Utah CU Association Affirms Support Of Dual Membership

SALT LAKE CITY– The board of directors of the Utah Credit Union Association on Monday issued a statement in support of continuing the linkage of membership between state leagues and CUNA.

The move comes just two weeks after the Wisconsin Credit Union League adopted a "Resolution of Interdependence" supporting dual membership in the league and the national trade association.

The question of whether credit unions should be required to belong to both CUNA and their respective leagues, or whether they should have the choice of belonging to just one of them, continues to divide the movement. The Utah and Wisconsin leagues join the Mountain West CU Association (representing Colorado, Wyoming and Arizona) in issuing a formal statement supporting the longtime requirement that credit unions maintain dual membership. At the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues' recent Annual Meeting and Convention, president and CEO Diana Dykstra asserted sticking with the present system makes sense from the standpoint of preserving CUs' strength in advocacy (CUNA CEO Jim Nussle also spoke at the CCUL/NCUL meeting and lobbied for credit unions to stay with dual membership).

On the other side of the argument, on Nov. 13 the Carolinas CU League said it favored eliminating the dual membership requirement, which put it in line with the state associations representing Michigan, New York and Ohio.

No Fracture Of Focus

On Monday, Scott Simpson, president and CEO of the Utah Credit Union Association, said his board remains unconvinced that uncoupling the relationship between leagues and CUNA is a move in the right direction.

"What Utah credit unions want is a powerful, efficient and effective voice at the state and national levels," Simpson said in a statement. "What they don't want is a fracturing of focus and voice in Washington and they see in this trend a strong potential for fractures."

Sterling Nielsen, CEO of $5 billion Mountain America Credit Union and a member of the Utah CU Association board, said plenty has been made of the upside of membership choice but very little has been shared about the risks that were identified by a CUNA task force that was established to explore modernizing the association.

"Look, I hate the idea of having a limitation of choices on any decision my credit union makes," Nielsen said. "But I hate dissonance in advocacy more. We need constant, unrelenting effort to unite our strength. A la carte advocacy doesn't provide that."

The CEO of Utah's largest credit union agreed.

"No trade association efforts or offerings are going to perfectly meet the needs of every member all of the time," said John Lund, CEO of $7 billion America First Credit Union, Riverdale, Utah. "Can we be better? Sure. But I know that we have this fully-tiered government relations model that is envied. Are we, in fact, prepared to have it unstitched in this ad hoc way by hasty noise from the blogosphere?"

Over the course of the last two board meetings and extensive discussion, the Utah Credit Union Association said its board has been unanimous in its support of the current CUNA/league system. The board consists of 11 of Utah's 70 credit union presidents. Their credit unions range from $28 million to $7 billion in assets.

CUNA has indicated that it understands some changes must be made to its membership structure. According to a memo from CUNA CEO Jim Nussle to league presidents across the country, the dual membership issue will be addressed by the CUNA board at its next meeting on Dec. 9 and 10.