Category: Observations

The annual Girl Scout cookie fund drive is underway virtually, as most office and on-site sales are under quarantine restrictions.

The email announcing this event from is from my 5 year old great grandniece.   Olivia already “attends” virtual kindergarten. She does virtual exercises and I presume is a virtual Girl Scout.

My first reaction was virtual cookies? We already have those!

Beginning school, social and business skills via the Internet means this generation will be one of the most virtually enabled ever. What else will this early mastery of digital reality change for this generation and society? And what are the implications for every organization hoping to attract their engagement?

Thoughts?

Finishing high school in 1962, dating for the first time, meant learning how to dance.

I even took lessons for the senior prom—at the YMCA. I never really got confident; it seems you either have rhythm or not.

A song that captured the growing popularity of rock and roll versus “slow dance” was Do You Love Me (Now Than I Can Dance). It is from the only album cut by The Contours during their recording career at Motown Records. Issued 58 years ago, October 1962, the album includes the hit title track which starts with the words:

You broke my heart
‘Cause I couldn’t dance

Now the song is back with a new era of rockers. This is a mesmerizing algorithmic performance. There are three rhythmical dancers, including a dog, and a production assistant. Creative and agile moves. They are much better than my stiff, robotic efforts!

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn3KWM1kuAw)

Now that Cirque de Soleil is in bankruptcy, the Arthur Murray dance studios closed and most ballet companies in isolation, is this a future for performances and professional instruction?

The video has generated a wide range of reactions. For some this demonstration gives hope for humanity. Entertaining, almost mesmerizing. It is fun to watch.

For others the video is more dystopian: “Smart people are doomed if these creatures can be programmed for sex.” “Nice knowing you fellow humans. We had a good run. This is the end.” Some immediately presume more militant applications of this AI prowess.

The Lesson for Credit Unions

If this is what scientists with a little extra time on their hands did during a pandemic, what do you think NCUA staff is working on?

When we learn, will the outcome be dystopian or hopeful? Mash Potatoes or the Twist? Are the song’s words a harbinger of a post pandemic agency?

You didn’t even want me around
And now I’m back
To let you know
I can really shake ’em down

The boy in the yellow shirt immigrated with this family to Germany in 1970. He is now the co-founder and CEO of BioNtech.

In 2020 he led the firm’s COVID-19 vaccine development, now being distributed throughout the US and the world.

An Immigrant Creates First US Credit Union

Pierre Hevey, the second pastor of Ste Marie Parish, was born in Saint-Hyacinthe Quebec in 1831. At the age of 19 he entered Sainte-Hyacinthe seminary and ordained to the priesthood on July 13, 1857.

After serving in both Canada and Lewiston, Maine, Fr. Hevey was appointed as the second pastor of Ste. Marie Parish, March 8^th, 1882 in Manchester, New Hampshire.

In 1908, Monsignor Pierre Hevey, as pastor of the parish, organized what would become known as the first credit union in America. The goal was to help the primarily Franco-American mill workers save and borrow money. On November 24, 1908 the new cooperative opened in Manchester as “La Caisse Populaire, Ste-Marie” (The People’s Bank), the nation’s first financial cooperative.

The newly formed “bank” made it possible for Manchester’s immigrants to achieve the better quality of life they had envisioned. For just $5, the price of one share of capital stock, anyone in the community could become a member. Savings were accepted from workers, families, and children. The accumulated savings were, in turn, lent to members to purchase and build homes, establish neighborhood businesses, and meet the personal financial needs of the community.

St. Mary’s Bank prospered. The credit union moved into its own offices in 1913 and hired its first paid, full-time manager in 1916. In 1917, the state legislature approved a bill changing the name from “St. Mary’s Cooperative Credit Association” to “La Caisse Populaire, Ste-Marie”. And, by 1923, the credit union’s assets exceeded $1 million. In 1925, an amended charter allowed the institution to be called either “La Caisse Populaire, Ste-Marie,” or “St. Mary’s Bank.” https://www.stmarysbank.com/nav/about-us/history/our-story

The chart from TransUnion below shows how quickly consumer credit defaults rose and then suddenly declined from March through October 2020.

The September credit union data shows the industry has not seen dramatic upticks in total delinquency and charge offs. However some of these deferrals and forbearance accounts may not have been included as past due.

Key questions include why the sudden turn around? Was it stimulus relief programs? Economic recovery?

Depending on how one interprets these rises and falls will provide some guidance about future trends. For example if Congress fails to pass additional relief, will the down turns reverse? Or is the employment recovery the key to lower rates of credit hardship?

The Monastery of Christ in the Desert, Abiquiu, New Mexico

“I hope that it will look like a “back-to-the-future” revolution. Back to the most basic of cooperative design principles, alive and well. Those concepts move front and center in the organizations driving our futures.

And they are actively promoted by regulators, examiners and auditors of our operation.

I would hope that organizations, both small and huge, will capture the attention of cooperative owners in a way that truly radiates a win-win with the consumer side. “Do no harm” will be our thinking. A respect for our community will drive our entrepreneurial spirit to leverage our financial power more broadly.

We will cast aside our centralized thinking about what is relevant and put upon so many today. Instead we embrace the spirit that every charter is relevant for the simple fact that they willed their CU and its future into the mix.

Bottom line: It will be an industry with a resurgence of purpose over the balance sheet score cards of today.”

Question from the November 16th blog: Can you identify the credit union whose initial name is shown in the image below?

Answer: Boeing Employees CU chartered December 7, 1935.

The “cooperative historical scholar” with the answer was Kathy Tichenor, CLO, Pasadena FCU.

Kathy has been in the credit union movement for over 40 years. Working on her credit union’s founding anniversary she was curious who else had also been around for 85 years or more. She discovered BECU in that research.

She describes herself as “a true believer of why we are here and who we serve” and reminds staff continuously about our roots and how far we have come.

Her message is “we are here for the financial health of our members especially when help is needed during financial distress, sickness and hard times. If I am not assisting a member, I am assisting someone who is.”

BECU’s Founding

Here is the brief beginning from the credit union’s web site:

In 1935, new employees for The Boeing Company were required to purchase their own tools before they could start work. This was the height of the Great Depression. Finding money to buy tools was an insurmountable burden for many prospective employees. A Boeing employee, William Dodge, read an article in Readers Digest about the difference that credit unions were making across the world. Inspired, Dodge got a group of Boeing employees to talk about starting their own credit union. The first loan was for $2.50 to buy tools. https://www.becu.org/members-matter/about-membership/becu-history

BECU Today

With the deposit of 50 cents from each founding member, today the credit union is $25.7 billion in assets. It serves 1.3 million members and employs over 2,405.

The founders’ vision was to help fellow workers during the depression buy the tools necessary for a job at the Boeing Aircraft Company. Their plan was cooperative self-help, a vision that is still the foundation for this billion-dollar cooperative.

Every credit union rests on this same foundation. All start small relying on sweat equity and the communal impulse to aid one another. A few will grow large, most will not. But all demonstrate the power of a vision that inspires and creates legacies benefitting future generations.

From thousands of small seeds, tall trees may grow.

Today’s challenge: are these seeds still being planted? See following blog for why this founding spirit still  provides a vital example  for today.