LAS VEGAS -
Dick Ensweiler, president of the Texas league and chair of CUNA's new Membership Growth Task Force, said the group is considering nine questions related to growth, but all of it really comes down to one challenge: "As credit union leaders, here we are believing in service to members and in the credit union difference," Ensweiler told Credit Union Journal. "But 70% of Americans don't belong. Why are we so passionate and they're not? Where are we missing the boat? There seems to be this huge disconnect."
Ensweiler noted credit unions talk about being not-for-profit cooperatives, yet in focus groups consumers say those things don't really matter. "We have to ask, 'Are we on the wrong course?'" Or, is the issue that credit unions simply aren't communicating well, he posited. If credit unions are to agree on a common brand, the issue must be answered, Ensweiler said. He noted that a related issue is that in areas where there are multiple CU community charters, credit unions spend time and money differentiating themselves from each other, rather than from banks. "It all sounds simple, but it isn't," he said.
The Membership Task Force, which is being championed by CUNA Chairman Allan Kemp McMorris, has identified as the nine questions it will explore:
1. Member retention, and why do credit unions lose members, particularly those gained as the result of indirect lending?
2. How good a job do credit unions do of pursuing potential members already within their FOM?
3. What FOM models should the task force review, such as the underserved?
4. Why don't more people belong to credit unions? What is it that credit unions have not communicated?
5. Do members and consumers see benefit in the cooperative model, and should credit unions use the member-owned benefit more in their recruiting of members?
6. Does the "credit union difference" have meaning, and if it does, what is it?
7. How can credit unions use their brand to leverage the youth market?
8. Why can't credit unions retain members who retire or move?
9. What regulatory restraints and barriers should the task force address?
During the task force's first meeting it heard presentations from CUNA's VP of economics, Mike Schenk; Bob Hoel, Filene research fellow at the Filene Research Institute; Steve Delfin, executive director of National Credit Union Foundation, about NCUF's REAL Solutions program to aid low-wealth members and social responsibility and others.
In a statement released by CUNA, it said the task force will consider strategies that include:
* Branding credit unions effectively so they are recognizable to the public.
* Identifying the value of and tapping research about the different market segments.
* Considering cost efficiencies and franchising issues.
* Developing metrics and standards for peer comparison of growth and factors such as social responsibility that may appeal to certain members.
