It took over a century for credit unions to reach the 100 million-member mark.
Gone are the days of passing around a cigar box at the factory, with everyone pitching in a few bucks to get a credit union started. But 105 years and 100 million members later, CUs remember their roots.
They remember that they are democratic and not-for-profit. They remember that the driving force behind the credit union movement is to help people from all walks of life improve their lives. They remember that some of this industry's best and brightest moments were actually during this nation's worst and darkest times, because it's when people most need help that credit unions can really shine.
The Real Trick
The trick, however, is in getting some of that shine to, well... see the light of the day.
Most credit union members don't even know they're members. I know this, because I was one of them. Long before I started writing about credit unions, I joined one. But I didn't know I was "joining." As far as I knew, I was merely opening up my first checking account.
I was heading off to college, where I was going to start paying some of my own bills for the first time. My mother had worked for the local school district. She wasn't a member of the school's credit union herself, but she'd heard I could get a free checking account there because she worked for the district.
So, I plunked down my $25 for the share account (which, as far as I knew, was merely a savings account that I had to have for some unknown reason), and then I deposited the rest of my earnings from that summer into the checking account, and off I went to college.
And guess what? When I got to school, I discovered that there was a credit union there, too. I wasn't eligible to join that one, but I didn't know that, nor did I care, because I was able to cash my checks there much more cheaply (and conveniently, as the CU had an office on campus — this was before there were ATMs on every corner) than at the bank on Main Street.
Three and a half years later, I graduated, having happily used my credit union and the one that served my school without ever knowing I could have voted on who served on my CU's board — much less the idea that I could actually run to be on that board myself. A couple of years later, I would marry my husband, who also belonged to a credit union. Like me, he also didn't know he "belonged" — he just knew he had a bank account with this bank that didn't call itself a bank.
Indeed, I had been a member of a credit union for nearly 10 years before I actually knew I was a "member" of anything. And the only reason I finally figured that out was because that's when I started writing about credit unions.
What Does 100 Million Mean?
So, we've got 100 million people out there who belong to credit unions. To lawmakers, that's 100 million voters and 100 million taxpayers. To credit unions, that's 100 million lives to serve and improve. But what does it mean to those 100 million people?
Unfortunately, to them it probably means very little.
I am hardly the first to point out that the average member has no idea what a credit union is or what it means to belong to one. The average member just knows she "got a good deal at the credit union." And yes, that means a lot. But it could mean a whole lot more.
It took 105 years to reach 100 million members. But the bigger question is: how long will it take to really reach them?
As the compliance burden continues to pile on and the potential threat of competing with such juggernauts as Walmart and Apple, credit unions can't wait another century to reach those 100 million hearts and minds.
Managing Editor Lisa Freeman can be reached at
