What does it take to lead a credit union from the inside out? Maurice Dawkins, CEO of American Spirit Federal Credit Union, built his career on preparation, passion, and people. From growing up in Jamaica to earning an accounting degree in Maine, Maurice never planned to run a credit union, but he proved he was built for it. His philosophy of staff training, member advocacy, and bold community lending helped American Spirit defy regulatory pressure and grow stronger. He also explains why increasing credit union marketing during periods of uncertainty and embracing artificial intelligence are essential moves for survival in today's financial landscape.

What You Will Learn in This Episode:

✅ How credit union leadership is built through preparation and cross-departmental learning. Maurice explains why spending time in every department, especially accounting, is the foundation for anyone pursuing executive development in the credit union industry.

✅ Why bold community lending decisions can define a credit union's long-term survival and strengthen its relationship with member advocacy.

✅ How credit union collaboration among small and mid-size institutions creates a powerful alternative to expensive outside consulting, allowing credit unions to share strategies and grow together.

✅ Why embracing artificial intelligence and increasing credit union marketing during uncertain economic times are the two forward-thinking moves every credit union leader should be making right now.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Maurice shares his journey from Jamaica to Maine and how adaptability shaped his financial leadership

03:13 How Maurice discovered the credit union industry and was promoted to VP before his first day on the job

07:20 The history of American Spirit and how staff training and one-stop service drove credit union growth

13:04 Maurice's advice on navigating regulatory challenges and standing firm on community lending decisions

18:05 Why artificial intelligence and bold credit union marketing are the keys to staying relevant in today's landscape

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

💎 Credit union leadership is earned through preparation. Maurice Dawkins rose from a VP candidate to CEO in under two years by learning every corner of the business and letting his work speak for itself.

💎 Standing firm on community lending and business loans despite regulatory pressure was the decision that made American Spirit financially stronger. Serving members well is always the right long-term strategy.

💎 Credit union collaboration is one of the most underused tools available to small and mid-size institutions. Sharing strategies across the industry costs nothing and builds the kind of membership growth that sustains credit unions for generations.

ABOUT THE GUEST:

Maurice Dawkins - LinkedIn

RESOURCES MENTIONED:

Mark Ritter - Website

Mark Ritter - LinkedIn

SEO KEYWORDS:

Credit Union Conversations, Mark Ritter, MBFS, Credit Unions, CUSO, Business Lending, Credit Union Leadership, Credit Union Growth, Community Lending, Member Services, Business Loans, Financial Cooperation, Executive Development, Credit Union Collaboration, Regulatory Challenges, Small Credit Union, Member Advocacy

[00:00:30] He's the CEO there. Maurice, how are you doing today?

[00:00:38] Mark Ritter: Every day's a great day with you. That's what I love about you. Such a good spirit. So I like to start out and talk through somebody's journey that they did so others can learn, pick up some advice, get to know you a little bit.

[00:01:01] Maurice Dawkins: That's exactly

[00:01:08] Maurice Dawkins: Glad you asked. I was born and raised in Jamaica, came to the United States and spent one year in high school and decided that I have to go to college.

[00:01:38] So let me go venture out and find out what's going on. That was one of the best decision that I've made.

[00:02:00] Maurice Dawkins: You get adjusted and my focus was to. Get an education, so do whatever it takes. Doesn't matter. At a young age, I was told two things, be adaptable and flexible. So I was testing those things and basically

[00:02:16] Maurice Dawkins: Yes, yes. The good thing that came out of it came back with a degree, four years accounting degree, and also came back with a wife, a fiance.

[00:02:26] Mark Ritter: fabulous.

[00:02:29] Mark Ritter: Where did your journey start out after college?

[00:02:49] They had their own mutual funds that I was actually helping them out with. So that's how I get started, and it was quite an experience. Just having an opportunity to work at a [00:03:00] big corporation was exciting for me.

[00:03:08] So what was your first exposure to credit unions?

[00:03:31] Investment arena, and I saw an ad in the paper for a federal credit union mark. I was getting excited. This is my opportunity to work for the federal government. So I went in for the interview and for my surprise, this is a bank. But anyway, I just went ahead to the interview and while I'm interviewing Mark, it's amazing.

[00:04:22] I read it. I'm like, okay, this is what I'm doing right now. And so that's how I get started at American Spirit. Went for an accounting position and I was promoted before even starting the job to a VP of operation, and that's how I started my career in the credit union world.

[00:04:44] Maurice Dawkins: year and nine months?

[00:04:46] Mark Ritter: Wow.

[00:05:10] Thank God there were couple courses from CUNA Mutual. They had a 1 0 1 credit union books. It's about 60 books. That was my education series. 60 books I read in three months. Everything that I read in the book, I practice it throughout the day and asked staff. Questions. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about this?

[00:05:55] I didn't see your, your resume. I didn't see your application. I said application for [00:06:00] what? He said for the board position. I said that wasn't a focus of mine. He said, okay, I understand, but we want you to put it in so I follow commands instruction. I put in my name. After interviewing with some guys who had 10, 20 years experience, they gave me the job.

[00:06:39] So that's how I get started as c also.

[00:07:00] Maurice Dawkins: That's my motto. Let my work speaks for me. Let my work promote me. So. That was evidence.

[00:07:20] Maurice Dawkins: American Spirit was created out of the Chrysler Credit Union.

[00:07:46] They thought that the credit union was Chrysler. They were. Partners and to change the name to American Spirit strongly. Still strong today. The opportunity that I was given at American Spirit, there's a lot of things that we [00:08:00] created. One stop shopping, meaning that we run into a situation where staff were structured, just a teller, just a member service, just loan officer, and it was slowing things down.

[00:08:35] So we started that back in 2001, and that is actually help us to grow. And one philosophy is to create leaders because you have folks who have the potential but don't have the confidence in themselves. So we create that environment where they can learn. Do the things and develop them into leaders to go into leadership, either management position at the credit union, or to move [00:09:00] on elsewhere.

[00:09:27] Maurice Dawkins: My advice always. State to everyone that it's better to be prepared for an opportunity and don't have one, than to have an opportunity and not be prepared. So always prepare yourself beyond what you've been exposed to or what you're responsible as far as your job, if you desire, is to become a CEO. I always encourage folks to spend some quality time in each department, but especially in accounting.

[00:10:15] You have to be lead by example. Learn as much as you can and pray that someone goes out on vacation or gets sick. That way you can sneak in and perform that task. You will get the credibility, build up the confidence, and know that you are gonna bring something of value. Anywhere you go, you're gonna bring something of.

[00:10:35] Mark Ritter: That is wonderful advice. Now, American Spirit, as a mid-size credit union, you're part of MBFS, you're one of our owners. I love having you on the board, but what are your thoughts to the credit union space about collaboration with other credit unions? Like how important is that to American Spirit in your business?

[00:11:20] It will work in Delaware and California because you're dealing with people, not machines. And so it's good to always keep abreast of what others are doing. And this, I love Credit Union World plagiarism that doesn't exist. So you just use someone else information as your own. Just change their name to your name and you're ready to go.

[00:11:49] Mark Ritter: I really enjoy bringing credit unions together to help each other as opposed to paying somebody else outside, a high price consultant to [00:12:00] come in when we could really just work with each other and learn from each other.

[00:12:05] Mark Ritter: Exactly. MBFS works with over a hundred credit unions nationwide. And we see a lot and get a lot of perspectives, and I think the NCUA does a lot of good things, but one of the pieces that I get annoyed at is when. People will look at the same loan at two different credit unions and have two wildly different opinions about the operations, their policy loans, strategy, and sometimes I see.

[00:13:04] Maurice Dawkins: Always do What's best for your credit union and your membership?

[00:13:25] Mark Ritter: They will say no or ask somebody else. Yes. Yeah.

[00:13:33] And keep in mind that the regulators, the accountants. If they're there to do their job, and that's what I tell 'em. I say, you dare to do your job, and if you find anything, just let us know and then we will deal with it. You're not there to tell us how to run our shop. We know best how to run our shop. Okay.

[00:14:15] So we have to do it for a membership. And of course we were put under the floodlight, or I have a examiner stated, won't calling the name to protect innocent that we are looking for something to shut you down. They haven't find anything yet, but they give you hardship just to discourage you to surrender.

[00:15:04] We have never had any loan that we have to charge off because of. Derogative situation. Just keep in mind, business folks, that's their bread and butter that they put on the table to take care of their family. They're not gonna come in and give you the key to their house or their business. They're gonna fight to the hand.

[00:15:42] Mark Ritter: I think it's critical that credit unions like American Spirit remain part of the communities across America where people can get local decisions through community lending in a cooperative model.

[00:16:12] Maurice Dawkins: a wise CEO? When they were retiring, they said, I'm glad I'm out of here, because back then you could have just sit back and everything take care of itself. Interest rate was so high.

[00:16:44] So you gotta be out there and let people know what you do and educate 'em about what you can do for them. It involves a lot more in today's world because. Things are going so fast that you gotta keep abreast to better serve your members. Our members [00:17:00] have access to the internet. Social media have a lot of source of information, so they become very astute, okay?

[00:17:16] Mark Ritter: Yeah, we're a long way from the Chrysler factory where somebody would walk over to the credit union and whatever they were selling is what the people had because they needed to get it done at their lunch break or a couple minute break.

[00:17:35] Maurice Dawkins: It's amazing. Keeps us on

[00:17:37] Mark Ritter: toe. Yeah, and I think that, I think that is so critical, like you said, for the small and mid-size credit unions to be relevant and succeed.

[00:17:49] Mark Ritter: What do you see for the next year, two years, three years for the credit union marketplace? Anything you're seeing that you're gonna have to be [00:18:00] what, what be reacting to or, or in the horizon? What, what do you, what's your outlook?

[00:18:20] So those are tools that we can use in Flint in place because during this uncertainty we're facing right now, we don't know how long this is gonna be. A lot of distractions out there. We gotta be able to better serve our members. 'cause as I said, they have access to. The internet that they know that there's the latest and the greatest and everyone wants to tap into that.

[00:19:01] Mark Ritter: Maurice, thank you for the support of American Spirit, for your relationship over the years, for everything that you do for MBFS, but also for the credit union community.

[00:19:27] Maurice Dawkins: The state of course. Just know that we have something of value that people need. Okay? They get a better price at credit unions. So we just have to make them know who we are, what we do, and reach out to them where they are, because you get a better deal at Amer, at credit unions and people.

[00:20:11] So when things turns around. They would become your best advocate. It's word of mouth marketing.

[00:20:36] He's a wonderful advocate for our industry. So this is Mark Ritter, CEO of MBFS. We'd love to help you out with business lending and loans. If you need any help, check us out and please subscribe to us on your favorite audio platform. We release every Tuesday. Thank you, and I hope to see you soon.