In preparation for the First Financial Federal Credit Union Annual Meeting, scheduled for April 17, 2025, the Volunteer Recruitment & Nominating Committee of First Financial FCU recommends the following candidates to fill the vacancies on the 2025 Board of Directors:

Avon Garrett has served for 14 years as the Dean, School of Business, Social Sciences, Wellness and Education at the Community College of Baltimore County. Prior to that he served as a member of the Senior Cryptologic Executive Service at the National Security Agency-retiring after 30 years of Federal service. He has been a member of First Financial Federal Credit Union since 2000. He has served as a volunteer on the Appeals Committee since 2018 and, while serving in that capacity, became an Associate Director on the First Financial Board of Directors in 2021. He became a Director of the First Financial Credit Union Board of Directors in 2022 and in that same year became Chair of the First Financial Scholarship Committee.

Jonathan Butts currently works at the Social Security Administration (SSA) in the Department of Headquarters Space Management. He founded JB Home Design, LLC. in 2003 and has contributed part-time since 2023. Before that, he was a project manager at several architectural firms for almost 20 years. He has been a First Financial Federal Credit Union (FFFCU) member since 1984 and has volunteered at FFFCU since 2016. He has served on the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee (LRFPC) since 2016. In 2018, he became an Associate Director and was later appointed Board Director while serving on the LRFPC. During 2019, Mr. Butts became Chairperson of the Employment Engagement and Retention Committee (EERC).  In 2021, he became Co-Chairperson of the Volunteer Recruitment and Nominating Committee and began volunteering on the Merger and Acquisition Committee.

John Knauff has served in management for 34 years. From 2002 through 2015 he held the position of Business Manager for Construction and Leasing at The JHU/APL and was a member of several committees including the FACT team (Facilities and Construction Team), Long Range Site Development Team, and the Pension Committee. In 2016, he transitioned to the Facilities Department where he was responsible for the operation of approximately 500,000sf of leased space, both local and remote. He has been a volunteer at First Financial Federal Credit Union since 2002, by first serving on the Supervisory Committee. He currently serves on the Board of Directors, holding the office of Vice Chairperson. He also serves as Chairperson of the IT Steering Committee and the Long Range Facilities Planning Committee, serves as Co-Chair of the Volunteer Recruitment & Nominating Committee, and is a member of the Executive Committee and Merger & Acquisition Committee.

First Financial Federal Credit Union Bylaw Nomination and Election Procedures: Nominations for vacancies may also be made by petition signed by 1% of the First Financial FCU membership with a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 500 members. Nominations by petition must be filed with the First Financial FCU Secretary by March 7, 2025. An election will be held at the Annual Meeting on April 17, 2025, to fill the vacancies on the Board of Directors. The election will not be conducted by ballot and nominations will not be accepted from the floor unless there are insufficient candidates for position vacancies.

The First Financial FCU Annual Meeting will be held on April 17, 2025 at 6pm. Registration is required.