March 19, 2011 in Blog, Project Updates by Jamie Lee

Highlights of Fall 2010 and Plans for 2011

Throughout the fall semester, we’ve taken substantial steps towards accomplishing our goal of establishing a student-run financial institution here in our university for Waterloo students. Highlights of the past term include:

•           Highlights of Fall 2010

•           Organizational Growth

•           Velocity End of Term Exhibition

•           Future Advancement and Expansion

1. Highlights of Fall 2010

During this past term we received a lot of exposure and public interest as we pitched out project at the Velocity Pitch Lunch, StartupCampWaterloo, Velocity End of Term Exhibition and the CBET Innovation Fair. We gained further student support when we held a Professional Photoshoot at Wilfrid Laurier University in November.

Many students showed interest in our business plans and objectives, observed when we surveyed over 1000 university students, and 45% of respondents said they would be likely to join a student-run credit union.  We further solidified that business plan when we had a meeting with advisor Peter Chow. Peter Chow is the Senior Vice President of Global Markets and alumni of Waterloo, who provided further insights for the growth and further development of the organization.

2. Organizational Growth

Directors of the Waterloo Banking Project are returning staff members:

Ryan Chen-Wing – Project Leader, Director of Research & Planning

Erica Yao – Senior Director, Director of Human Resources & Training

Tyler Planeta – Director of Marketing & Communications

The Waterloo Banking Project also welcomes several new Associate Directors to the staff this term:

Abirami Ananthan – Associate Director, Staff Orientation

Emily Na – Associate Director, Financial Education

Stanley Rao – Associate Director, Analysis

Jamie Lee – Associate Director, Publishing

Kathy Zheng – Associate Director, Business Plan

Nicole Covello – Business Plan Development

3. Velocity End of Term Exhibition

On Wednesday November 30^th, the Waterloo Banking Project was presented at the Velocity End of Term Exhibition by Directors Helena Cao and Ryan Chen-Wing. For the exhibition people browsed each booth and asked questions about the projects they represented. A notable visitor for the Waterloo Banking booth was Bill Tatham, Thatham Centre. Later on in the day, both Helena and Ryan made a two minute pitch about our project in front of the audience.

4. Future Advancement and Expansion

On November 1^st 2010, the Georgetown University’s newspaper (The Georgetown Independent) released an article describing their credit union. As described in a past release, The Independent student newspaper features Georgetown’s student credit union, Waterloo Banking Project has drawn inspiration from the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union before. The GUASFCU was the first student run credit union in the States and the GUASFCU has been operating since 1983, supported by university staff and over 12,000 students and alumni, and holds assets in excess of $15 million.