From Homer’s Odyssey
“… Whoever draws too close,
… and catches the Sirens’ voices in the air…
The high thrilling song of the Sirens will transfix him…” (see note at end)
Coop CEO’s grapple with multiple challenges and choices. Their strategic judgments are often formed by character not objective circumstance.
As recent events in cooperative land have demonstrated, there are ever present calls by Sirens to enhace one’s power and self enrichment.
This is a story of a CEO who has been solicited incessantly for over a decade to compromise her credit union’s future and her principles.
Vida Means Life in Spanish
Madeline Stewart the CEO of Vida FCU had a lot on her plate at the beginning of 2025.
Three special projects included a name and branding change from Ontario Montclair School Employees FCU to reflect their expanded market; the implementation of the new CDFI lending program; and a complete physical makeover of its office.
These initiatives are described in several public interviews with local media. In January 2025 she completed a 30 minute recording (link) with the Western Cuna Management School (WCMS) whose three-year program she completed in 1999.
An hour live radio broadcast in July was also filmed for YouTube. She presented her CEO journey to three interviewers. She began working with Vida in 2000 becoming CEO in 2016. She explains the special resposibilty of the credit union to provide members value and service available nowhere else.
(KCAA inverviewers and Madeline on the far right)
In the KCAA radio discussion (link) she gives multiple examples of special member benefits. No fees for overdraft, courtesy pay or NSF withdrawals. The same rate for new and used auto loans. A Visa card with an interest rate as low as 8.48%.
On the credit union’s home page there is an About Vida video (link) which she introduces. Other employees and members share their experiences with the credit union.
CEO Sewart is out front. All three recordngs focus on the welfare of members. At one point she mentions growing up in poverty. She sought a career to serve those taken advantage of because of financial circumstances.
The name Vida, life in Spanish. refers to both the credit union’s potential market and the goal of lifelong member relationships spanning generations.
She expresses gratitude. She references a 2016 NCUA examiner who completed a zip code analysis of her members. He recommended she apply for the Low Income Designation (LID) regulatory classification. That approval led to the CDFI program certification when expanding her FOM to an entire county.
Some Vida Numbers
Her responses to question focus on a singular responsibility-how the credit union makes members lives better. I heard little about asset size, growth rates,technology innovation or other institutional benchmarks traditionally a part of CEO interviews.
However here are some selected performance outcomes at 2025 yearend. $170 million in assets with $84 million in loans operating from a single office with 34 employees serving 10,117 members.
Key ratios: ROA, .96%; net worth, 13.8%; Delinquency, .16%; and a net inerest margin of 3.54%.
Vida competes in the southern California market, a land of giant institutions. The credit union thrives by building local personal relationships. With one location, multiple channels and future “twigs” planned, her team stands tall against all comers.
The Call of Sirens from Without and Within
Just as Homer’s Odysseus hero faced constant temptations in his epic quest, she confronts ever present entreaies to change her voyage of special purpose.
For the past ten years the credit union has been the object of constant credit union and intermediary solicitations.
Here are examples of these mulitple communications:
From: February 5, 2026
Good morning, Madeline,
Bumping this up in your inbox as I’ll be travelling out to California (I’m based in Minnesota) for some client meetings and I’m hoping we can align calendars.
Any chance you’d be available for dinner on Feb 26 or breakfast Feb 27?
As I mentioned, happy to provide further context when we connect by phone.
Thanks in advance.
From: Thursday, January 29
Subject: Strategic Interest
Sensitivity: Confidential
Hi Madeline,
Following on from my earlier LinkedIn outreach, I wanted to reach out on behalf of a CU client of ours that’s interested in meeting with you to discuss a potential strategic partnership with Vida FCU.
I would appreciate the opportunity to speak with you at your earliest convenience.
Here is an invitation from 2021;
Trust you and yours are keeping well so far in 2021.
I am writing to you in your position as Chief Executive Officer of Ontario Montclair School Employees FCU to discuss a strategic opportunity with one of my credit union clients.
We’ve been helping companies grow for almost 25 years now and we know that there is value in bringing parties together for exploratory conversations. We have been engaged by a significant-sized credit union based in California that is looking to proactively grow through strategic mergers.
After researching potential candidates,a merger with Ontario Montclair School Employees FCU has been identified as an attractive strategic opportunityfor our client, due to your location and field of membership.
We approach you because we felt there was an interesting strategic fit and that with our client there might be stronger growth opportunities together to better serve members across California.
Our focus at this time is on opening the door for an introductory conversation and presenting their strategic rationale for a merger
The temptations are not just from external brokers, consultants and vendor go betweens. They come from credit unions. One message communicated via the league offered to pay her expenses fo attend the GAC in Washington DC. Local credit union meetings often lead to conversations such as, would you be interested in . . .
In one messsage, the writer threatened to contact the board chair directly if she did not respond!
Standing Tall-for the Members’ Sake
These appeals are a constant refrain in her tenure as CEO. When I asked why she didn’t listen to the pitch to know what is being used to tempt her peers she replied.
I’m not open to temptation; I care about my members & employees. I’m sure the conversations would kick everything off with an NDA request. They have been pursuing me for years but they’re ramping up the efforts. relentless!!!
Credit unons are averaging over 150 mergers of stable and sound credit unions per year. The merged credit union members are transferred to a third party’s control, a firm they had no role in selecting and one often with no local knowledge or presence.
The credo of one firm soliciing credit union mergers is: Every company is for sale … for the right equation. But, it takes skill and experience to find them. Some credit unions succumb to this belief, facilitated with the right monetary incentive.
I believe today’s coop leaders remembered in the future wll not be the largest, most innovative or expansive. Rather it will be the persons who declined the persistent calls to sell out their owners, employees and communities. For they keep alive the special opportunity for all a coop’s stakeholders tp sustain their unique mission.
One of the perceived advantages of cooperative design and member-user governance was to make them immune to the ever present capitalist free market mantra that any organization can be bought or sold–it is just a matter of finding the right price.
Cooperatives were not founded to be sold or converted to private ownership. But today that belief is no longer universally held.
Courage is Contagous
Madeline is a credit union believer who leads with deeds and dedication. She is building a legacy much greater than her balance sheet and half century of serving in the credit union ommunity.
It is the character of her choices and the implementation of cooperative’s ideals that will become a benchmark for all CEO’s large and small who will come after.
Editor’s note: