Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Killed By Friendly Fire...


Well, from one of the comments yesterday, it would appear that a long-time credit union friend - Birddog, down among the pines and peaches in Georgia - is on the verge of becoming a former old friend. 

At best his patience is growing very, very thin with me! (He's certainly not alone!) It's about the prolonged pushing and shoving over CUNA.


There are many forms of "collateral damage" - long-time friendships for example - which arise when "open wounds" are not cleansed and dressed properly. Untreated wounds have a tendency "to fester" the longer the raw flesh is left exposed.  Birddog, a proud and distinguished Vietnam vet, probably would agree with all that; but would add it's even more hurtful when "the wound" appears to be the result of "friendly fire".

The CUNA Board and senior leadership claim to have decided to move to "Choice" after an awkward year and a half of public flip-floppery, but have continued to fail in their duty to act. Think Birddog and his fast-fading friend have strong agreement at least on the idea of "a sense of duty" - we are accountable to our families, our colleagues, our communities... and our friends.

The neglect of inaction by the CUNA Board and senior leadership leaves credit unions exposed and "in harms way" unnecessarily.  CUNA may shortly be in violation of its own bylaws, the leagues have been "hung out to dry" by the continuing uncertainty, and credit unions' confidence in ambiguous promises is not exactly growing stronger.


Perhaps most importantly, CUNA has shown no apparent sense of vision as to how to create a discussion within the credit union movement about what our future should look like. 



Since you now apparently have a "Choice" wouldn't it be nice if you were given a "Voice"?

Does the CUNA Board and senior leadership believe they can handle that critical dialogue with a couple of bylaw amendments, a token dues reduction, with the same board, same committees???

While you await instructions from CUNA, you might like to start thinking about this...


"Realism and the U.S. Credit Union System"
[↑link]
... Birddog, it's written by another CUWarrior!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The link's message does not follow its own by-line.
The realist adjusts the sails.
The realist has spoken in credit union land.
They've shed those aspects of the model that held it back from the crucial growth necessary to achieve the scale REQUIRED to maintain value to the member but afford increased medical coverage, deteriorated margins, increased compliance costs, etc).
There is no "sponsor" left to provide free floor space and sign up forms for new employees.
Been gone for years.
The cats are out of the bag and they're not coming back in.
The rest are small, struggling and in need of help that no one can afford to give.
The killed by fri nelly fire is apropos.

Anonymous said...

and to think, CUNA just gave big raises and huge bonuses to senior execs

Anonymous said...

Tell CUNA To feed the NEEDY not the GREEDY. Same applies to the State Credit Union Trade Accociations/Leagues.

Anonymous said...

Let's be real. The choices you have are CUNA or NAFCU. At CUNA you have a vote but it's ignored. At NAFCU, if you are state chartered, you get no vote for your dues. At CUNA you have Nussle who is lost. At NAFCU you have Berger, a nice guy getting caught up in himself. At CUNA you have league presidents who all want to be pretty boys and looked upon as leaders (hah). At NAFCU there is one leader,who supposedly wrote a book on leadership, who now seems to want to rest on his laurels, which is getting big, since he increased their membership this year. Do you really believe any of these guys can beat the bankers let alone stand up to them? If you do, then you probably believe this was the year of regulatory relief.

Anonymous said...

To me NAFCU continues to kick CUNA and the Leagues' rear-ends at everything: membership, focus, communication, and yes, leadership.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your comments Dan.