Chip Filson
The Seated Boxer, an iconic ancient Greek work of art, shows a grizzled veteran of the ring, equal parts resigned and ready to spring into action.
What I like is a sense of respite from competition, the powerful athletic physique and the tiredness that surrounds his humanity. Is he a winner this day? Are there more fights to go? How will his efforts be remembered?
These are questions that all of us encounter, in literal or figurative ways, in our daily efforts.
After reading this news story in the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning (Credit Union Members Vote Against Merger), Billy Collins’ poem came to mind about this unusual event. Both are stories of life renewed, once threatened, and now free again.
By Billy Collins
The first thing I heard this morning
was a soft, insistent rustle,
the rapid flapping of wings
against glass as it turned out,
a small bird rioting
in the frame of a high window,
trying to hurl itself through
the enigma of transparency into the spacious light.
A noise in the throat of the cat
hunkered on the rug
told me how the bird had gotten inside,
carried in the cold night
through the flap in a basement door,
and later released from the soft clench of teeth.
Up on a chair, I trapped its pulsations
in a small towel and carried it to the door,
so weightless it seemed
to have vanished into the nest of cloth.
But outside, it burst
from my uncupped hands into its element,
dipping over the dormant garden
in a spasm of wingbeats
and disappearing over a tall row of hemlocks.
Still, for the rest of the day,
I could feel its wild thrumming
against my palms whenever I thought
about the hours the bird must have spent
pent in the shadows of that room,
hidden in the spiky branches
of our decorated tree, breathing there
among metallic angels, ceramic apples, stars of yarn,
its eyes open, like mine as I lie here tonight
picturing this rare, lucky sparrow
tucked into a holly bush now,
a light snow tumbling through the windless dark.
Last Saturday’s live broadcast of the Metropolitan Opera’s Mozart’s Magic Flute was a family affair. Adapted fpr the holidays, the hope was to attract an audience of all ages.
The announcer’s credits at the broadcast’s end named the stage crew and technicians who worked behind the scenes. Then a sentence I don’t remember ever hearing. The announcer’s final words: This seasons productions at the Metropolitan Opera are dedicated to the people of Ukraine.
Two American administrations have been ambivalent in their support for Ukraine’s fight for freedom. But there has never been any doubt where this premier international organization, which engages singers from around the world, stands on Russia’s invasion.
At the Met’s first performance after the February 2022 attack, the entire cast came in front of the curtain. All used scores to sing the Ukrainian national anthem, I assume most for the first time.
One person in this across the curtain lineup, a 24 year old bass-baritone artistic apprentice, did not use a score. His hand is over his heart. An international symbol of gratitude. He is Ukrainian.
The enire audience rises. The event still brings tears from a time the world believed an unstoppable tragedy was unfolding.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUfwy3f3R4s&t=32s)
Ukraine did not and will not surrender. It now stands as a shield for all of its neighbors. Russia’s Putin has repeated publicly his intent to restore its empire over Eastern Europe and the Baltic states. Ukraine’s national spirit reminds us of Great Britain’s heroic fight alone against Nazi Germany in 1940/1941 The Battle of Britain is still called that nation’s Finest Hour.
Following are some glimpes of the character of the Ukrainian people at this moment of Christmas hope in a place where there is no peace.
The caption with this Facebook entry: “In 2025, Santa looks just like this – with prosthetics, a strong spirit and smile stronger than any frost. The holidays come even amid war and our Heroes give us this atmosphere with their lives and resilience.”
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1582250769639125
A Christmas concert: Silent Night and Carole of the Bells. Note the audience wears winter coats to stay warm. One hears an occasional cough as well. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1371985887958494
Soldiers performing “Shchedryk” (Carol of the Bells) in a bombed out building on the front line. They are part of the Cultural Forces of Ukraine. The 3 soldiers are: Mykhailo Oliinyk – composer and pianist, Taras Stoliar – Bandurist and People’s Artist of Ukraine, and Olha Rukavishnikova – violinist and one of many young women serving in the army.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1350402266836360
The Banchen Monastary Choir’s recent concert.
This person captures the spirit of the nation in his efforts to walk again, perseverance personified. Many Ukrainian soldiers are badly injured by Russian land mines. Wait for the smile at the end.
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1381593443675770
As Americans enjoy peace and pray to end all war, the Ukraine conflict will take more than words. Freedom will always face tests of will here and around the world.
Ukraine is giving all who believe in democratic government daily gifts of sacred sacrifice. All intended so that their children and ours may live in peace and freedom.
Garrison Keillor calls Christmas a gift to America.
I agree. It causes us to pause, for just a moment from life’s routines ,and experience something different, perhaps deeply comforting.
The season brings familiar sounds that set the tone for the entire month. Our local classical station, WETA, plays only Christmas arrangements for the week prior to the 25th.
This year Joan and I sing in two Messiah concerts. The second will be tomorrow on stage at the annual Kennedy Center’a community sing along with a full house of 2,500. The event is so anticipated that before the free online ticket distribution now, singers would start lining up at 5:00 AM the day the tickets were handed out.
Familiar music is just one element creating a more generous mood. Gifts are not limited to those near or dear. The heightened community spirit attracts solicitations of non-profits seeking support for efforts addressing multiple social needs.
Yesterday’s special Joy offering at church included four options: funds for retired ministers and staff, a DC charity serving immigrants, an area food bank or a 35-year partnership with Shokoho a Kenyan grade school in a remote farming area.
The postman brings requests from local organizations such as public broadcasting to worldwide–Doctors Without Borders. Every not-for-profit with which one has had some contact in life from colleges, museums, theaters, volunteer organizations and of course local medical providers remind us of prior associations.
Christmas brings forth people’s charitable instincts inspired by the spirit of the season. And sometimes assisted by yearend tax considerations.
In addition to Messiah, the other anticipated event are performances of Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. HIs characters Marley, Cratchit, Tiny Tim and especially Scrooge reflect the many circumstances still present today.
We saw a trational version that featured over 30 local performers at the Silver Spring Stage. The cast of all ages played to sold out audiences.
In this year’s adaptation the author showed that all three visits by the ghosts of Christmas’s past, present and future are necessary to understanding Scrooge’s character.
Every person, or organization has a legacy, present priorities and future aspirations. Meaning and purpose combine all three. If we overlook or are not aware of our past, present actions lose context and future efforts open-ended.
Understanding how we and the organizations to which we belong navigate the timeline we all travel is essential for meaning. And future hope.
A contemporary Wall Street representation of Dickens take is the 2000 movie The Family Man starring Nicolas Cage. Past, present and future are all in one story, one person. But unlike Scrooge’s awakening, this character’s future seems less clear.
This film captures our current era when meaning is secondary to personal and corporate triumph. The film might even seem familiar to sponsors of certain recent credit union transactions.
Another reminder of this season is O Henry’s short story The Gift of the Magi.
It was published in 1905 during a period of political awakening to growing disparities in wealth and living circumstances. It is a story of a couple with no means searching for special christmas gifts for each. There is no reference to gold, frankincense or myrrh.
Rather it is a story about the most valuable gift anyone can offer another.
Garrison Keilor went on to describe why he called this season a gift to America: We experience a festival of kindness, and I sense this on the streets of New York and in the subway, I feel it in airports, the TSA agents take on a gentler tone, people are keenly aware of the elderly, the halt and lame, small children, the lost and confused, and if this strikes you as naïve, I apologize but it’s how this old man sees things.
I would only add that is how most commentators have seen this season throughout the ages. Sometimes the arc of life can bring wisdom, hopefully not only in old age.
From Bloomberg.com on December 17, 2025
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Credit union growth has multiple factors, but two are critical in the movement’s current state.
One strategy is building on the power of local advantage. This is the ability to interweave common purpose with a community of members. It does not imply being small or require a limited market area.
This critical commonality is illustrated by the home market of city or town. “Local” is often represened by where the credit union’s historical roots were set down. Where there is a long term record of its essential role supporting the community economically and in civic roles. It is where present issues and needs are addressed openly.
This effort is a shared ambition with other “local” organizations seeking a better future together. The credit union is engaged in services that matter for young and old alike because everyone wants to move forward.
That is how most credit unions began, supported by a sponsor-employer which had an important role in the community. The shared goal to enhance a community’s well-being with and for its residents is fundamental in credit union design whether large or small in operations.
The outcome can be large firms serving multiple areas like the $10 billion Wright-Patt Credit Union or small ones such as the $70 million Levittown’s Spirit Financial. This historical positioning provides a competitive high ground.
At SECU North Carolina, Jim Blaine when CEO said the rationale for building at least one branch in every country was to create a network across the state that no outside institution could hope tp match. This network’s visibility and service reach are an advantage which Warren Buffett called a strategic moat.
Thus advantage isn’t from size or even the number of branches, but the market’s perception of the credit union’s integration and affiliation with the population it serves.
In a new charter roll out, this relationship is gained from the sponsor’s embrace. This often came with on-site office space, employee volunteers and even payroll deduction, advantages initially unavailable to other financial institutions.
Credit unions with deep community relationship do not survive by chance or luck. They succeed because their leaders believe in their role as a one-of-a kind option built with generations of local support. These deep community anchors become the foundation for greater coverage as opportunities and needs are sought further out.
When credit unions with these strong, long time local roots are merged, the charter’s ending will also extinguish many of their long standing competitive advantages.
The historical identity is gone. Instead a brighter future is promised by becoming a node of a much larger network. One whose scale and diversity will enable greater efficiency and broader service capabilities—all intended to improve member value.
However economic theory predicts that as firms get bigger, it will be difficult for them to grow ever larger. In credit unions this means the skills for growing organically are often superseded by geater acquisition efforts. An outcome that results in the atrophy of internal growth capablities. New merged members are often forced into a more easily scalable digital-first service model.
In a November 2025 article in Kellogg Insight, the authors identify The Growth Factors Propelling Industry Behemoths. Or how the big get bigger. It is not by mergers.
Following are some excerpts in which they identify the critical corporate competencies to continue growing.
How have the Golden Arches of McDonald’s and other industry giants like Starbucks, Procter & Gamble, and Coca-Cola grown so much more quickly than competitors and stayed on top for so long?
Kellogg’s Sara Moreira investigated how these companies came to be so huge compared with other firms in the same product category. Through mathematical modeling and an analysis of the consumer-packaged-goods industry, she found that a key factor propelling firms’ growth is standardization: the degree to which a company reuses components, knowledge, and relationships across different product lines and locations.
Take IKEA, which became famous for using similar parts and materials for various types of furniture. Similarly, Starbucks has relied on tried-and-true formulas for floor plans, menus, and barista training to efficiently open more locations.
As a result, standardization practices like these have become a kind of superpower, allowing fast growth and higher responsiveness to increased demand.
“When knowledge, investments, and inputs are potentially scalable, that can allow the firms to become bigger.” By reusing components and previously successful strategies, “it’s less costly to you,” Moreira says.
The author’s examples are of firms that learned how to scale their existing advantages, not by buying firms operating in their industry.
Applying their analysis suggests that newly merged credit union must quickly dispose of their previous local advantages. They must standardize branch activity, operating and product features while creating a common culture across previously autonomous institutions.
Each of these standardization requirements will erase much of the merged credit union’s foundation for local success. The new branding often signals to the public just another out of area firm trying to buy its way into the market.
Despite merger rhetoric about “equals”, enhanced value from scale, additional expertise and expanded member services, these promises made to secure member’s voting approval, lack any unique local character.
Time and again the continuing credit union will assure continuity: merged members will see familiar employees, branches remain open and the service culture continues. The reality is that as operational integration and back office conversions take places, the promised continuity ends. Forced change, digital access and new faces are the reality.
Mergers eliminate local leadership including decisions about business prioties and even pricing. Independent operations end in a flurry of standardization, rebranding and new leadership. Corporate assimilation replaces organic growth. The ability to present a local marketing identity is lost. The goodwill from generations of member relations is gone.
The issue of whether mergers of independent local credit unions into ever larger organizations will leads to real credit union market growth is an open question. Today PenFed FCU after over two dozen mergers has fallen over $5 billon from its peak assets. With core market visibility declining because of local office closures, it is struggling to recapture organic growth.
In the example of Credit Union 1 and its acquistions of over 20 credit unions in the last three years, it has yet to show an operating net from its existing assets. Rather the equity level is retained by one time additons of merged credit union’s capital, sales of assets and loans, and gains from undervalued assets acquired in mergers.
The credit union system has a vital need for an analysis of major mergers completed and fully integrated, say over the past five years. All credit union leaders would benefit from examples of performance comparisons before and after large combinations are done. The outcome of most of these transactions is a significant unknown.
Such a study should be a priority for anyone who is facilitating these combinations, The evidence that there are significant member value benefits or enhanced institutional performance is sorely lacking. It is especially necessary as an aid to public policy and supervision by credit union regulators who now routinely approve these transactions.
The consequences of mega credit union mergers have not been documented. In the meantime the loss of hundreds of strong and long serving local institutions is clear. The critical question is, are these combinations leading the movement on a walk to a cliff edge?
There are two agenda item’s for Thursday’s meeting: approval of the 2026/7 NCUA budget and a report on the financial status of the NCUSIF.
This will be the first board meeting since September 18. Chairman Hauptman has implemented a practice of holding meetings only when needed versus. a fixed monthly event.
This year end financial estimate for credit union’s unique cooperative fund is more than a financial update. In the past, this meeting has set the upper cap on the Normal Operating Level (NOL)which determines when the surplus from fund earnings must be returned to credit unions as a dividend.
A dividend from NCUSIF operations has not been paid since 2008. The dividend demonstrates stable performance by the industry. It also acknowledges credit union’s evergreen commitment to main 1% of insured shares as the principal earning asset for the fund. In contrast the FDIC relies primarily on open-ended premiums assessments for its revenue.
As of the October 2025 financials posted yesterday, the fund’s full year outlook is very positive after the first ten months.
Net income of $222 million is $10 million greater than the same period last year with operating expenses near the same level at $204 million. The provision for future losses is funded to $240 million up $10 million from a year earlier.
The fund’s yearend external audit is underway. Assuming no surprises, it is straight forward to forecast the probable yearend outcome and the ratio of fund equity to insured shares.
This dynamic spread sheet model using actual data for the first ten months, estimates a yearend ratio of .3101 of retained earnings to insured shares. The historical upper cap from 1984 initial implementation to 2017 in the NCUSIF was .30. This cap was only raised in 2017 to accommodate temporarily an influx of funds from merging the TCCUSF surplus. This current projected earnings would result in a dividend of $200-$250 million with a30 NOL cap.
After the year end true-up of insured shares, the total ratio of 1.3% means the NCUSIF is fully funded. In addition, there is more than $240 million in reserves, already expensed, to cover insured losses.
Chairman Hauptman is in a unique position to re-establish he NCUSIF’s historical cap of 1.3%. Until the 2017 short term incease in the 1.3% cap, the upper limit was unchagned even in the 2008/9 financial crisis, Dividends were a regular outcome in the first thirty years following the 1984 redesign.
The federal credit union act authorizes three board members. As the lone member currently, Hauptman has a chance to restore the fund’s historical cap. Sooner or later via court action or administration appointments, additional board members will be in place. It is now possible to reaffirm the original legal compact with credit union for supporting the 1% open-ended funding model in return for a stable upper NOL limit.
Restoring the 1.3% NOL cap authorizes returning credit union funds to credit members. It demonstrate the administration’s intent tp limit the inherent tendency of government to always seek greater amounts of money to spend.
Most importantly it reinforces the unique cooperative model of the NCUSIF for credit union members and the public. Credit union’s collective fund is different-by design.
Finally such action would implement Hauptman’s intention to return to the fund to its 1.3 NOL as stated in December 15, 2022 NCUA board discussion of this issue. From his statement on the issue that meeting:
I appreciate the additional information on how the Normal Operating Level is calculated. We need more of this kind of transparency. In the spirit of more transparency, I ask that we acknowledge our responsibility to show why 1.30 is not adequate — as I said, every basis point over 1.30 is money credit unions could be investing in their members. (link)
A Messiah rehearsal with the New Dominion Chorale. Tom Beveridge, the Music Director-Conductor for 35 years, prepares his final concert.
Holiday gift collection at St. Luke Catholic Church (VA)
Responses after Sunday’s three masses
As at the first Christmas; political activity at the DC holiday market.
The Advent candles with a canned food drive at Arlington Presbyterian Church (VA)
Why Christmas matters still
In my December 9th post I included a preview from NCUA’s Video Network of the largest credit union conference ever held to that point in time.
That short 20 minute overview gave NCUA staff’s instructions for the meeting plus an introduction to the content for examiners and credit union attendees.
After the event was over, video highlights were edited and shared in NCUA’s Edition 18: The December 1984 National Examiners Conference in Las Vegas.
The 55 minute of outtakes focuses on three topics: common bond, the role of the regulator and the future of credit unions. Speakers include state regulators, CU CEOs, NCUA staff and other federal supervisors such as Richard Breeden, Martha Seeger, Ricard Pratt. NCUA Chair Ed Callahan provides opening and closing remarks, plus comments on what makes credit union’s truly unique.
Although this special gathering concluded 41 years ago, the event still speaks to credit unions today in that:
From the truism “there is nothing new under the sun, to history never repeats, but does rhyme” there are multiple ways to learn from past events.
This video shows cooperative leaders in their most articulate and thoughtful approaches to the future. NCUA’s conference agenda of over 300 sessions of breakouts and general panels captured the movement’s advantage of sharing expertise and experience for everyone’s benefit.
Comments were sometimes controversial and often in disagreement, for example the need for a common bond. Or, “Trust in a financial institution is like virginity; once you lose it, it’s hard to get back.”
Clifford Rosenthal: A personal memory of the big conference in Las Vegas. It was a big deal for me; I was new to my role serving as head of the National Federation. I still have the little lucite piece that was given to attendees.
Paul Horgan: (credit union CEO) Two recollections: NCUA and the Vegas meeting.
The meeting was innovation at its best. Communication was the key feature. Goodness, that was 41 years ago.
On Ed Callahan: Don’t remember the exact month and year but recall having the privilege of driving Ed from the Brainerd, MN airport to the league meeting…on the long drive I criticized the capitalization plan, he really listen then replied “Okay tell me your better idea.”
I guess today’s takeaway is “enjoy your friends before it’s too late.”
Mark Wolff (former NCUA employee):
Thank you for your post about the National Examiners Conference and for sharing the promotional video. Wow, watching it (and me in it!) was like going back in a time machine!
Being in the NCUA public affairs office at the time, I remember the sustained promotional effort to generate awareness and attendance. Along with the video I seem to recall regularly highlighting the conference in our newsletters and press releases that NCUA sent to credit unions at the time and in board members’ speeches to CU groups.
During the conference I remember being struck by how many people had attended and how crowded the hallways were between breakout sessions. At the time I’d never seen anything like it. We all had a nice feeling of accomplishment afterward.
Events in Ukraine move in and out of the American news cycle, and our attention, depending on multiple other daily events.
But for Ukrainians total war is a constant reality that affects all aspects of life. The country is in a fight for its existence. Life and death decisions are faced daily for everyone.
In a fight between an authoritarian dictator in Russia and a country’s whose people want self-determinatin, the outcome will depend on people’s morale, not just who has more weapons or manpower.
How does one learn about this critical factor? What is Ukraine’s morale, its peoples’ confidence in the increasingly difficult political, military and everyday uncertainties all endure?
Two recent posts suggest the resilience of the Ukrainian nation is everywhere.
The first is a brief FaceBook post from a Christmas concert which celebrates the country’s music, culture and faith in the midst of war.
The concert did not go as planned. A Russian attack on the power grid shut down electricity in the middle of the event.
The short Facebook video below shows what happened next. The Ukrainian words state: “There was a power outage right in the middle of the concert, but the choir didn’t skip a beat and kept on going in the dark.”
In this one minute excerpt note the orchestra and chorus continue to play. But not entirely in the dark. Because the audience raises their mobile phone lights to make the concert hall still visible.
People uniting to bring light when darkness threatens.
(https://www.facebook.com/reel/1152383956497057)
Caolin Robertson was a London-based investigative journalist who moved full time to Ukraine to cover the conflict . He explaines his reasons in this brief video, Why I Moved to Ukraine. . . for Good.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja6EzWrfg-w)
As mainstream foreign media coverage is at best intermittent and often prompted by external actors-Russia, the US and Europe-Caolin chose to be on the ground full time.
His latest video is one of the best reports on the current state of the war as seen by soldiers and civilians living at the center of the conflict in Donbas.
Filmed last summer it includes live interviews with middle age soldiers in bunkers who have been in combat for almost four years. Young couples and older residents are forced to leave their homes. The destruction of cities and towns is total.
The production is superb, the story is current and intermingled with video of what these Ukrainian towns looked like prior to the 2022 Russian invasion.
One of the themes in his interviews is the deep, storied and unique history of the Donbas, This is the area that Russia wants kiev to hand over as a condition of any ceasefire. And one part in the Trump administration’s so called peace plan.
His interviews weave current events with history which makes this sory even more meaningful and tragic.
While 44 minutes might seem long, I believe it will keep your attention once you start. For it shows people willing to persevere and fight no matter what the current cost in life and fortune.
Fpr a future of freedom there is a deep and profound price today. A message the world should know and support whenever freedom anywhere is threatened.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jq2RTlhvqbc)
