By Frank Capaldo, IBANYS President & CEO

With all that has happened over the past several years, are you still going to leave your fate to someone else? I don't think so, and this is why. New York Community banks like you have been awakened (like a sleeping giant) to the fact that there is only one Community Banking Association in New York laser focused on one mission...you and the survival of community banking. Simple!

I have informed you that last year your Independent Bankers Association of New York grew net membership by 18%. It is accelerating in 2012, with seven (7) more net new banks, your brethren, joining in January and February! So what are you doing to help? While we at IBANYS represent the best interests of the entire Community of Community Banks in New York, many are still just stringing along on your coattails (and dues).

What are you going to do about it? Think of these facts for a moment. Since Y2K we have lost 2507 or 25% of the community bank charters in this country. There were no de-novo banks chartered in 2011 and 20 states contain 75% of the Community banks in the country. You make 65-70% of all small business loans and your share of the pie of assets keeps shrinking. You are squeezed from the top and the taxed exempt bottom. If we do not join together and speak up we will not have a seat at the table.

So what do you need to do about this sitting on the sidelines way of thinking? You need to help the IBA-New York Board of Directors and I recruit members and get the message out! Now I am not asking you to over exert yourself. I am simply asking you to call one (1) of your brethren Community Bankers and tell them all of the reasons why they need to join. (I have been sending those reasons to you the past year with the results so let us know if you need more ammo). Tell them their dues will be 50% and to incent you as well, we will reduce your member dues in 2013 by 15% if you sign-up one (1) and 25% if you sign up two (2) brother or sister community banks.

One strategy that came out of IBANYS Planning session last May as part of the Four Pillars was the need to cultivate not just our state representatives, but also our New York Congressional Delegation. While ICBA may see our New York Congress people in DC, WE, YOU, US are their constituents and the ones who vote for them, have businesses and employ New Yorkers in their Congressional districts.

So yes, all politics are local and it is our mission at IBANYS to protect and preserve community banking in New York. And note this: if we preserve community banking in NY, it will help do so for community banks across the country. One of the best ways we can do that is to meet face to face with our congressional representatives in their home district offices...where you and they live and work and play. Once we educate them in their districts on the State level, we will make ICBA's job easier in DC.

We have already begun to have meetings with Congressional and state representatives locally. As we become more organized over the year with dates and places, we will be inviting you to attend. Our bet is that most of you already know one of your members of Congress and can help us arrange the meetings with them.

For those community bankers that are not members yet who are reading this, and current members ...one last thought. When you and I and other community bankers meet with our congressman and state representatives we will only be talking about one issue. What is best for community banks in New York. If you allow others with multiple interests to speak for you at those meetings do you believe your voice will be heard? Will the outcome or compromise be something you can live with? I think the answer is simple. I want to belong to an organization that only has my interests as it primary and only mission. I want a place at the decision making table where we can make the community banking case only. ANSWER: THE INDEPENDENT BANKERS ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK STATE. SIMPLE!  

With the success of our most recent Regional Meetings in Albany and Syracuse under our belt, IBANYS is taking the show to the southern part of New York. On Thursday, March 22nd we will be in Newburgh, and on Thursday, March 29th, we will be in Hauppauge, on Long Island.  

These half day free meetings bring together networking, Association updates, education, and full stomachs! For these two meetings, our featured speaker is Keith Clark, President and CEO of law firm Schumaker Williams, P.C. With over 35 years of experience in financial public speaking, Mr. Clark's knowledge and insight is valuable to every one of our members.  

Click the links below to register for either (or both!) of the Regional Meetings. The registration deadline is this Friday, March 16. Register today! 

Thursday, March 22, 2012 - Hilton Garden Inn, Newburgh

8:30 - 11:30am  

Register here!

Thursday, March 29, 2012 - Hyatt Regency Long Island, Hauppauge

8:30 - 11:30am

Register here! 

8:30-9:00am - Networking/Breakfast

9:05-9:25am - Legislative Update

Dan Valente, IBANYS Director of Government Relations 

9:25-9:30am - IBANYS Communications Update

Erin Clark, IBANYS Director of Communications, Development, & Marketing  

10:30-11:30am - Round Table Discussion, Issues Affecting You  

By Sal Marranca

It's incredible how fast my year serving as your ICBA chairman has gone. When I first spoke to you in San Diego at last year's ICBA National Convention and Techworld, I promised to fight the good fight and never back down in promoting and defending the community bank

Sal & wife Kay at ICBA's 2012 Convention in Nashville

franchise. I also asked for your help-I asked you to "have my back" as I stepped into the firing line.

As I write my last ICBA Independent Banker column as ICBA chairman, I couldn't be more grateful for your tremendous support. When ICBA called on you, you stepped up. In overwhelming numbers, you responded to advocacy alerts, wrote comment letters to regulators and gave to ICBPAC, and you did all this with amazing commitment.

Because we stood and acted together through ICBA, we, the nation's voice of community banks, had...   ....read the rest here! 

Sal Marranca is an IBANYS Board Member, and President and CEO of Cattaraugus County Bank in Little Valley, N.Y.