Wednesday night saw the Portage Credit Union announce a proposed amalgamation with Austin Credit Union during its annual general meeting at the Glesby Centre in Portage la Prairie.  CEO Dave Omichinski says it's been considered for quite some time by many.

"I’m interested in seeing, when I have a chance to talk to some of the members, how big of a surprise it was. I know with our staff, when we talked to them on Monday night, many of them said, ‘Well, we’ve been speculating about this for a long time.’ I get approached all the time saying, ‘Well, when are you guys merging?’ You know, we’re both local, we both have branches in Portage. Geographically it makes such good sense.  And the timing right now is perfect."

Omichinski outlines the proposed setup of leadership.

“From a leadership perspective, I will be in the role of president. And my role will consist of focusing on strategic direction and planning, board governance, policy alignment, and helping the combined board harmonize. All of those items. Brent (Budz) will be CEO, and his primary responsibility will be relative to the branch operations.”

He adds it's also part of having a successor for his role.

“This is in the context of succession planning and CEO transition, because, as was announced tonight, I will be retiring no later than the end of 2018. So, I suppose, just off the hop, that is another example in terms of some of the cost savings that are going to be available to the new credit union.”

He notes they have no new name yet, but will go through membership approval in mid-June, and will call a special general meeting in early December or November to approve that name. Omichinski says he wants to see staff and member engagement to help them come up with the right name.

He adds Austin Credit Union held their AGM last night as well, and made the announcement there also.  

If members of both credit unions approve, the amalgamation will go into effect January 1, 2017.