BPCU has steady year

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Published on Saturday, April 25, 2015

By Ken Waddell

The Neepawa Banner

Keeping it simple and staying the course seemed to be the main message at the Beautiful Plains Credit Union Annual General meeting last week. Judging by past meetings, the AGM supper was predictable with a beef supper, door prizes and an election by acclamation and oh, yes, a financial statement. The statements presented by Manager Gord Sylvester showed  a profit of over half a million dollars on assets that have now climbed to almost $104 million.

Keith Jury and Ron Jesson were re-elected by acclamation to another term on the board of directors.

Guest speaker was Cst. Robert Mitton of the Spruce Plains RCMP. Mitton, who works out of Minnedosa, has had extensive pre-RCMP experience in banking and finance. He spoke to the CU members about fraud prevention. He opened by asking how many people carried their SIN number with them or their passport, their birth certificate or even blank cheques. He suggested that those items should be kept in a safe place because if any of those items fell into a crook’s hands, it could be very expensive due to identity theft and actual money theft.

Mitton said there are four things to do if you have been victimized: call your bank or credit union, call the RCMP, call the two credit bureaus and call the CAFC (Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre).

Mitton warned people against the so-called Grandparents scam where an anonymous caller pretends to be a grandchild in need of bail money or loan payment money. He said he knows of cases where losses to such a scam have amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mitton suggested that a person ask enough questions so that they know who they are really talking to and to not send money.

At the AGM long time employee Carol Turko who is Office Manager at the Glenella branch was given a 40 year service award and Donna Huck is retiring after 26 years at credit union.