The Addison Cafe

I am no world traveler. In fact, the only times I have ever left the country it has been to Canada or Mexico by car. However, that might start to change after knowing what I now know…

There are two big costs associated with travel: getting there (typically flight costs) and staying there (nightly lodging costs can add up). You can now say goodbye to the second one. Some friends of mine recently let me in on a little known secret on how to stay for free in over 250 countries worldwide (including ours).

It’s called “couch surfing”. People from all over the world have joined together to form a community of hosts and travelers. Here’s how it works: At couchsurfing.org you can list where you are located, when you are available, and how many people you can host. You can say yay or nay to any request that comes your way. If you are a traveler, just search for people with an open couch in the city / country of your choice and if they accept (which they probably will since they are members of the community), you have a free place to stay. It’s a great way to meet a variety of people, have an adventure, and save some serious cash.

Oh, and “couch” doesn’t necessarily mean couch. A lot of people have spare rooms and nice houses, not dirty dorm room mattresses. Bon voyage!

Maybe. We just launched a new promotion called “Bank Intervention” and you can check it out at bankintervention.com (imagine that).  Two things to think about:

1.  It’s our first stab at video like this. I am curious if you love it or hate it. There’s a series of 7 short clips that are supposed to be funny (we think they are).

2. It’s also our first time weaving Twitter into a campaign. Just tweet your thoughts about big banks and include #bankintervention and be automatically entered to win $250. You don’t even have to be a member.

Let me know what you think.

No, I am not your father. The truth you need to be aware of is what makes a credit union what it is; something that seems to be a well guarded secret these days. Sounds super boring, I know (hang in there, I’m going somewhere with this). So here is a quick and dirty overview of the core principles of a co-op (borrowed from here and the complete list can be found here):

The 7 Cooperative Principles:

Principle #1 (inclusive): membership should be open to all
Principle #2 (voice): members should call the shots
Principle #3 (benefit): rates and fees should benefit our members
Principle #4 (independent): autonomy and independence set us apart
Principle #5 (education): financial education should be free and available to all
Principle #6 (cooperation): cooperation among cooperatives is vital
Principle #7 (community): concern for community

While we serve our members on every one of those levels, I wanted to focus on number seven: concern for community. Sounds like typical corporate speak…except it isn’t. You see, we just invested a lot of time, energy, and money to launch an online community called Addison Avenue Groups where you can go join a discussion (or start your own) about any financial issue, topic, or question that comes to mind. You can now leverage the wisdom of thousands, online, any time, for free. Instead of typing a bunch of instructions here, I will let you explore it for yourself. Just go groups.addisonavenue.com and enjoy.

(Note: you must be logged into Online Banking to post anything)