'Tis The Season...

Giving a community service
 "shout out" through cupped hands...

Been noticing lately all the little "do good" stories 
covering credit union community service?   - ribbon cuttings, naming rights, "big checks" everywhere !!   

And on top of that:  "CEO talks (most likely at great length!) with local boy scout troop about spotted owl"; "Credit Union Board Chair attends elegant, black-tie gala for homeless (at Ritz)"; "5,000 credit union directors attend (three week) Montego Bay conference on affordable housing"; "credit union foundations (after granting year-end bonuses) re-set annual fundraising goals"!  

Great to read that credit unions have finally decided - after all these years - to start getting involved with helping others ….

We're into everything !!

Even NCUA has jumped on the bandwagon.  Everybody wants to be seen as "doing something".  In NCUA's case, that "something" is usually - unnecessarily - bothering people who do. 

(Read it again slowly, it'll come to you….)

Clubbing "baby seal" credit unions...

Unfortunately, much of what has recently been called "prudential regulation" only serves to deter, discourage, and distract credit unions from serving the basic, fundamental needs of their members.  Larger credit unions can survive regulatory nuisance, whimsy, and overreach - and a profound void of regulatory mission, purpose, and understanding.  Smaller credit unions, without resources to waste, can't! .… but their fate is being "sealed" as we speak through unwarranted, inappropriate, and unintelligent rule making...

"Doing good" is what not-for-profit, cooperative financial institutions do every day for a living.  Credit unions are different by design, different by choice.  "Not for profit, not for charity, but for service" makes a whole lot of sense in this day and time - both ethically and financially - perhaps more so than ever! 

Besides, at a credit union "doing good" has always meant "business as usual"… hasn't it?

How difficult is it really, to

"regulate" that….??

The motto of the State of North Carolina is "Esse quam videri" - "To be rather than to seem".  As it currently stands in terms of small credit unions, the "Grinch-ian" leadership and regulatory rainmakers over on Duke Street in Alexandria have the infinitives in that motto backwards ! 

(Listen if I wrote it clearly you wouldn't have to think about it….)