Page 12 - January 16, 2025 Bulletin

From the CORNER CHAIR

Deneen Axtman | NDBA CHAIR | Cornerstone Bank, Fargo

Happy New Year! I hope this finds you deep into your successful New Years resolutions
and already working on all of your 2025 bank goals! This will certainly prove to be an
interesting year for our industry both locally and nationally with the legislative session
underway and changes in Washington DC. There is so much happening at NDBA already.
Rick has been busy during the first week of session testifying, learning, and visiting with legislators.
Please stay up on the legislation that is impacting our industry and reach out to your local legislators to
share your thoughts and help educate them on impacts to banking and our communities.

If you aren’t already, make plans to attend the NDBA Bankers Day at the Capital on January 28 and
the Bank Management Conference and Legislative Reception in Bismarck February 12. Additionally,
the ABA Washington Summit takes place April 7-9. These are excellent opportunities to learn about
and participate in working for bank policy framework that lets your bank stay focused on serving your
customers and communities. Plus, there are a ton of educational opportunities in the coming months.
Check out all of the options in this newsletter as NDBA works hard to keep us all learning and educated.
Last week, I had the opportunity to work with the NDBA staff and NDBA board leaders (past and
present) to put more definition to NDBA's strategic plan. We have a truly great association and I’m
excited to share the five pillars we are working to refine:
• Advocacy – serving as a powerful voice for North Dakota banks
• Engagement – deepening connections
• Talent Development and Education – building a talent pipeline to ensure a strong future for ND
Banks
• Innovation – cultivating an innovative mindset
• Organizational Excellence – delivering the standard of excellence members deserve
As we work on refining the pillars and putting together action plans under each of these, we will provide
updates. Our goal is to have it solidified by June.

Lastly, I recently saw an article on the Top 50 Best Places to Work and I would submit that while our
bank is often on one of those lists, our industry would certainly be in the top few if there were a 50
Top Industries to Work. Where else do you have a chance to help your community, help make peoples'
dreams come true, have awesome teammates and competitors, and just plain do good. Yes, it has its
drawbacks, like regulation and labor shortages, but the good far outweighs the bad. And again, we have
a chance to address both regulation and labor shortages through our legislative process involvement.
When given the chance to talk about our industry and recruit talent to it, I challenge you to come up
with your own reasons that banking is a Top 50 Industries to work, and to share them with me. I will
compile a list and share it next month.
Have a great month! Hope to see many of you at NDBA events in the coming weeks!

Deneen

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