Your Fed, Your Voice

[MUSIC]

I'm Luanne Cundiff. I am president and CEO of First State Bank of St. Charles, Missouri, and I serve as the chair of the Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council for the St. Louis Fed, also known as the CDIAC.

The St. Louis Fed benefits from our CDIAC because it's the communication tool that they need to understand what's happening in real time in our local communities.

When we have our CDIAC meetings, we talk about a variety of different topics. We always start with our local economies and what is working and what is not.

They may see the data one way and we may see it a different way. And an important piece of that data is the conversations they have with all of us.

We can't have those that make monetary policy decisions living in a bubble. And the St. Louis Fed is the voice of Main Street because they solicit, actively, feedback from every area of the district that they serve. And it's not just sitting with bankers. It's sitting with the health care industry. It's sitting with the auto dealers. It's sitting with everyone that has an impact in economic prosperity in their communities.

So, there are two kinds of people in the world. There are people who love economics, and there are people who just don’t know that they love economics. I have gotten to spend most of my professional life helping move people from the second category into the first.

My name is Amanda Geiger. I'm a senior economic education specialist with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. I get to create educational content for pre-K to college in economics and personal finance. And I get to work with teachers to help them be more confident in their instruction.

Economic education is critically important to making sure that the citizenry of a country understands the economy in which they are then expected to participate. The Federal Reserve works to support the financial system to make sure that it runs in a safe and sound manner. And by doing that, they’re working to help the U.S. economy achieve its goals of maximum employment and stable prices.

And they have a reputation in economic education for just really exceptional resources for teachers. The Eighth District has seven different states. We really work to make sure that we are reflective of their educational needs. A big part of our work is listening and being a part of these communities so that we can be responsive to changes.

We have an opportunity to offer them, at no monetary cost, these resources that they can use in their classroom. My favorite days are the days I get to actually work with teachers, so whether that’s a webinar or a workshop. It really helps me feel like I’m giving back to a community and a group that I have so much respect for and really loved being a part of.

My name is Shannon Newton, and I’m the president of the Arkansas Trucking Association. I perceive my most important responsibility as a council member to prepare and share. The trucking industry is such a pivotal role in this part of the country. We play a major role in a variety of industries, not just the transportation industry, whether it be retail or manufacturing or agriculture. All of those industries are really important. And so preparing by collecting the most recent information, whether that be on labor or cost, demand, all of those issues, we’re going to have the opportunity to share what's going on within our industry.

So prepare, and then show up and be ready to share what’s going on, because I found that the issues that we’re experiencing, the challenges that we have very easily roll over into impacting the economy as a whole. And I think those various perspectives do offer something interesting to the Fed Reserve, who are there to hear from those voices who are representing a wide variety of economic sectors. I was surprised at how open to the external input and engagement that they were. Makes you feel like the contribution and the participation is of value.

So my name is Darrin Williams and I am the chief executive officer of Southern Bancorp Incorporated. We’re a Community Development Financial Institution, and as such, our focus is serving underserved people and places primarily in the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. As a board member, I think it’s important that we bring the voices of the people that we know the most about. I’m talking about people in places that are often overlooked or abandoned or have historically been denied access to capital and credit.

I’m bringing the perspective of people who are new to the financial system, who are struggling to make ends meet. I’m bringing the perspective of small-business owners who are borrowing small sums of money to run their business. I’m bringing the perspective of young people who are not yet engaged in the process of really making money, helping the economy thrive. Their perspectives really, really matter.

As a board member, one of the primary things we get to do is to complete an economic report about what we’re seeing in the economy. And then of course, that information goes into the Beige Book that ultimately goes to the Board of Governors, who actually uses that information to help set monetary policy. And so it has a real impact. And that’s the voice that I get to bring to the table.