WASHINGTON -
Wolff's lesson came at the end of a long day during the annual February event several years ago. He was speaking with a credit union delegate in McClellan's, the lobby bar at the Hilton Washington, GAC's longtime headquarters hotel. Convention participants were crammed cheek to jowl in the bar, all engaged in lively, noisy debate. Wolff remembered asking his conversation partner what he thought of the GAC, referring to one of the events that had taken place that morning in the International Ballroom.
"He looked at me and said 'That's not the GAC,'" remembered Wolff. The delegate then made a sweeping motion encompassing the entire bar. "'This is the GAC,' he said."
The heated debate, the camaraderie, and the forced intimacy of McClellan's created a dynamic energy that forged a strong sense of community and purpose among delegates, Wolff said. To be part of the bar crowd meant being part of the energy driving the meeting and its purpose. No one in McClellan's could avoid that level of involvement and none seemed as if they were trying to escape it. In fact, there was no shortage of additional people attempting to squeeze into the already overflowing room.
The same can be said of the Hilton Washington, home to the GAC for more than 30 years. Once just another meeting for the District of Columbia hotel located near DuPont Circle, the event's original 300 participants have burgeoned to more than 4,000 credit union officials and staff striving to be part of the political process, making the GAC one of the largest meetings - if not the largest - that the Hilton hosts each year.
The Hilton Washington, like the conference itself, has become intrinsically linked to the growing political activity and multiple successes enjoyed by the credit union community. Thus, it's with no small regret that the GAC is celebrating its last convention at the Hilton this year. Like the capacity crowd in McClellan's, the demand for more space to serve the rapidly swelling number of participants is forcing the GAC to relocate to the Washington Convention Center in 2008. Multiple neighboring hotels will house convention participants, with no one hotel taking the Hilton Washington's place as the center of activity.
The move is a mixed blessing, according to CUNA officials and past GAC attendees. Despite the convention center's availability of some 150,000 square feet of meeting space, closer proximity to Capitol Hill, and the ability to hold all events under a single roof, many feel the GAC is losing its home. The Hilton's overstuffed charm of recent years is giving way to a variety of more contemporary conveniences. Nonetheless, loss of the intimacy, familiarity and, for many, the inextricable link between the convention and its longtime host hotel, is leaving a bittersweet taste in the mouths of some past attendees.
"It's the end as well as the beginning of an era," said Dan Mica, CUNA's CEO who this year will be celebrating his 10th GAC, as well as his 10th year as CUNA's top executive. "Leaving the Hilton gives me a twinge of sadness."
But staying at the Hilton is not possible given CUNA's goal of attracting 10,000 to 15,000 participants to the GAC over the next few years. At an estimated 4,500 attendees this year, the Hilton Washington's meeting and exhibit space already is bursting at the seams and has been for some time. The convention has become a victim of its own success, and the move to larger quarters, while not necessarily desired, is required for the event's continued growth. For many longtime attendees, the meeting that started as an informal quarterly gathering has grown well beyond expectations, both in terms of participation and influence.
The Birth of Political Awareness
Like most such events, the Governmental Affairs Conference had humble beginnings. In fact, prior to the 1960s, CUNA & Affiliates kept a fairly low profile in the nation's capitol. (It was a profile credit unions would race to raise 30 years later.) CUNA's Washington D.C. office was created in 1956 and was managed by the late Hubert Rhodes, who also ran the District of Columbia Credit Union League. However, lobbying efforts on behalf of credit unions were limited and in keeping with the then sentiments among credit unions, many of which were still extremely small operations.
In the mid-1960s, CUNA moved its Department of Legislative and Governmental Affairs from Madison, Wis. to Washington. Credit unions were growing in size and sophistication and the political climate had begun changing. Large institutions wanted to offer more comprehensive services to members, at least some of which would require recodification of the Federal Credit Union Act. In 1968, a campaign was launched to accomplish this goal.
By 1970, political activity among credit unions had gained considerable steam. Credit union supporter and U.S. Rep. John William Wright Patman, a Texas Democrat, introduced the Independent Agency Bill to Congress, resulting in the creation in 1970 of the National Credit Union Administration. During the same period credit union share insurance became a topic of debate, leading to the formation of the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund.
As legislative affairs grew in importance, so did the need for formal credit union conferences devoted to the issue. CUNA had been holding leadership meetings in conjunction with its February quarterly meeting in Washington for some time. The first one to be known as the Governmental Affairs Conference occurred in 1974.
"Jonathan Lindley, former head of CUNA's D.C. operations, launched the first GAC at the Marriott Twin Bridges Hotel," said Larry Blanchard, a senior vice president for CUNA Mutual who at the time worked for CUNA's Washington office and would eventually run the conference. "Our first major discussion topic was bankruptcy reform. We also talked about modernization of the Federal Credit Union Act."
The inaugural GAC attracted 300 participants to the hotel, originally located just across the Potomac River on the way to what is now Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The property has since been torn down and an empty field occupies the space where the hotel formerly stood. The next year the event moved to Hilton Washington, where it has remained without interruption through this year.
"Credit unions weren't really focused on political action then because there hadn't yet been any huge threats," said John Franklin, currently executive vice president and chief operating officer of CUNA's Madison campus and who in 1975 was on the staff of the South Carolina Credit Union League. "We didn't come close to filling the Hilton back then. If we had eight to 10 credit union people from outside the league's board it was an achievement."
In large part the small crowd reflected the lack of any perceived legislative threats to credit unions, many of which were content to believe their "white hat" status was all that was needed. But the absence of political challenges facing credit unions didn't last long, and credit union officials became increasingly concerned with-and eventually more savvy in-dealing with legislators and issues affecting the movement. The conference began taking on more of an activist flare in the 1980s, recalled Blanchard, and more people began attending the annual event. Groups of delegates who were used to visiting their representatives on Capitol Hill became more determined in their visits and organized in their Hill strategies, even if they often told their respective representatives that they really didn't want anything.
"Things just took off from there," Blanchard said.
The Hilton's International Ballroom stage started playing host to top Congressional leaders, Cabinet secretaries, famous journalists, and credit union luminaries, many of whom paid repeat visits to the GAC over the years and contributed to some of the event's most memorable moments. Not all those moments were pleasant.
"I remember in 1983 when then Treasury Secretary Donald Regan was booed by the general sessions for speaking out about credit union taxation," said Blanchard. "I never heard such a thing."
Fifteen years later, the tables would turn, then turn again, marking possibly the highest and lowest points of any GAC. It was on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1997, that then House speaker and Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich announced from the stage that he would depart from tradition (Speakers typically do not attach their names as co-sponsors of legislation) and support the Credit Union Member Access Act, also known as H.R. 1151. A standing-room-only crowd leaped to its feet and cheered.
"Newt Gingrich coming out in support of H.R. 1151 was absolutely huge," said Dick Ensweiler, currently CEO of the Texas Credit Union League and who has attended every GAC since 1974. "He used the opportunity to make his support public and it literally changed the course of the legislation."
The roaring crowd was silenced one day later when that same crowd learned that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the D.C. Circuit Court's ruling on First National Bank & Trust Co. et al vs. NCUA, the case filed years earlier protesting the regulator's authorization of AT&T Family Federal Credit Union (now Truliant Credit Union) to expand to a community charter. Failure to reverse the ruling, or secure the passage of H.R. 1151, could have eliminated from credit union rolls literally millions of current members and severely curtail growth within the movement (see related story at right). The announcement of the decision from the highest court chilled the meeting, and brand-new CUNA CEO Dan Mica used it to rally credit unions to recognize the need to get organized politically.
The subsequent surge in credit union political activity, individual and institutional efforts galvanized by the Supreme Court decision, not only resulted in the passage of H.R. 1151 in record time, but also in the political maturation of credit union population. In a sense, the GAC was essentially reborn in 1998. Political activities since that time, along with GAC attendance figures, have continued to climb both in number and influence, said Mica. The GAC, while still a focal point for CUNA's political activities, has given way to greater awareness and concentrated efforts throughout the year to broaden credit unions' political influence and strength.
"Over the last 10 years credit union political action went from a mile wide and an inch deep to a mile wide and a quarter-mile deep," Mica said. "We've made tremendous strides in this area."
Franklin concurred: "If your credit union can now afford it, it's considered 'uncool' not to be at the GAC."
Stylish or not, attendance at the GAC has continued to climb at a time when attendance at other credit union meetings has plateaued or fallen, making the annual trip to Washington the largest event on the credit union calendar.
The Hilton Washington is no longer able to contain the current number of delegates, much less allow room for growth. The trade show has outgrown the facilities and expanded into a heated, plastic "bubble" that sits outside the hotel on the pool level.
A lot will be lost in the transition to the Washington Convention Center, but not all of those aspects will be missed. "I won't miss the fight for rooms," recalled Ensweiler. "That was never pleasant."
Veteran GAC attendees know there was always a race for space among those who wanted to stay in the headquarters hotel, with room blocks selling out in a matter of hours. On average, GAC delegates occupied 95% of the Hilton's 1,119 sleeping rooms. And unlike overflow meeting rooms, which could always accommodate extra chairs in the hallway, once sleeping rooms were booked nothing else could be done. Those who did manage to land a room at the Hilton faced challenges of their own. Several-thousand delegates often meant elevator waits of 15 to 20 minutes to return to rooms, some of which seemed to have paper-thin walls. Temperature also proved to be a problem, remembers Franklin.
"They must have changed things in recent years, but there was a time when you couldn't regulate the thermostat," said the CUNA executive, who attended every GAC except in 2006, when he was having major heart surgery. "It was always too hot and when you opened the window it would drop down to 40 degrees. I never once attended a GAC in those early days that I didn't come home sick."
Overcrowded meeting rooms and an ancillary exhibit hall in an outdoor pavilion further added to attendee grumbles. Sometimes seating wasn't even available in the overflow rooms that supported the International Ballroom, such was the nature of the burgeoning crowd. The GAC occupied virtually every hotel space available, including public areas, with meetings, displays, and a plethora of delegates, vendors, and staff.
"We haven't had coffee breaks at the GAC since 1991," said Blanchard. "You just can't get 4,000 people around a coffee pot."
Despite the drawbacks-or perhaps because of the character they added to the event-those with the loudest complaints also lavished the greatest praise on the Hilton, which is still the District of Columbia's single largest convention hotel. With a location this intrinsic to the development of the most significant event in the credit union community, it appears to be easy to wax nostalgic, forgetting about the shortfalls.
"The Hilton contributed significantly to the growth of the GAC by offering virtually everything in one place," said Wolff, who has been involved with the convention for most of his 16 years at CUNA. "Being able to hold most of the events on a single level of the hotel fosters a dynamic interaction, adding a special something that makes the conference unique."
A cooperative staff familiar with the event and its purpose added a wonderful familiarity to the meeting and gave the CUNA staff charged with managing and operating the event a sense of confidence that things would flow smoothly, said Mica. "Because of additional events and meetings, I'd move into the Hilton eight to 10 days on average for GAC," Mica said. "The Hilton staff has been wonderful in meeting our needs. For me this has all had very special significance."
The feelings are comparable among hotel staff, many of whom have become familiar faces to repeat GAC attendees, who themselves have become familiar to staff, from meeting planners down to coffee shop waitresses. "We find the GAC attendees friendly and enthusiastic," said Emily Johnson, the hotel's director of events and an 11-year Hilton Washington veteran. "We see the same faces year after year and it's nice because they engage our employees. And they're serious conventioneers who are here to get things done."
Richard Andrekanic, a hotel consultant who served as the Hilton Washington's assistant catering director from 1983 to 2006, concurs with Johnson's assessment. "CUNA became like family to us and the GAC was one big homecoming every year," he said.
The parting between CUNA and the Hilton will be bittersweet for parties on both sides. However, increased political awareness and action has caused GAC to outgrow its former home. That, among other things, will make the 2008 GAC a new and different entity, an inevitable but as yet unfamiliar byproduct of success and growth.
"Part of what I'm going to miss the most-the intimacy of the event -is already gone," said Franklin. "There was a time when there was ample space to get your whole delegation together at a moment's notice. Well, you couldn't do that at all for the last eight to 10 years."
Recapturing the familiarity, the intimacy and the sense of community in the cavernous recesses of the Washington Convention Center will be the major challenge for the 2008 GAC, said Wolff and others. With more than one-million square feet of public space, the chance of recreating the energy and vibrancy of an after-hours cocktail meeting in McClellans could be a daunting challenge, one that CUNA & Affiliates staff will only have a year to address.
Next year "I'm going to be a freshman trying to find my way around just like everyone else," said Mica. "I'm going to miss the Hilton. I wish we could stay."
