Pub. 7 2018 Issue 1

The CommunityBanker 8 President’s Message By Steve Yeakel, CAE VACB President & CEO Timely Information – Critical for Your Bank – Available from VACB! M E S S A G E V ACB’s strong tradition of targeted ed- ucation programs continued through 2017, and the 2018 schedule is packed with even more opportunities for you to gain invaluable insights. Are you and your bank taking full advantage of its benefits? Or to put it another way, can you afford to ignore the value of bringing your staff timely information about the best of current practice and coming trends in community banking? You, the bankers, have set a strong agenda. We have had solid engagement for many years in our cornerstone programs: the quarterly Compliance Forums and the bi- annual Internal Audit programs. Last year, we implemented two new ideas generated by members, yielding two successful new programs: “Banking Essentials” for newer employees and “Performance University” for your sales staff. They joined a catalogue of “hot topic” one-day seminars, and a wide array of valuable webinars that are as valu- able for their content as they are for their affordability, to complete a comprehensive lineup. We know these programs are success- ful because we ask the attendees, and their evaluations validate our observations. Our offerings are highly rated by participants. And yet there is always room for a few more people to attend any session we spon- sor throughout the year. Katharine and I are making it a 2018 priority to get more infor- mation to the right places at your bank. Please help us to help you. Let us know if we can direct our training information to others in your bank, or spend an additional moment with our program announcements when you receive them, to get them into the right hands. We’re doing good work, and we know that our banks will be stronger if more bankers can take advantage of it. Please help us to help you. Let us know if we can direct our training information to others in your bank, or spend an additional moment with our program announcements when you receive them, to get them into the right hands. We’re doing good work, and we know that our banks will be stronger if more bankers can take advantage of it.