Spring, when “a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” Tennyson wrote knowingly of that well over 100 years ago. But did he know what else Spring does for us?

Last Sunday was a surprisingly warm and beautiful day here, about 78 degrees and sunny, yet the forecast had been for 60 and rainy. Go figure.

Because it was so nice, I decided to skip the movie I had planned to see and opted to walk along the man-made canal that runs up the west side of downtown Indianapolis. There were quite a few people out: some shirtless (I only saw men thankfully), some lying on blankets in the grass, and many with dogs or babies. There were people sitting on their balconies, cyclists and runners. Regardless of their activity, everyone looked happy.

The NCAA Women’s Final Four was also going on here so there were quite a few tourists out and about. And what do you suppose they’ll tell their friends and family when they go home? In addition to basketball talk, they’ll most likely remark on how beautiful the day was and how much they enjoyed walking around our fair city. If it had been cold and raining like the forecast, they would have been stuck in their hotel rooms, napping or watching overpriced movies.

Here’s my theory: Spring is its own marketing tool. Just let the sun and warm weather wash over people and their habits will change. Most significantly, they’ll probably do more, spend more, and make more big-ticket purchases than they do when it’s cold and gray outside.

So bring spring into your credit union and get everyone in a start-fresh mood. As the world around us comes to life, we seem to as well, and that’s the perfect time to get your members to loosen their purse strings, buy a new car, or take out a home loan. Or, if you’re lucky, attract new members who know it’s time to start fresh with a far superior FI.