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.
The top 25 banks in the US had total assets of $21.1 trillion at December 2024. Number 25 was Ally Financial Inc. which is $192 billion in size.
The largest bank was JP Morgan Chase & Co. at $4.0 Trillion.
The largest credit union is Navy FCU which reported $ 181 billion at year end. The total size of the cooperative credit unions was $2. 3 trillion.
The bottom line is that credit unions will never win by trying to be bigger than the many options consumers have. Rather, they have to be better.
Last week I presented an internal change in Vanguard’s fund management that gave their investors the option to vote their individual share ownership as they wish. This change empowers each share owner to chose a voting option rather than follow Vanguard’s traditional policy.
Could credit unions give their shareholders the opportunity to invest their savings in specific credit union loan programs?
Now, a CDFI bank has a program to do just that. A March 25, 2025 Next City article reports how Sunrise Banks’ new net zero banking program lets customers put their money where their mouth is.
It started because one employee, Laura Wildenborg, had spent “spent 10 years taking kids on field trips to go rock climbing or cross-country skiing across the region, all to inspire children to love and care for the environment.” She is an avid outdoor enthusiast and concerned about the environment.
She pivoted to banking after receiving her MBA in 2020. She wanted to bring her prior interests to her new career. This was her approach:
Wildenborg serves as a project leader for Sunrise Banks’ net zero banking initiative, which launched in July 2024. Net zero banking refers to the investment in projects that will reduce or eliminate carbon emissions.
Customers of the bank can opt in and allow their deposits to be loaned out only to net zero projects. Since launching its net zero program, Sunrise Banks has received $5.5 million in deposits and has loaned out nearly $22 million.
The article gives several examples of customers being surprised to know they can choose how their deposits are used.
Wildenborg says one customer shared that he never thought about what the money in his bank account was used for.
“With this program at Sunrise, we put that money where our values are, which means in the projects that will reduce carbon emissions — in turn having a positive impact on our community and environment.”
Here is a video that describes their approach to the community. Their motto is our success depends on the success of the communities we serve. Note the use of the word “movement” in the video.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5C14WIqmC8&t=68s)
This organization focuses on its local impact and connections, not its size. That used to be the credit union advantage. Is that still the thinking?
Learning when to speak up is an art in both personal interactions and leadership of a public agency.
Words are critical in times of crisis and uncertainty. But the three NCUA board members have embraced silence as their preferred form of leadership.
Entire agencies in Washington and across the country are being dismantled and staff arbitrarily let go. Every agency including the FDIC, the FTC board (an independent agency) and all those on which the public relies from the CDC/NIH, to the VA and Social Security are being taken apart.
These radical reductions are not about fraud or efficiency. It is to break these agencies’ ability to deliver their basic services to the public. Services approved and funded by Congress. It is an attack on the core responsibilities of government and the citizens which depend on these services.
For at least the past year, the NCUA board members have been literally missing in action. There have been extended member absences due to medical or family leave.
Borad meetings have been routinely cancelled. Scheduled meetings have had micro agendas such as updates on internal programs while the difficult challenges of credit union direction are ignored. These chalenges include the growing spree of bank acquisitions and the pillaging of credit union member reserves by CEO’s in mergers,
Their inaction has been bipartisan.
This month the press reports NCUA has held two closed board meetings to discuss “personnel matters.” It is obvious the agency must respond to the administration’s imperative for drastic staffing cuts.
This is an issue that affects every credit union and its members. This is not about policy, but the abillity of the regulator to do its core job of examination and supervision.
In a democratic system, the ultimate arbiter of power are the people. In town and city across the country individuals are rising up to protect their interests responding to the disabling of key government functions.
But no one is standing up for NCUA because there is nothing to stand up for. No plan, no pending organization redesigns. Total silence.
When the time comes for action to protect credit union interests, there will be no platform to defend. The troops will have been off fighting for CDFI funds, or to modify the CFPB’s structure or a myriad of other potential changes sorted out in every other part of government.
Moreover all this time the industry will reserve its biggest efforts and in conversations with top leadership in government, protecting credit union’s federal tax exemption.
No federal government agency can save itself from a targetted effort by political leadership to tear it down. Only the public who rely on these services can do so. And it is happening. Because the press and agency employees and former employees are speaking up in other purges to inform the public about what is happening.
But not so at NCUA. This is not the time for board silence. Rather united efforts balancing new realities with ongoing responsibilities should be presented as in everyone’s interest.
Where is that plan and the basis for credit unions and their membersto support it?
Humans are incredibly reluctant to see themselves as less informed, making bad decisions, unknowingly supporting error or evil, and being fooled. They will, honestly, die defending a choice, rather than admit they were flawed.
It is one of our greatest weaknesses as a species. There is a gentle process, where you can lead people to figure it out themselves, but just telling them, even showing them evidence, often causes them to double down. I wish this weren’t true, but there are tons of studies about it. Ignorant people are fragile, and that sucks for anyone hoping to make change. (from Richard Rohr’s daily post)
In our human nature, we are limited in what we experience, and the scope of what we don’t know will always outweigh what little we do know. . .
This short, viral video – and the reaction to it – reminds me of the divine gift of curiosity, the opportunity to explore and discover exciting and beautiful things about the world. These new discoveries challenge us, making us question our perception of the world, flipping what we think we know upside down.
And the result of this curious thinking? Hope. When we ask questions and broaden our perspectives, we affirm that our knowledge is limited, and we are open to knowing more. When we are curious, we make a commitment to trying — trying to inquire, trying to discover, trying to connect.
In Hope: A User’s Manual, MaryAnn McKibben Dana writes that hope is not optimism, anticipating the best outcome despite the facts. Rather, hope is a commitment to reframing and possibility. Hope acknowledges that “things just suck” sometimes. Yet, “a hopeful orientation ruminates, turning the situation over and over, refusing to give up on possibility.”
Recently I contacted the Library of Congress (LOC) to see if they had copies of Report on Credit Unions. This monthly printed publication was begun in January 1957 and continued through the mid 1980’s.
Here is what the librarian found in the search of their records:
I am sending you the title page of the Report on Credit Unions published in January 1957–the only issue we have in the collection. I also noticed that it was cataloged as a monograph, not a serial.
I ran another search in the Ulrich’s Periodicals Index using the ISSN number–I have attached the record from Ulrich’s as well. Ulrich’s shows a different publisher, but the original publication might have been bought at some point by CoVest Reports, Inc. listed in Ulrich’s. The serial appears to have been a bi-weekly newsletter which might be the reason it wasn’t collected by the Library.
I searched Google books and found the title mentioned in several publications:
Congressional hearing from 1963 which refers to volume 5, issue no.3, dated March 15, 1963 published by Reports, Inc., Kent, Conn.
In-plant Thrift and Loan Services by Banks and Credit Unions (1959) by Rudolf Modley – the name on the 1957 issue–cites several articles from Report on Credit Unions.
That is the extend of the governmental records of the Report’s “first draft of credit union history” published during this consequential time of credit union expansion including the era of deregulation.
The Report was cited in Congressional testimony, linked above, as part of the debate during the President’s tax message in 1963. The reference to the Report was not about taxation but rather the necessity for supporting quality supervision of credit unions citing an Illinois example.
When attempting to write a brief account of Ed Callahan’s years as Chair of NCUA I learned there was no repository for trade association publications or the numerous private newsletters that tracked the industry prior to the era of online media.
CUNA Mutual had sent their records to the Credit Union Museum. NAFCU when it closed down in 2024 apparently had no repository of their numerous magazines and weekly newsletters to chronical their founding in 1969. Similarly I could not locate a source for CUNA’s weekly and monthly printed publications. State league newsletters were similarly not kept.
I contacted NCUA to see if the 21 NCUA Video Network VHS tapes created in the Callahan era had been saved. No copies could be found of these special reports which, among other recordings, included live excerpts of the first, and only, national examiner’s conference. There were two hour long live recordings of sessions with examiners led by Rex Johnson and a Harvard Business School professor to enhance examiner analysis and supervision skills.
History may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. At the moment NCUA leaders are confronting the challenge of becoming more focused and efficient following policy guidance of the Trump Administration.
In 1981/2 the Agency faced a similar challenge but for very different reasons. The credit union system was in crisis. “Survival” was the priority according to CUNA President Jim Williams when introducing new Chair Ed Callahan at the February 1982 GAC convention.
The broad policy agenda was for credit unions and NCUA to respond to the new era of deregulation. For NCUA this meant a complete reorganization of the agency to prioritize field examinations and supervision led by the six regional directions. The DC head office reduced the number of staff departments from 16 to 2, an Office of Programs and an Office of Administration. The Executive Director, Bucky Sebastian, was also the General Counsel.
The recently created DC consumer examination team which planned to employ as many as 50 personnel was in turn transferred to the RD’s. Every examiner had responsibility for completing an annual safety and soundness and compliance exam for every FCU,
The result of this reorganization placed operational responsibility on the RD’s, not central office staff. It led to a reduction in agency budgets for three consecutive years along with the lowering of FCU operating fees annually. The agency including the CLF and NCUSIF had been designed for the open competition in which the credit union system completely outpaced their banking and S&L counterparts for the decades to come.
Instead of trauma and closed door board discussions, these 1982 changes were done openly and with clearly stated administration and policy goals. The messages were delivered via the video network with the first tape a credit union panel discussing the challenges of deregulation.
Public board meetings were taken “on the road” with the first held in historic Faneuil Hall In Boston MA in 1982. Weekly press releases covered both agency initiatives and credit union progress.
But finding the contemporary public record of these events is very difficult. When the past is lost, or worse ignored, then the present is left adrift. When there is no understanding of how past events, there is a tendency to believe that only the present matters.
When disruptions occur whether from market or economic forces or changes of administration, the tendency is to protect the status quo, the known. This is the result of bureaucratic incumbency. It is only human nature for those at the top of an organization or career to protect their legacy.
The best way to understand the need and inevitability of change is to know the past. This is particularly critical if those with ultimate responsibility are not familar with credit union, let alone NCUA, history. That familiarity can not only provide lessons but olso hope that change is necessary for an even better future.
That was the outcome of NCUA’s 1981-1985 makeover. One would hope it would be the result in today’s NCUA leadership deliberations.
Organizations succeed by what they accomplish externally for their owners, not because of superior internal cultures or unique strategies.
As Peter Drucker, management consultant, educator and author, stated, “all results are on the outside,” meaning that the true measure of an organization’s success lies in the outcomes it achieves externally with its customers. In credit unions these are the owners.
Warren Buffett, the founder of Berkshire Hathaway, has overseen a 28% increase in the stock (BRK B) price over the past year. However, whatever the company’s return to shareholders, there is a weekend celebration inviting all owners to Omaha to hear from the founder directly.
The event is much like a credit union conference complete with an exhibit hall full of Berkshire- owned vendors. Here is this year’s Guide to the festivities:
The 27-page guide includes an invite to a 5K race, the location of all Dairy Queen restaurants in the area, plus numerous other sites and information for navigating the three days of events:
The formal annual meeting in the CHI Convention Center is the main event on Saturday. It begins with four hours of open Q & A questions from the live audience and from viewers on CNBC’s live broadcast. Buffett, and maybe one or two of his senior staff, will respond to all queries.
The formal meeting with votes on motions starts at 1:00 PM. But the owners have their say first.
This meeting is a demonstration of Berkshire’s commitment to put its owners’ interests first. It is a long standing tradition with shareholders attending year after year. It is a capitalist feast of business successes and company good will that creates long lasting relationships with the company’s individual shareholders.
Can member-owned credit unions find a better example of trust, leadership and pride in our movement? What if Navy FCU or SECU decided to celebrate their success in a similar manner with workshops on personal finance, examples of member owner businesses and a meeting where members had their say?
Such an occasion would be noteworthy for the institution, but more importantly, it would be an example of the cooperative movement having its “Woodstock Moment.”
A second example that credit unions can learn from is a recent innovation from the Vanguard mutual fund family.
Vanguard is a pioneer in low cost, index fund investing. Warren Buffett’s advice to young investors singles out Vanguard’s approach as the easiest and most likely successful way to financial wealth accumulation for every day folks.
A second unique feature of the firm is that the company that manages the funds is owned by each of the individual funds. In other words it is a mutual coop, not a public or privately owned investment company like T. Rowe Price or Fidelity.
It has recently offered a unique way for individuals who own their funds to directly exercise their proxy voting preferences in the companies in which their fund’s invest. This is a description of Vanguard’s new “Voting Choice for Member Owned Stocks.”
” It provides a way for you to participate in the proxy voting process by choosing a proxy voting policy that will help direct how your shares in select Vanguard equity index funds are voted on shareholder matters at the companies held in those funds.
Public companies hold shareholder meetings where key issues—such as electing the board of directors and executive pay—are presented to a shareholder vote. Proxy voting enables shareholders to cast their votes without attending a specific company’s meeting.
Investor Choice currently offers five policy options that reflect a broad range of approaches to proxy voting that you may choose to apply to your participating Vanguard equity index funds.”
One example would be Company Board-aligned Policy.
At the end of 2024, Vanguard had $10.4 trillion under management of which 82% were in index funds.
Vanguard serves over 50 million clients globally. What kind of technology support must have been developed to allow an individual investor to cast their tiny share of a company’s voting proxy in line with each investor’s preferences?
In the past Vanguard has followed its Investor Advised Funds Policy, a single option.
If Vanguard can empower their individual investors to exercise their minute share of corporate governance, should credit unions be exploring options to enhance member-owner preferences? This is more than greater product choices for credit card or varied savings plans.
Some credit unions now give members options for charities to which they can direct interchange income. But what are other ways members might be willing to participate in options such as funding affordable housing for seniors or first time home buyers? Is it possible for members to have a say in prioritizing community ventures and partnerships?
Vanguard, a $10 trillion firm with 50 million clients, returned the owner’s proxy voting power back to the individual. Might credit unions find a way to engage their owners in how their savings and credit extensions are being directed? Or, as in public company voting, to approve senior executive compensation? Or even in buying a bank?
Many firms including credit unions offer summer internships as a way to attract college students and introduce them to their firm’s culture and employment opportunities.
One unique organization has a special program that places students interested in cooperatives with internships in the coop sector. This 501 C 3 is NASCO or the North American Students of Cooperation.
NASCO’s primary activity is working with student- led campus housing cooperatives. They provide resources, assist in their development, and encourage participants to remain active in the cooperative sector. There are over 20 of these housing facilities on campuses throughout the US.
NASCO’s projects would seem to be a natural fit especially for any credit union serving these campuses. This activity is also a primary source for applicants in the internship program described below.
One of the ways NASCO builds future cooperative leaders is their cooperative Internship program. It functions as a placement service matching interested students with internships for 60-90 days during the summer.
Since the 1980s, this program has connected talented students with cooperative organizations, providing hands-on work experience.
NASCO matches skilled cooperator applicants with host organizations including housing co-ops, worker co-ops, nonprofits, and credit unions. These short term assignments are intended to be meaningful projects that build familiarity with areas such as governance, marketing, finance, and operations.
In turn host organizations have a chance to consider a person’s interest and skills for potential future employment.
NASCO is still seeking hosts for its Summer 2025 program. This is a special opportunity for credit unions as candidates have expressed interest in working for a cooperative organization.
Because time is short, I would encourage interested credit unions to call NASCO’s internship manager, Katherine Jennings, at (708) 317-8608, or email at katherine@nasco.coop
NASCO provides interns monthly cohort zoom meetings to connect with fellow co-operators, share experiences, engage in guided discussions, skill-building trainings, or readings tailored to their interests. These sessions deepen their cooperative knowledge and strengthen their future potential role in member-owned organizations.
A complete description of the program is on NASCO’s website here. Although the site indicates the host applications are closed, I am told hosting opportunities can still be taken through this week.
There is also the chance to sponsor through grants, the internship network program. Those options can be found here.
Credit unions and NASCO share common values in promoting cooperative solutions. The non-profit’s most important service is the affordable housing programs for students on campuses which I will highlight in a later blog.
I would encourage credit unions to reach out to NASCO and learn more about all aspects of ther activities including the November conference in Ann Arbor, MI. The group would seem to be a logical partner for any credit union’s financial and community investment goals.
We returned from a week away to see the yard bursting with daffadils and hyacinths and the hints of green buds on trees. Every flower appears at its anointed time.
The Star Magnolia reveals its blossoms one by one until the tree is covered in a full white gown. (next week).
Earth’s annual renewal is colorful and inspiring. Wordsworth’s poem reminds however, we still have much to do in our human endeavors versus nature’s spontaneous transformation.
I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.
To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.
Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.
The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.
The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.
If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?
David Brooks (born August 11, 1961)[1] is a Canadian-born American book author and political and cultural commentator. Though he describes himself as an ideologic moderate, others have characterised him as centrist, moderate conservative, or conservative, based on his record as contributor to the PBS NewsHour, and as opinion columnist for The New York Times.
Here is a throughtful, entertaining and insightful presentation given last month in Great Britain on America’s direction.
His purpose is to put the current American angst about current issues into a longer perspective. He sees our history as a cycle of cultural and political “rupture and repair.”
Of special note for credit unions and cooperatives, is his belief that the current trend is moving away from hyper-individualism to a more communal society.
Our moral formation is at the center of who we are as a people and as a country.
While the talk is a social analysis with several political references, his description captures some of the central dilemmas credit unions as value based organizations are also experiencing.
Credit unions are creatures of the society in which they operate. You might want to ask if his critique of “elites” in America’s cultural life has parallels in your credit union and the larger movement.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=QSa52TR9tCA)
Uncertainty reigns in Washington DC about the future of federal government agencies and their traditional roles versus the public.
CDFI grants are threatened; minority (democratic) board members of the FTC are fired; agency personnel are asked to submit weekly updates to DOGE on their work. Credit union taxation is on some agendas. NCUA board members spar over OD fees, versus uniting to support the agency’s mission to serve credit unions.
As the political and constitutional events evolve, the outcome will depend on political power. For credit unions, this is the voting and lobbying efforts of their members. Every industry “walks the hill.” Every paid lobbying group makes PAC donations.
But few groups would claim the potential clout of member-owners acting to protect their democratic institutions.
Despite the news from Washington, all voting is done locally.
However, this member constituent power is latent. Asking for action requires informed awakening and clear messaging.
An immediate way to activate this process is to engage the members at the annual meeting. That is where their attention as owners and their role in governance is exercised.
The required annual baord election is the opportunity to affirm their potential political role by making this a real meeting, not a pro forma event. It starts, as shown in the example below, by showing how their board members are nominated and then voted on as part of the meeting.
The Chair and CEO’s reports should illustrate their credit union’s special role in members’ lives and in their communities. When presenting threats to the cooperative model, the members will know what is at stake. Finally, specific actions they may be called upon to support their member-owned financial cooperatives should be discussed and feedback sought.
Here is the lead story in the March 13, 2025 email to members by O BEE credit union.
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Apply for Our Board! |
| As an O Bee Member, you’re already part of an award-winning credit union dedicated to delivering gold-standard service to our Members. If you appreciate our mission and want to get more involved in helping families and communities achieve financial well-being, we invite you to join us as an Associate Board Member.
This volunteer position receives training on board responsibilities, credit union policies and industry regulations. Associate Board Members provide input on policies and help set the strategic direction of the organization. Typically, Associate Board Members have time to gain hands-on experience with the work and responsibilities before they are invited to join the Board as voting directors. We hope to fill two to three positions and encourage any Member who is interested to apply. Your voice and passion can make a difference! |
The link at the end of the article lists the duties of the board, includes an application to be a nominee, and details of the board’s compensation.
Transparency is vital to a credible election process. This strengthens members’ awareness of their governance role. When the credit union then asks them to a act as citizens in a democracy, you have already “walked the talk.” They can trust that you have their best interets in mind.
Putting members at the center of a credit union’s story is an art. When done well, it reinforces the fundamental cooperative difference, especially when an integral part of the public message.
One credit union that does this with great skill is Whitefish Credit Union in Whitefish, MT.
Below is a recent example of their unique video series. These member centered short films portray individuals’ special interests, the natural landscape of the area, and a broad community purpose being served.
Following is a story by a founder of the Back Country Horsemen on this non-profit’s 50th anniversary. Their example has extended across the country. As one person remarks, every state has its own “back country,” even Delaware.
The video makes you want to saddle up and be a part of this ride with this credit union.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wodQNsu5fSQ)