Success Story: GeoVista Credit Union
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Summary
GeoVista is a full-service credit union in southeastern Georgia. When COVID-19 forced the organization to hold its annual meeting virtually, it needed a software platform it could use to administer voting and report vote results to members. GeoVista decided to use Real-Time Voting Software, and its annual meeting went off without a hitch to the delight of executives and attendees.
About GeoVista
GeoVista Credit Union, based in Hinesville, Ga., offers full-service banking for residents of five counties in southeastern Georgia. In all it does, it strives to provide its members with financial products that are cutting-edge and yet easy to use. In keeping with the structure and rules of credit unions, all members are owners of the credit union and are entitled to the opportunity to participate in major organizational meetings and decisions.
For more information on GeoVista, visit www.geovistacu.com.
The Challenge
GeoVista’s rules and regulations require that it must hold one annual meeting each year, so that members can participate in the credit union, offer input and help make key operating and governance decisions. As plans for the 2021 Annual Meeting (held on February 15) took shape, staff members had to account for evolving protocols and guidance around the COVID-19 pandemic. In late 2020, they determined GeoVista would have to hold the meeting virtually.
Immediately, a search commenced for the best tools to use to hold the meeting. GeoVista decided Zoom was the best interface to use to conduct the meeting and facilitate discussion, but it still needed a software platform that could:
• Offer safe, secure, anonymous voting for all attending members.
• Show the number of attending members in real-time, to ensure there was a quorum present;
• Capture how votes were cast, and report outcomes to members after the meeting
• Run live, alongside the Zoom meeting, so that members and motions could be added or removed as they see fit in real-time;
• Operate simply enough so that members with little to no technical knowledge could still easily learn and use it.
The Solution
In late 2020, GeoVista partnered with Survey & Ballot Systems to use real-time voting software for its annual meeting voting. The platform enables voting groups to securely conduct their business regardless of whether people are physically in the same place or connecting virtually.
We had 80-year-old members tell us afterward that the real-time voting platform was the easiest thing in the world to use. All they had to do to vote was open a text and press a button. It’s that simple.
-Steven Asplund, VP of Sales and Business Development
Results and Benefits
GeoVista’s annual meeting went off without a hitch.
• All meetings and votes were conducted as planned/scheduled.
• Within 30 minutes of the meeting, vote results and decisions were reported to GeoVista’s entire member base.
• All members, regardless of their knowledge of technology, found the software to be easy to use. Many of them also used their smartphone to vote; with the platform sending a personalized text message with a direct link to a user’s ballot, so all the user has to do is open the text message and vote from their smartphone.
• Credit union staff said that the support team at Survey & Ballot Systems was incredibly helpful, patient and easy to work with.
Going forward, GeoVista will consider using the real-time voting software regardless of whether meetings are held in-person or virtually. If the latter, the decision would be a no-brainer.