We have been discussing CRA quite often with our Board. We report to them our loan activity within census tracts and have been telling them about a mailing we're doing to the lowest income census tracts in our (small) area. This has led to the inevitable "Where are these tracts?" questions arising. I can easily obtain and print a map of our area. Our Board would like to see such a map. Before I print the census map and give it to the Board, I want to know if there are any reasons for me not to do this. Would this be construed as a no-no by examiners?

Not if they are requesting the info for nondiscriminatory reasons - such as to try and reach these segments of the community, etc. Document your minutes appropriately.

I have provided these to the board several times. Our board is very focused on meeting the goals of CRA and providing them with a visual of their communities is helpful in their efforts to assist the bank. My regulator praised our board for just this reason. I also include penetration ratios as well as any suggestions for targeted programs if our numbers fall below what I'm comfortable with.

When we develop the mailings, programs, etc. I document those efforts to include in my regulator packet during exam time. Be sure to note your efforts and share them with your examiners to show your concentrated efforts!

Just make sure you do not put any red circles or boundaries on the map!

The greatest difficulty in doing a map such as this is to have a map that shows the low- and moderate-income areas, but also shows enough detail, such as street & highway names, city names, or other landmarks, so that your board will know what they are looking at.

The very first Census Map of loan activity I ever saw was a pretty thing. It had color variations to show the different income levels, it had the tract numbers and tract boundaries, and it had little dots to show where each of the loans were. But there was not other reference points, and no one could tell WHERE anything really was!

LOL Bonnie I think I saw that same map! Mapping Alaska gets me about the same effect, with dots that I normally call roving moose since they don't seem to make sense otherwise.

I drop down my map to one tract per page or smaller so I can get major streets into the map. Especially when I'm doing work for the board or folks outside of my little CRA realm. You're right, without that, it's a pretty shape, with pretty colors and little moose all over the place!

Your board should be encouraged to see the map, the areas by designated income, as well as by your loan penetration and marketing efforts. Go to them for support. (But give them a minute or two as they trace their fingers on the page. The little thought balloons over their heads would read, "I live here, that can't be right".)

Thank you. That is exactly why I am wanting to give these to the board. We've developed what we hope will be a good and succesful loan program targeted to LMI individuals wishing to purchase homes. We decided to mail a flyer to residents of the six (of sixteen) lowest income census tracts in our county. We're also going to do a mailing advertising an informational meeting we'll be doing. Our directors wanted to know where these areas were (not for discrimination, but for curiosity) and I wanted to be sure that no one would think that they wanted the maps so they could use their new red crayons.

Off the top of my head I can't recall if it was CRA Wiz or Tactician (the latter I think) that used the color red when you drew a circle around a point, such as when you initially designated a market area. It stayed red as you formed it to the CT boundries. Not a good idea and obviously the default code was done by a non-CRA officer.