Greetings, my friends! I am thrilled to be looking out the window and seeing snow on the ground and in the mountains as I write this winter edition article for the Community Banker. “The Browns Go to Washington, D.C.” and “Finding Joy in a Storm” were two intertwined themes that I thought about as I prepared to write this President’s Message to all of you. Last summer, the Council of Community Bank Associations (CCBA) let the Montana Independent Bankers know that they would be hosting a Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., in December, and they wanted the executive director, president and the next president to attend. If you are like me, you might not have known that there is an association of all of the state banking associations just for community banks. That is the CCBA. Not every state has a banking trade association just for community banks like we are so privileged to have in Montana with the Montana Independent Bankers. The CCBA works to help share ideas and resources between the different state associations. So, Executive Director Jim Brown, Vice President Amber Brown and I flew to D.C. to share what was working for the MIB and what we were struggling with and to hear the same from other state associations. We got really good at telling everyone that we were in no way related and that it was not a requirement to have the last name Brown to be part of the MIB leadership! Our time at the CCBA Leadership Conference was incredibly valuable and insightful! We already believed, but we got the resounding feedback that all of the state community banking associations wholeheartedly realize the difference between a community bank and a regional or national bank. All the associations are working very hard to protect community banking and everything that it does for our great country. However, some of the ways that the different leadership teams are going about supporting and maintaining our associations are different. There are a lot of different dues structures and methods used throughout the PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FINDING JOY IN THE STORM BY LOREN BROWN, PRESIDENT, MIB 4 Community Banker
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