CEO Of The Year... Futurist ??

NAFCU recently held its Annual Conference in Las Vegas. 

NAFCU sponsored conferences always get top reviews for content and execution; and according to the initial feedback, this year's AC was also another home run.

One of the featured events of the AC is the presentation of various recognition awards to credit union folks from all parts of the credit union movement - and it's a great honor to receive one of these awards!

The award winner who caught my eye was Bill Nikolauk, CEO of 1st Community FCU in San Angelo, Tx.  Mr. Nikolauk was chosen as CEO of the Year and the synopsis of his success (here's the link from CUJournal) would suggest a recognition well-earned. Congratulations!

But, it was another blurb from Mr. Nikolauk in the same issue of the CUJournal which really gave me pause...

NCUA's RBC Makes The "Front Page"...

News from "The Street"...

SCOTT ADAMS, the comic strip creator of DILBERT, featured NCUA's proposed RBC rule yesterday!!!  It's really great to have this type of "front-page" recognition for credit unions!!!

In case you missed it, here's the link:

DILBERT ON NCUA's RBC

When asked to comment on the strip, NCUA replied comically...

'Enuf To Make You Spit....?

Dizzy-land !!??

You really have to work extra hard - you really have to go out of your way! - to make the position of Vice-Chairman at the NCUA a point of contention and controversy. But NCUA has, once again, risen to the occasion! 

After all, being NCUA vice-chair can't be any more significant than being Vice-President of the United States, can it? And, John Nance Garner, who was VP under Roosevelt in the 1930's, famously described being Vice-President as "about as exciting as a warm bucket of spit".  Actually he used a more descriptive term, but you get the drift....

OOPS!
It's diaper-time again...

If you missed the mess, here's the CUTimes link
to "this important unfolding national melodrama".  The short version is that the appointment of the NCUA Vice-Chair must, by federal regulation, be carried out only by NCUA Board action.  The current NCUA Chair simply chose to announce the appointment of Mr. Metsger without a vote.  No harm, no foul; just another "crash and burn" in the Agency's recurring portfolio of unforced errors.

But then the "spin cycle" kicked in at the...

Rants And Raves....

'Da Mountains of N.C.
"Fur Out!"

A FEATURE OF THE MITCHELL NEWS-JOURNAL:

*  If you're going to keep on insisting about starting each Commissioners' meeting with a prayer; well then here you go: "Lord, forgive us for our foolishness. We know that's a lot to ask; but do the best you can. Amen."

*  We are hearing of more and more vegetarians in this area.

*  A person that tries to create discourse is worse than the people she is trying to discredit.

*  Irregardless of what some folks say there is lots going on in Buladean.  But if you don't show up, then don't complain about not being here.

*   The meeting will be held over to the community center in Loafer's Glory, N.C. ...

And with this headline, "Who ya gonna call...?"

Time To Turn Off The Tap?

CAMEL COUNTRY!

Palm Springs is a city which mightily refutes the saying, "You can't make something out of nothing."  In Palm Springs, you actually can make something out of absolutely nothing - if you have water.  

Possess that clear, liquid gold, and you have immaculate, lushly landscaped, gated-communities - surrounding manicured golf courses.  Without agua, you have a sun-blistered, single-wide at the end of a couple of dusty ruts - parked at the edge of nowhere.  

LUSH, PLUSH, AND FLUSH
WITH WATER !

Palm Springs is an arrogant work of man, defiantly thrust into the face of nature. Looking at Palm Springs, it’s not hard to imagine how great cities, entire civilizations of the past came to be abandoned, when natural eruptions or civil disruptions poisoned wells, destroyed aqueducts, or shifted the course of the Tigris and Euphrates.  Golf links on the brink - Welcome to Palm Springs!

Well, talking about dry subjects, let me tell you about a recent conference in the "Desert City"....

Got Too Big For Their Breaches...?

"Off" Target !!!!

We had a lot of member interaction after the credit cards were replaced due to the system breeches at Target....

(Hackers caught 'em with their breaches down!)

From the Field... Claude Monet

"The best things in life are free,
but you can give 'em to the birds and bees;
I want your M-o-o-o-net, that's
whadda want..."
(B. Strong/B. Gordy - Motown)

"Some people are so poor, all they have is monet."

("Show me the Monet?")

The Western Version....

A One Stop Shop....????

Working With The Ombudsman On IMCR: "NCUA - It Will Be A Joy..."

For the past two years - up until about 10 am yesterday! - if you had gone to the NCUA website to find out about the Ombudsman position here's what you would have seen:

Kinda hard to read the fine print, but it basically says "We don't know what you're talking about"!

Rep. McHenry ain't
"overjoyed"...

Interestingly, Chair Matz has been touting the Ombudsman to Congress (those unfortunate letters!) as the antidote  to that little "brown shirted" IMCR (individual minimum capital requirement) provision slipped into the proposed rigged-based capital (RBC) rule.  As has frequently been the case with the RBC rule, truth seems well-distanced from fact in much of what NCUA claims.

"We don't know what's wrong,
if you don't tell us."

Is the Ombudsman position really  the independent safety valve which will protect credit unions from the Agency we all have had the joy of watching "operate with such competence, trust and grace" on this RBC rule?  

Well, decide for yourself. You might like to check out what NCUA's own Office of the Inspector General (OIG) said in August, 2012 about the Ombudsman position in this report (pages 25-30 are particularly enlightening!) The OIG report basically says that the "Ombudsman concept" was required by the 1994 Riegle Federal Act, but NCUA still hadn't gotten around to implementing the law correctly by 2012.   As you can tell from the OIG report and the overly-obvious, website snafu; the Agency really takes this Ombudsman stuff seriously.

But what will really put your mind at ease, about the assured fairness, impartiality, and independence of "our protector from all harm," is simply to take a look at the incumbent Ombudsman....