We had such a great time at our three shows at the Overture’s Kids in the Rotunda on December 2nd! Thanks to everyone who came out to see us.
The day before the show, we were the subject of a nice Wisconsin State Journal article, which is online here.
Thanks to the Overture Center for inviting us to perform again and Summit Credit Union for piggy banks for all the kids in attendance!
Here is a short video of us during soundcheck:
We want to thank everyone who came out to our three shows at the Overture’s Kids in the Rotunda on April 29th!
Also, a big thanks to the Overture Center for inviting us and Summit Credit Union for providing surprises to the kids. It was a day we’ll never forget.
The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – are set to play three free performances at the Overture Center’s Kids in the Rotunda series on April 29th!
Here’s the official show description:
Get ready to sing along with The Disclosures, whose humorous songs blend lessons on basic money management with stories of pirates, piggy banks, toys and more. Christopher and Chad combine their passion for music and years of experience working with youth financial education to perform songs from their album, “The Secret to Being Rich”. Learning about money has never been this fun!
Visit the Overture Center’s website for more information about the venue, show times and more. And here’s a video about what to expect when you attend a Kids in the Rotunda show.
PSSST…as a bonus, the first 600 kids in attendance will receive a special surprise from our friends at Summit Credit Union.
See you on the 29th!
The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – have released a new animated “lyric” video for “The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas”, which is from their financial education album for kids.
> View “The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas” music video
In the song “The Tale of Kidd Silver, the Savviest Pirate to Ever Sail the Seas”, The Disclosures – comprised of band members Christopher Morris (National Credit Union Foundation) and Chad Helminak (Heritage Credit Union) – detail the journey of Kidd Silver, a pirate who excessively borrows money without paying attention to the consequences of not being able to pay it back. He later realizes the errors of his ways and learns to budget and be more reasonable in his desires to become a pirate. The song lyrics weave in educational topics including how loans and interest work, needs vs. wants, budgeting, and more.
“Aside from ‘Thank my Piggy Bank,’ Kidd Silver has been the most popular song off of our kids album,” said Helminak. “Kids love this song when we play it live, so we hope this extension into the animated world helps more kids learn about Kidd Silver and his money lessons.”
The Disclosures worked with a leading industry marketing firm, Gira[ph}, to develop the animated video. Production support was provided by Balance, which provides comprehensive financial counseling and education services to help people achieve financial independence.
“Huge thanks to Kathryn Davis and our friends at Balance for helping support this video,” said Morris. “Gira{ph} took our vision to new heights as well by creating this video, which is our most ambitious yet.”
In addition to this new video for kids, The Disclosures also have released videos for “The Secret to Being Rich”, “I Want, I Need,” and their most popular single “Thank My Piggy Bank.” As with all of their songs and videos, The Disclosures hope that parents and teachers use these materials to spark conversations with kids about these very important topics.
“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and many others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures also offer discounted bulk CD orders for financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.
Click here for more information about The Disclosures.
There is a very real need for children to be introduced to financial education at an early age. Last year, the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) tested teens on areas covered within national financial literacy standards. The results were shocking; while only 4.7% of participants got an A on the test, 62.4% got a D or an F.
Music and education have been effectively used to teach children about important topics such as reading and math, but not around the basics of financial literacy (until now!). Our latest album, “The Secret to Being Rich,” incorporates concepts such as saving, responsible spending, the importance of charity, the dangers of “too good to be true” advertising and even the basics of how loans work for children ten and under.
It’s fun. It’s educational and the songs will stick with you (and your child)!
> Get a digital or physical copy of the album here
The credit union industry’s only education-focused rock band, The Disclosures, has released a fun and informative video for credit union employees to celebrate International Credit Union (ICU) Day.
> Click here to watch the video.
The video is intended to educate credit union organization staff about ICU Day and how important it is to celebrate and share our credit union roots and mission. It features:
The video’s content borrows heavily from The Disclosures’ highly-rated breakout session that has been presented at industry events around the country. The video is free for all credit union organizations to use as they see fit.
“Given the ICU Day theme of ‘people helping people’ this year, we wanted to give something back to the industry that has given us so much,” said band member Christopher Morris. “Our presentation style is loose and light-hearted, and we prefer guitars to a slide deck, so we hope credit unions find value and joy in sharing our message with staff.”
“One of the goals of ICU Day is to raise awareness about the great work credit unions are doing to improve people’s financial well-being,” said band member Chad Helminak. “We hope credit unions everywhere find some inspiration and ideas in our video to spread the credit union message on ICU Day and beyond.“
The video’s estimated run time is 30 minutes and was recorded on the World Credit Union Center Campus in Madison, Wis. The Disclosures would like to thank CUNA Mutual Group for providing production support.
About the Band:
Christopher Morris and Chad Helminak are “musicians with a mission” based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Outside of their day jobs, they moonlight as music-based educators “The Disclosures” and write songs and perform presentations about the importance of financial literacy and social responsibility. After releasing their first album of original credit union songs in 2011, Christopher Morris and Chad Helminak presented highly-rated education sessions and music performances across the nation.
Their latest album, “The Secret to Being Rich”, is focused on youth financial literacy, using music and humor to introduce lessons about money, savings, responsible spending, and more. For more information about The Disclosures, click here.
The credit union industry’s only education-focused rock band, The Disclosures, will be releasing a fun and informative video for credit union employees on October 15 to celebrate International Credit Union (ICU) Day.
The video’s content will borrow heavily from The Disclosures’ highly-rated breakout session that has presented at industry events around the country. It will be uploaded to the band’s YouTube account and is free for all credit unions to use as they see fit.
If interested in viewing and sharing The Disclosures’ ICU Day video, visit the band’s YouTube page at www.youtube.com/user/thedisclosures and subscribe to be notified as soon as it’s uploaded. The video’s estimated run time will be 20-30 minutes.
The Disclosures, Chad Helminak and Christopher Morris, were presented with the 2015 Development Education (DE) Program Cooperative Spirit Award last week at a special reception during the annual DE Workshop, July 9-11, 2015 in Denver, Colo. in conjunction with CUNA and the World Council of Credit Union’s “CU in Denver” event. The award is given annually to “a group of individuals for a project that has made a significant difference to a community, school, a credit union or the greater credit union movement.”
Over 100 Credit Union Development Educators (CUDEs) gathered at the recent workshop to help the National Credit Union Foundation (the Foundation) present the award. In the announcement from the Foundation, The Disclosures were recognized for the following:
“When we met in 2009 at DE Training, we had no idea that this little band would take us on a journey from coast to coast, playing in Estes Park, school assemblies, conferences and all types of events,” said band member Christopher Morris. “But it’s been a great trip. And it’s easy when you are singing about something you are passionate about. And for us, that’s credit unions and financial education.”
“It’s very meaningful to be recognized by our peers, especially when we’ve been on hiatus for a while,” said band member Chad Helminak. “This honor has reminded us of how impactful and enjoyable our musical efforts has been, and maybe that it’s time to recharge and ramp up those efforts in the near future.”
Nominations were submitted by CUDEs and winners were chosen by the 2015 CUDE Awards Committee, which consisted of the following individuals:
More information about the award and other honorees is online here.
The Disclosures wish to thank our friends and family, everyone at the National Credit Union Foundation, the Wisconsin Credit Union League, and anyone who either bought our music, shared our videos, or hired us to come out and play at their event!
Four years ago, we set out to make the world’s first album featuring songs about credit union history and philosophy. We made a “dream big” list of crazy venues we’d like to play, audiences we’d like to entertain and those “wouldn’t it be cool if…” ideas.
We set lofty goals and were surprised to find that two years later, we had accomplished everything we wanted to and then some. So we sat down and came up with another “dream big” list, this time setting our sights on making a financial education album for kids unlike anything else in existence. Looking back at our list now, we realize that we’ve again achieved everything we initially set out to do.
Over the past four years, we’ve played our music at almost every type of venue open to a credit union band with audiences made up of thousands upon thousands of credit union employees, members, and kids at credit union chapters, staff trainings, league annual meetings, national conferences (including crazy venues like Disney World and Estes Park), school assemblies across the country, and many more events we felt fortunate to be a part of.
The Disclosures have been interviewed for newspapers and TV, featured on websites such as the Huffington Post, and our YouTube music videos have earned over forty thousand views. We’ve busked on streets, damaged instruments and soundboards, spent countless hours driving or being delayed in airports, and used many vacation days just to play our music and hopefully inspire others to learn more about credit unions and personal finance.
We feel extremely fortunate to have all of these experiences and meet so many amazing people along the way, and there’s only one question we ask ourselves now: “what’s left for a credit union rock band to do in this world?”
The answer is: take a hiatus. This is not a break-up as we want to leave the door open for whatever the future brings in terms of opportunities and our own ideas. We’re also still close friends and you won’t find any scandals behind this band “break up” (sorry TMZ!). We both have plenty of dreams and creativity left and are now just making new goals and plans that don’t tie into “The Disclosures” model.
The Disclosures want to thank everyone over the years who have supported our efforts and invited us to perform. There are simply too many people to individually thank, but know that we could not have accomplished our dreams without you. Performing and creating our songs has brought us much joy, and we hope you feel the same.
Perhaps the last item on our “dream big” list is that we hope people will continue to stumble on our music in future years and ask: “wait, what the heck is this?”. Along with being slightly unusual, our music has always been intended to inspire education, humor and passion for what we believe in. Whether it’s a song about the cooperative principles or a pirate with irresponsible borrowing habits, we hope that always shines through.
It’s fitting that our last performance was for the Filene Research Institute’s 25th anniversary party, as Ed Filene has been a constant source of inspiration for us both. We have done our best to “keep purpose constant”, as Ed once said, and will continue to do so in whatever we do.
Cooperatively,
Chad and Christopher
The Disclosures – the Madison-based “musicians with a mission” – have released a new “lyric” video for “I Want, I Need”, which is from their recently released financial education album for kids.
> Click here for “I Want, I Need” Video
In the song “I Want, I Need”, The Disclosures discuss the difference between wants and needs to help kids manage their money better. Once kids learn the difference, it’s a great foundation for budgeting, saving, spending, etc. In fact, because the concepts on The Disclosures’ new kids album build on themselves, it’s one of the first songs on the album.
In addition to this new video for kids, The Disclosures also recently released a video for “The Secret to Being Rich” and their popular “Thank My Piggy Bank” video was released in 2013. As with all of their songs and videos, The Disclosures hope that parents and teachers use these materials to spark conversations with kids about these very important topics
“The Secret to Being Rich” album is available for download on all major digital music stores such as iTunes, Amazon and many others. Physical CDs also can be purchased at cdbaby.com, and The Disclosures also offer discounted bulk CD orders for financial institutions, schools or youth organizations. All ordering information and additional resources can be found on thedisclosuresmusic.com.
The Disclosures: Musicians with a mission 