Judy McKenna

Planning for Retirement Security: What Helps or Hinders Women in the Middle Years?

The purpose of this study was to examine the retirement planning of women between 40 and 55 years of age within the theoretical framework of family re source management. A sample of 220 wornen completed mailed questionnaires. Retirement planning was defined as a five-step managerial process. Descriptive responses of these women indicated high interest in retirement planning, but their level of planning raised serious concern for the future. Special emphasis on three social-psychological concepts—risk taking, “math anxiety,” and locus of control—offered a unique perspective in this study. Multiple regression analysis found the following characteristics of women most active in retirement planning: higher household income, expected a pension, positive orientation toward finan cial risk, perceived control over chance, general willingness to take risks, internal belief in the ability to control ones life, comfort with math ability, and older age.

Creating a virtual community to enhance member services: credit unions and e-commerce

The purpose of this paper is to describe how credit unions that incorporate a virtual community into their e-commerce efforts are able to expand traditional services to better support its mission of democracy, volunteerism, and self-suffiency. A virtual community is particularly suited to the credit union philosophy and while published data regarding the development of a virtual community is nonexistent, the paper describes the case of Norlarco Credit Union and its efforts to build a virtual community. Collaborative efforts among credit union executives and Colorado State University researchers resulted in a work-in-progress, virtual community framework for credit unions.

Integration of Boyer's Theory of Teaching and Learning into Undergraduate Education: Application to Resident Instruction and Distance Education

According to Boyers theory of teaching and learning, teaching becomes scholarly when four components (discovery, integration, application, and teaching) are integrated within and throughout the educators efforts. Scholarship is holistic, and the elimination of one or more components diminishes the strength of scholarship. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how Boyers theory of scholarship is applied to resident instruction and distance education at a midsize university in the West. The infusion of Boyers components results in communication and content skills students learn while completing assignments that go beyond the memorization of apparel and merchandising concepts. Regardless of the method of instruction delivery, Boyers theory of scholarship may be applied to course concepts to assist students in the long-term learning process. Students also gain valuable leadership skills that are used to benefit the community.