SALT LAKE CITY-CUNA's Chairman Kris Mecham, president/CEO of Deseret First CU for the past 20 years, will depart on July 1 for a two-year Mormon mission that will take him to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, along with his wife, Stephanie.
Once there he will be "President Mecham," in charge of the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission, which was established by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1995. He will spend two years overseeing 180 missionaries, 80% of whom are native Mongolians.
Below, in between winding down his duties with CUNA and his credit union-not to mention taking a crash course in Mongolian language and customs-Mecham took time to talk to Credit Union Journal. And he'll likely do so again: On July 1, 2012, Mecham will be coming back to retake the reins at $499-million Deseret First.
CUJ: What have the church elders told you to expect in Mongolia?
Mecham: One thing I have going for me is in our church serving missions is customary. Normally you serve those in your youth-perhaps age 19 or 20. I served one in that age range when I went to Scotland. I will be president of the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission and of the Deseret Charities Corporation. This is a corporation registered with the Mongolian government that provides humanitarian aid throughout the country. Mongolia had an especially severe winter this year. It was very, very cold, with long stretches of 50-below temperatures. It is still somewhat of a nomadic country, and officials expect up to one-third of the herds might have died. And they expect diseases this spring, because the animals were just left on the ground, so this is definitely a country in need. It is not going to be a 40-hour week-I will be busy seven days a week, 14 hours a day.
CUJ: What is it like to attempt to master Mongolian?
Mecham: It is a very difficult language to learn. Stephanie and I have been very diligent about getting our studying in, and we feel good about our progress. We are fortunate because they have adopted an alphabet rather than the traditional symbols that had words associated with them.
CUJ: Mongolian uses the Cyrillic alphabet rather than the familiar Latin letters. How is that adjustment?
Mecham: The Cyrillic alphabet was pretty easy once I got through it. Just last week I was in touch with the mission home and I asked them to send me a picture of each of the young missionaries I will be working with. They sent me pictures with English versions of the names, which actually were more difficult, so I asked them to resend me the pictures with the names in Cyrillic. I've tried to put myself into as many embarrassing situations as possible by saying things in Mongolian the past couple months. We have had a tutor, who has been very helpful. She is tough: if you don't make the right sounds she makes you do it until you get it. At first she spoke to us very slowly and enunciated clearly. But as soon as we caught up with her she began speaking faster. Now she talks to us in Mongolian in a normal rhythm, and we can catch about one-third of what she is saying: enough to get the gist of the sentence. We know we will learn quickly once we are immersed in it. The missionaries are native Mongolians but they speak a little bit of English. We will be teaching them English as they teach us Mongolian. Also, we are fortunate to have eight American couples who are retired and will be doing missions in Mongolia at the same time. One is a doctor and his wife, so we are very happy to have a doctor we can communicate with in English. You don't want any language mistakes during a patient-doctor conversation.
CUJ: What do you think you'll miss most about the CU the next two years?
Mecham: I have a deep fondness for my credit union. We have a double loyalty with our members because we are a faith-based credit union. But I think this experience will help me be even more dedicated to the common bond. Certainly when I come back it will help me be even a more effective administrator. Sometimes as we get bigger and get more branches, I've noticed it is easy to forget the small and most basic things we did to become successful-especially the relationship with employees. I think stepping away from all of this will ground me on the most basic and valuable elements of my job. I won't ever be tempted to not pay attention to individual employees.
CUJ: Who will be running Deseret First while you are in Mongolia?
Mecham: Clinton Gurney, who 20 years ago was on the board of directors here when they hired me. He was an employee of the LDS church and served in the highest levels of administration. He is a very qualified and respected official who chose to come out of retirement and serve in my absence. [With the LDS church Gurney was worldwide director of treasury services, financial controller and managing director of finance. Prior to his work at the church, Gurney had several financial positions at Eli Lilly & Co.]
CUJ: Who will be watching your house?
Mecham: We are in the process of leasing it out. We considered selling it, but the market in Utah isn't very good right now. We have a couple good candidates, and two of our kids live nearby and will be monitoring it to make sure it is properly maintained.
CUJ: What was your first job with a credit union?
Mecham: It was with Westmark Credit Union, but it was called Atomic Workers Credit Union in November of 1977. I was a junior at Idaho State University. There was a very small branch in Blackfoot, Idaho. I started as assistant branch manager, but the title outspoke the responsibilities, because there was me, the manager and one part-time teller. Credit unions have been my only career. By the time I graduated, Atomic Workers CU promoted me to director of operations, which would be a COO today. In 1987, I became president of the Idaho league. In 1991 I came to Deseret First CU as president.
CUJ: What aspects of credit unions have changed since you first started in 1977?
Mecham: In 1976 share drafts started, so I got to watch that grow from the very beginning. We were a ma and pa shop. We charged everybody 12% on any type of loan, and gave 6% dividends on all shares. We were working on a 6% margin-life was really hard back in those days [laughing]. There were no CFOs back then: the president did the books. When deregulation of banks came it completely changed all aspects of running a credit union. It was a six-year process that started in the late 1970s. As each year went by and banks changed what they paid on passbook savings, we began implementing certificates of deposit-the first ones paid 7.5%-and pushing checking accounts more. As the banking industry changed, we had to change.
CUJ: What about credit unions has remained the same over the years?
Mecham: At every credit union, large and small, the members continue to be the No. 1 focus. Sometimes that gets lost in the rhetoric, or in getting legislation passed, but the people I talk to are watchdogs for their members. Regardless of their size, CUs are looking out for their members.
CUJ: What do you still need to get done before July 1?
Mecham: I want a nice transitional handoff. I am fortunate to have a great staff, but I want them to be comfortable that, in my absence, the values of the organization will not change. Clinton has been on site here since May 1, so we have had an opportunity to work together. I have been fading into the background as he has been stepping forward, which I think is very important to good leadership. I'm as ready as I'm going to get. In these next 30 days we will have family coming in for a last hurrah. I have two daughters who live in Houston who will be coming in on Memorial Day weekend with the grandkids. That will be the beginning of the end for us and the countdown for the flight. It will go by quickly. My departure has been well thought out and executed.
