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.
From a WW II poster exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
War as business. America’s advantage.
Multiple examples of concern about inflation in wartime.
War is a shared burden with the home front.
A new war and a new generation.
War and protests
Solid Anchor, US Navy outpost on the SonAnDoc river, Vietnam
Returning to the USS Windham County, LST 1170, February 1971.
Returning home to families waiting for ship to tie up in Yokosuka, Japan.
This is a story of how one soldier’s wartime conduct created an example that will inspire future generations. His decision is one all free societies honor in their Memorial Day ceremonies.
(May 11, 2926)
He was captured in eastern Ukraine. He was unarmed. He was surrounded. He looked at the men who captured him and said two words:
Slava Ukraini.
Then the gunfire came.
Oleksandr Matsievskyi was born on May 10, 1980, in Chișinău, Moldova. He lived there for 28 years before moving to Nizhyn, a quiet city in Ukraine’s Chernihiv region. He worked an ordinary job. He was a husband to his wife, a son to his mother Paraska, a father to his boy Mykhailo. Nothing about him suggested he would become a name the world would remember.
On the first day of russia’s full-scale invasion, he went to the recruitment office. They turned him away. He came back. On March 11, 2022, he was finally enlisted into the 119th Territorial Defense Brigade. He trained as a sniper. By late autumn he was deployed to Bakhmut, and then to Soledar – the meat grinder where russia was throwing men into Ukrainian fire by the thousand.
On December 30, 2022, Oleksandr and four comrades were caught in a counterattack on the outskirts of Soledar. Mortar and small arms fire pinned down the reinforcements trying to reach them. Contact was lost around noon. There were no witnesses left to tell what happened next – the rest were dead or missing.
His mother recognized him in the first frame. So did his son. So did the men who had served beside him.
What the world saw was a man with nothing left. No weapon. No way out. No chance of rescue. By every measure russia understood, he had already lost.
But Oleksandr did something they could not account for.
He stood up straight. He smoked. He looked them in the eye. And before they pulled the trigger, he gave them his answer – the only one that mattered.
Slava Ukraini.
The voices on the video, in russian, snarl back: Die, bitch.
They thought they were ending his life. They were making him permanent.
Within days, his words were repeated by presidents and prime ministers. Schoolchildren learned his name. Streets in Ukraine were renamed. A statue went up in his hometown. President Zelenskyy gave him the title Hero of Ukraine, posthumously, and his mother Paraska accepted the medal through tears. She told reporters her son had said to her, more than once: Mum, I will never let them capture me. She said it wasn’t a slogan. It was something inside him – a core.
I keep coming back to that word. Core.
Because what Oleksandr showed in that trench wasn’t bravery in the action-movie sense. He wasn’t charging a machine gun nest. He wasn’t saving anyone. He was already lost, and he knew it. What he had left was the question every Ukrainian has been forced to answer since February 2022: who are you, when there’s nothing left to lose?
His answer was two words long.
This is what russia has never understood about us, and what it still doesn’t understand today. They imagine we fight because we are commanded to, or paid to, or tricked into it. They cannot conceive of a people who fight because the alternative – living on their knees, in their world, by their rules – is worse than dying on their feet.
Oleksandr was 42. He had a wife. He had a 17-year-old son. He had every reason in the world to beg, to bargain, to say whatever the men with rifles wanted to hear.
He chose differently.
That choice is the inheritance he left us – every Ukrainian who came after, every soldier in a trench tonight, every child who will grow up in a free Ukraine because men like him refused.
Glory to Oleksandr Matsievskyi.
Glory to the heroes.
Glory to Ukraine.
For-profit firms always have one foot in the grave via maximizing their liquidation values via the speculation of being compensated for a change of ownership.
At its core, cooperatives assume a life cycle vision of an infinite marriage with the consumer’s need for a voice in the ownership of their communities’ focus and evolution. My voice in my community. (from a cooperative entrepreneur)
In America we live lives in much freedom even if we may disagree with certain specific leaders or political agendas..
So familiar is America’s circumstance that it is easy to forget freedom’s universal human appeal.
The following brief excerpt is how freedom sounds, looks and feels when it is regained in individual lives. No words are needed.
When was the last time you felt this deep sense of intense, overwhelming emotion to be alive, again?
(click X to go beyond the Facebook login page, and turn on sound at athe top of the video)
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1333307288675719
This poem is based on a shared cultural experience, the 1950’sTV show, You Asked For It.
Only one episode is recalled which sparks a question on life and meaning:
Is your slingshot useless in this new world? A gift forgotten?
You Asked For It
There was a show on TV called
You Asked For It. Viewers would write in
and ask to see unusual things, such as
the world’s greatest slingshot expert.
I watched it every week
on our humble Motorola, although
the only episode I can remember now
is the one about the slingshot expert.
He was a grown man, as I recall,
and he lived in an ordinary place like New Jersey.
At a distance of ten or twenty paces
he could pulverize one marble with another.
He could hit a silver dollar
tossed into the air. He was the kind
of father I wanted to have,
an expert shot, never missing.
And I think of him now, perhaps long dead,
or frail and gray, his gift forgotten.
Just another old guy on a park bench
in Fort Lauderdale, fretting about Medicare,
grateful for the sun on his back, his slingshot
useless in this new world.
From a recent exchange on credit union leadership:
In the specific case of the Supervisory Committee I made the mistake of thinking that the lack of expertise was a problem that justified change. . . the ancient Greeks selected their leaders by lottery and governed that way. They proved that expertise is not the essential but more critical is widespread participation and representation.
In my many years as CEO I found that common sense, proximity to the issue at hand, were as important as expertise. And If expertise was needed it could be hired. Our Supervisory Committee always had a high-quality CPA firm, a high-quality CFO on staff and a high-quality internal auditor on staff. When we ended the Supervisory Committee, we lost one more element of member participation. I did not see the extent then that members would be distanced from their credit union.
I see that distance today. Credit Union executives are paid far more than most of the members and live a life unlike that of the members, in particular those members and potential members who need credit the most, need financial literacy, need housing, and need a community-based member controlled source of credit.
This issue of distance is critical to how cooperatives function and the difference they claim to make in members’ lives.
How representative is the board of the membership? By income levels? By employment experience? By proximity? By age?
Are directors appointed for “expertise” and “community roles” versus lived experience?
How are new board candidates identified and by whom? Does the existing board reach out to friends first or seek member input and advise?
As in many other areas of life and leadership, an inbred pattern of leadership selection without opportunities for new points of view, is not a problem, until critical choices arise. Should we merge? Invest in this CUSO venture or in that digital shiny new service? Even changing to a new supplier trying to enter the market? Support a new coop campaign or assist another credit union in our area?
When a board opts for friends and experts for leadership, and member voices are not wanted, the critical decisions may reflect a very different perspectives and criteria far removed from members’ lives.
Effective leadership, especially at crucial turning points, is always a judgment not a technical choice between competing experts or data projections. When was the last time your board sought member input on any issue?
“On this day in 1940 Winston Churchill gave his first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons. Three days earlier, he had taken over the job from Neville Chamberlain, who resigned. . .
“So although the 65-year-old Churchill had been a politician for more than 30 years and delivered plenty of speeches to the House of Commons, this was his first as prime minister. . . the speech Churchill gave is considered one of his greatest. He said: “I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: ‘I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.’ We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” (Source: Garrison Keillor, The Writer’s Almanac for May 13)
The folk singer Jesse Welles is a contemporary version of Woody Gutherie and Bob Dylan. He writes and posts an average of a new ballad each week.
Here is his latest, Call Me When You Win the War. Just over 2 minutes.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntbj-kB3Ooc)
Few people recall the circumstances when a leader first assumed the role. But everyone will know how the person left. What were the motivations, the timing and most importantly, what happens to the legacy created.
CEO transitions can be moments of honor, but also introduce risks and uncertainty for staff and institutional momentum.
Recently I read the following CEO announcement of impending retirement. It is gracious, reassuring and most importantly, carefully planned.
The words are well-chosen, a tribute to the confidence staff and CEO share with each other. It should come as no surprise that this is one of the most successful leadership tenures by any measure, from net promoter scores, community-member impact and financial soundness.
Most significantly, this CEO is ensuring the achievements are paid forward for the well-being of staff and future members’ children. The transition continues local control so that savings and loans are reinvested into the community that supports it. Although more than doubling in size, the credit union is still way under $1 billion.
Would all such cooperative CEO leadership transitions have this thoughtfulness or, in the words of the CEO, “It’s just business as usual.”
After thoughtful consideration and with both gratitude and confidence in our future, I’d like to share that I will retire from my role as Chief Executive Officer effective December 31, 2026.
Serving this organization and working alongside each of you has been the greatest professional honor of my career. Together we have navigated change, strengthened our culture, delivered meaningful impact and value to our members and communities, and have posted our Best Year Ever for many consecutive years. I’m proud of what we have accomplished – and even more proud of the people who make this organization what it is.
A detailed CEO succession plan was adopted by the Board of Directors last year, so know that this transition has been carefully and deliberately planned. The Board’s CEO succession plan prioritizes leadership continuity, strategic alignment, and organizational stability.
This comprehensive plan has been developed over time, is now being executed and positions the organization for sustained success well beyond my tenure.
The Board will communicate additional details regarding timing and leadership transitions as appropriate.
Until then, it is very much business as usual, and I remain fully committed to my responsibilities through the end of 2026.
I am confident in the strength of this organization, the clarity of its strategy, and the depth of its leadership. Thank you for your professionalism, dedication, trust and friendship. I look forward to continuing to work together over the coming months in our never-ending quest to provide members their Best Banking Experience Ever.
I heard several graduation speeches at the University of Michigan a week ago. While the words were directed at the graduating classes, their wisdom went beyond the seniors.
One dean noted that.the four-year journey isn’t only discovering what area of learning most interests you, but more importantly, who you want to become? What do you want to create? What are you good at? What are your values? And his charge to the class, stay curious and become more self-aware about your life’s role, whatever that becomes.
I thought how this learning curve applies in most job responsibilities but especially leaders of organizations such as credit union CEO’s. How many achieve this position of final organizational accountability and then stop learning? The ascendency is itself was the goal, the payoff.
An example is a CEO transition failure at Cornerstone FCU which resulted in a merger in just over a year after the Chairman stepped down to become CEO. This $110 million, community-based operation in Carlisle, PA had become a difference maker in all areas of community life under the long-term leadership of CEO David Keffer. A transition plan and internal succession in place. But the Chair decided he wanted the job only to discover he couldn’t handle it. Within in a year he was reaching out to merge.
CEO’s who achieve the leadership role and stop learning about their own strengths and weaknesses will sooner or later seek a way out. In credit unions, mergers are a preferred escape route. Review the Vermont State Employees merger for a case in point.
Personal ambition that overreaches a person’s abilities is not a new leadership issue. But among the many possible antidotes, I believe one idea might help open eyes as these leadership transitions occur. For ultimately these transition failures are examples of character shortcomings.
In American life, the guardians of our values are coaches, teachers, parents, religious and community leaders. In this arena of moral examples are cooperative volunteers. Their decisions and actions set the circumstances in which leaders are selected and overseen.
If these carriers of our culture’s values fail whether it be in school, civic leadership or volunteer roles, can the organizations succeed in their public purpose?
While the press and other sources of accountability can call out shortcomings for action, the leaders must still respond.
Living in a moment when “public service” is a grift not a calling, leadership will require an extra effort of courage and conduct, if the best of our intentions and society’s possibilities are to be realized. It is sometimes a lonely role, but an example never forgotten.
Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories and poems reflect a surreal and tragic life. His father and mother died before the poet was three years old. He was raised by John and Frances Allan as a foster child in Richmond, VA.
In 1836 he married Virginia, a teenager, who would die of tuberculosis ten years later. This poem, a meditation on a mother “who died early” but still knowing that unconditional, infinite love, his “heart of hearts,” via his wife.
Edgar Allan :Poe 1809-1849
The angels, whispering to one another, Can find, among their burning terms of love, None so devotional as that of "Mother," Therefore by that dear name I long have called you— You who are more than mother unto me, And fill my heart of hearts, where Death installed you In setting my Virginia's spirit free. My mother—my own mother, who died early, Was but the mother of myself; but you Are mother to the one I loved so dearly, And thus are dearer than the mother I knew By that infinity with which my wife Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
If a credit union improves its capital ratio while its members’ average credit score drops, did it have a good year?
We don’t have a standard way to answer that and I think that’s a problem.
Financial health metrics for institutions are mature, required, and reported quarterly. Member financial health metrics are voluntary, inconsistent, and often absent.
To my credit union colleagues: