Features

December tornado triggers disaster recovery plan

Arcadian Bank President Mark Heinemann wasn’t expecting a tornado to strike less than two weeks before Christmas. Though the unseasonably warm day brought the potential for severe weather, it was Dec. 15, nearly one month after the previously recorded latest date for a tornado touchdown in the state. As night fell, conditions worsened. Heinemann, sitting in the basement of his Albert Lea, Minn., home near the Iowa border and approximately 20 minutes away from the Albert Lea-based bank’s Hartland branch, wasn’t worried. [Continue]

Amazing Outside Directors 2022: Dennis Everson

Helping to run a community bank and an artisanal cheese shop may seem like two very different responsibilities. To Dennis Everson, director of the Yankton, S.D.-based First Dakota National Bank and co-owner of Dimock Cheese, the attraction in undertaking both roles stems from the companies’ similarities: Both have overcome potentially fatal challenges during their long histories and both have embraced a community-centric approach.  [Continue]

Amazing Outside Directors 2022: Marcia Malzahn

On the northern side of the Minneapolis suburbs, Village Bank is building a community: Employees and customers alike are invited to partake in building something a little more personal. Lending a guiding hand is banking consultant and former banker Marcia Malzahn, who has been on the board for just under three years and a part of the local community banking industry much longer. [Continue]

Amazing Outside Directors 2022: Dan Kadrmas

Leading the prominent North Dakota manufacturing firm TrueNorth Steel is more than a nine-to-five job for Dan Kadrmas. The North Dakota business leader’s day usually starts with check-ins between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m., and doesn’t end until the evening — and sometimes not even then. [Continue]

Amazing Outside Directors 2022: Don Johnson

When Don Johnson retired from public accounting in 2019, two Minnesota community bankers were, lickety-split, at his door inviting him to join their boards as an outside director. But Johnson was resolute about taking a break from the industry he’d served for 31 years. Though he was 56 and hearing comments that he was “a little young” to be retiring, Johnson and his wife, Wendy, wanted to travel and try new things. [Continue]

Bank, fintech partnership focuses on wealth management

There was a day when customers were willing to wait a week or more to get a face-to-face appointment with an investment advisor. Those days, well, “they’re over,” said Joe Salomone, vice president of Bankers’ Wealth Management, a division of Madison, Wis.-based Bankers’ Bank, which recently announced the release of a digital platform through which community banks can provide “on demand” investment advice. [Continue]

Weighing the costs and benefits of establishing an ESOP

Community banks that have implemented ESOPs credit them with boosting employee morale and performance, furnishing liquidity to shareholders, and raising capital by turning employees into investors. ESOPs also offer attractive tax breaks to small community banks, particularly S corporations. But community bankers considering an ESOP should weigh the obligations along with the rewards of employee ownership. [Continue]

Consistency, commitment key in maintaining social media platforms

Experts list several qualities for success on social media: Positivity, teamwork, differentiating yourself from competitors that offer similar products and services, and spotlighting important community work in a light-hearted way. Social campaigns that hit all the marks and maximize budget dollars will increase the number of followers, will attract new customers — and will possibly attract new employees in the process. [Continue]

Faces of a True Partner: SHAZAM

Kim Barsness, senior vice president, customer operations at SHAZAM, has worked in the financial services industry her entire career. Throughout her 16 years at SHAZAM, she’s had the privilege of helping clients through onboarding, project implementation, fraud mitigation and dispute management, as well as core and EFT processing support. Through these opportunities, she’s learned to … Read more