HARRISBURG, Penn. – When changing the structure of league dues, the Pennsylvania CU Association said it believes in making things simple for credit unions to determine what their new costs are.
PCUA has introduced a dues calculator on its home page that allows member credit unions to plug in their asset size and in response the tool spits out their new annual payment. “The calculator helps folks figure out the square root formula [of the new dues structure] without credit unions having to go through a lot of gyrations,” said SVP Mike Wishnow. “The new formula is the square root of the credit union’s assets times a factor of 1.1165 this year. Our credit unions tell us they like the tool, and they are using it.”
The league changed its yearly dues after it learned they were out of line with what most other leagues were charging – dues were too low overall, especially for larger credit unions, Wishnow explained. “Most leagues have three dues tiers based on asset size. Instead of going to a tiered system with a cap, we moved to a square root formula, so the larger you get the higher your dues. But this way dues do not escalate in a straight line. Some of the large credit unions will see a significant increase, while some smaller ones will see a decrease.”
To help offset what could be higher dues, PCUA this year changed from having mandatory contributions to its statewide “iBelong” CU advocacy campaign, making those payments now voluntary, which Wishnow said should make CU annual payments to the league lower overall. “Our hope is credit unions will take the difference and voluntarily plow it into iBelong.”
