SEATTLE—It isn’t too often you see board members attending a credit union conference all wearing baseball caps emblazoned with a green marijuana leaf.
But that was just the case at CUNA’s America’s Credit Union Conference here.
Staff and volunteers from Partner Colorado CU in Arvada, Colo., wore the baseball hats with the prominent green marijuana leaf on them as they walked around Seattle’s Convention Center, the site for the 2016 meeting.
CEO Sundie Seefried said the goal was to have the hats prompt attendees to stop the Partner Colorado team and ask what the caps are about. Partner Colorado has become a leader in providing financial services to the cannabis industry. As previously reported, Seefried has written a book on the topic: “Navigating Safe Harbor: Cannabis Banking in a Time of Uncertainty,” which was featured in CUToday.info’s The Corner.
“We did this to try to normalize the conversation—to give people a chance to discuss this subject in a fun way,” said Seefried. “It is a difficult topic to open so the hats opened the conversation. It has worked wonderfully. People are expressing interest in the marijuana industry and asking great questions. The sooner we can normalize this conversation, the sooner we can professionalize this banking situation.”