I would like to take this opportunity to say, “thank you.” Thank you for your NJBankers membership and thank you for the confidence you’ve placed in us to be your trusted advisor, community partner and connector within the banking industry. Our goal, in all these avenues and more, is to exceed your expectations as customers—and members—of our Association.
In the coming months, NJBankers will embark on a Strategic Planning process that will determine the path for the Association through 2030. As we begin this process, we will take a fresh look at our value proposition to ensure that we continue to remain relevant and vibrant.
We cannot do this without your input. We will actively engage with our members throughout this process to ensure you feel heard, heeded, and supported.
Our members will receive surveys and be solicited for feedback as to their needs and preferences, with the goal of ensuring we provide valuable content and resources. We have always aimed to be customer-driven and want to refocus our efforts moving forward. To that end, we will spend the Fall and Winter on our strategic plan, with the goal of submitting the final plan for Board approval in early 2025. This will tie neatly into the 2025/26 budgeting and event planning season, where you will see the manifestation of this plan in action.
In addition, strategic planning will continue with our ongoing customer (member) engagement and value propositions.
NJBankers will continue to lead with advocacy. Advocacy can be broken down into three disciplines which are interrelated. First, with public policy—lobbying—we will continue to be your voice in Trenton and Washington. We are proud of our past accomplishments and will continue to preserve, protect, and promote the industry to government leaders. Second is legal advocacy. As they say in the Godfather “blood costs a lot of money.” We will not be afraid to spend money on legal advocacy to ensure that our members are protected from overzealous regulations. We have done this in the past and will do so in the future. Finally, public affairs—where we help you publicly demonstrate the good you do as a bank, and the great things we do as a collective industry.
We will further evolve our communication channels; you will see increased visibility on LinkedIn as well as content on other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. We will continue our efforts to leverage traditional media and social media to demonstrate the importance of our industry.
We have listened to you, our customers, and will continue to evolve our professional development offerings and presentations. We will focus all events on member value, which translates to more education, less recreation, and more chances to interact with peers. We will continue to dive deep into institutions to provide professional development for bankers of all levels through both in-person and virtual events.
While we work on executing our long-term strategic plan, we will focus on some interim tactical goals. Specifically, we will:
- Expand public affairs efforts to create ten earned media events, where NJBankers creates an event that is media worthy, invites the media and results in a positive story. Grow the positive reputation that NJBankers currently enjoys with the state legislature. Ensure that members feel confident that their interests and our representation are maintained to the highest standards by our Director of Government Affairs. Success in this area, considering the political situation in New Jersey and the public perception of our industry, is measured by a lack of adverse industry actions and by the mitigation of negative repercussions of legislation that is enacted.
- Improve Communication of our Advocacy Efforts to the Board of Directors and Members: NJBankers traditionally conducts government affairs with the goal of avoiding any limelight. We will highlight our efforts through user-friendly presentations.
- Provide programming to better engage our Emerging Leaders with NJBankers advocacy: NJBankers will host a Trenton Advocacy Day in the Winter of 2024/25 with the goal of providing Emerging Leaders with a better understanding of state government and how advocacy works.
- Create a Banks are strong and secure campaign: It is critical that NJBankers be a leading voice on the strength of the industry. We will amplify our voice and messaging through social media outlets.
- Implement a Legal Affairs strategy: We will build on previous successes by developing cases to litigate and partner with allies to create legal change.
- Achieve Budget: The 2024/25 Budget contains several embedded stretch revenue goals including the revenue goals for professional development and membership. Achieving all goals in the budget year is the primary objective, despite some downward trends in attendance.
- Achieve Budget plan for NJBankers Business Services: Embedded in the overall budget is a goal for successfully onboarding and marketing the KeyState Solar Program.
- Assist in securing one net new additional bank client for Bankers Cooperative Group (BCG): Revenue growth of BCG is essential to ensuring that insurance companies seek BCG as a long-term viable entity, which in turn allows for purchasing leverage for our members and clients.
- Complete and follow through on new professional development programming: Specifically, the Internship Program, Mid-Career Banker training, Directors Training and Emerging Leaders; seek to grow participation and resulting revenue in all.
- Create additional operational efficiencies and modernization.
- Continue joint events: Focus on developing new opportunities such as a possible joint Federal regulatory visit and joint inter-state conferences. Facilitate Associate Member sharing on key topics.
We look forward to working with you, and for you, in the year to come.
