ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Extensive losses by some credit unions have led to conservatorships, NCUA management, and ultimately, losses to the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. NCUA Chairman Joann Johnson, below, tells Credit Union Journal how those losses came to be and some of the agency’s strategies for dealing with them.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. - The National Credit Union Administration’s (NCUA) Outreach Task Force provided to the NCUA board 12 recommendations:

REXBURG, Idaho - The sky is not falling; the credit union is not converting to a bank.

BELMONT, Mass. - A proposed zoning amendment would make it much more difficult, if not impossible, for credit unions and banks to open a new branch in this Boston suburb.

Insight Financial Credit Union, Orlando, Fla., named Fran Fritz business services manager.

SAN FRANCISCO - Patelco CU is opening a new shared branch in conjunction with Mission SF FCU in the center of the low-income Mission District.

SCRANTON, Penn. - NET FCU is paying members who help it add select employee groups. The credit union will pay $50 for referral of a new SEG of up to 100 employees that joins, and $100 for SEGs larger than that. In addition, the contact person in the SEG will receive a $50 bounty. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com http://www.sourcemedia.com

ST.PETERSBURG, Fla. - Have you created your avatar yet?

SALT LAKE CITY - Representatives for credit unions last week reached a deal with banks on compromise legislation that would ease restrictions on member business loans for state chartered credit unions.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - As the Fed continues to try to jumpstart the economy by dropping the Fed Funds rate, credit unions are scrambling to reconfigure their pricing strategies. Credit Union Journal asked members of the CUNA CFO Council to discuss how their credit unions are reacting.

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Credit unions are increasingly using Internet video outlets like YouTube in an effort to reach the potential mother lode of new members that the Gen Y market segment represents.

FORT WORTH, Texas - John Tippets, CEO of the $4.7-billion American Airlines Federal Credit Union, was 2 years old when his father survived a plane crash in Alaska. Tippets remembers his dad sharing a story of survival, and how he and a group of passengers on a flight from Seattle to Anchorage fought to stay alive for 29 days before being rescued.

DFW AIRPORT, Texas - John Tippets is CEO of the highly successful $4.7-billion American Airlines Federal Credit Union. He’s been at his post for the last 17 years and will retire in June. Credit Union Journal recently spoke with Tippets about his career and the road ahead for CUs.

1990. Jim Culberson, president of First National Bank & Trust, Asheboro, N.C., convinces four other banks and the American Bankers Association to file a lawsuit against NCUA.

ASHINGTON - To stand out and to differentiate ourselves from the crowd is part of the human and organizational condition.

ADISON, Wis. - Financial decisions are a strange brew of emotions, needs, dreams and a small measure of logic.

MADISON, Wis. — It may be a cooperative movement, but getting credit unions behind the same cause is often more akin to herding cats. Few people know that better than Larry Blanchard.

HE BLOGOSPHERE - It is widely recognized that traditional methods of marketing–direct mail, print, TV, radio–are losing ground with consumers. Emerging marketing channels such as blogs, buzz, viral and e-mail are gaining purchase as the new electronic word-of-mouth.

On the morning of the House Banking Committee mark-up of HR 1151, I thought the bill was going to die prematurely. But it did not–because of hard work and the power of one vote. And I will never forget that.

Nineteen ninety-eight was a year like no other and one, we hope, never to be repeated.