How credit unions served members in the 2008/2009 financial crisis and became “a model for others.”
Timeless Wisdom: “You Can Join”
Here is an article from 2002 that I find is still relevant today.
Callahan Wants A ‘Secret’ Shared
(Source: Credit Union Journal. Laura Ortiz, Midwest Correspondent, September 16, 2002)
He’s probably said it a million times: “Credit unions are the best kept secret in the world.”
And Ed Callahan repeated that mantra in a farewell speech, of sorts, to NASCUS during its 37th Annual Convention and Symposium here. Callahan, CEO of Patelco Credit Union in San Francisco, former chairman of NCUA and co- founder of the Washington, D.C.-consulting firm that still carries his name, plans to retire by year-end.
But, in his booming, forthright manner, the message came across with new passion and perhaps, frustration.
“If the membership continues to grow, our jobs are that much more secure,” he said. “Our only goal is to serve Americans.”
Among his suggestions to move the industry along was to expand shared branching to a national level.
“Our members are eternally grateful when they can walk into a branch.”
Wouldn’t it be nice, he said, if they could walk into any branch in the United States and take care of their financial business?
“If cooperatives work together, we can have 30,000-a minimum of 30,000-locations available to them,” he said. “What other financial institution on the planet can do that?”
Callahan added that there is no reason anyone in America shouldn’t belong to a credit union. So, why don’t they?
“They don’t know anything about us,” he shouted. “We’re the best kept secret in the world.”
His advice on how to get the message out:
“Get some butcher paper and put it across the credit union,” he said, recalling his early days when such simple signage was used to advertise such things as “Bread: five cents a loaf.”
“Put your credit union’s rates on common shares and CDs on that butcher paper,” he said. “Underneath that, put Bank of America or Wells Fargo (or the for-profit competition in your area) on there with their rates. And, for God’s sake, put ‘You Can Join.”
The Mark of Leadership
Great leaders’ contributions are not always found in the answers they give. Their most important insights may be framing the essential questions to be asked.
In this respect Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) provided us a thoughtful legacy. One of her enduring queries was:
“Who will take responsibility for raising the next generation?”
Practicality, dealing with present circumstances, dominates most of America’s economically focused society. The future, well that’s for others to manage. Her question challenges each of us to consider not merely what we do today, but also how our priorities will be viewed 25 years from now. Or in credit union terminology, what are we “paying forward” for future members?
A Moment for Joy from La Scala
What could be more Italian than boys and girls eating a pasta lunch in the school’s cafeteria? And then adding some live opera.
This is your calming experience for the day!
How Does This Demographic Trend Affect Your Strategy?
The chart below shows that the formation of married families is occurring later in life for both genders. It is a long term generational trend.
One question would be to ask why? And will the trend continue?
If yes, what will be the impact on credit union strategy? Both the impact on member demand for certain loan products and the changing pattern of employees’ career planning?
Timeless Wisdom in a Time of Disconnects
“There are some serious disconnects going on. Ones that imperil the safety and soundness of credit unions. One is the disconnect between members and their credit unions. The other is between credit unions and their regulators.
Organizations such as credit unions are market driven. Regulatory systems are bureaucratic and not market driven. The regulators are not so cognizant of just how rapid the changes in the real world are. They are just focused on a bookkeeper’s definition of safety and soundness.”
– Ed Callahan, May 1999
From the Field: A Family Photo
Timeless Wisdom in a Timely Moment
“I feel the wind blowing, and it’s blowing in the favor of monopoly. You can feel it in tele-communications; you can feel it in banking. It is an ill wind.
Credit unions are small. Yes, very small. But it is vital that America not say they are too small to be worth the effort of keeping them around. Because if nothing else, credit unions keep alive a principle; that principle is freedom of choice.”
– Ed Callahan, June 1997
Timeless Wisdom Following NASCUS’ 2020 Virtual Summit
“I think if you took the pulse of credit unions today, you would discover two feelings: worry over the growing authority of NCUA; and a desire for more flexibility than now exists under the charter options . . . The best remedy to this climate is a vigorous dual-chartering system, that is, both a vibrant federal chartering option and a vibrant state-chartering, non-federal share insurance. Danger grows if there is only one option. Such a climate breeds bureaucracy and lazy thinking.”
– Ed Callahan, May 2000
The 19th Amendment Helps Enfranchise a Movement
The legacy of credit union pioneer Louise Herring (1909-1987) is vital to the creation of the modern day credit union movement. As summarized in her alma mater’s profile, she managed Kroger’s first credit union and founded a dozen more while helping to charter over 500 credit unions in her five decades of activity. To support these nascent charters, she formed local chapters, the Ohio League and the private insurance alternative known today as ASI.
Most importantly she was the youngest woman to attend the Estes Park Conference in 1934 which founded the Credit Union National Association.
More Than the Sum of Her Accomplishments
Through the force of her personality, she shared her passion for credit unions in all circumstances. The following is a story from the book Sharing the American Dream, published by the Credit Union Executive Society.
It is a small but typical example of how the 19th amendment created possibilities for women’s leadership benefiting all Americans far into the future.
Neither snow nor jail could stop Herring
by Louise McCarren Herring
This excerpt comes from the book “Sharing the American Dream,” from the Credit Union Executives Society.
I almost always organized credit unions at a change of a shift or before or after working hours. One night, I went to a meeting of teachers in Columbus, Ohio. The meeting ended about 9 p.m., and since I had scheduled a meeting with the Dayton, Ohio, police for early the next morning when the late shift went off and the first shift came on, I decided to drive the 70 miles to Dayton that night. Even though it was snowing and most people would have said in those days that it was foolish to drive at night, I started out.
I got to the outskirts of Columbus and saw a streetcar parked at what I thought was the end of the line. I passed the streetcar and was immediately stopped by the police for passing a streetcar that was loading and unloading.
An officer took me back to headquarters downtown where I was told I either had to pay a fine, post bond or go to jail. Because of the snowy night, many officers were sitting around either coming off duty or waiting to go on. They listened as I explained that I could do none of these things because I had to be in Dayton early the next morning to organize a credit union for the police force there.
As I explained what a credit union was and the good it could do for working people, the officers sitting around started to pitch money up on the table to pay my fine. I made each person who contributed to my fine give me his name and address so I could repay him. Finally enough money came in to pay the fine and I was dismissed, with a date to return to organize a credit union for them.
They thought the idea was so good they were willing to pay to have a credit union organized. It gave me the opportunity to tell them, as I have told so many groups, that no one should pay to get a credit union.
(Roy) Bergengren and (his colleague Edward) Filene had secured the laws and organized the credit unions as a public service. Those who received this service without cost or obligation had a responsibility to see to it that anybody who wanted a credit union should get it just as they did — without cost or obligation.
Bergengren often paid lawyers and other local people to organize credit unions. He never paid me because I felt it was a great privilege to organize credit unions in the hours I was not working on a full-time job.
The first credit union I organized was for the members of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. I knew nothing about organizing credit unions so I spent the entire meeting reading aloud the bylaws and explaining the brief but exciting history of the credit union movement. Later on, I was able to cut down the time it took to organize a credit union.
