How many locals, one wonders, have an award dedicated to current American President, Joe Biden?

 Paul Dawson, head of First Choice Credit Union does — for hundreds of hours of voluntary work helping similar organisations in developing Asian countries.

 Paul recently celebrated 20-good years as General Manager of First Choice after starting-off with one of our big banks.

 He decided, however, to leave the corporate ladder behind to work in the sort of community-based organisations that are the heart and soul of country towns like Orange.

 “Banks spend billions of dollars selling the story of what a credit union is; the thing is, we’re the real deal… the true definition of a community bank is a credit union,” Paul said.

 “With First Choice, we’ve still got a physical presence in Cabonne, Molong, Canowindra, Cudal, and Manildra… I like to think of it, as we’re the local B&B (bed-and-breakfast), the banks are the ‘Hiltons’, the ‘Ramada’s’, the ‘Marriott’s’, those big hotel chains.”

 The tendency of large corporations to move staff around for promotions and to fill positions made the move to community-owned credit unions easy, he said. Paul started as General Manager at First Choice in October 2001 and has never regretted the move.

 “I wanted a more stable base, I had three little kids at the time, two boys and a girl and, at this stage, my eldest son was in Year One and had been at three different schools.

 “Before here, I was in another credit union in Bathurst as their credit manager… this came-up and it was a step-up and I was lucky enough to get the gig,” he explained.

 Impact of COVID-19, he believes, has been minimal due to First Choice’s definition as an essential service and the hard-work of their staff over the past difficult two years.

 “We’ve been able to work closely with our members and we always had back-ups in place so that they could access their money.

 “I think the one thing we’ve learnt, is how quickly things can change and how we have been able to adapt. This was the real deal and, by and large, most industries have adapted and continued operating quite well.”

 And the “Joe Biden” award?

 Paul’s other interests includes working with credit unions in developing Asian countries including Nepal, Bangladesh, the Philippines, and Thailand, in assisting with training and education.

 This work with the International Credit Union Leadership Development Education Foundation saw him win the “Joe Biden Award for Development Educator of the Year” for Australia in 2017.

 “I had to travel over to London to accept the award, and no, I didn’t meet Joe Biden.

 “Call it my hobby, there’s no money involved, in fact it costs me sometimes, but it’s a real buzz,” Paul concluded.