into the store and have people walk by us. It’s a good way to meet new people ... Primarily in Forest Park and Oxford .., it’s a great way to introduce ourselves.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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