Something Else Scary For Halloween...?!?!

And, don't tell me about
your dog's eating habits!

Got a little homework assignment for you!  

Sorry, but its required reading - absolutely mandatory - whether or not you're headed for The Four Seasons and "The Meeting of the Minds" next month.

Hush! Read it!

The magnus opus that you need to spend a few minutes with is "A Vision for Advocacy Everywhere" (here's the link!), which is the proposed solution for the future of CUNA, the Leagues, credit unions, and 100+ million credit union members - you and me.

The authors of "A Vision..." are five of our most experienced and distinguished league CEOs -  Ms. Diana Dykstra (California/Nevada), Mr. Dick Ensweiler (Cornerstone -Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas), Mr. Pat Jury (Iowa), Mr. Mike Mercer (Georgia), and Mr. Paul Mercer (Ohio).

These are 5 of the "Top 40" who will definitely be at The Four Seasons in November. These five league presidents are highly influential "thought leaders" among the group of 38 league CEOs who currently control 25% of the votes on the CUNA Board. Their opinion is important.

These 5 folks, as you will read, 

do not want to give credit unions 

- nor you - a choice.

They have made up their minds on your behalf.

Take a few moments to read why their opinion....

Halloween...

... not so scary!

Halloween In Florida...

AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO DON'T KNOW THAT

STUART PERLITSH* 

HAS A "WICKED" SENSE OF HUMOR...

HALLOWEEN IN FLORIDA...

Henny Penny...

Don't give up... Hang in there!

Crisis Leadership?

Realize that we keep running around like a chicken with its head cut off, but... 

Really do understand that we need to get serious about this CUNA/Leagues/NAFCU question.  Time's a wastin' on developing a reasonable decision tree for comparing our options for finding the best trade association(s) to provide for advocacy, education, and compliance!

But before we do... been having some, shall we say, "terse" communications with several of the "Top 40" over the recent blog posts challenging their lack of transparency and lack of leadership in looking to the future of credit unions. There have been some "frank" conversations [with more to come!], as I've known many of the key league "leaders" for years - and think very highly of all of them personally [but not necessarily "systemically"!].

When talking to Henny Penny, Cocky Locky, Ducky Lucky, Goosey Loosey, Turkey Lurky, and Foxy Loxy about giving credit unions the democratic, basic cooperative right of CHOICE, their lock-step alarm is always the same...

" WE MUST STAY UNITED: IT'S THE SYSTEM®!"

Orlando and The Four Seasons...!!!!

"THE MEETING OF THE MINDS"

Nov. 17-20,2015

Orlando, Florida

America's "Top 40" credit union leaders in Orlando movin' and groovin', shakin' and shaggin' to the smooth, soft rock sounds of everybody's favorite hits from the past! They'll be setting the tone and beat for the future of 100 million American credit union members!

"Can't Touch This..!"
(... nor CUNA, nor us! - AACULE)
- M. C. Hammer   

Old standards,  those oldie
 goldies which never die and have never been surpassed! How do you improve on perfection? Why mess with success... "It's the System®!"

And, "The Sound of The System®" in Orlando?

Why it's none other than the...

A Dream Come True...?

"THE MEETING OF THE MINDS"

Nov. 17-20, 2015

Orlando, Florida

"Presently, CUNA and the Leagues are funded heavily, but not exclusively with dues revenues.  Statistics do not exist that identify the total resources being devoted to the broad swath of activities known as "advocacy"; government and public influence supported by information and compliance services.  However, total dues revenues being collected by the Leagues are roughly $86 million [2014]."... "League dues are primarily regressive [the small guys proportionately pay the most!], a growing capacity problem [for whom?] as credit unions consolidate." 

- from "A Vision for Advocacy Everywhere"

authored by League CEOs Diana Dykstra, Dick Ensweiler, Patrick Jury, Mike Mercer, and Paul Mercer

Hey...

All Politics Are Local...

Y'know time grows short and sooner or later we've got to come to grips and get down to brass tacks on this question of CUNA or NAFCU. 

We just can't keep dithering around to and fro, as if we were some sort of imperial trade association! 

It's getting to be put up or shut up, check writing time for those dues!

So let me run a couple of issues by you to consider - OK?  

Here's the first one; take a look at this map...

By Invitation Only...

COME HELP DETERMINE THE FUTURE OF CREDIT UNIONS!!

AT THE

 MEETING OF THE MINDS

November 17-20, 2015

Orlando, Florida

At this crucial juncture in our cooperative history, join with other key Credit Union deciders at this most elite, select (by invitation only!) "MEETING OF THE MINDS" - to decide, shape, and determine the correct future course for the credit union movement in America. 

You will be among a dynamic team of forward, future thinkers - only the best and the brightest, most innovative, experienced, original minds will be in attendance. Change agents, outside-the-box-thinkers, only the movers-and-shakers will be there! Can't you feel the energy and the excitement already!

Participation will be exclusively limited to no more than 40 important, hand-picked leaders. To facilitate the meeting a block of rooms has been reserved for participants at the Four Seasons Luxury Resort Hotel [5-stars!] in Orlando - room rates from as low as $449! + taxes, spa and resort fees (see link here for reservations).

  This will be the Credit Unions very own 

Doha Summit of Leadership !

Check below for eligibility criteria...

Fired Up And Hot To Trot....

"FIRST CAPITAL FEDERAL CREDIT UNION EMPLOYEES GET BRANDED!"

[Here's the link!]


Knew That CU Marketeers Were Going To Take It Too Far Someday With This Branding Mantra...!!

Is This Really How Your Staff And Members Want To Feel About "Your Brand"?

OMG, I've been branded 
by my CU!
Moo-chas Gracias??


Is this how your staff and members actually feel when they interact with "your brand"? 

As they say:

Accelerated Customer Checkout...

My all-time favorite 
job applicant's description of "prior experience" remains the young lady who  listed "interior designer" as the last position on her resumé. Credit unions and interior designers don't usually come to mind as logically convergent career paths! 

So, a little follow-up questioning was only natural. Want to take a guess at just what that last "interior design" job entailed? Will give you 10,000 guesses! And, you still won't get it - promise!

That last  "designo" job involved stapling the interior silk linings into budget-priced caskets at a local manufacturing company! H-m-m-m! Well in any event, no one can argue that the lady had a most creative mind; and, was without doubt, a most "designing woman"!

But ran across yet another classic recently, which ranks right up there in the creative writing award...

About The Empire State.... Or Is That The State of The Empire???

                                                                                                   

FLASH UPDATE: FROM THE NYCU ASSOCIATION LARGE CREDIT UNION CONFERENCE!

Where can New York credit unions find the very best support in the areas of advocacy, education, and compliance?

+




1+1= 2 !!!
(It's the System!®)


...or...

"Start Spreading The News..."

"I did it Dan's way..."

NEW YORK! NEW YORK!

It's showtime at the NYCU Association featuring live from Washington D.C. .... 

Mr. Dan Berger, CEO of NAFCU!!!

Who else from D.C. would be a more logical choice to bring us up-to-date on the ins-and-outs on Capitol Hill?

So, without further ado... Here's Dan....

Innocence...

Have a moppet-headed daughter named Eleanor... 

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY!)  

Eleanor is a highly vivacious, "hug 'em up" kind of person.  A true social animal, life of the party, "likes to have fun"- type, with a "je ne sais quoi" smile. 


That's right, the type of daughter who, as a teenager, made her father very, very nervous... But that's not the story I want to tell you! 

This incident happened when Eleanor was two years old.  At that time, Eleanor was a twin for Little Orphan Annie - all blond and curls, big eyes, not prone to shyness.

As it happened, Eleanor was in the midst of her afternoon bath when she heard her soulmate-playmate, 2-year old Richard Bode out on the street walking by with his father.  Eleanor, being who she is, escaped her handlers and without hesitation, dashed out into the street stark-naked to say "Hi" to Richard.

Richard of course was stopped dead in his tracks by the sight of Eleanor in all her glory.  

He looked her up and down quite carefully two or three times and then remarked most seriously...

Where's Waldo?

..... ???????.....

Cat's Out Of The Bag...?

S-h-h ! Keep your head down,
nobody will notice!

It's kinda interesting that the CUNA Board had a "special secret, hush-hush meeting" yesterday; had you heard about it through your League?  Just askin'... to see if you were "in the know" as a valued member.

... And it ain't with
this diverse bunch!

Then there was that announcement that the Southeastern CUL (Florida/Alabama) Board voted unanimously to give their members a choice in CUNA membership.  Appears the League CEO Patrick LaPine may have finally "had the facts of life explained" to him.  He seems to have much greater clarity now about where his true loyalties and best interests lie....

And then, the Southeastern CU League doubled down by signing a collaboration agreement with the NY CU Association, while Kansas and Missouri announced plans to cohabitate. 


What's going on here?  I thought the CUNA Board had ordered all the Leagues to behave?!? 

Is the cat out of the bag at CUNA? 

Wasn't sure if the CU world was really changing until I saw this...

Blovisceration...

Y'know we really need to move on to other important topics; RBC is now on the books - the deed is done! So, Onward and Upward!

Full of air, well-warmed!

But it is very, very difficult to leave unremarked, Mr. Metsger's widely-careening blovisceration of the credit union movement in his gratuitous, RBC pontificatory. It contains a great depth of "fertile material" [see link here], begging to be mocked.

In his "Petty-sburg Address" on RBC, Mr. Metsger quotes "with apologies to Winston Churchill, "Never have so many commented on a rule which impacted so few." Had Mr. Churchill had the opportunity to read Mr. Metsger's harangue, he would have reused another of his famous quotes to note: "He is a modest man who has a good deal to be modest about." 

There are, to quote Churchill, "numerous

terminological inexactitudes" in Mr. Metsger's remarks, but my favorites are:

1) "Yes, in 2000 the NCUA Board issued a fatally flawed risk based requirement.." [Which evidently the NCUA Board chose to do nothing about for the next 15 years! Did they know it was "fatally flawed" or were they just "flagrante ignorante"?]

2) [The 2000 RBC rule] "Is poorly understood. In fact, I defy anyone in the audience to explain it in a way that is comprehensible to someone who isn't familiar with it." 
[ The more you read that sentence, the more you will come to love it!]

3) "Of the 1,489 complex credit unions that are subject to the rule, only 16 will have their PCA category reduced, and not more than one[!] will have its PCA category reduced to undercapitalized."[So why are we wasting time passing a rule that affects only 16 out of 6,000 credit unions?] 

4)  "The real questions credit union members might be asking are: "Why are credit union capital buffers so large; and why aren't credit unions doing a better job of leveraging their members' capital?"[Appears Mr. Metsger believes credit unions are overcapitalized, which is evidently, to his way of thinking, yet another reason for this RBC rule!]

5) "This agency has been working on a new risk-based capital rule for five years: 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and now 2015."[And yet still couldn't get it right until Congress was forced to hold a loaded gun to NCUA's clueless head!]

To which Mr. Churchill might say, and I quote...

Mark Twain On Mr. Metsger's Analysis Of The New RBC Rule...

"Mark my words..."

The principal problem with Mr. Metsger's comments on the final NCUA risk-based capital (RBC) rule was that he failed to apply my axiom: 

"Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please."

"Mr. Metsger appears to have...

In Time For Halloween...!

JIM NUSSLE HAS SLIPPED BACK INTO WASHINGTON 

FROM HAVANA...

Here's the link...

CUBA TO BE GIVEN CHOICE 

TO BECOME ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF CUNA?

CUNA-CUBA-CUNA-CUBA-CUNA-CUBA-CUNA-CUBA-CUNA-CUBA-CUNA

[... similarities in views on democracy too?]

Triple S.....?

Mr. Nussle

Mr. Metsger

               Eeiny?                                                                    Meany?

Minus,....

Off The Charts....

THE MEASURE OF THE MAN ?

Say no more!

[Please!]

And to Congress, as they say in my home State......

CUNA Tsunami...?

YES, SOMETIMES THE PRESENT 

GETS IN THE WAY OF THE FUTURE.

... BUT NO EXCUSES, IF YOU KNEW FULL WELL 

THE FUTURE WAS COMING.

... and it is coming very fast, isn't it!

[Hey, hope you understand you don't get a "Choice" between "sink or swim" once it hits!]

Final RBC Rule Confirms NCUA Staff Capabilities...!

Representative Jeb Hensarling (R-Tx), Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, forwarded a letter to the NCUA Board, respectfully requesting that the NCUA pause and continue to study the proposed, highly important risk-based capital (RBC) rule.

Representative Hensarling was too polite to mention the horrific 3-year saga required by thousands of credit unions and over 300+ House members to force NCUA to pull back from the initial, ill-advised January, 2014 proposed rule. The egregious NCUA staff incompetence - evidenced for all eternity - in that January, 2014 proposed rule is easily confirmed by a simple side-by-side comparison with the rule finalized today.  

For many credit union boards and staff, those who drafted the original RBC rule (and will now administer the final rule!) are far more frightening than the RBC rule itself!

Since Mr. Hensarling is evidently still not clear on who runs America's credit unions, here's a little reminder...

CUNA Capital Fly-In....?

IT'S BEEN A GOODYEAR FOR CUNA...

... EXCEPT FOR THE "BLOATED, TOP HEAVY, SILOED, INEFFICIENT" PARTS.

(... budget cuts to be announced today from Havana?)

CUNA: Directile Dysfunction...?

America's credit union members - all 100+ million of them - are represented on the CUNA Board by 24 elected men and women - all very nice people. In fact here they are:

As you will note, the 24 CUNA Board members are selected from six different districts to assure geographic diversity, a praiseworthy cooperative, democratic principle! 

Additionally, 18 of those CUNA Board members are selected based on the number of credit union members within the credit unions which they represent. There are three size classes: A) less than 30,000 members, B) 30,000 to 106,000 members, and C) more than 106,000 members. Assigning voting classes by number of credit union members also has sound democratic merit in assuring the diversity of member views in all credit unions are heard.
Approximately one-third of the 100+ million U.S. credit union members (33 million voices!) fall within each of the three classes (A, B, C).

And then there is the "D class". These 6 CUNA directors - representing one fourth (25%) of the board votes - are all League presidents who represent their fellow League presidents. Currently there are less than 40 League presidents left in the Country.

So, as currently constituted, the CUNA Board has 18 directors representing 100+ million credit union members (just over 5+ million CU members per director).

And 6 directors representing less than 40 people ( just over 6 individuals per director).

Do you perceive any cooperative, democratic, or...

CUNA Board...... Insandity?

Given the strongly expressed wishes of your members, the looming risk of substantial "member disintermediation" by NAFCU, and the persistent erosion of CUNA's "brand value"... 

On the matter of "Choice", could it be time to listen and think more...

Asking The Right Question...

A QUESTION FOR THE CUNA BOARD:

"Cowardice asks the question: "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question: "Is it politic?"  Vanity asks the question: "Is it popular?"  

But conscience asks the question: "Is it right?"

And there comes a time one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular - but one must take it simply because it is right."

Isn't it past time for the Board to...

CUNA: On "Balancing Bloated and Top Heavy" Budgets ...

The staff at Air France clearly believe that

accountability for budget cuts should start at the top....

To preserve staff jobs (y'know, they are real people!);

shouldn't management be willing to give you

... the shirt off his back?

Shouldn't CUNA as a non-profit
 representing cooperatives act differently?
Set a higher standard?   

CUNA Board: Knowing When.... Outstanding In Your "Fields"?

Illogical fallacifications
in extremis severis!

Sirs and sirenes, I must observe 
that your persistent public 
"CUNA-ciousness" seems unrestrained by normal 
human ridicularity!

  "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  

But, then quit.  

No sense being a damn fool about it!"


- W.C. Fields

ISN'T IT TIME FOR THE CUNA BOARD...

Hey CUNA: It's The Thought That Counts...

Got it?

"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

- SB (xoxoxoxo)