Bob Hudson Letter
Concerning Credit Union Changes

The following letter is from Robert (Bob) Hudson, founder of WGM Federal Credit Union.

WGM Federal Credit Union:

Very special greetings to all of our membership. It’s been eight years since I’ve attempted to write a general letter, but the credit union board has asked that I might present my views on some of the changes that will be taking place concerning our credit union. The WGM Credit Union has a very special place in my heart and I praise the Lord that I have been able to be very close to the administration and guidelines since its inception. Especially to you retirees, “Have you ever looked back to a seemly insignificant incident that the Lord used in later years to completely overwhelm you?” This has certainly been the case in establishing the Credit Union.

In 1954 I was drafted, into the Army, after graduation from College, with a degree in accounting, and was sent to Fort Greeley, Alaska in November of that year trained as a pole lineman in the Signal Corps. A few days after arriving I was told they had no need for a pole lineman, however since I had a degree in accounting, would I consider being a Chaplain’s Assistant. It was 20 degrees below zero outside so I heartily accepted, not having a clue what was expected of me. I soon discovered the Chaplain was in charge of the emergency loan fund, where a soldier could borrow money if there was a family emergency and he needed to go home; and of course pay it back monthly. The Army’s version of a credit union.

After being discharged in 1956 I began working at a local industry in Portland, IN where I would become the assistant controller and we had a very small credit union managed by our personnel director. I really came to appreciate the credit union method of caring for our financial needs.

I had this crazy dream of building the biggest hog operation that Indiana ever saw and the credit union was there to help me. Of course the Lord convinced me in 1973 that He had other plans for my life, to which I agreed, and was invited to join the WGM staff in downtown Marion. It wasn’t long after working with the mission I began thinking it sure would be nice to have a credit union. About 1976 I became acquainted with Bill Warner, manager of a credit union in Anderson and instrumental in helping a number of credit unions being started. He was a great benefit in directing me to the right people in Indianapolis at the League where it took a couple of years to convince them we could manage a credit union with our membership being all over the world.

In March of this year, I was in Honduras with a work team to check on my “special girls” in the hog buildings at El Sembrador when word came to us by internet that the mission was considering the possibility of moving from the facilities in Marion. Of course this presented numberless questions to our credit union board. In recent years we have seen a number of credit unions in Grant County affected negatively by major changes in their sponsoring organization. Our current visionary CU board of directors decided to take some major steps. They realized we needed to have the opportunity to expand our membership, so application was made to become a community credit union and in the past week this has been approved by the League, so now anyone that lives, works or attends a church in Grant County can become a member. The next issue was facilities, where would we go if we had to move? Major changes are happening at the intersection of I 69 and St Road 18 just down the road from the mission. I thought this would happen soon after 1975 when we moved to our new facilities, but I think the partial construction of the old hotel that sat empty for 30 years was a major deterrent to any growth. Now we have a Love Truck Stop where the hotel was, a huge Dollar General distribution center and a new auto dealership going in. The credit union has purchased two acres behind the auto dealership, that has agreed to partner with us for some of his business, to build a new office.

It appears in the next couple of years there will be some major retail stores being built in this area. Does all these changes cause concern? Sure they do as there are some difficult issues to be solved but I believe God has blessed us in these past years and continues to do so. I’m proud of our board as they have been behind each issue with a 100% vote.

In recent weeks contact was made with the manager of the Postal Employees Credit Union about the possibility of joining our staff. Postal Employees is much smaller than our Credit Union but that discussion led to the possible merger of the two Credit Unions. Last week their credit union members voted 81 to 1 to merge with us and the League has given their approval for this to happen. So in the near future you could have three offices to take care of your financial needs: at the Marion post office, our current office and the new one at I 69.

Out of all these changes another issue has emerged, does the name WGM really tell the community who we are and who we represent. With the merger, some have proposed WGM/Postal. Even with that it indicates that only members from those organizations would belong. With that in mind our board and the Postal Employees board have both approved with a 100% vote to pursue the possible name change to Grant County Community Federal Credit Union which I believe will better represent us in the future.

Out of all these changes I want to assure you, our membership, of one thing and the board has agreed with me 100%. Our Credit Union was established in 1978 to provide the financial services needed to our missionaries wherever in the world they may be serving and that will continue to be our goal.

Thank you for your time to read all of this and may God bless you.

Bob Hudson

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