About the GBA
I Professional Development I
Government Relations I
Services
June 24, 2005
Annual Convention a Huge Success
Our thanks to almost 500 Georgia bankers, directors
and the others attending who helped make the 2005 annual convention
this week in Vail, Colorado such a success. In next week’s
Bulletin, we will be giving you more details about some of the major
news from the convention. Our thanks to Dan Blanton,
President and CEO of
Georgia Bank and Trust Company of Augusta for a great year
as Chairman and congratulations to our new chairman, Tom Wiley,
President and CEO of
Flag Bank
of Atlanta.
Action Needed on Credit Unions’ Bill
H.R. 2317,
the Credit Union Regulatory Improvements Act (CURIA) has
again been introduced. The GBA has requested the House members
within the Georgia congressional delegation not to cosponsor this
bill, but we need your help in giving our
congressmen plenty
of encouragement to stand with the banking industry on this
important issue. We are asking each bank CEO and the bank’s
employees to access the
ABA Action Alert which will guide you through very few,
quick steps for a letter to be generated to your congressman asking
for support of our industry. The number of letters generated is
critical and this is a simple way for all bank
employees to be
involved. The GBA plans to further develop meaningful grassroots
tools to make banker involvement easier and having every employee in
each bank to utilize
this quick system is an important step. Please participate today by
clicking on the Action Alert and following the simple prompts. By
way of background, the bill would expand credit union commercial
lending authority, while simultaneously undercutting the capital
regulation at federally insured credit unions. While masked as a
regulatory burden relief bill, the legislation would only further
fuel the rapid growth within an ever-increasing segment of the
credit union industry and thus increase the revenue shielded from
taxation. Should you have any questions, call GBA’s
Elizabeth Chandler at the GBA at (404) 420-2027.
Banks Required to Post No Smoking Notices
Georgia's new Smokefree Air Act of 2005, effective July
1, prohibits, with a few specific exceptions, smoking in all
enclosed areas that any employee or member of the public
would have occasion to occupy, such as common work areas,
classrooms, private offices, meeting rooms, cafeterias, employee
lounges, restrooms, stairwells and hallways. While the new
law permits a private employer to designate an employee smoking area
within an enclosed area and does not regulate smoking outdoors, it
also permits an employer or other person in control of the premises
to declare the entire premises nonsmoking. Private employers,
including banks, are impacted in four ways: (1) employee
notification; (2) smoking area requirements; (3) ashtray removal;
and (4) sign posting. If you have not yet decided how to word the
signage you will be posting, GBA has asked our
Strategic Partner,
Steve Greene with
Helms and Greene, LLC, to develop model language for you to
use. Click
here to access that model language. Please call GBA’s
Renee Valdez at (404) 420-2036 with questions.
Blanton SEC Testimony Archived
Former GBA Chairman Dan Blanton testified before the
Securities and
Exchange Commission last week representing the views of
smaller public companies. In Dan’s testimony, he talked about why
the size of banks was inflated due to loans and recommended the
number of shareholders in the definition of a small public company
needed to be raised.
An audio archive
of the hearing containing Dan’s testimony can be heard by clicking
here.
June Seminars Conclude
GBA will be sponsoring three seminars to close out the month. We
have good number of people already registered. If you have not
signed up, there is still time. Click on the links below to learn
more or call GBA’s
Fran
Williams at (404) 420-2015 for more information.
| June 28 |
Telephone |
|
| June 29-30 |
Macon |
|
| June 30 |
Telephone |
Oops – We Left
Out Some Members
In last week’s Bulletin, we recognized our members who were
highlighted in the annual summary by the
Atlanta Constitution
of the Top Performing 100 Georgia-chartered Public Companies, and we
left out two of the names:
PAB
BankShares, Inc., in Valdosta, Burke Welsh,
President, and
Southeastern Banking Corp., Darien, Con Holland,
Chairman. Congratulations, Burke and Con, to you and your
associates at
Park Avenue Bank and
Southeastern Bank.