The following excerpts are from an article in today's newspaper (front page of the Business & Agriculture section of the News-Gazette / Champaign, IL). Along with the long article they ran a picture of the president of the bank holding the generator cables that will run the bank's lights and computers. "Art Wilkinson already knows how he's spending New Year's Day 2000, and it won't be watching bowl games. Wilkinson will be down at his bank looking for trouble. He and officials at other independent banks in the area still have a year to finish preparations for the year 2000, a quantum leap for computer-and power- dependent financial institutions. They say they're right on schedule, but they're still a little uneasy about the transition. Wilkinson, president of the State Bank of Bement, has installed 200-ampere generator cable on the side of the bank because he's more worried about services he can't control - like power - than he is about his own bank's preparations. The Bement bank was second in the nation - a beta bank - to install a Y2K-ready software package called BankTec in its mainframe computer. The State Bank of Bement is now launching the fourth phase of the official five- phase Y2K staging suggested by regulators - phases known in 'regulator-speak' as awareness, assessment, renovation, validation and implementation. John Corley, president of the First State Bank of Monticello, started the conversion process with his bank's 'Mission Critical' functions. Corley said his mainframe supplier has issued certain rules for employees the day 2000 arrives. They have to have a full tank of gas, a certain amount of money on hand, and there won't be any vacations, he said. I'm not fearful, Corley said. We're going into it with our eyes wide open. If there's no power that day, I'm in the same boat as everyone else, but I'll have a generator running." Bement, by the way, is a small town with a population of approximately 1000 and Monticello with a population of about 3000...very conservative, typical midwest farming communities. You can't imagine my excitement when I finally read in our local newspaper an article which halfway acknowledges we may have some problems with Y2K!!! Brenda

-- B Parker (BParker201@aol.com), December 07, 1998

Answers

Good Brenda -- A bank saying "I'll have a generator running" is a great short-term strategy. Hope they have good cash reserves too.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 07, 1998.