LANSING, Mich.-Legislation enabling credit unions to be organized in Michigan grew out of correspondence between Bergengren and Robert Peden, who was interested in organizing a credit union for employees of the Mueller Brass Metal Company in Port Huron.

The following was shared by the Montana league. Montana First FCU, originally Missoula FCU, was run out of the Forest Service desk drawer of Mabel Allen. At the end of daily business, she walked the whole of her transactions down the street to deposit them at the local bank. In 1931, a total of 15 members had combined assets of $64, and the CU thrived with support from Allen and Morris Hankins.

The Hawaii league shared this piece of history: The first credit union in Hawaii was formed by a group of Big Island teachers who pooled $30 to form the Big Island Educational Federal Credit Union, which was federally chartered in April 1936.

MADISON, Wis.-As credit unions mark their centennial in 2008 and 2009, some analysts have been comparing the state of the economy and financial markets to the Great Depression of the 1930s.

CONSHOHOCKEN, Penn.-One of the more significant contributions of credit unions over the past century to the U.S. has been the opportunities provided women in all types of jobs and career advancement when other industries wouldn't. But the reasons weren't - and aren't - completely altruistic.

RALEIGH, N.C.-Conditions in rural America had become fertile fields for the seeds of CUs by the turn of the 20th century.

A fading chapter of credit union history is the challenges presented in getting CUs organized and chartered, especially from the 1920s through the 1940s. Representatives of a fledgling CUNA and later field representatives from state leagues took to the rails and their own cars like traveling salesman or itinerant preachers spreading the word about credit unions.

BOSTON-It has become the most iconic symbol in U.S. credit unions.

LANSING, Mich.-Due to CU member response and sales increases in the original 12-state pilot, GM and Chrysler have expanded participation in the Invest in America auto discount program and are now taking it nationwide.

ESTES PARK, Colo.-Few photos are as iconic to credit unions as that shown below, the 1934 meeting in Colorado at which the Credit Union National Association (CUNA) would be formed. Like so many other events in history, it came about as the result of one person's vision, happenstance, and compromise.

QUEBEC, Canada-Credit unions came to the United States from French-speaking Canada (see related story, page 26). In Canada, the first "caisse populaire" was created in Lévis, Quebec, in December 1900 by Alphonse Desjardins. Outside Quebec, Ottawa's Civil Service Savings and Loan Society was established in 1908 for public service employees. In the Atlantic provinces, credit unions sprang up in the 1930s and 1940s, with help from CUNA's Roy Bergengren, in response to the needs of fishers, farmers and miners. CUs subsequently spread to the Prairie provinces, where they developed largely in response to difficulties faced by farmers in obtaining financing during the Great Depression of the 1930s. There are currently close to 1,600 individual CUs and caisses populaires in Canada with more than 10 million members.

ROCHEDALE, England-One of the fundamental taproots of credit unions reaches back to an organization that was not a financial institution. By the late 1800s England had developed a strong movement among cooperative institutions, beginning with social reforms championed by Robert Owen, the manager of the New Lanark Mills, which were owned by his father-in-law, David Dale, a Quaker. Like some, Owen and Dale had come to recognize that the Industrial Revolution had created difficult and even cruel working conditions for many.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-Where do credit unions go from here to ensure that they are relevant for the next century?

SAN DIEGO-Al George was the last volunteer to serve as chairman of CUNA in the late 1970s. He is still on the boardof North Island FCU in San Diego, Calif. He recalls the family atmosphere of the CU where he worked at San Diego Gas & Electric.

Why are credit unions called credit unions? The term, after all, has set off a century of debate in the U.S. over whether another name would be better, perhaps something that also can be a verb used in place of "banking." "Credit unioning," for instance, has never caught on.

MADISON, Wis.-The World Council of Credit Unions' world has gotten a bit larger. The Ghana Co-operative Credit Union Association (CUA) and Seychelles CUhave joined its membership, effective Jan. 1. CUA has 322 member CUs serving 242,000 members. Seychelles CU serves inhabitants of the Seychelles islands and is the country's only credit union with 10,620 members and $8.7 million in assets. As the nation's only credit union, it also serves as the de facto national credit union association for WOCCU membership. Separately, the WOCCU board also approved the transference of WOCCU's Australian membership from current member Cuscal Ltd., to ABACUS.

JACKSON, Miss.-Fast-growing HOPE Community CU has agreed to acquire American Savings CU, an ailing Memphis, Tenn.-based community development credit union of similar size.

DALLAS-A displaced auto worker saved her way to Neighborhood CU's $25,000 savings contest grand prize.

RICHARDSON, Texas-Texans CU CEO David Addison has resigned amid recent legal turmoil and as the credit union is about to announce a $22-million losss for the fourth quarter and a $29 million loss for 2008-its first ever annual loss.

Hearings