Independent Banker - August 2021 - 48

Member Milestones
were raging back then the same
way they are raging today. It is so
interesting to see those same kinds
of feelings almost 100 years ago. "
Earning long-term loyalty
The institutions celebrating
milestone anniversaries this year
share similar attitudes about what it
means to be a community bank.
" It all comes down to service, "
says Michael Olson,
president and CEO
of $247 million-asset
Bank of Brodhead in
Brodhead, Wis., which
is turning 125 years old.
" If you don't give the
customers what they
ask for and good faceto-face
service, you're
not going to succeed. "
In Frankfort, Kan.,
First National Bank
is celebrating its
centennial anniversary
this year. After the
Keeping up with the times
Mike Jeffers has been with First
National Bank in Fredonia for nearly
50 years. Over that time, he has seen
the community bank implement a
variety of new technology, including
an IBM System/32 computer in the
late 1970s that allowed it to begin
doing its own processing.
Today, the bank has embraced online
and mobile banking. " Regulations
" One of the philosophies we have is
that banking is simply a way to solve
people's problems ... As long as we
can hang onto that core of solving
problems for people‚ everything else
will fall into place. "
-Michael Hurst, Del Norte Bank
$60 million-asset community bank
received acknowledgement for
sponsoring a recent event, a customer
told president and CEO Jay Kennedy
that the thanks should actually
go to First National Bank and its
customers, " because we're who paid
for that, " Kennedy says.
" He was joking, but it made the
point that not only have we been here
for four generations, but we have
customers who have been with us for
Top to bottom: 1) The original railroad station
in Del Norte, Colo., in 1883. 2) A look at Wolf
Creek Pass, a high mountain pass created
shortly before Del Norte Bank opened in 1921.
3) Bank employees volunteer at a vaccination
clinic. 4) The bank's float in Del Norte's parade.
four generations, as well, " he says.
" Without them, we wouldn't exist. "
Customer loyalty is the key to a
community bank's success, agrees
Mike Jeffers, CEO of $106 millionasset
First National Bank in
Fredonia, Kan., a town of 2,300
people in a county with roughly 9,000
residents. " Being in a small town,
we have customers who are still here
who started with us in the '40s and
'50s, " he says.
48 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q August 2021
and the computer age have changed
the way banks do business quite a
bit, " he says. " Computerization and
mechanization of the business have
changed us a lot, but it's also brought
with it some challenges. " These
include the ransomware attack on the
Colonial Pipeline that rocked the East
Coast earlier this year.
Although cybersecurity grows in
importance as more business is done
online, Olson says he's had " a change
of heart " when it comes to technology.
" At first, I looked at technology as
an expense, but that was the wrong
way to look at it, " he adds. " You
have to look at it as an investment.
Technology is an investment in
efficiency, but also in giving your
customers what they want. "
Investing in employees
Bank longevity can't happen
without the hard work of passionate
Photo top left: Courtesy of the Monte Vista Historical Society
Independent Banker - August 2021

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