Pub. 5 2017 Issue 2

7 Summer 2017 The Community Banker bank upon their graduation from MSU. The inability to attract young people into the community banking industry, particularly for those banks located in less populated areas of the state, has been identified by the MIB membership as an area of need for our member banks. We are hopeful that the formation of the MSU Community Banking Program will help address this issue. Another member service instituted by the Association this year and of which we are very excited relates to Montana’s favorite pastime— watching Griz and Bobcat football. I am pleased to write that MIB will be hosting tailgate parties for our members during one Griz and one Cat home game this coming season. The MSU tailgate party will be held on Saturday, September 9, 2017 during the game against South Dakota State. The University of Montana tailgate party will be held Saturday, September 23, 2017 during the conference game against Eastern Washington. I am excited about these two events and you should be too. If you will be attending one of these games, please stop by the MIB tent and have a beer and brat on us. Finally, in May, I traveled to Memphis, Tennessee to meet with rep- resentatives of ICBA Securities to renew our endorsement agreement. ICBA Securities and other ICBA Services Network programs have prov- en to be steady and important partners for the MIB over the years, as well as the source of much-needed revenue for the Association. MIB has entered into a revised endorsement agreement with ICBA Securi- ties this year, and it is an agreement that will result in additional dollars flowing through to the Association, which such dollars will, in turn, be used to promote and benefit our member banks. As a result of the beneficial impact ICBA products and services have on this Association financially, we encourage you to look into and utilize ICBA’s products and services. As always, those of us here at MIB and the MIB board appreciate your membership in the Association. For those of you who attended the convention in Helena, it was great to see you and to spend time with you. For those of you who did not attend the convention, you missed out on great educational programs and excellent networking opportunities. As such, we encourage you to attend the 2018 state convention July 26-28, 2018 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Missoula. Jim Brown, MIB Executive Director