Friendly Faces of Vision: Sheila Donally

“I like that fact that we are truly rural. We still answer our phones and know members by their names when they come through the door.”

Meet Sheila Donally, a Senior Member Services Representative at Vision’s Edgerton branch. Sheila has lived in rural Alberta for over 40 years and has spent nearly half of that time working in the credit union world, supporting community members and embracing the rural way of life.

Discover her journey from Saskatchewan to Alberta, what she enjoys most about working at a local credit union and why Edgerton will always feel like home.

I grew up in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan and my husband and I moved to Alberta in 1983 when I was eight months pregnant with our first child. Our two children have grown up in the area here since day one. I am also a councillor for the Village of Chauvin where I live, which is about 15 minutes away from Edgerton.

I was a stay-at-home mom when my kids were growing up, and once they moved out of the house, I decided to go and find a job. I began working retail at the mall in Lloydminster, but after a short time, I realized I didn’t enjoy that type of work. Lucky for me, a friend of mine found a job for me at a bank in Lloydminster, where I worked for about five years.

I later found another position closer to home in Chauvin at the credit union, which was Encompass at the time. The staff worked part-time in Chauvin and part-time at the branch in Edgerton. When the Chauvin branch flooded in 2021, we brought all the staff and the members over to the Edgerton branch full time and then we merged with Vision shortly after. In total, I’ve been with the credit union for about 16 years!

I started off at the credit union as a Member Services Representative (MSR), and today, I’m a Senior MSR. I do a lot of back-end personal, commercial and agriculture lending support, but as a senior staff member, I’m also doing front-line stuff as well. Since the Chauvin branch was closed permanently, we obviously have a lot more members coming to Edgerton, so it keeps us all busy.

I like that fact that we are truly rural. We still answer our phones and know members by their names when they come through the door. I really like helping people and I consider that one of my strong suits, so that means a lot to me. I also enjoy that it’s a slower pace compared to city living. When we have a line-up of five people, at least three of them know each other and all of them enjoy having the time to connect. It’s just a lifestyle that I like.

I really love the landscape around here and that the area still has hills and trees. And, of course, the people. I’ve been here long enough that I have a lot of friends in the area who have always been supportive of one another. I was lucky to witness that during the first few weeks of living here, needing help in my final days of pregnancy while my husband was at work. Everyone is community-minded where we are, and I’m happy that my kids have chosen to stay here, too.