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Annual Shareholders Meeting Held for Community Bancorp. | | Wednesday, July 1, 2009 Community Bancorp Annual Shareholders’ Meeting held for Community Bancorp.
Derby, VT— Community Bancorp. held its annual shareholders meeting on May 12, 2009.
Chairman Richard White welcomed approximately 200 shareholders to the meeting held at the Elks lodge in Derby. Mr. White started the meeting by introducing the members of the Board of Directors, former Director and CNB President Arthur Judd and retired Director Frank Allard. Mr. White also announced the retirement of Director Marcel Locke, stating that Locke attended his last board meeting that morning. Locke joined the Board in 1986 after having served on the Barton Advisory Board since its inception. Over the years he has been very beneficial to CNB’s commercial lending department with his knowledge in unique equipment, property and appraisals. “Marcel’s fun sense of humor, down to earth attitude, and dedication to the organization and our communities will be missed by the board,” said White.
Chairman White continued with introductions of Bob Goodwin from Winslow, Evans and Crocker, Denise Deschenes from Primer, Piper, Eggleston and Cramer and Pattti Faria from Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker. Several promotions that had occurred since the last meeting were announced: Jen Daigle was promoted to Credit Administration Officer, Tim Bronson to Senior Vice President and Senior Commercial Loan Officer, Hope Colburn to Vice President and Senior Residential Mortgage Loan Officer, Candy Patenaude to Financial Officer and Controller, Kimico Perry to Human Resources Officer, Terrie McQuillen, Senior Vice President of Loan Administration assuming the full responsibility of managing CNB’s loan portfolio and Wanda Boomer, Vice President of Consumer lending who now oversees the mortgage approval process.
President Steve Marsh summed up 2008 as beginning with a merger and ending with a recession. Marsh reported that the merger with LyndonBank was very successful and could not place enough emphasis on the tremendous amount of work required to close the transaction. He thanked the team of dedicated CNB employees that worked endless hours to get the job done. With the collapse of the national credit markets in the fall, Mr. Marsh stated that he had many sleepless nights worrying about how the activity on Wall Street and in Washington was going to impact the bank. In November, CNB applied to participate in the Capital Purchase Plan (CPP) an offer under TARP where banks could receive capital from the government in return for the issuance of preferred stock. Although the bank was approved to participate in the CPP, CNB declined TARP funds based on the provisions which seemed to prove more costly than beneficial. TARP was originally designed to help healthy community banks but has been widely perceived as a “bailout” and a sign of weakness rather than strength.
There were several people that retired at year end, including former CNB Executive Vice President Alan Wing. Mr. Marsh thanked his long-time friend and colleague for pulling the bank through some economic downturns during the 80s and 90s and for his astute stewardship of the portfolio and for the legacy of well-trained and experienced lenders to help the bank manage through both good and difficult times. Bonnie Currier, Jeanne Bonnell, Jane Blais, Penny Flood and Joanne Guyette-Worth also retired at year end and were all recognized for their dedication and commitment to our bank and customers.
With the write down of Fannie Mae preferred stock and one-time merger related expenses, earnings for the year were $2.2 million. In 2008, CNB budgeted $144,000.00 for FDIC insurance premiums. In 2009, the FDIC insurance premium tripled to $562,000.00. In addition, in the first quarter of 2009, FDIC announced that it was going to impose a special assessment of 20 basis points resulting in an additional $800,000.00. Subsequently the FDIC announced that the special assessment would be in the vicinity of 10 basis points resulting in an increase of $400,000.00, still a huge increase for the bank to absorb.
As a result of these FDIC increases and the ongoing economic uncertainties in the market, The Board made the difficult decision to reduce the cash dividend by $0.05 per share, from $0.17 to $0.12.. Last year the company paid out more in dividends than it earned, in part because of some expenses in 2008 were clearly one-time extraordinary expenses and in part in recognition of the fact that approximately 25% of our dividend comes right back in the form of new capital through our dividend reinvestment program. Looking forward, it is unclear what extraordinary expenses may lurk ahead. The board declared a cash dividend of $0.12 per share, payable May 1, 2009, to shareholders on record as of April 15th.
Mark Frederick of Community Financial Services Group, LLC (CFSG.) introduced himself as the new President and CEO. Mr. Frederick came to CFSG with 28 years of experience in the trust and investment business and was a Senior Vice President of a $2 billion trust department in Vermont for many years. CFSG is equally owned by Community National Bank, National Bank of Middlebury and Woodsville Guarantee, the holding company for Woodsville Guaranty Savings Bank. CFSG serves Vermont and New Hampshire with offices located in Newport, Barre, St. Johnsbury-Lyndonville, Vergennes, Middlebury and Littleton. CFSG’s employees offer Investment Management, Trust & Estate Administration, Personal Financial Planning, Estate & Tax Planning, Brokerage and Mutual Funds and Insurance Products. CFSG employees are very happy to speak with anyone looking for financial advice.
Mr. White introduced Director Nominee Fred Oeschger who was nominated to stand for election to fill the remaining term of Marcel Locke. Mr. Oeschger is the owner of Fred’s Plumbing and Heating. Mr. White stated, “Fred Oeschger is a successful business man and, if elected, will be a strong addition to the Board.”
Community Bancorp. incumbent directors Aminta K. Conant, Elwood G. Duckless, Rosemary Lalime, and Anne T. Moore were reelected to serve until 2012. Fred Oeschger was elected as a new director to serve until 2010. The selection of the independent public accounting firm of Berry, Dunn, McNeil & Parker as the company’s external auditors for the year ending December 2009 was ratified.
Terri McQuillen, Senior Vice President of Loan Administration reported on this year’s high level of mortgage activity. The real estate market experienced a dramatic downturn as home foreclosures flooded the market and drove housing prices down. In December 2008, the Federal Reserve announced that it would buy billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in an effort to stimulate the real estate market. This immediately drove down mortgage rates and sparked very strong mortgage refinancing activity. In the first quarter of 2009, CNB had $56 million in sales which generated income of $381,000.00. CNB’s Online Mortgage Center has also seen increased activity.
Kathy Austin, Senior Vice President of Retail Banking informed the shareholders that CNB is currently working with Value Improvement Partners to implement a business improvement process known as Lean Six Sigma. Four areas of the bank will be implementing the Lean Six Sigma process this year. Currently there is a committee working on the deposit account opening process and analyzing the current procedures to identify how to make the process more efficient. The committee has broken into sub committees to put practices into place. Following Lean Six Sigma practices to improve efficiency throughout the bank will provide a wonderful opportunity for learning and growth for our employees, as well as better results for our shareholders.
With no further business to carry out, Mr. White invited Director Jacques Couture to give a blessing, for the hot, delicious meal served by members of the Elks’ club.
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|  | | | What's New at CNB | |
July 16
Brenda Sargent receives CNB's Community Service Award
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Click here to learn more.
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June 18
CNB Honors Barbara Hayes
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Click here to learn more.
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May 10
Effective Dates for Transactions
Effective May 12th, 2010, all transactions, including loan payments, received after 4:00 p.m. on Monday-Friday will be credited on the next business day.
This does not effect the change-over time for ATM's which will remain as
3:00 pm.
Click here to learn more.
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