Category: Observations

A CEO’s March 2021 Comment to the Board:

“Almost daily the mood all around us is improving – not from the messages that the media and our government push on us, but from the fact that teammates announce with beaming faces that they got vaccinated, that they recognize more and more people have gotten vaccinated, and that the momentum for things to improve is local and real (not national, not a mirage of bias).”

A Thought about Future Living Environments (from: Building Back Better, You Say? It’s All About Scale) By James Howard Kunstler

“The good news is there is another way (than big city or suburban life), and it’s a better way: the traditional town, where all kinds of businesses can be integrated healthily and happily with houses and apartments; where most of the things you need from day-to-day are within a five-minute walk; and where everything is at a much more humane scale. There are thousands of towns across the USA that once formed the basis of what we considered most valuable about American life: places worth caring about, places that you could confidently call your home. Most of them are in terrible shape these days, because for most of the past century, Americans have been settling in the big cities and the suburbs. Dis-investment has been savage in small-town America.

But that is the next frontier for redevelopment and should be of special interest to New Urbanists.(and credit unions) Get in early and avoid the rush. These small towns, and even small cities, are sitting there waiting to be reactivated with much of their infrastructure intact and already properly scaled to the more austere conditions we face going forward. The renovations can be accomplished at the small scale, building lot by building lot, without requiring absurd amounts of capital.”

“People tend to forget that only at the end of Bergengren’s career did he help foster the Federal Credit Union Act. For decades he worked on the local. He did what needed to be done to get people to come together for their mutual benefit, mainly around communities. . . Then came the federal insurance fund. The irony of this idea was that the bureaucrats were suddenly turning into the protectors of the people and hence kind of policeman. Soon the core of what credit unions are, began to get lost. The Federal vision went from one of creativity and growth (of charters) to jittery watchdog.”

Ed Callahan, Callahan Report, October 1995

Last week I printed my boarding pass for NASA for a trip to Mars.

Perseverance has just sent back the first report on the effort to find if life existed on the planet.

When winter comes, can spring be far behind.

My first crocus arrives.

The US leads the world in COVID deaths and is third only to UK and Italy measured by deaths per 100,000 population.

Why?

I watched the Mars rover landing live. It was exciting, joyous and uplifting.

The first messages back from the rover were just as inspiring. They will be in collections of “memorable quotes” from now on.

Rover texted: “I have found my forever home!”

And this was followed by: “Perseverance and Ingenuity will take you anywhere”–the names of the two AI vehicles which had successfully landed minutes earlier.

So I have decided to join them. Below is my boarding pass from NASA. Mars certainly seems to be a friendly neighborhood planet, especially with so much intelligence already there.

The only question is how am I going to spend my 1.1 billion frequent flyer miles?

From CUToday February 24, 2021: “The African-American Credit Union Coalition (AACUC) plans to induct five credit union leaders into its Hall of Fame at the Virtual Induction on March 1, 2021.

Each One a Stellar Leader

“This year’s honorees are shining examples of professional excellence.”

An Iconic Leader

The only honoree I personally know is Jim Blaine. A reflection on his selection.

The fresco artist Fra Angelico (1387-1455) was a member of the Dominican order, whence the “Fra” or “Brother.” He is a canonized saint whose feast day is celebrated on February 18.

In the leadup to Fra Angelico’s canonization, Pope John Paul II is said to have pointed to the artist’s Vatican frescoes and remarked, “Why do we need miracles? These are his miracles.”

That comment is an insightful reminder of the lasting contributions when ordinary human responsibility is given to an artist.

Jim combines the competitive discipline of a CEO with the artistry of a poet. His succinct pronouncements have the ring of truth, a rare quality in a digital era. State Employees Credit Union NC became a towering presence in his tenure as he was fully public and transparent in his motivations.

He stayed at the forefront implementing credit union purpose. His leadership demonstrated how member well-being can be the incontestable outcome of cooperative design.

An iconic leader guided by higher principles and universal truth, he eschewed contemporary fads preferring to enhance credit union legacy strengths. In that conviction, he acknowledged the needs of every soul, equally.

Two principles guided Ed Callahan’s tenure as NCUA chair.  One was his positive motivation.  In his many public comments,  he never summoned  fear about the future; rather he always presented examples of hope and progress by the movement.

The second was his belief in the enterprising spirit of human nature.   He believed ordinary men and women had created an extraordinary cooperative system  that deserved the respect and support of regulators.  In his own words:

“Our movement does not exist because it was created from the top down. Rather it was created from the bottom up. We did not tell Congress we wanted to be “safe and sound” institutions. We always knew that if we were lending to our members there was risk involved. Serving came first; safety and soundness was a means to the end of serving.”

Ed Callahan, Callahan Report, May 1999