VACB_Pub_10_2021-Issue 2-FLIPBOOK

5 S u mm e r | 2021 President’s Message M E S S A G E By Steve Yeakel, CAE VACB President and CEO C onsider the valuable accomplishments of VACB bankers and associates over the last several weeks: an in-person four-hour leadership conversation; 100 VACB members enjoying the Spring Creek Golf Course and time with each other; and productive and engaging education sessions. It would be easy to take a couple of victory laps. But it’s better to use these “high points” as rich fuel for the challenges that lie ahead. That said, I want to celebrate the multiple wins for community bank advocacy in Virginia achieved through our “virtual Hill visits” in late April. In groups of all sizes, 40 bankers had good visits in 12 of 13 offices of the Virginia Congressional delegation. On the list of bankers were more than a dozen who participated in their first VACB/ ICBA advocacy. Our visits with Senators Warner and Kaine were most productive, and meetings with Representatives Wittman, Luria, Cline, Spanberger, Griffith, and Wexton were lively and engaging. Discussions with senior staff in the other four offices were also productive. But in looking back at these events, it’s clear that their success is not a box we check or a book we close; they’re no more and no less than the next positive step in maintaining and enhancing critical relationships. As for what lies ahead, the swinging pendulum in Washington is creating a list of issues that run clear off of our advocacy to-do list, and the changing financial environment gives us much to analyze. We face issues regarding what to do about cryptocurrency, diversity, cybersecurity, digital strategy, and much more: challenges galore. But we have a growing reservoir of dynamic resources to call on, centered in a highly motivated cadre of volunteer leaders. Most importantly, we have bankers across the VACB membership who are leaders, strategists, and subject matter experts, all willing to commit their time and resources to find solutions and, just as importantly, share them. Notice that I haven’t used the “P-word” yet? That, too, with all its mostly terrible impacts on our world, is but prologue. We hear it all the time: it’s not about what happens to us; it’s about how we respond. The members and staff of VACB have created some great successes and experienced some significant hardship, but we are fixated on the tasks ahead and determined to thrive going forward. The Past is Merely Prologue