HCI Monthly News & Updates
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Message from our New Board Chair
We have returned from our board meeting in Independence! Kelsey Mortimer of Visit Independence, along with her team, showed us a few of the many interesting stops and food options that Independence has to offer. Our stay at the Hilton Garden Inn will be a nice space for our Peer Group next year. Thank you to both of our hosts - we are looking forward to our return!
The board looked over the evaluations from Peer Group in La Vista and tried to identify the issues that mattered most to you. We wanted to build stronger relationships between our bankers and partners and have incorporated a new format for itinerary planning with the partners. Watch for opportunities in the next few months to register for Fall Forum and Peer Group!
There is still time to help with the victims of the Nebraska flooding, and HCI is partnering with the Salvation Army of Omaha to provide food, resources and equipment through their disaster relief fund where 100% of every dollar goes directly to local flood relief.
HCI will match donations of our members up to $1500.
To contribute, send your check which is made payable to "Salvation Army" to HCI at PO Box 1866, Maple Grove, MN 55311.
All donations received by
June 30
will be forwarded to the Salvation Army in Omaha along with a check from HCI in an amount equal to the total donations from our members - up to $1500.
Tina has been working hard to keep up the Facebook page again, so go out and like what she is doing!
Have a fabulous summer, friends!
Melanie Davis, CBCD
Farmers Savings Bank & Trust
Vinton, IA
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NEW! Club Newsletters Now Online
HCI is now posting our club directors' newsletters on our website. Our Partners can learn more about what the clubs are doing, and our Bankers can share ideas by reading each others newsletters.
Bankers, please add HCI to your newsletter distribution list so we can include your newsletters, too. Tina @HeritageClubs.com or PO Box 1866, Maple Grove, MN 55311.
To find a club director's newsletters, you must be an active HCI member.
- Log in with your own credentials at www.HeritageClubs.com
- Access the Directory from the Member drop-down menu
- Search for the member in the directory to locate their profile
- Click on the link next to "Club Newsletters" to be directed to the bank's page on the HCI site. From there you can access copies of their recent editions.
- If the "Club Newsletters" field doesn't exist, then we don't yet have any newsletters for that member. At this moment, we only have a couple, but we hope to have many more in the next few months.
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Let's Do Something Good Together
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Help Midwest Flood Victims
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Spring 2019 has brought some of the worst flooding in over 50 years to Nebraska. We were right there in Sarpy County when it began on March 14, the final day of Peer Group.
HCI wants to encourage our members to help the victims of the Nebraska flooding, and is partnering with the Salvation Army of Omaha to provide food, resources and equipment through their disaster relief fund where 100% of every dollar goes directly to local flood relief.
HCI will match donations of our members up to $1500.
To contribute, send your check which is made payable to "Salvation Army" to HCI at PO Box 1866, Maple Grove, MN 55311.
All donations received by
June 30
will be forwarded to the Salvation Army in Omaha along with a check from HCI in an amount equal to the total donations from our members - up to $1500.
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SAVE THE DATE
The
HCI
2020 Peer Group Conference
will be held in
Independence, Missouri
February 24 - 28, 2020
Make plans now to join us!
Independence loves welcoming visitors and helping them map their journeys — they’ve been doing it for generations! Whether you’re seeking a relaxing, getaway destination, an action-packed adventure, or an immersive, yesteryear experience, exercise your right to a fun, educational and entertaining experience in Independence, Missouri.
Look for your registration announcement in your in-box on
July 10
.
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Doreen McKinney, CBCD
Mascoma Bank
Lebanon, NH
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Doreen McKinney, CBCD started working as a teller at her bank in 1991. Six months later she moved into HR where she stayed for 8 years. Twenty years ago, the bank’s president met George Aker and became interested in starting a club. The Platinum Passport Club was created in 1999 and Doreen became its first Club Director. Her supervisor said, “I have to let you go like a butterfly and let you fly and grow into this position.” Today the club has 3,200 members and offers a variety of trips and activities every year. A favorite is their annual BBQ, which now has over 200 customers attend. In twenty years, Doreen and the marketing team have done all of the cooking except for one year. She says, “We tried using a caterer one time and our customers did not like the food, so we continue to do all the cooking ourselves.”
She oversees the bank’s event coordinator, Sue Beaulieu who she works closely with to put together different events for all of the 25 branches, like educational seminars, business-after-hours planning and customer appreciation cook-outs. She also does a holiday decorating class every December. This year she is trying some new classes such as water color and wine glass and gourd painting.
The club does 4-5 day trips during the summer months which frequently include theatre trips to Maine and Massachusetts. She also offers a few international trips each year. The annual overnight mystery tour is a club favorite and sells out in just 18 minutes. Just like Black Friday, the customers line up at the doors hours before they open in order to get a place on the tour. She did the first of her mystery trips 10 years ago and included a show of the Friesians of Majesty in Vermont. “The customers were stunned to find such beautiful horses so close to home.” Doreen is constantly on the lookout for new ideas to incorporate into her mystery tours. These tours always include a Wine and Cheese stop and a stay at a one-of-a kind hotel. Last year she set up the wine and cheese event at her semi-permanent campsite where she keeps her camper, and they played camping games while enjoying their delicacies in the woods. “That will be hard to top!” she says.
Doreen has found it very rewarding to see her customers really enjoy their vacations. She says, “Most of them would not attempt to tour the destinations that they do if it weren’t for the club. I have customers that have traveled with me for the last 10 years who would never have done it on their own. In fact, I recently helped one couple book airline tickets so they could go see her family. So, travel is something they don’t feel they can do on their own.” Her favorite memory is helping to facilitate a friendship between two single female customers. “I connected them with each other for a visit over coffee, and they hit it off and became great friends and traveling companions who went on tours with me for the next 10 years.”
Doreen has been involved with HCI since the founding of her club in 1999. She is grateful for the education that HCI provides it members. “It keeps us up to date on industry changes; provides opportunities to share with peers; FAM Tours that allow us to explore new destinations; and facilitates sharing of trips (especially in the Midwest).”
In her free time, Doreen loves to camp. She and her husband keep a camper set up year round about an hour from her home and stay there every weekend in the summers. She also enjoys spending a great deal of time with her four grandchildren – “they keep me hopping!”
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Rick Pharr
has been a professional tour operator for over 40 years. He and his wife Carol run
CTN
Travels
and are celebrating their 30
th
year in business, and they look forward to assisting HCI club directors to create wonderful and exciting travel programs for their members for many years to come. Al
l this experience means that they know how to deliver exceptional group tours to their customers. They specialize in creating custom-built itineraries that will delight your club members. “We know the travel side, and club directors know their members,” Rick says, so, it is the ideal situation for club directors to partner with Rick to put together a customized tour for their unique club based on their interests and preferences.
Linda James
from Landmark Bank in Houston, MO would agree. She says, “I love doing business with Rick! I refer to him as Mr. Personality. He puts together trips that my customers really like. He will customize to my needs and price range. Just tell him what you want, what your budget is and anything special you want to include – even the level of hotels – and he will create an amazing tour package. He will let you know if what you want is a good idea or if he has a better plan – but he will do the trip you want. I have done several trips with CTN and they have all been great.”
She also likes the tour guides that Rick is able to provide. “I did a trip to Nashville with CTN a few years ago,” she says, “and just a couple of days before the trip I learned that a health issue would prevent me from being able to participate in leading the group as much as I had planned. I called Rick and explained my situation, and he got us a full-time guide at the last minute. It turned out great! Everything was perfect and my travelers loved the guide.” You don’t have to use a guide, but Rick’s got them if you do – and he has them all over the world – to make your life easy and allow you the time to connect with your members while on tour without having to worry about the details.
Speaking of the details, CTN Travels pays for all the tour expenses in advance so club directors never have to worry about carrying checks or dealing with payments while on tour. “Hopefully, this gives club directors a level of comfort knowing that all those details have been taken care of for them.”
Diane Susong
from Home State Bank (Crystal Lake, IL) says, “Working with Rick & Carol from CTN Travels is wonderful. They take such care in making sure we have just the right tour with just the right itinerary. Last year, I did my ‘Great Pacific Coast’ tour with Rick, and I couldn't have been more pleased. We had the best itinerary and the WORLD’S best guide Alan. At the end of the tour, my members told Alan that he had ruined it for any guide we will have in the future, because he was that good.
“Rick & Carol have also worked with me on 6 out of my 7 Mystery Tours. With Rick’s assistance I have gone from a 1-night, 2-day tour to a 4-night, 5-day tour. I already have 40 people signed up for this year’s mystery tour, and my members can't wait to go in November. It gets harder and harder to out-do ourselves, but I know with Rick & Carol on my side, we will rise to the challenge and make it happe
n. If you haven't worked with Rick & Carol, then you don't know what you are missing...an amazing tour! ”
Rick has been doing business with HCI bank clubs since 1995. “HCI is the only bank travel show that we do anymore – we have committed our resources to HCI and over 80% of our business comes from HCI.” And, Rick really enjoys working with our club directors – “I like them - they’re fun and easy to work with and they know what they want to do and how they want to do it.”
“I love coming to Peer Group. It’s one of the few places that I go where, when I walk in the room, just about everyone knows who I am and will want to know how my family and I are doing,” says Rick. HCI is glad that Rick and Carol are members of our family and we’re proud to be able to recommend CTN Travels as one of our fine Preferred Tour Operators.
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