With a whopping 95% approval, the amalgamation of two credit unions was voted on and passed in Portage la Prairie last night. Portage Credit Union and Austin Credit Union will be one new entity, effective January 1st, 2017. PCU CEO Dave Omichinski is thrilled, and shares his reaction.

Dave Omichinski"What are we going to say? What a great night! What a great two nights! Last night at the Austin Members -- 80% approval. Tonight, our membership -- 95% approval. You know, we really believed in the business case. We really communicated that with our members. The responses that we got from them have been overwhelmingly favourable. But, man, until you get to that vote, you don't really know."

He reviews the numbers.

"253 votes cast. 241 in favour. 12 against. So 95% in favour. Deep in my heart that's what I expected. But, you know, there's always levels of anxiety. It's tough -- that both credit unions have a long tradition, a long history. Everybody has a tendency to struggle with change."

Ratification being made for various moves during meeting

Omichinski says work's just begun.

"This is effective January 1, 2017.
Votes are all in
So, for the next six months, it will still be Portage Credit Union. It will still be Austin Credit Union. Certainly we will be starting to work together to take a look at aligning things. We do need to come up with a new name. And we do need membership approval for that. We will be engaging in a process that we will be starting to work on (Friday). Our target is to come back to the members probably in early/mid November for a vote to approve the name, so that we got enough time to start getting some signs for January. But in any case, that process will include member engagement. We haven't figured out exactly what that means. But we do want to have input -- suggestions, the like -- from our staff, from our members, as we go through the process to come up with a new name for the exciting new entity."

CelebrationHe adds Austin Credit Union CEO Brent Budz was absent, seeing as a number of Portagers who deal with both credit unions were present, and informed Omichinski he'd get a lot of thanks, but wanted the focus to be on Portage Credit Union calling it their night. Omichinski says he kept Budz informed by text.