U.S. Credit Unions Issued User IDs And Passwords For .COOP Domain Name
Pre-Qualification

November 5, 2001

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeannine Kenney,
(202) 383-5456
jkenney@ncba.org

Dorothy Steffens,
(608) 231-5719
dorothy@cuna.org

Washington, D.C. – The National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) and the Credit Union National Association and Affiliates (CUNA) announced today that U.S. credit unions are now receiving their unique user identification numbers and passwords to begin pre-qualifying for the new .coop top-level Internet domain. .Coop is available for use only by cooperatives, including credit unions.

"Credit unions should watch their e-mail accounts carefully for incoming mail from registry@cooperative.org because that will contain the information and instructions they need to reserve their .coop names," said Pete Crear, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, for CUNA. "It’s really critical that credit unions jump in early and reserve their names because this is a first-come, first-served situation, and there are a lot of credit unions that have similar names."

Crear said new research by CUNA’s Economics and Statistics Department shows that the number of credit unions with web sites grew by 2.5 times from 1997 to 2000.

"Though fewer than half of all credit unions have web sites, we definitely see those numbers growing at a fast clip," Crear said. "That’s why it’s really critical for even those credit unions that don’t have web sites to buy their .coop names now. Chances are, in the next few years, those credit unions will get online and they’ll want their .coop names to be available to them."

The .Coop Operations Center began sending out user ids and passwords via e-mail today and expects the process to be complete by next Wednesday. Credit unions without e-mail accounts will receive their information through the mail.

.Coop, sponsored by the National Cooperative Business Association, will join .com and .org at the end of Internet addresses in late 2001. The .coop domain is available only to businesses organized as cooperatives, including credit unions. It is one of only seven new domain names that were approved by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers late last year to help relieve over-crowding in the .com domain, where few short, memorable web addresses are still available. Several of the new domain names, including .coop, are reserved for use by only certain types of businesses, reflecting the trend towards domain names that add value to web addresses.

NCBA is a Washington, DC-based national, cross-industry membership association representing cooperatives of all types. CUNA & Affiliates, headquartered in Washington, D.C. and Madison, WI, along with its network of affiliated state credit union leagues, serves more than 90% of America’s 10,300 credit unions, which are owned by more than 81 million consumer members. For more information, visit www.cuna.org.

How to Pre-qualify

Credit Unions and State Leagues that are members of Credit Union National Association and Affiliates (CUNA) will receive a unique user id and password via e-mail or regular mail from the .Coop Operations Center. They’ll need these to access CUNA’s secure .coop pre-qualification web page.

If your credit union doesn’t receive a user id and password or misplaces it, contact the .Coop Operations Center toll free at (866) 288-3154 or via e-mail at support@cooperative.org.

Once you have your user id and password,

• Go to https://register.cooperative.org/CUNA, our secure pre-qualification site.
• Enter your user id and password.
• Confirm the contact information.
• Review the checklist "Your .Coop Names Strategy."
• Jump in and begin pre-qualifying your domain names!
• You’ll need a VISA, Mastercard, or American Express to pay for each name.

Note: To pre-qualify for .coop, you must have an e-mail address. If your credit union doesn’t have an e-mail address, but wishes to pre-qualify for .coop, you can sign up for a free e-mail account at www.hotmail.com or at other free e-mail services.

Your .Coop Names Strategy

To reserve the memorable, meaningful names your credit union needs for a strong web presence, you’ll want to pre-qualify for several domain names under .coop. One co-op recently pre-qualified for 170 different names!

Be creative! Think about the domain names you’ll need . . .

• For your credit union’s full name, legal name, common name, and acronym;
• For your product and service lines, including trademarked names;
• For your credit union’s subsidiaries and related businesses;
• For your credit union’s image, including simple, plain language names;
• To ensure that your credit union’s web address will pop up in searches for common words;
• To ensure that interested members and consumers can find your site even if they misspell your name;
• To plan for your credit union’s future marketing plans;
• For a secure members-only web site (distinct from the site open to the public) to allow your members to vote, comment on governance issues and take up other matters; and
• For dedicated sites for special promotional or community events that your credit union participates in or sponsors.

Copyright © 2008 - Credit Union National Association, Inc.