ACUMA ONpoint
ACUMA ONpoint
Credit Union Collaboration: Live from Savannah with Mortgage Experts
What happens when credit union mortgage leaders gather in beautiful Savannah, Georgia? Rich conversation, valuable insights, and a reminder of why collaboration matters now more than ever.
The latest episode of the ONpoint podcast takes you behind the scenes at ACUMA's 2025 FOCALpoint Workshop. Host Peter Benjamin sits down with Natalie Bozeka, Director of Retail Mortgage Operations with Wright-Patt Credit Union, and Chuck Stiles, VP of Mortgage with Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union, to capture their workshop experience.
Between bites of the city's famous she-crab soup (which both guests agreed was extraordinary), these mortgage professionals reveal what makes credit union-focused events valuable. The conversation highlights how volume-based roundtable discussions—rather than traditional asset-size groupings—create meaningful connections between credit unions facing similar operational challenges. "You get that automatic feedback from other people," Natalie explains, describing how these specialized discussions help credit unions navigate everything from LOS affordability to staffing constraints.
As regulatory pressures mount, education becomes increasingly crucial. Chuck expresses concern about the rapidly changing compliance landscape: "I'm glad ACUMA is trying to help us stay on top of it...because it's frightening." The guests share how they're adopting AI tools like ChatGPT and Grammarly to navigate complex guidelines and streamline operations, presenting a forward-looking approach to mortgage management.
Perhaps most compelling is their passionate call for advocacy. "If we don't all come together to advocate for ourselves, we will not survive," Chuck emphasizes. The conversation underscores how credit unions must educate lawmakers about their unique community focus before making regulatory decisions.
Ready to join this collaborative community? Listen now to understand why these mortgage leaders believe investing in education and building professional relationships remain essential for credit union success in today's challenging environment. Tune in now!
The views and opinions expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Acuma, its board of directors, its management staff or its members. The podcast discussion presented is conversational in nature and for general information only.
Speaker 3:Hello, welcome to Actors On Point Podcast, a series focused on sharing the stories of people who are making a positive impact in the credit union mortgage industry. I'm your host, Peter Benjamin, Live from our 2025 Focal Point Workshop in beautiful Savannah, Georgia. I am joined by Natalie Bozica, Director of Retail Mortgage Operations with RightPak Credit Union, and Chuck Stiles, VP of Mortgage with Palmetto Citizens Federal Credit Union. Natalie, Chuck, how are y'all doing today?
Speaker 4:Doing. Great Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, doing wonderful. Oh, my pleasure, my pleasure. So you know, like we have done in years past, you know, we're on site, on location, just having a friendly little conversation about your experience at the workshop. Now you know, chuck, this is your first time, you know, jumping you into the workshop. It was quite a hazing yesterday. I think it was a really good time. We started off with a pretty awesome networking event at least I thought so. So first question out of the bat, and it's really the first series of questions I ask at all of these live in-person podcasts but experience so far, whether it's at the workshop or even in savannah, georgia, you know, since, chuck, you're the newbie, what are your thoughts so far about the workshop and savannah?
Speaker 5:um, the workshop's been great. Um, this is our first experience, uh, with acuma. Um, and I'm I come to savannah a good bit, so very familiar with with Savannah. I live three hours up the road, columbia, south Carolina, here. A lot Been to several other conferences here. It's a great city, love Savannah, but so far the conference has been awesome. Yeah, I brought two other people to participate. Another person came down to kind of hang out with us and see what Acuma was all about and so far it's been great. It's been a great experience for everybody. Natalie.
Speaker 4:So this is my first time in Savannah and so it's been a great first experience. You guys chose an amazing venue. This is my fourth conference with Acuma and I've really enjoyed it so far, been a lot of great content, getting to connect with new people that haven't necessarily been at the other workshops I've been to, so I've enjoyed it so far.
Speaker 3:No, I mean I've never been to Savannah, it's been on my bucket list to visit. And one it's a beautiful city, it's absolutely charming. And one I think you get lost in it quite easily. But two you really can just immerse yourself in the culture, but also the food scene. I mean you could trip and fall into a good restaurant quite easily, but then when you look at the hotel that we're staying, in this hotel is awesome.
Speaker 4:And several of us were discussing that the food here is so good that lunch was delicious. It felt like a restaurant lunch. It was so good.
Speaker 5:Yeah, the she-crab soup. I highly recommend that. Yeah that, have that again.
Speaker 3:I've had probably she-crab soup pretty much at every meal that I've had while in. Savannah and that was probably the best she-crab soup I've had while in town so far. Big hunks of crab.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah, it was delicious. It's hard to talk about that at 8 15 in the morning nobody can tell their their mouths are watered.
Speaker 4:I have that for breakfast I would have eaten it for breakfast, if it had been available absolutely hands down, hands down, all right.
Speaker 3:Next question up, next question up. So sights to the actual you know workshop itself. I mean, obviously we just knocked through you know day one and you know I you know.
Speaker 3:Obviously you know the team and I put together the agenda, so, but from an outsider looking in and really the one who's moderating it. I love the energy from what I saw yesterday, but I'd love to get your perspectives from day one, the agenda, your thoughts, your favorite sessions, your biggest takeaways from yesterday. We had a huge variety of speakers yesterday, but it was also a lot of interaction, so I welcome your thoughts. Natalie, we'll start with you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you kind of took the words right out of my mouth saying there's a good mix of, you know, having speakers come in that have expertise in a lot of different areas and then getting to do that like networking roundtable type of situation. So I would say my favorite was the breakout group to discuss benchmarking with other credit unions in your similar volume level. You just kind of get that automatic feedback from other people and, honestly, ira did a really great job of moderating for us. He really kept the conversation moving. He asked questions that pulled out information from the team members that were there. So that was probably my favorite part just getting to connect with the other credit unions that were in that volume level same as us.
Speaker 3:I think it was a member that asked for it about three years ago and we thought it was such a brilliant idea that we take the roundtable idea and then we take it to the micro level and we group all of our members into that volume level and we'll see what happens, right, and it ends up being something really special where you can connect more intimately and I think that's an appropriate word because you relate quite well. Credit unions across the nation can relate to a lot of the same issues. So credit unions across the nation can relate to a lot of the same issues. It doesn't matter if you are a $500 million credit union or Navy Federal we all know how big Navy Federal is but you all go through the same issues, right. But when it comes to the same volume class, that's where it really becomes okay.
Speaker 3:Well, how do we really originate mortgages? How do we really make a name for ourselves in our market? Not only that, how do we afford a certain los? How do we, you know, balance the need to grow our mortgage division with an x number of los that we can afford, etc. So you, so that's where I think these volume-based groups are so special, and I'm glad that you walked away and it found that very valuable, chuck.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so let me start by saying there was not a bad session. So everything, and I've been to hundreds of conferences in my short young career. That's right In your five-year-old career.
Speaker 5:right, that's right I started mortgage banking when I was 12. But I do agree the breakout session, organizing it by volume mortgage volume specific is good. I've been to some where they organize it by asset size and that doesn't always work as well, so I thought that was great. I also I'm a geek about politics, so I loved both the Economist and the political update and the panel.
Speaker 5:To your point, Peter, we can learn from all our people but PenFed being up on stage and learning from where they are now and what they do and how they we were really happy to hear that our process is pretty much the same as theirs on a loan, right, we went through loan processing and it's similar. So if it works for Penn Fed, it's probably going to still work for Palmetto Citizens, right? So I thought that was great and my mortgage operations manager is here with us and she made so many contacts. Yesterday she got a stack of business cards and talked to so many people. So that is a big part of what this is about. It's always been what the credit union is about. The phone a friend comment was made yesterday in the panel discussion that really holds true and we're continuing to learn that and continue to build on that for us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I've known Mary Rizzitlo from PenFed probably at this point in time for 12 years and she has always been someone who I could rely upon as that even keel person or that guiding light in operations to really kind of help you point the way. And when I saw that she registered for this event I was like I got to put her on stage like hands down.
Speaker 3:Not only does she work for PenFed and you know, penfed, you know, is obviously that you know one of the biggest of the big but two people want to know what they're doing because they're kind of that anomaly right. And when she agreed I was like this is going to be awesome. So I'm glad that you walked away with that.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Can I add a plug, please? Yeah, that that's awesome, so, can I? Can I add a plug? Yeah, so we brought up the volume based meetings and I I thought those were awesome because those things, um, those meetings, came from annual, as Peter mentioned. As Peter mentioned, those things came from annual. So it was like one of those things where we took that idea and then brought it full circle. Now they're at the workshops and the in-person ones are just super special. But it's also we have our volume-based meetings that are now happening virtually. So just for those that weren't able to make it to the workshops and don't get to make it to annual. Those things are happening on a quarterly basis and our next one's coming up in a couple of weeks, may 14th, may 14th, may 14th oh, that's one week, not two. One week, exactly seven days. Exactly seven days. I had to look down my watch.
Speaker 4:Where is time going?
Speaker 3:I know that's why I'm like it's been two Christmas, by the way. Oh my gosh, I'll wait for all. Seriously, thank you for that plug. I actually did that same plug yesterday because it's like know they're slow, they're. Those roundtables are slowly starting to get momentum virtually. They have a great reception in person, but they're slowly starting to get momentum virtually and we see how special they are in person. We know they're going to be something amazing virtually. We just gotta get more people to come to them. So, yeah, the part is, we get a lot of people register for them attending is the tough part.
Speaker 2:I mean it just shows that all of our credit union folks and qso folks are just busy yeah, nothing wrong being busy, all right.
Speaker 3:So next question setting our sights to today. Obviously, another jam-packed schedule, but also an agenda that is one that I'm really excited for. So, as we look at the agenda, what's something that you're looking forward to today outside of being done?
Speaker 5:I'm not looking forward to being done. I have a three-hour drive. Again the collaboration. I'm looking forward to the big picture, big group. I don't think we're going to get into small groups as much today, if that's correct. If I heard you correctly yesterday, I think we're gonna have a big group at the end, right is it?
Speaker 3:today we'll take the information that we kind of dissected from the collaboration and kind of come together as the big group but then in the very last session, in which is the round table, we will focus on our individual tables. So, yeah, smaller, just smaller group discussions. So if you're sitting at the table with your team, I'd recommend. Thanks, sorry, yeah, we did that yesterday. We all split up, good, good, I'm sorry. I hate to cut off track. I know people can't see this because this is all audio, but that picture totally just tripped me out. That is not a picture, no, it's moving.
Speaker 5:I'm sorry, it's all good.
Speaker 4:I see it now. It is moving.
Speaker 2:That's strange. We know this place is haunted, that's all good, I see it, now it is moving. I was like that's strange we know this place is haunted.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no, that's not a joke. Is it a frame TV? Is it one of those? It is.
Speaker 4:I think it's raining.
Speaker 5:It is, it's got a it is.
Speaker 4:I think it's one of those frame.
Speaker 5:TVs. It is one of those frame TVs.
Speaker 1:It is one of those frame TVs.
Speaker 5:I was like whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3:I was like, is that one of those haunted pictures?
Speaker 2:I'm just saying if water starts leaking from it on the wall.
Speaker 5:We have a problem. To the serious topic of water.
Speaker 3:Back to what we're talking about. Back to what we're talking about. All right, what's our favorite part of today? What are you?
Speaker 5:looking forward to. One of the main things we were looking for how how we got to acuma was um kind of compliance and supervisory stuff and all that and and, as was brought up yesterday, um, there could be 10 new, uh, executive orders before we start the thing in in 25 minutes, so listen to the watch the tweets three priorities in this environment.
Speaker 5:Um, it's hard and I'm glad we're gonna be talking about it. I'm glad acumen is trying to help us stay on top of it. Uh, because it's it's frightening. It is, um, I am worried, as they talked yesterday, about the pendulum swinging. It's already swung too far one way and five years from now, when we have other people in charge, it's going to swing back too far the other way and it's not a way to help us run businesses.
Speaker 3:So I'm glad we're talking about it. I actually have in my email, which I'm very far behind. I actually have an update to our executive order tracker.
Speaker 5:I love that.
Speaker 4:I'm sure you do.
Speaker 5:I'll get it in the morning and read it or I love that, I'm sure you do.
Speaker 3:I'll get it in the morning and read it. I need to. I need to view it and post it to our community because I it's there is an update. There is nothing actually. I had an update last week but there was actually no update. It was just a refresh. I was like I'm not gonna post no update, but there is an update this week, so we'll see what happens. I haven't.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's all great, all fun stuff, all right, natalie I mean I have to, um, agree with chuck on the supervisory, like education, because it's just kind of what they talked about yesterday. Everything is just changing so quickly, um, and trying to get in front of that it it's a big deal. The other kind of specific thing to write, pat, is we are approaching 10 billion in assets, so CFPB may or may not be coming in and how they're coming in. So there's a lot, you know, going on in that space too for us. So I really, as maybe boring as some people think compliance is, it's just so important for us to know what's going on and I really appreciate that Acuma kind of prioritizes that and make sure that that's part of their agenda at every workshop I've been to. And I will say, specifically on the AI, I'm someone that really hasn't gone down that path, so I'm kind of hoping like this is like this is going to be a jumping off for me where I need to get with it.
Speaker 5:Chat. Gpt is awesome.
Speaker 4:I literally never used it. I'm embarrassed to say that.
Speaker 5:And I will say, like compliance stuff, the um, I don't want to the Google one I don't remember what it's called, but the one that's now on Google Gemini. Thank you, gemini. If you're specific, it will give you the right answer. What are the Fannie Mae guidelines on X?
Speaker 4:I just typed that into the search bar.
Speaker 5:I know, but the AI thing gives it to you in normal language pretty quickly, and the first thing is or you can can say will Fannie Mae allow you to X? And the answer will be yes, and then it'll have the guidelines below it is.
Speaker 4:it's so cool you're convincing me, chuck. I'm gonna give it a go.
Speaker 3:We use AI pretty much every single day. We have chat. We also have a system called Grammarly which it literally edits all of our documents for us, which is vital because we write a lot. Just a little bit just a little bit. So it's it's. And the one thing I like about Grammarly is that it edits for your individual tone.
Speaker 3:That's awesome so it learns how I write and how I talk and the way I prefer to write um, which is amazing. But then we're also trying to get something called ask bob for all of our members, and it's basically what you just talked about. It's it will be. You could ask Bob anything like what is Freddie Mac's guideline or Fannie Mae's guideline on this? And Bob is going to tell you and it's going to be on Acuma's website.
Speaker 5:So it's going to be awesome, there you go, if Acuma approves of it, natalie.
Speaker 4:I know I know it's going to be free fall for numbers.
Speaker 3:That's right. So it's soon to come.
Speaker 2:It's a tool. Now, honestly, the number of people that have said that they don't use any kind of AI, but then they go. Well, I did make an AI headshot, or I made myself into an AI action figure.
Speaker 4:I actually haven't even done that.
Speaker 2:You never said hey, Siri. The team made ourselves into AI superheroes.
Speaker 4:Love that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's awesome. All right guys. Just to kind of wrap up last question, and I'm going to start with Natalie You've been coming to these events and you kind of hinted at it, but I'm going to ask the question anyways. I think it's still important to ask you keep coming back. The real question is, why do you keep coming back and why should people come to Acma who are still on that fence? But more importantly, I said yesterday in my opening remarks, when tough times hit us, credit unions and and really any everyone, every organization, tends to cut back on education. But why is it now, more than ever, so important for people to really invest in in that education double down and it's still come to like these types of events.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely just um, just number one. I think it helps leaders on their personal journey, but you can just bring so much information back to your credit union, kind of like you're talking about. Yeah, you can, you can go to the online offerings and I and I do, and I think they're great but there's just something different about being in person, you know, with different credit unions, again from across the country, like I'm from Ohio. So when else am I maybe going to have the opportunity to meet people from South Carolina, alabama, like all the different areas that come here?
Speaker 4:And I also just think Acuma does a great job of mixing, like true education with the collaboration and you know we've we've touched on it already several times, but credit unions are just so collaborative and to be able to have that real time feedback from other people and then take that back with you. One thing that I have kind of challenged myself to do is, every time I leave an Acuma workshop with some business cards, I make sure I reach out to at least one or two of those people and we set up time to talk about things that maybe we didn't get to dive as deep into as we wanted to at the workshop. So I'm like developing those relationships and maintaining them so that you have that call a friend, and I just think Acuma gives a great opportunity to do that at their events.
Speaker 5:Ditto what she said. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:I mean. So you are. You're coming into this with you know, fresh eyes, fresh perspective. It's your first time. It's your first time as the new person. Why would you say, hey, this is the reason why you need to join Acme. This is the reason why you really need to come to these types of events. They're different than everyone else's thoughts.
Speaker 5:Yeah, they are. So my background mortgage business, a little over 25 years, just came over in August of last year from the dark side and we've all been there. But I've also been very involved with MBA, which is not necessarily the dark side, although they can tend to lean that way. Advocacy is huge and if we don't all come together to advocate for ourselves, we will not survive or we'll have to change in a way we don't want to change. We talked about the I'm not even going to call it the big beautiful, whatever they call it, but the budget that may or may not come out this week. The big beautiful bill. It's not going to be that. The big beautiful, whatever they call it, but the uh budget that may or may not come out this week. It's not going to be that, but anyway, um uh it it. You know there there's been a lot of talk. It's being done in in the dark this time for the first time that I can remember and I'm old, so um it, if there's there could be stuff that could come out of this that we don't like.
Speaker 5:Regardless of politics, our business is something we have to always stay on top of and we have to always advocate for ourselves. I promise you, the bankers are advocating for themselves. I'm promising you, the IMBs are advocating for themselves. So if we're not, we're going to get left behind, and that's why you have to be involved in these groups. You have to stay involved in Acume, you have to participate, you have to come to the events to advocate as a group for who we are and what we do and how we help the communities.
Speaker 3:That we serve. Well said, well said. I was on this. I know this has nothing to do with our podcast, but I was on the Hill, you know, three weeks ago, you know, meeting with you know lawmakers, and the conversation was really surrounding the idea of, before you make a decision, call us. Yeah, let me refer you over to one of our members. Get their insights, hear from them. Don't call a bank, don't call an IMB. Talk to a credit union. That is the most important thing that they can do before they can make any decision, because credit unions, in my opinion, are the last true community focus organization and we really are truly dedicated to mortgage lending within our communities, and I honestly hope that some of these lawmakers take us up on my offer.
Speaker 5:Use us as a resource before I make any decisions, and that's all I want to do yeah, use us as a resource, and that that's the big lesson. I've been a past president of the state association of the nba um for north and south carolina and and I've gone to the hill. The vast majority of the problems are they don't know who we are and what we do right, and so us getting in front of legislators whether it's at state level or whether it's, uh, in washington, um, it's in Washington and educating them on who we are and what we do and how we serve is huge, because there's too many people making decisions that don't know what we are about.
Speaker 3:That's very true. Amen, all right guys. Well, natalie, chuck, thank you very much for your time. I know that we're probably a little late for breakfast, but there's still plenty of time for you to eat. Don't worry, there better be bacon left. I assure you there's some type of meat down there, I don't know what it is.
Speaker 1:I'm just kidding my wife is not listening I said I was going to get bacon there.
Speaker 3:There's some type of meat down there, a meat type product. But yes, I'll let you guys go and enjoy your breakfast before we start day two of the amazing workshop. Thank you very much. Thank you, thanks for having me, of course, and everyone else. Thank you for listening to the latest episode of Actions On Point podcast. We know your time is valuable. We hope you enjoyed it Until next time. Be well, my friends.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time at the Acuma On Point podcast. If not already, be sure to subscribe and give us a five-star rating For more great episodes and information. Be sure to visit us online at acumaorg and to get the latest updates. Head over to our LinkedIn page.
