Credit Unions In Camelot....

Welcome to CAMEL Country!!

There is a lot less to camels than one might first suspect....  

Most know that a camel is a ruminant (chews its cud!) mammal, well-suited for carrying riders and burdens.  Due to a two-toed foot with thickly callused sole and a low capacity for thirst, camels are particularly useful in barren, desert landscapes. At heart, camels are uniformly obstinate, stubborn and downright irritable creatures.

CAMEL cud 1 ?

Regardless of what you've been led to believe, camels come in six varieties not five.  The most famous are the "1's" and "2's" - that's humps not ratings!  The Arabian camel has one hump and is often called a "dromedary". The equally well-known Bactrian camel is a native of Asia and has two humps. The lesser camels are New World creatures, mostly found in South America.  Those four types are the vicuna, alpaca, guanaco, and llama. 

Political junkies will recall that a "gifted" vicuna coat was almost the downfall of President Eisenhower's chief aide, Sherman Adams; and those whose hormones "came in" in the late '60's, might remember when alpaca sweaters - especially in horrid, bright orange - were all the rage.  

HOT! HOT!
HOT!

Really nothing famous about the other two - the guanaco and the llama.  Except that the Marine base near D.C. is not named after the former; and the best that can be said about the llama is that it rhymes well with "red-hot mama".

You thought this piece was going to be about the NCUA CAMEL rating system, didn't you? Well it is ....

Just in case you've been off the planet for the last few years, the lead CAMEL floggers at the NCUA have incited the regional CAMEL corps into a jihad intended to convert credit unions into a new "Camelot" (not to be confused with the magical realm of King Arthur or the Kennedy White House!).

The Monty Exam Team !

"Camelot", in the NCUA sense, is meant to be "CAMEL-OUGHT", as in your CAMEL ought to be commensurate with how your local examiner "feels" on the day of your exam, dictate all your decisions, and occupy all your waking moments .  The ratings are "1" (close to Allah) to "5" (infidel).  The rat patrols are out in force acting camelishly and disrupting many a calm CU oasis.  If you haven't, as yet, experienced this "hump-ty-dump"; you will soon learn that when you're offered an "LUA", it's not time to break out the Hawaiian shirt for a cookout!  But, do expect to get "roasted"!

Mecca ?

Most of this activity is really just "CAMEL-flage" for the fear Congress has struck in the hearts of "the big Mullahs" at the NCUA. All the recent talk of regulatory consolidation has many NCUA-types prostrating themselves to "the Hill" five times a day.  

Kind of "an NCUA Spring", if you know what I mean....

Are you
Syrious?

The New Caliphate! (No Shia!)