BOND

Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development was behind the rise of Inman Park, Little Five Points, Candler Park, Lake Claire. This organization created a cornerstone on which to get power from co-operative financing. Keep your money working inside your community.

How many communities have their own local radio station?

B.O.N.D.

Name: trenz

Age: 24

B.O.N.D. Community FCU was organized with a Federal charter on April 11th, 1972. It was the first community-based credit union chartered in Georgia’s history. union.Union .organization.
Little 5 Points, the business district in which we are still located today, had fallen into decay and the neighborhoods surrounding it had also declined. The entire area had a reputation of violence and heavy drug traffic.
There was a large anti-war effort at the time, and those who chose to avoid participating in the Vietnam conflict volunteered their time and talent in projects closer to home. One of these efforts was the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. Volunteers in this program became very involved in this in-town area of Atlanta, having identified it as a neighborhood in desperate need.
A few miles away, downtown Atlanta was growing and expanding, forcing Atlanta’s hippie community to seek new places to live. Many in this community either voluntarily or involuntarily moved into the Little 5 Points area, and found a home in this predominately white, absentee landlord-owned urban area.
At that time, the white migration to the suburbs left the city and state governments looking to build more roads to connect downtown to more distant areas and the B.O.N.D. Community was a key target for one of the largest roads planned at the time. Such a road would have split the neighborhood in two sections! The neighbors reacted by organizing protests. In one instance a neighborhood resident, still a B.O.N.D. Community FCU member today, chained herself to the Freedom Parkway Overpass to express the community’s outrage.
During this time, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a religious group with funds dedicated to assisting impoverished individuals help themselves, and John Sweet, who was participating in the VISTA program as a local lawyer and conscientious objector of the road project, entered the picture.
Also, at this time, the Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development (B.O.N.D.) was organized to help five in-town neighborhoods take back their community. These neighborhoods were Little 5 Points, Inman Park (Atlanta’s first suburb built after the Civil War, with some of Georgia’s most beautiful Victorian and Antebellum-style mansions), Poncey-Highlands, Candler Park, and Lake Claire. The latter three were considered to be low income communities, although they consisted mainly of single family dwellings.
Both the MCC and B.O.N.D. came into the neighborhood, as John Sweet says, “to better the plight of the residents”.
The community believed that only through property ownership would the average individual wield any power. Only through buying homes, residing in them and fighting for them could the people be empowered and the road construction stopped. Everyone should have been given the opportunity to own a home, but due to “Red Lining” there was no such opportunity for the residents of this area.
Financial institutions located in and around these neighborhoods would gladly take deposits, but would not reinvest back into the community. Along with other programs needed and being developed, a financial institution was necessary to follow the philosophy of the local people, to reinvest back into the community, and to provide services and financial counseling to improve “the plight of the residents.”
After a long two-year struggle with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), who was reluctant to charter a credit union with the expressed intent to provide real estate lending, John Sweet was able to charter B.O.N.D. Community Federal Credit Union. The MCC provided initial funding of $2,500 to start-up the credit union on a shoestring budget.
The MCC, being known for its strict monetary discipline and conservative manner, had conflicting views as to how deposits should be raised. The people for whom the credit union was established to serve were poor, and if they were going to save at B.O.N.D Community FCU, it had to be to their best advantage. The Board of Directors, made of primarily MCC members, debated this issue at great length. Once the issues were resolved, the credit union was firmly in the hands of community residents.
Dividends were declared at a full quarter percent over the closest competitors, and deposits began to grow. By the fourth quarter of the first year of operation, there were not enough funds in reserves to pay dividends. This was the point where the credit union proved itself to the community!
The board devised a plan for increasing reserves in order to pay the dividends as they had been declared. They would take the available funds in reserves, borrow a resident’s large moving van, and pick peaches on a farm south of Atlanta. The plan was to bring these peaches back to Atlanta and by selling them on the street, raise the $210 needed to pay dividends.
Every board member selflessly participated in this event. At 5:00 am they drove in the van to the Atlanta Farmer’s Market, where they purchased as many bushel baskets as they could afford: 65. They then drove to South Georgia and by mid-day they had filled all of the baskets with peaches donated by a good friend of John Sweet’s. The rest of the day was spent selling the peaches in the streets of Atlanta for $4 per bushel (one-half the market rate). By days’ end, they had raised enough money to pay the declared dividends, thus ensuring the continued growth of the credit union.
The debates with NCUA continued over our lending policies. By mid-1973 we had lent out $1500, of our 15,000 in deposits, for a long-term loan to help a member buy a home. To quote John Sweet, “NCUA had a fit! They wanted us to make loans for color TVs and we needed to be making home loans. Poor people didn’t need color TVs, they needed homes.”
At one point, NCUA threatened to close our doors. Negotiations were held, agreements made, and proposals were drawn up to modify our loan policy. By this time, the credit union had doubled in assets.
B.O.N.D. Community FCU requested and received low-income status. Once we were able to accept non-member deposits, the “Blue Ribbon Committee” was formed. This committee was formed from any Board member who had a suit and tie to solicit stronger credit unions for large and long-term deposits. This would allow B.O.N.D. Community FCU to offer even larger and longer-term mortgage loans. The campaign was a success!
By the end of 1974 we had deposits of $101,390 and had booked 162 loans totaling over $165,000, most of which were real estate. We were experiencing great capital growth and low loan loss. This trend caused NCUA some concern. They felt that we were not charging off enough loans and our delinquency rate was too small. This is still a trend today at B.O.N.D. Community FCU and continues to cause NCUA concern even after so many years. NCUA once again tried to convince the Board to take greater credit risks. The Board once again reminded NCUA that our primary purpose was and is to make real estate loans.
Ran initially out of a neighbor's kitchen, B.O.N.D. Community FCU soon took a space in Little Five Points. Over the years, our field of membership has expanded. The first of these expansions was when membership was opened to people who worked in the businesses located within our boundaries. These people felt the same sense of community as people who lived in the neighborhood and felt they should not be denied credit union membership. This change significantly expanded the neighborhood’s use of the credit union. Our average share deposit grew 55% over the next three years.
In more recent years we have added new neighborhoods to our original group including Cabbagetown, Edgewood, East Atlanta, East Lake, Grant Park-S.A.N.D. Fourth Ward, Kirkwood and Reynoldstown. Each of these additional neighborhoods are unique, yet they all have one thing in common: They are transitional and have no or little representation by a community-involved financial institution. These neighborhoods are going through what we faced so many years ago, and with our resources and experience, their growth and success can be assured.organization.
Little 5 Points, the business district in which we are still located today, had fallen into decay and the neighborhoods surrounding it had also declined. The entire area had a reputation of violence and heavy drug traffic.
There was a large anti-war effort at the time, and those who chose to avoid participating in the Vietnam conflict volunteered their time and talent in projects closer to home. One of these efforts was the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. Volunteers in this program became very involved in this in-town area of Atlanta, having identified it as a neighborhood in desperate need.
A few miles away, downtown Atlanta was growing and expanding, forcing Atlanta’s hippie community to seek new places to live. Many in this community either voluntarily or involuntarily moved into the Little 5 Points area, and found a home in this predominately white, absentee landlord-owned urban area.
At that time, the white migration to the suburbs left the city and state governments looking to build more roads to connect downtown to more distant areas and the B.O.N.D. Community was a key target for one of the largest roads planned at the time. Such a road would have split the neighborhood in two sections! The neighbors reacted by organizing protests. In one instance a neighborhood resident, still a B.O.N.D. Community FCU member today, chained herself to the Freedom Parkway Overpass to express the community’s outrage.
During this time, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a religious group with funds dedicated to assisting impoverished individuals help themselves, and John Sweet, who was participating in the VISTA program as a local lawyer and conscientious objector of the road project, entered the picture.
Also, at this time, the Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development (B.O.N.D.) was organized to help five in-town neighborhoods take back their community. These neighborhoods were Little 5 Points, Inman Park (Atlanta’s first suburb built after the Civil War, with some of Georgia’s most beautiful Victorian and Antebellum-style mansions), Poncey-Highlands, Candler Park, and Lake Claire. The latter three were considered to be low income communities, although they consisted mainly of single family dwellings.
Both the MCC and B.O.N.D. came into the neighborhood, as John Sweet says, “to better the plight of the residents”.
The community believed that only through property ownership would the average individual wield any power. Only through buying homes, residing in them and fighting for them could the people be empowered and the road construction stopped. Everyone should have been given the opportunity to own a home, but due to “Red Lining” there was no such opportunity for the residents of this area.
Financial institutions located in and around these neighborhoods would gladly take deposits, but would not reinvest back into the community. Along with other programs needed and being developed, a financial institution was necessary to follow the philosophy of the local people, to reinvest back into the community, and to provide services and financial counseling to improve “the plight of the residents.”
After a long two-year struggle with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), who was reluctant to charter a credit union with the expressed intent to provide real estate lending, John Sweet was able to charter B.O.N.D. Community Federal Credit Union. The MCC provided initial funding of $2,500 to start-up the credit union on a shoestring budget.
The MCC, being known for its strict monetary discipline and conservative manner, had conflicting views as to how deposits should be raised. The people for whom the credit union was established to serve were poor, and if they were going to save at B.O.N.D Community FCU, it had to be to their best advantage. The Board of Directors, made of primarily MCC members, debated this issue at great length. Once the issues were resolved, the credit union was firmly in the hands of community residents.
Dividends were declared at a full quarter percent over the closest competitors, and deposits began to grow. By the fourth quarter of the first year of operation, there were not enough funds in reserves to pay dividends. This was the point where the credit union proved itself to the community!
The board devised a plan for increasing reserves in order to pay the dividends as they had been declared. They would take the available funds in reserves, borrow a resident’s large moving van, and pick peaches on a farm south of Atlanta. The plan was to bring these peaches back to Atlanta and by selling them on the street, raise the $210 needed to pay dividends.
Every board member selflessly participated in this event. At 5:00 am they drove in the van to the Atlanta Farmer’s Market, where they purchased as many bushel baskets as they could afford: 65. They then drove to South Georgia and by mid-day they had filled all of the baskets with peaches donated by a good friend of John Sweet’s. The rest of the day was spent selling the peaches in the streets of Atlanta for $4 per bushel (one-half the market rate). By days’ end, they had raised enough money to pay the declared dividends, thus ensuring the continued growth of the credit union.
The debates with NCUA continued over our lending policies. By mid-1973 we had lent out $1500, of our 15,000 in deposits, for a long-term loan to help a member buy a home. To quote John Sweet, “NCUA had a fit! They wanted us to make loans for color TVs and we needed to be making home loans. Poor people didn’t need color TVs, they needed homes.”
At one point, NCUA threatened to close our doors. Negotiations were held, agreements made, and proposals were drawn up to modify our loan policy. By this time, the credit union had doubled in assets.
B.O.N.D. Community FCU requested and received low-income status. Once we were able to accept non-member deposits, the “Blue Ribbon Committee” was formed. This committee was formed from any Board member who had a suit and tie to solicit stronger credit unions for large and long-term deposits. This would allow B.O.N.D. Community FCU to offer even larger and longer-term mortgage loans. The campaign was a success!
By the end of 1974 we had deposits of $101,390 and had booked 162 loans totaling over $165,000, most of which were real estate. We were experiencing great capital growth and low loan loss. This trend caused NCUA some concern. They felt that we were not charging off enough loans and our delinquency rate was too small. This is still a trend today at B.O.N.D. Community FCU and continues to cause NCUA concern even after so many years. NCUA once again tried to convince the Board to take greater credit risks. The Board once again reminded NCUA that our primary purpose was and is to make real estate loans.
Ran initially out of a neighbor's kitchen, B.O.N.D. Community FCU soon took a space in Little Five Points. Over the years, our field of membership has expanded. The first of these expansions was when membership was opened to people who worked in the businesses located within our boundaries. These people felt the same sense of community as people who lived in the neighborhood and felt they should not be denied credit union membership. This change significantly expanded the neighborhood’s use of the credit union. Our average share deposit grew 55% over the next three years.
In more recent years we have added new neighborhoods to our original group including Cabbagetown, Edgewood, East Atlanta, East Lake, Grant Park-S.A.N.D. Fourth Ward, Kirkwood and Reynoldstown. Each of these additional neighborhoods are unique, yet they all have one thing in common: They are transitional and have no or little representation by a community-involved financial institution. These neighborhoods are going through what we faced so many years ago, and with our resources and experience, their growth and success can be assured.organization.
Little 5 Points, the business district in which we are still located today, had fallen into decay and the neighborhoods surrounding it had also declined. The entire area had a reputation of violence and heavy drug traffic.
There was a large anti-war effort at the time, and those who chose to avoid participating in the Vietnam conflict volunteered their time and talent in projects closer to home. One of these efforts was the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. Volunteers in this program became very involved in this in-town area of Atlanta, having identified it as a neighborhood in desperate need.
A few miles away, downtown Atlanta was growing and expanding, forcing Atlanta’s hippie community to seek new places to live. Many in this community either voluntarily or involuntarily moved into the Little 5 Points area, and found a home in this predominately white, absentee landlord-owned urban area.
At that time, the white migration to the suburbs left the city and state governments looking to build more roads to connect downtown to more distant areas and the B.O.N.D. Community was a key target for one of the largest roads planned at the time. Such a road would have split the neighborhood in two sections! The neighbors reacted by organizing protests. In one instance a neighborhood resident, still a B.O.N.D. Community FCU member today, chained herself to the Freedom Parkway Overpass to express the community’s outrage.
During this time, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a religious group with funds dedicated to assisting impoverished individuals help themselves, and John Sweet, who was participating in the VISTA program as a local lawyer and conscientious objector of the road project, entered the picture.
Also, at this time, the Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development (B.O.N.D.) was organized to help five in-town neighborhoods take back their community. These neighborhoods were Little 5 Points, Inman Park (Atlanta’s first suburb built after the Civil War, with some of Georgia’s most beautiful Victorian and Antebellum-style mansions), Poncey-Highlands, Candler Park, and Lake Claire. The latter three were considered to be low income communities, although they consisted mainly of single family dwellings.
Both the MCC and B.O.N.D. came into the neighborhood, as John Sweet says, “to better the plight of the residents”.
The community believed that only through property ownership would the average individual wield any power. Only through buying homes, residing in them and fighting for them could the people be empowered and the road construction stopped. Everyone should have been given the opportunity to own a home, but due to “Red Lining” there was no such opportunity for the residents of this area.
Financial institutions located in and around these neighborhoods would gladly take deposits, but would not reinvest back into the community. Along with other programs needed and being developed, a financial institution was necessary to follow the philosophy of the local people, to reinvest back into the community, and to provide services and financial counseling to improve “the plight of the residents.”
After a long two-year struggle with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), who was reluctant to charter a credit union with the expressed intent to provide real estate lending, John Sweet was able to charter B.O.N.D. Community Federal Credit Union. The MCC provided initial funding of $2,500 to start-up the credit union on a shoestring budget.
The MCC, being known for its strict monetary discipline and conservative manner, had conflicting views as to how deposits should be raised. The people for whom the credit union was established to serve were poor, and if they were going to save at B.O.N.D Community FCU, it had to be to their best advantage. The Board of Directors, made of primarily MCC members, debated this issue at great length. Once the issues were resolved, the credit union was firmly in the hands of community residents.
Dividends were declared at a full quarter percent over the closest competitors, and deposits began to grow. By the fourth quarter of the first year of operation, there were not enough funds in reserves to pay dividends. This was the point where the credit union proved itself to the community!
The board devised a plan for increasing reserves in order to pay the dividends as they had been declared. They would take the available funds in reserves, borrow a resident’s large moving van, and pick peaches on a farm south of Atlanta. The plan was to bring these peaches back to Atlanta and by selling them on the street, raise the $210 needed to pay dividends.
Every board member selflessly participated in this event. At 5:00 am they drove in the van to the Atlanta Farmer’s Market, where they purchased as many bushel baskets as they could afford: 65. They then drove to South Georgia and by mid-day they had filled all of the baskets with peaches donated by a good friend of John Sweet’s. The rest of the day was spent selling the peaches in the streets of Atlanta for $4 per bushel (one-half the market rate). By days’ end, they had raised enough money to pay the declared dividends, thus ensuring the continued growth of the credit union.
The debates with NCUA continued over our lending policies. By mid-1973 we had lent out $1500, of our 15,000 in deposits, for a long-term loan to help a member buy a home. To quote John Sweet, “NCUA had a fit! They wanted us to make loans for color TVs and we needed to be making home loans. Poor people didn’t need color TVs, they needed homes.”
At one point, NCUA threatened to close our doors. Negotiations were held, agreements made, and proposals were drawn up to modify our loan policy. By this time, the credit union had doubled in assets.
B.O.N.D. Community FCU requested and received low-income status. Once we were able to accept non-member deposits, the “Blue Ribbon Committee” was formed. This committee was formed from any Board member who had a suit and tie to solicit stronger credit unions for large and long-term deposits. This would allow B.O.N.D. Community FCU to offer even larger and longer-term mortgage loans. The campaign was a success!
By the end of 1974 we had deposits of $101,390 and had booked 162 loans totaling over $165,000, most of which were real estate. We were experiencing great capital growth and low loan loss. This trend caused NCUA some concern. They felt that we were not charging off enough loans and our delinquency rate was too small. This is still a trend today at B.O.N.D. Community FCU and continues to cause NCUA concern even after so many years. NCUA once again tried to convince the Board to take greater credit risks. The Board once again reminded NCUA that our primary purpose was and is to make real estate loans.
Ran initially out of a neighbor's kitchen, B.O.N.D. Community FCU soon took a space in Little Five Points. Over the years, our field of membership has expanded. The first of these expansions was when membership was opened to people who worked in the businesses located within our boundaries. These people felt the same sense of community as people who lived in the neighborhood and felt they should not be denied credit union membership. This change significantly expanded the neighborhood’s use of the credit union. Our average share deposit grew 55% over the next three years.
In more recent years we have added new neighborhoods to our original group including Cabbagetown, Edgewood, East Atlanta, East Lake, Grant Park-S.A.N.D. Fourth Ward, Kirkwood and Reynoldstown. Each of these additional neighborhoods are unique, yet they all have one thing in common: They are transitional and have no or little representation by a community-involved financial institution. These neighborhoods are going through what we faced so many years ago, and with our resources and experience, their growth and success can be assured.

The People’s Place had been a porn theater. Now It was used for community building. Some of the first cooperative food buys were distributed there. This was to grow into the Sevananda Food Co-Op. Later it was a bank. Now it is The Star Bar.

http://www.atlantaprogressivenews.com/news/0082.html

Radio Free Georgia originated as a 10-watt station operating from Little Five Points starting in 1973.

“WRFG grew out of the movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s,” Gray said. “The early founders could have started a newspaper but they chose instead to create a radio station,” in part because of the emergence of The Great Speckled Bird. “The station is a tool to implement ideas.”

The Great Speckled Bird ran the first news article about WRFG years ago and was instrumental in helping with its founding, one of WRFG’s original founders, Harlon Joye told Heather Gray, according to an interview transcript obtained by Atlanta Progressive News.

Similar to the Great Speckled Bird, WRFG’s founders say they were subject to police harassment and spying, the transcript says. WRFG was seen as a center of radicalism in Atlanta.

WRFG was one of the only progressive radio stations in the United States at the time, Joye told Heather Gray, in addition to a few Pacifica stations and a few independent ones.

Grassroots efforts, improvisation of an antenna involving trips to Radio Shack, and shoestring budgets were reportedly involved.

The National Endowment for the Humanities gave WRFG a grant in the 1970s and the station has not looked back. “In the Deep South…we’re it,” Gray told Atlanta Progressive News. “We’re the only station that has public affairs and music [and] we take our position seriously.”

WRFG produced a 50 part series between 1977 and 1980 called “Living Atlanta!” that won national awards. The University of Georgia Press published a book in 1989 based on the series.

The station’s contribution in the musical field is significant as well. It became the first radio station in Atlanta since the 1950s to feature blues, bluegrass, and jazz; musical forms native to the region.

WRFG has a smorgasbord of music, something for everyone, and many programs are geared toward Atlanta’s ever growing Latin, Asian, Caribbean, and African communities. “We play the leading role in providing opportunities for hip-hop,” Gray said.

In 1995, WRFG reached its goal of operating at 100,000 watts. The next year, the station took its show on the road, going to Dublin to broadcast the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and Jamaica, where the first World Party Tour occurred.

Today, WRFG continues to give a voice to people who traditionally are denied access to broadcast media. “We have to [continue] to make sure we have access to progressive opportunities,” Gray said.

Atlanta Progressive News Staff Writers have been on WRFG’s progressive news hour each week for the last couple months. News Editor Matthew Cardinale, and Staff Writers Jonathan Springston, Betty Clermont, and Kristina Cates have each discussed their latest news items recently on Adam Shapiro’s “Current Events” program, Thursdays at noon.

Everyone can help WRFG continue their progressive legacy by visiting WRFG.org, donating money, and learning more about the Tower of Power Campaign.

About the author:

Jonathan Springston is a Staff Writer for Atlanta Progressive News. He may be reached at jonathan@atlantaprogressivenews.com.

Syndication policy:

This article may be reprinted in full at no cost where Atlanta Progressive News is credited.

http://www.bondcu.com/site/bond/AboutBONDCFCU.asp#History

B.O.N.D. Community FCU was organized with a Federal charter on April 11th, 1972. It was the first community-based credit union chartered in Georgia’s history.

The political and economic environment of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s played a key role in the formation of this Credit Union and the changes in our field of membership since organization.

Little 5 Points, the business district in which we are still located today, had fallen into decay and the neighborhoods surrounding it had also declined. The entire area had a reputation of violence and heavy drug traffic.

There was a large anti-war effort at the time, and those who chose to avoid participating in the Vietnam conflict volunteered their time and talent in projects closer to home. One of these efforts was the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. Volunteers in this program became very involved in this in-town area of Atlanta, having identified it as a neighborhood in desperate need.

A few miles away, downtown Atlanta was growing and expanding, forcing Atlanta’s hippie community to seek new places to live. Many in this community either voluntarily or involuntarily moved into the Little 5 Points area, and found a home in this predominately white, absentee landlord-owned urban area.

At that time, the white migration to the suburbs left the city and state governments looking to build more roads to connect downtown to more distant areas and the B.O.N.D. Community was a key target for one of the largest roads planned at the time. Such a road would have split the neighborhood in two sections! The neighbors reacted by organizing protests. In one instance a neighborhood resident, still a B.O.N.D. Community FCU member today, chained herself to the Freedom Parkway Overpass to express the community’s outrage.

During this time, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), a religious group with funds dedicated to assisting impoverished individuals help themselves, and John Sweet, who was participating in the VISTA program as a local lawyer and conscientious objector of the road project, entered the picture.

Also, at this time, the Bass Organization for Neighborhood Development (B.O.N.D.) was organized to help five in-town neighborhoods take back their community. These neighborhoods were Little 5 Points, Inman Park (Atlanta’s first suburb built after the Civil War, with some of Georgia’s most beautiful Victorian and Antebellum-style mansions), Poncey-Highlands, Candler Park, and Lake Claire. The latter three were considered to be low income communities, although they consisted mainly of single family dwellings.

Both the MCC and B.O.N.D. came into the neighborhood, as John Sweet says, “to better the plight of the residents”.

The community believed that only through property ownership would the average individual wield any power. Only through buying homes, residing in them and fighting for them could the people be empowered and the road construction stopped. Everyone should have been given the opportunity to own a home, but due to “Red Lining” there was no such opportunity for the residents of this area.

Financial institutions located in and around these neighborhoods would gladly take deposits, but would not reinvest back into the community. Along with other programs needed and being developed, a financial institution was necessary to follow the philosophy of the local people, to reinvest back into the community, and to provide services and financial counseling to improve “the plight of the residents.”

After a long two-year struggle with the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), who was reluctant to charter a credit union with the expressed intent to provide real estate lending, John Sweet was able to charter B.O.N.D. Community Federal Credit Union. The MCC provided initial funding of $2,500 to start-up the credit union on a shoestring budget.

The MCC, being known for its strict monetary discipline and conservative manner, had conflicting views as to how deposits should be raised. The people for whom the credit union was established to serve were poor, and if they were going to save at B.O.N.D Community FCU, it had to be to their best advantage. The Board of Directors, made of primarily MCC members, debated this issue at great length. Once the issues were resolved, the credit union was firmly in the hands of community residents.

Dividends were declared at a full quarter percent over the closest competitors, and deposits began to grow. By the fourth quarter of the first year of operation, there were not enough funds in reserves to pay dividends. This was the point where the credit union proved itself to the community!

The board devised a plan for increasing reserves in order to pay the dividends as they had been declared. They would take the available funds in reserves, borrow a resident’s large moving van, and pick peaches on a farm south of Atlanta. The plan was to bring these peaches back to Atlanta and by selling them on the street, raise the $210 needed to pay dividends.

Every board member selflessly participated in this event. At 5:00 am they drove in the van to the Atlanta Farmer’s Market, where they purchased as many bushel baskets as they could afford: 65. They then drove to South Georgia and by mid-day they had filled all of the baskets with peaches donated by a good friend of John Sweet’s. The rest of the day was spent selling the peaches in the streets of Atlanta for $4 per bushel (one-half the market rate). By days’ end, they had raised enough money to pay the declared dividends, thus ensuring the continued growth of the credit union.

The debates with NCUA continued over our lending policies. By mid-1973 we had lent out $1500, of our 15,000 in deposits, for a long-term loan to help a member buy a home. To quote John Sweet, “NCUA had a fit! They wanted us to make loans for color TVs and we needed to be making home loans. Poor people didn’t need color TVs, they needed homes.”

At one point, NCUA threatened to close our doors. Negotiations were held, agreements made, and proposals were drawn up to modify our loan policy. By this time, the credit union had doubled in assets.

B.O.N.D. Community FCU requested and received low-income status. Once we were able to accept non-member deposits, the “Blue Ribbon Committee” was formed. This committee was formed from any Board member who had a suit and tie to solicit stronger credit unions for large and long-term deposits. This would allow B.O.N.D. Community FCU to offer even larger and longer-term mortgage loans. The campaign was a success!

By the end of 1974 we had deposits of $101,390 and had booked 162 loans totaling over $165,000, most of which were real estate. We were experiencing great capital growth and low loan loss. This trend caused NCUA some concern. They felt that we were not charging off enough loans and our delinquency rate was too small. This is still a trend today at B.O.N.D. Community FCU and continues to cause NCUA concern even after so many years. NCUA once again tried to convince the Board to take greater credit risks. The Board once again reminded NCUA that our primary purpose was and is to make real estate loans.

Ran initially out of a neighbor's kitchen, B.O.N.D. Community FCU soon took a space in Little Five Points. Over the years, our field of membership has expanded. The first of these expansions was when membership was opened to people who worked in the businesses located within our boundaries. These people felt the same sense of community as people who lived in the neighborhood and felt they should not be denied credit union membership. This change significantly expanded the neighborhood’s use of the credit union. Our average share deposit grew 55% over the next three years.

In more recent years we have added new neighborhoods to our original group including Cabbagetown, Edgewood, East Atlanta, East Lake, Grant Park-S.A.N.D. Fourth Ward, Kirkwood and Reynoldstown. Each of these additional neighborhoods are unique, yet they all have one thing in common: They are transitional and have no or little representation by a community-involved financial institution. These neighborhoods are going through what we faced so many years ago, and with our resources and experience, their growth and success can be assured.