DES MOINES, Iowa-The bottom line in 2010: How do you generate more fee income? According to The Members Group, revenue can come through beefing up credit and debit rewards programs, and then adding fees to those programs. It's a balancing act, offered Sara Petty, VP-strategic initiatives. "How robust must that program be, and then how much can you fee on rewards?"

AUSTIN, Tex.-Auto loans are being paid off sooner, which means credit unions have to work harder to keep the pipeline filled.

ARVADA, Colo.-Recognizing that size limits their ability to improve the bottom line and grow, 20 Colorado CUs have created The Alliance of Rocky Mountain Credit Unions, an informal collaboration group that's producing quick results.

WILMINGTON, N.C.-Velocity Solutions believes that bringing inactive members back into the fold is one of the best ways to improve the bottom line.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-The "new reality," according to Dollar Associates Principal Dennis Dollar, is that CUs cannot afford to write off any source of income that is "not inconsistent with the credit union philosophy or is not member-centric."

ONTARIO, Calif.-Driving the bottom line in 2010 may come down to the credit union's ability to stay in the auto lending game.

LAKE MARY, Fla.-The recession's end will not bring a recession to increasing compliance demands. "All of the regulatory change, we believe, is not a temporary type of turbulence," offered Sam Kilmer, VP-market development for Harland Financial Solutions. "It is a systemic change in the financial services industry."

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-It's pretty straightforward when it comes to credit unions and their bottom lines, stated Mike Kohl: Determine the products that are the most profitable and promote the heck out of them.

PLANO, Texas.-Improving the bottom line is more about evaluating the return on programs rather than scrutinizing expenses.

The just-released paper, which looked at bank and credit union performance from 1986 through 2009, showed that credit unions are much less susceptible to business cycle variations as delinquencies and charge-offs during recessions rise much less sharply than their banking counterparts.

Carol Schillios, a 20-year consultant to credit unions who was recognized with a 2007 Herb Wegner Award for Individual Achievement, recently spent time on a downtown rooftop to raise funds for the Fabric of Life Foundation, the name of the non-profit Schillios created that is dedicated to assisting poverty-stricken women in developing countries, including through micro-finance and financial literacy. Schillios lived in a tent atop the store that sells fabric and jewelry created by women involved in programs overseas. Below, Schillios discusses her time up on the roof.

WASHINGTON-The credit union lobby was fighting new threats last week as the Senate debated the bank reform bill, including an expanded effort to lower credit card interchange fees.

ONTARIO, Calif.-The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues have named a search committee and hired San Francisco-based O'Rourke and Associates as the search firm to identify a candidate to replace Bill Cheney, who has been tapped to lead CUNA.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.-Credit Union Journal is now accepting nominations for its 2010 Best Practices Awards.

After surviving the longest recession since the Great Depression and other unprecedented challenges in 2009, credit unions continue to face obstacles to achieving earnings goals in 2010.

British betting firm Ladbroke's is famous for offering opportunities to wager on just about anything. Yet you wouldn't have found the company allowing you to gamble on who would be the next CUNA chief.

Advocacy is the No. 1 reason credit unions belong to CUNA; that isn't going to change with Bill Cheney as President and CEO.

JACKSONVIILLE, Fla. – Fidelity National Information Services, which acquired Metavante Technologies last year, said it is closing a Metavante office in Madison, Wis., and terminating 157 employees who work there.

DENVER – First Data Corp. reported continued high expenses related to its 2007 going-private buyout by private equity’s Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. kept it in the red for the first quarter to the tune of $208.4 million.

RALEIGH, N.C. – State Employees’ CU announced Friday its SECU Foundation, which has donated millions of dollars to the state’s emergency care hospice over the past three years, it is contributing $300,000 to the renovation of the Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care to assist with the construction of an additional hospice facility in Hudson, N.C.