Woodstone Credit Union unveiled a new look and, more importantly, some improved services to help improve our member’s banking experience. We introduced a tandem bicycle as a visual metaphor for, “Where Relationships Mean More,” expressing our commitment to helping members on their financial journey. We also introduced our new corporate colors as green and gold – to represent the vibrant energy of our members, the natural beauty of the Northwest, and the stewardship of our community. We even enhanced the visual look of our branches by adding new signage. And we redesigned our website, making it easier to navigate with the most important information just a click away. All of these changes were done to reinforce our brand, “Where Relationships Mean More.”
Woodstone Credit Union expands its’ financial education program to reach more youth in the community. Taking the successes from the high school program and building upon it to provide “Financial Skills for Life” training through the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE), WCU added more classroom sessions and availability to its’ financial education program. By the end of completion of the 2008 school year, WCU staff had reached over 200 students from more high schools in the local community.
Woodstone Credit Union opened a new headquarters facility in Federal Way, Washington. In order to enhance convenience through greater accessibility, a new full service facility was designed to better reflect the brand of “Where Relationships Mean More”. Changes in branch hours were made to accommodate the needs of those who commute outside the community as well as providing ease of access by locating near the new transit center in the heart of the city.
Woodstone expanded its field of membership to now include anyone who lives, works, or worships in the State of Washington.
In 2004, Woodstone launched a new brand, “Where Relationships Mean More.” At Woodstone, we value the relationships we have with our members over everything else. That means we continually strive to build a quality relationship with each member based on trust and honesty and create an environment where people are worth more than their money. We launched this brand to strengthen the relationships we had with our existing members as well as inform non-members as to who we are and how we do business. It now serves as a guide for everything we do.
Woodstone Credit Union expanded its’ field of membership to include anyone who lives, worships or works in Western Washington. In an effort to better serve our members and offer the benefit of membership to more, Woodstone’s Board of Directors elected to expand its’ field of membership to the greater community. Through this change, the excellent products and services that many members enjoyed for over 60 years were made available to others who wanted to do business with a non-profit financial cooperative focused on meeting their individual needs.
Woodstone Credit Union expanded its technological delivery systems to provide greater convenience to the membership. Beginning in September 1998, Woodstone members began utilizing a full suite of home banking services. With membership location broadening over the years from local to international, access to account information became more convenient with the new online cap abilities, that allowed 24/7 utilization-in real time. This meant that when a member completed a transaction through the home banking system, the transaction immediately posted to their account, just as if they had driven to a branch.
To better reflect its’ diverse membership while honoring the roots in which the credit union was founded, Weyerhaeuser Community Credit Union changed its name to Woodstone Credit Union. Through a contract arrangement, WCCU had shared in the use of the Weyerhaeuser name for over 50 years. As the Credit Union grew in membership and geographic reach, and the Weyerhaeuser timber company grew, a mutual decision was made to no longer use Weyerhaeuser in naming the Credit Union. The timing was perfect to coincide with the evolution of the Credit Union’s geographic expansion and the desire to eliminate barriers to joining.
Woodstone also opened it second high school branch in Federal Way High School called, “Eagle Union.” With the growing success of Gator Savings Woodstone was approached to expand the program in order to reach more students. By this time, over 40 students had been through the program with some graduates becoming employees of WCU.
In keeping with the same philosophy which contributed to the community expansion of 1993, WCCU opened its’ doors to communities that are geographically located near its’ headquarters in Federal Way. Weyerhaeuser Community Credit Union opened a branch in the Pavilions shopping center. With the broadened reach into the community coupled with the changing needs of the membership, Woodstone opened its’ second full service facility in Federal Way complete with Saturday hours.
Weyerhaeuser Community Credit Union opened its’ first high school branch in Decatur High School called, “Gator Savings.” Early on, WCCU understood the need to provide financial education to the youth in our communities. Working with leaders in the school system, the financial model was designed to promote the development of students understanding of how to develop a budget and market and work in a financial institution. Additionally, a full array of financial education sessions were provided through the classroom each school year.
To better reflect serving the community of Federal Way, while maintaining its’ well founded roots within the Weyerhaeuser company, WTCU changed its’ name to Weyerhaeuser Community Credit Union (WCCU).
As with so many credit unions of the time, Weyerhaeuser Tacoma Credit Union was motivated to change its’ charter from an organizational charter to a community charter in order to expand service offerings to the community of Federal Way.
The credit union grew quickly. And, in 1989 it moved its headquarters to a 22,000 sq ft office in Federal Way. WTCU’s new facility provided easy access to Weyerhaeuser employees in Federal Way and boasted a spacious lobby, state of the art computer system, three drive-up lanes and a training room.
The 1980s brought sweeping changes to the credit union movement as Congress passed a law allowing credit unions to expand their field of membership. As a result, WTCU opened its first non-Weyerhaeuser employee account.
Weyerhaeuser company moved its’ headquarters to Federal Way in the late 1970’s. Since the credit union needed to be close to the majority of its membership, it packed up and moved to Federal Way too.
On September 8, 1941, at precisely 3:05 pm, eight employees of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company gathered together. Seeking a means to provide financial services at reasonable prices, each contributed $5.00 and Weyerhaeuser Tacoma Credit Union was born. Initially, WTCU was open only to employees of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company’s Tacoma office and members of their immediate families. Run by volunteers, the credit union operated on limited hours out of a small office in Weyerhaeuser’s Tacoma building. To make a withdrawal from their accounts members had to make the request in advance. At the first meeting of these same people, (the first board of directors), the interest rate on loans was set at 1% per month on the unpaid balance. During the first month, WTCU registered $1,294 in deposits and loaned out $775.