The Choice Bank Blog has Moved

Visit our blog at www.choicebank.wordpress.com!

Have you seen the SMART car?????????

If you have seen our SMART car around town we want to know where!!!

Post a comment to the blog and let us know where you have seen the SMART car or better yet, send me comments or even your smart car photos to info@choicebank.com. I'll post all of them to the blog to share with everyone!

SMART

So, maybe it's just me... but I am SUPER excited about the Smart Car Choice Bank is going to be driving this month. We picked it up from Bergstrom's yesterday. I just picked it up again from Art City Signs who added an awesome wrap so everyone will know who we are when we drive by. Of, course we couldn't just park it so after stopping at Leon's for some Custard we took our time getting back to the bank. Even in the dark people noticed the car! I can't wait until daylight tomorrow!

I'm not going to post a photo on the blog yet. Keep your eyes open and you'll see us around town! Make sure to stop and say hi, we'll be handing out prizes!

Ann

Financial Literacy

The last two weeks have been busy here at Choice Bank. I am happy today, on this cold spring day, to have the opportunity to reflect on Choice Bank's Financial Literacy Initiative.

There are astounding statistics out there such as Americans save, on average, less than 1% of their income! We have hears kids say, "How can my account be overdrawn? I still have checks in my check book!"

The topic of financial literacy is one that concerns everyone. It seems that many children don't have a handle on the concept of money. Here in the bank we have debated this topic to no end, asking how this has happened? We always end the discussion with an even bigger question. How do we make a change? How can we help teach children (and even some adults) the value of a dollar?

Our big start was to sponsor the Newspapers in Education Financial Literacy Tab. It was distributed in the Oshkosh Northwestern and in schools on April 17th. The day before its distribution we held a launch event for Oshkosh area teachers. At this event we found many teachers asking the same questions I mentioned earlier.

In our quest to broaden financial education in the community please let me know if you have any ideas! Teachers, thank you for all that you do! I am hoping that soon we will have an online opportunity for all of you to share your ideas and lesson plans. I'll let you know as soon as we do!

In the mean time...
If you have a blog post about Financial Education e-mail it to me at getsmart@choicebank.com and I'll add it to this discussion.

Ann

Wow

Every week the Choice Bank team gathers together to talk about what is happening in the bank. One thing we do is share WOW experiences that we came across during the week. Sharing these helps us to remember that if we turn a customer's ordinary banking into an extraordinary experience then they will walk away with a WOW too. Occasionally on this blog I'll be sharing these experiences (since they are many times to good to keep to ourselves).

My WOW experience at Jelly Belly
If you every find yourself in Pleasant Prairie make the trip to Jelly Belly. When you're ready for a taste test from the Jelly Belly Bar ask for Sam; you'll be glad you did!

Sure, Sam could hand out one bean at a time like the others but he looked beyond the bean. "What can I get you today," he asked from behind the colorful wall of Beans. "An Almond Joy? Snickers? Maybe you'd like a rum and coke, red wine or a margarita," he offerd. After placing my selection he carefully made a mix of one bean of this and three beans of that and the next thing I knew I was eating an almond joy made of Jelly Bellies.

What is extraordinary about this...? Every person who walks into Jelly Belly expects to get free samples, but who that day was expecting to taste a snickers made of jelly beans or a Jelly Belly "mixed drink?"

Sam doesn't just hand out the tasty beans; he creates Jelly Belly experiences.

Welcome To Oshkosh Johnny!

What a great week in Oshkosh! Johnny Depp sightings and a brand new look for the Choice Bank website!

If you have found our blog that means you must have traveled through our new website. It was just launched yesterday and we couldn't be happier. Some of my favorite features of the website are the web outs on the Home Page, Mortgage Tab & Business Tab, the Community Calendar, and the Financial Literacy Library.

We have done our best to make the sight informational and easy to navigate. If you think of something I've missed on the site let me know! That's what this blog is all about!

What do you think of the site? Do you have any suggestions? LETS TALK!

Learning about banking

On Monday January 28^th, 2008 I had the pleasure of giving Brownie troop 264 a behind the scenes look at the wonderful world of banking at our Witzel location. We began our tour in our board room, where the girls got a chance to sit in the big chairs and see what it is like to be a director of the bank. Next I took the group through our bank lobby and we talked about all the different areas of the bank and who does what. Throughout the tour I quizzed the girls to see how much they knew about banking and what an impressive group they were! They were so eager to answer my questions and I was happy to reward them with a chocolate coin!

The highlight of the tour was getting to see how our teller line works. They had fun watching the drive up tubes travel out of the bank to the cars below. They also enjoyed seeing all the different views of the drive up through our drive up cameras. The big finale was getting to take a peek at the vault. The girls tried to guess how much money could be in there but it’s a secret! Overall we all had a great time. It was nice to see that at their very young age, all of these girls knew the importance and the responsibility that comes with saving their money. And who knows, we may possibly have some future bankers on our hands.

Marcia