Congratulations To NCUA
Congratulations to NCUA on calling for the return of member capital, cooperatively built up over many years by members, back to members by credit unions converting to banks. As I have said all along, if these credit unions want to be banks, they can go out and raise fresh capital, compete as a bank from the ground up and not steal cooperative member capital to enrich themselves.
Hopefully, they will be successful.
Ed Daley
CEO
San Diego Firefighters FCU
Remembering Thomas Doig
I enjoyed reading about the founding of U.S. Federal Credit Union (CU Journal, June 13, 2005) and the role of Thomas W. Doig. I can still remember him when I was a child, and later as a teenager.
Tom passed away when I was 15. He had sonorous speaking voice and an uplifting speaking style. He was Roy Bergengren's assistant after the Credit Union National Association was organized from the Credit Union National Extension Bureau in 1934 and moved the offices to Madison, Wis. When Bergengren retired, Doig became the Managing Director (now we would call it CEO) of CUNA in 1945. He served until his death in 1955. When CUNA Mutual was organized in 1935, he also headed that entity.
He hired my father, Charles F. Eikel, Jr. as his assistant in 1946. My father always said that Tom was the best mentor a credit union person could have and was extremely proud to have served under Tom. According to my dad,
Doig was a man of great vision.
Chuck Eikel
CU Development Educator
Retired from CUNA Mutual Group
Madison, Wis.
Gold Star On The Forehead
Gold star on the forehead, Charles White, you nailed (CU Journal, March 28) it. I read this article the same month that the NCUA approved a strategically planned merger of Partners Financial with my credit union, Richmond Federal. This is a merger that reflects the new or "moved cheese" model of mergers - two strong credit unions (or more) struggling to provide members with the products and level of service needed to compete; and, not having the economies of scale to do so.
Independently, both Barbara Lockard, CEO of PFFCU, and I had been examining and considering for months the changing credit union model; and, we had arrived at similar conclusions. We recognized that size does matter, at least in the evolved business model, as does diversity. I had surveyed the landscape for the best potential merger partners; and, PFFCU and Barbara were No. 1 on my list. I was not surprised to learn that Barbara had come to similar conclusions concerning the changing credit union model. Two nationally recognized consultants, Allen Carver and Tim Harrington both referred to the potential for the merged credit union as "exciting"; and, our two wonderful boards listened, understood, and worked hard to make it happen.
The model isn't just changing-it has changed, and drastically. We've got to think outside of the box and evolve. What a wonderfully exciting challenge! In the words of an aging baby boomer, "we're just getting better."
Beverly De Mao, CEO
Richmond Federal Credit Union
Richmond, Va.
Letters To The Editor Should Be Sent To fdiekmann
