BankThink

So what would you do in this scenario? You're about to take the stage before more than a 1,000 people and you're following a speaker who has turned an already pro-credit union crowd into a group of rabid CU cheerleaders, half of whom would have agreed to an Ed Filene tattoo right then and there if asked. Yet you don't completely agree with the previous speaker's message. Indeed, some of what you're prepared to say, if you actually go through with saying it, is going to feel like being the prohibitionist at the National Brewers' Convention, the tax proponent at the Libertarian picnic, the anti-needle guy at Barry Bonds' house.

I just read Jim Blaine's piece on the "Dust up in DC" and his thought-provoking comments about Martin Luther King Jr. and his memorial. Coincidentally, the night before reading this I watched (for the seventh or eighth time) the movie "Mississippi Burning." It is the story of the FBI's solving of the 1964 murder of three student activists (two white and one black) by the KKK in Neshoba County, Miss. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it.

In a recent issue you asked whether the future for CUs is "reserved for the Big Dogs." Well, my answer is "Surely Not"

Although your July 16 article "Will Only the Big Dogs Survive" was wide-ranging and timely, its unfortunate contextual omission may leave your readers with an incomplete picture of what I conveyed to Mr. Jim Jerving during my interview.

What will it take for small credit unions to survive?

Let's begin with some wisdom. At a recent credit union conference I heard one speaker refer not once, but twice to "strategic strategies." Those are not to be confused with "tactical tactics."

The article in the July 23 edition of the Credit Union Journal by Jim Blaine puts me to shame. In the article, Mr. Blaine recalls the persistence of Hubert Hoosman's solicitation for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Mr. Blaine calls on CEOs of credit unions to summon the courage to approach their boards for a donation to the MLK Memorial.

It's a fact. Credit unions are not just for personal accounts anymore. Today, savvy institutions are aggressively targeting the small business and micro-business market with a full range of products and the personal attention this underserved group has been lacking.

Credit unions have been breathing something of a sigh of relief over the bullet that has been dodged to date with subprime mortgages. Most credit unions didn't make the "Easy to Get Into, Bear To Get Out Of" home loans, so while rising rates and payment adjustments have led some companies to shutter operations and some homeowners to sell their shutters, most CU portfolios have not felt the pain-at least directly.

Credit Union Journal Publisher Frank Diekmann's column dated July 23 missed the point about the Coalition for Credit Union Charter Options' lawsuit against NCUA concerning the agency's over-reaching anti-conversion regulations. The point is that NCUA has exceeded its statutory authority by promulgating obstructionist regulations and will soon face the court's scrutiny. The legal complaint clearly outlines what is wrong with NCUA's actions and can be read in its entirety on www.ccuco.org.