WASHINGTON-Dan Mica has always been an optimistic guy.
Even with half of all credit unions reporting losses for 2009 - many of them because of costs accrued from the corporate credit union bailout - Mica maintains his positive outlook, seeing this hard time in America as one bursting with opportunity for credit unions.
Recent polling conducted by CUNA, he notes, shows consumer trust has grown in credit unions during the financial difficulties, while NCUA and CUNA data shows big growth in credit union membership and savings.
More Reason To Be Optimistic
But Mica has even more reason to be optimistic as he approaches his 14th and final Government Affairs Conference, that is news that CUNA has broken back into the black, after two hard years when red ink stained the credit union movement's preeminent trade association.
After losses of $5.2 million in 2007 and $8 million in 2008, CUNA is expected to announce a net of about $7 million for 2009. That includes a net operating margin of as much as $800,000.
"It wasn't easy," said Mica," who has served as president and CEO of CUNA since 1996. He referred to the elimination of bonuses and raises for top executives for two years in a row, a freeze on company contributions to 401 (k) retirement plans for all employees last year and lay-offs of as many as 30 employees to try and bring the bottom line back into the black. "It took seat, hard work; a lot of sleepless nights. We did what we had to do."
To be fair, most of the losses were due to investments CUNA held on behalf of its retirees and for the company that were diminished in value by the falling stock market.
In some ways, the financial crisis experienced by CUNA - its reserves fell from $15.8 million at year-end 2006 to just $2.7 million at the end of 2008-brought Mica full circle in his CUNA tenure. For it was during a financial crisis caused by CUNA's ill-fated foray into credit card processing that drove the credit union group to the brink of bankruptcy when Mica was hired.
As Mica, a former four-term Congressman from Florida tells it, soon after he took the helm he was told that a deal to sell the money-losing cards operation had fallen through it CUNA may not be able to make payroll in the weeks ahead. "It was a crisis I inherited," he told Credit Union Journal during an interview last week.
Despite the journey that Mica and CUNA have traveled since those days, Mica may be most proud of the second financial turn-around he engineered. Because even with the big budget cuts and lay-offs, he and his staff could not be sure it would be enough to right the ship, especially if the stock market continued to tank.
"We couldn't count on the market. In fact, we counted on the market not coming back," he stated.
To be sure, revenues are down significantly, just as they are with most businesses. Attendance at CUNA meetings are down. That's why the spending cuts were so important. But Mica is confident CUNA "came out with flying colors."
Though he has announced he is leaving CUNA next January, Mica acknowledged the possibility he could leave before then, if the CUNA Board hires a successor in the interim. Or he could stay, if asked to.
But one thing he wants the members of CUNA to know, "I will be proud to hand over an organization that is in sold shape to the next person." "My proudest achievement this year," he added, " is being able to bring this organization through this awful quagmire."
