If you’ve carefully avoided newspapers, radio, TV, the Internet, other people and billboards for the past few months then you may not be aware we’re in the middle of an interminable presidential primary season.
But what if credit union trade groups such as CUNA, NAFCU or your league filled their own CEO vacancies in the same fashion–with debates, primaries and an election?
The scene: a crowded convention center ballroom, at the front of which are a half-dozen candidates for the presidency of a credit union trade group. In the audience, credit unionists from all 50 states, To an audience microphone strides a representative of a multi-billion-dollar credit union.
Billion-Dollar CU: My credit union and others like it pay the bulk of association dues. If hired, what do you plan to do about it.
Candidate No. 1: I’ve long favored justice, and the dues structure must be made more equitable so that CUs both large and small pay a just and fair amount of dues. That’s why I will immediately form a committee to examine this issue.
Candidate No. 2: I feel your pain. America’s most successful credit unions don’t need Big Association reaching deep into their pockets! (Audience cheers.) That’s why I will immediately form a committee to examine this issue.
Candidate No. 3: Read my lips. No new dues! The duesification must be mitificated. Let me be the first to say it’s high time we formed a committee to examinate this issue.
Candidate No. 4: I am also opposed to dues hikes, but let me also be perfectly clear: I favor a dues adjustment that could mean increased monetary flow between the member CU and the association–I also support forming a committee.
Candidate No. 5: We don’t need another committee. What’s needed is the frank realization that if we need additional dues dollars, we will have little choice but to turn to those who can afford to pay them. Our other option is to make cuts in personnel and services in order to reduce expenses so as to live within our means. It’s either choice A or choice B. Period.
As the audience murmurs among themselves, a representative of a small community development credit union walks to the microphone, limping from the stiffness of sleeping 10 to a motel room with other CDCU reps.
CDCU: My CU is small, and we struggle to help struggling people. What will you do for us?
Candidate No. 1: First, let me say you are the backbone of this movement. You are our heritage, our strength, the white hat. You are...Oh, I’m sorry, I’m being told I’m out of time.
Candidate No. 2: My daddy came from a poor credit union, and here I am, living proof, that you can start out with humble beginnings, operating one day from a small, cramped office in a strip plaza, and the next day be in the running for a job that gets you the big suite at the conference hotel where they give you a fruit basket every day and…Oh, I see I’m being told I’m also out of time–but know I stand with you!
Candidate No. 3: I believe in compassion for the small credit union. Compassionate compassion. You could say I’m passionate about my compassion. I believe in what it says in the New Testament about credit unions. I believe... Y’know, I’m being told I’m out of time–but I’ll always have time for you.
Candidate No. 4: Small credit unions are small in assets, not aspirations, and I commend you for that. I favor doing more for small CUs while at the same time not doing less for any other important constituency.
Candidate No. 5: There are resources the Association can bring to bear, but the small credit union must also commit to growth, to making management changes if need be, to learning how larger credit unions got to be that way. This is especially incumbent upon the board; the first step to growth is choosing to grow.
The audience, many of whom seem apathetic at times, murmurs more as a young woman approaches the microphone.
Young Woman: What are your plans for bringing more youth into credit unions to ensure a future for the movement?
Candidate No. 1: Let me be on the record as stating that young people are our future. We must attract young people to ensure old people–such as myself, ha, ha!–have somewhere to put our CDs when we no longer borrow. I was young once myself, and agree with you.
Candidate No. 2: I love young people. Love ‘em. Perhaps you could text me your phone number and we can talk about this offline.
Candidate No. 3: I’ve been told y’all are called Generation Why, and now I know why: you’re always asking why. The real question here is Why not? I think that answers your question pretty good.
Candidate No. 4: We must reach out to the young people, but also to the middle aged. And the baby boomers. And our senior citizens. And the dead, and the yet to be born ...
Candidate No. 5: Our products, services, culture and marketing all reflect the older demographic that created those things and is uncomfortable with change. We have no choice but to get uncomfortable to serve the younger market well. Young people find especially appealing our core message of mutuality and cooperation. We must communicate that, especially electronically.
The audience looked to each other, unsure. “I’m not sure who I’d pick,” said one man, before summing up what everyone was thinking. “But I can tell you that No. 5 candidate really made a heck of a lot of sense. He doesn’t stand a chance.”
Frank J. Diekmann can be reached at fdiekmann@cujournal.com.
