At Bronco, our teammates are the heart of that “Welcome Home” feeling you experience every time you step into one of our offices. To help you get to know the faces behind the service, each quarter’s Hometown newsletter will introduce you to a member of our team. In this fall issue, we’re excited to spotlight Darlene D. Johnson.

As our Member Solutions Coordinator, Darlene leads the collections department and plays a vital role in supporting Bronco members when “life happens.” Her team steps in to help members navigate tough financial situations—whether it’s a loan or credit card payment that’s become hard to manage. Darlene and her team work tirelessly to find solutions and provide the assistance our members need, no matter the challenge.

Darlene currently serves as the Member Solutions Coordinator for Bronco and has been with us since May of 2013.

What makes you good at what you do?
My background. I was in retail for five years and I’ve been in banking and finance for 45 years and have worked in several different positions from accounts receivables, collections, lending/ credit, mortgage origination and management, but most importantly, I’m a good listener. You have to listen and pay attention when people speak to you. That way, you can get members to be comfortable enough to share their stories with you. Once we have the full story and all the details, we can better formulate a plan and offer assistance.

Being the Member Solutions Coordinator sounds like a difficult job.
We need to determine if the issue will be long-term or temporary and develop a plan that will help our members. Of course, there are times where we can’t actually resolve the issue. However, we can offer empathy and allow them to keep their dignity intact.

With all of your experience, have you had a favorite job along the way?
I can’t really choose a favorite, because they all have been “service” positions, where I was able to help a customer or member to the best of my ability. In each position, I would share with them basic finance knowledge such as how to set goals, build budgets, resolve/restore credit and in some cases, save homes from foreclosure. I think whatever field you’re in, it’s your job to share your expertise with your clientele. I‘ve enjoyed being able to make a positive difference with those I’ve served.

What do you enjoy most about your current role?
What I enjoy the most is being able to actually base my response to our members on what’s best for them and BFCU. Since we don’t have shareholders, we are able to be more considerate of our members’ needs; our members really do come first.

What do you think attracts people to Bronco?
I think what attracts people to Bronco is that feeling our members get when they come in or call us. They receive warm, genuine welcomes, and being a small, hometown credit union, everyone mostly knows everybody, and you feel right at home.

Do you think people have a hard time understanding how a credit union is different from other financial institutions?
Yes, I do think people do have a hard time understanding how banks and credit unions differ. I also think if they’re accustomed to dealing with only banks and try a credit union, they would never go back!

What does Bronco’s tagline “Welcome Home” mean to you?
It means that we offer the best service we can because you’re in the right place for all your financial needs, and we have your best interest at heart.

What do you like to do outside of work?
I love to travel, as well as go to plays and attend live jazz concerts. I also enjoy watching “good” TV—documentaries or suspenseful programming.

Anything else you’d like to add?
I’m proud to be associated with a financial institution that really cares so much about their clientele. I’ve worked for a lot of other large banks in the area, where the bottom line and profit was always considered the most important goal. At Bronco, doing what’s best for our members and what makes good business sense is what Bronco does each day, all the time.

Our teammates really make the difference by giving you that “Welcome Home” feeling every time you visit a Bronco office. To help you get to know them better, we’re introducing different members of the staff in each quarter’s Hometown newsletter. For the summer issue, we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Banks.

Amanda currently serves as the Senior Accountant for Bronco, which means she doesn’t always get to interact directly with members. But she touches just about everything that goes on in our offices. As a long-time member of our team, Amanda knows just about all there is to know about the best ways to serve our members, so she’s definitely a great asset to have on your side.

Amanda currently serves as the Senior Accountant for Bronco and has been with us since May of 2000.

You’ve been at Bronco for over two decades. When did you officially start?
I started working at Bronco in May of 2000. I was finishing up a year at Paul D. Camp Community College and looking to transfer to Christopher Newport University (CNU) in the fall and needed a job. I had worked the previous summer as a teller at a bank but spent most of the summer at a branch that required commuting. My family had done business with Bronco my entire life, so my dad went in and asked Denise Riddick if they were hiring summer help—and that’s where I started. We were actually in the trailers on Stewart Drive at the time because it was right after the flood.

What drew you to Bronco?
I loved the teller work the summer before and I actually knew a few people that worked at Bronco. I am big on a “family feel” and that is what I immediately got when I started at Bronco.

What positions have you held over the years?
Phew! Position wise, there isn’t much I haven’t done! I literally started from the ground up. The first summer I was a teller, but I also had my first glimpse at the accounting department. They were trying to go through things to see what could be salvaged from the flood so there were times when we were fully staffed or slower times that I would go over and help them.

That fall, I decided that instead of actually living in Newport News to commute to CNU. I talked to Jeff Thompson, the COO at the time, about if I could manage my schedule, could I work part time? For three years that is what I did. They were so amazing working with me through my school scheduling. I was majoring in accounting and had my eyes on working with an accounting firm.

A few months before I graduated, Jeff called me in and asked me if I would be interested in staying on at Bronco after I graduated. I was engaged and getting married that summer to my husband Dallas Banks, who works with NAPA Beamon and Johnson and knew after commuting for three years to CNU that I really did not want to have to commute to work every day like that anymore. By then, the employees at Bronco were absolutely my family. Literally every employee was invited and came to our wedding that summer!

The agreement that Jeff and I made was I would learn the whole credit union from the ground up. I spent the first half of every day for a year in every department in the credit union and after lunch, I would go to the accounting department and learn everything I could. At the end of the year, I started full time in the accounting department and can honestly say I haven’t considered being anywhere else.

Was there one position that you liked the most?
I absolutely LOVED being a teller. I love people and I love making them smile. But I love my job and what I do now. And while I do not see the members face-to-face daily, I’m still able to help them in so many ways. For example, a couple days ago I did a wire call back to a member and he explained to me he was making a down payment on his first home and he was so excited! I love knowing we are positively impacting people in their most important moments in their lives.

Tell us what you do as Senior Accountant.
I balance all the things. There is not much that happens in the credit union that our department doesn’t touch. I provide support to the MSRIs and IIs in any way I can, from answering questions to helping them find outages. I also back up the ACH/Wire area. I help get all the financials together for our monthly board meetings. One of the most important parts of my job is compiling our quarterly 5300 Call Report for the NCUA. That’s the report that tells the NCUA and the rest of the world how sound we are as a credit union.

What makes you good at your job?
I feel like the year I spent working in all the departments of the credit union helped me understand how all the pieces flow together. I think sometimes people look at their job as an independent piece and it’s easy to get caught up in a “well, if it wasn’t for this department” mentality. By working in all the various departments, you realize that one department cannot function without the other and the credit union as a whole would not be what it is without all the pieces working together. It also has made me capable of helping other departments problem-solve things that if I hadn’t worked in their department, I wouldn’t have known how to help them. I’ve never had the attitude of “that’s not my job.” I was raised and taught to be curious enough that it may not be my job, and I may not know exactly what the answer is, but I am going to find someone who can help me figure it out and learn from it. I hope that with all my years here I can be that someone for another curious person coming in.

What do you enjoy most about working at Bronco?
The people. I have developed friendships that will last a lifetime. I love my work family. And I genuinely love what I do every day.

What do you think makes Bronco special to your members?
Again, the employees. Their willingness to help others. The front-line employees see members at their best and worst times in their lives. We have some amazing, kindhearted and good people working here that only have the membership’s best interest in their hearts.

What do you think the tagline “Welcome Home” means to them?
Welcome Home means family. And when I think of family, I think of comfort and safety. I feel like Bronco is all of those things. I feel like our employees do a great job at going above and beyond to make people feel heard and supported.

What do you like to do outside of work?
We live and breathe softball. My daughter is getting ready to turn 15 and pitches. She loves it and has since she was about eight. So, my time outside of work is busy with her and softball. There’s no other place her dad and I would rather be.

Family is important to me, so if we aren’t at a softball field or practice, I love spending time with my niece who is six and my brother, sister-in-law and parents. I also like to crochet. My daughter decided during COVID that she wanted to learn and we kind of picked it up together.

The place I wish I had more time for would be at my best friend’s house down at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But I’m in my “softball era” right now and I’m going to enjoy every second of that, because there will be beach time with my best friend later.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I have literally grown up at Bronco. I started as a first-year college student, met my husband and got married, graduated college, got my Masters, had a beautiful baby girl…

I was a baby when I started here, and Bronco has watched me grow up and helped raise me. It was my third job. I taught dance in high school, then had my summer job with “the bank” and then immediately started here. When you asked about “Welcome Home,” well, this is home. I don’t know anything else, and I don’t want to know anything else, jobwise. I want to keep learning and making myself better and growing as a person, but I hope to continue to do it right here.