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.

Heroes of Ukraine

by Roman Sheremeta.

(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.

Two months later, the video appeared

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.

Garrison Keillor the creater of the Prairie Home Companion public radio show is still delivering his routine in one night stands around the country.   He augments these live performances with occasional blogs and republishing The Writer’s Almanac prior daily broadcasts.

His observations about human behavior have meanng far beyond the Lake Wobgegon community.  Recently he discussed how humor relies on personal delivery.

“Comedy is intimate. You poke them right, they laugh, it isn’t a conceptual problem. AI can create what sounds like jokes but they’re not funny. AI is going to take over banking and politics long before it takes over comedy.”

Following are two of his examoles of peole exchanging stories together::

“A cold day in Minnesota and the sign at the nudist camp was: We’re open but we’re clothed.  And that led to one about the man who entered ten puns in a pun contest hoping one would win but no pun in ten did.”  or,

“God calls him up and says, “The world is going to end in seven days.” And he tells Melania, “The bad news is that there is a God but the good news is that I won’t be impeached.”

Humor, AI and the Cooperative Advantage

The most vital cooperative advantage is the organization’s relationships with their members.  It is the human connection not the number or amount of transactions that sustains an enterpreise.

Members know they can call and trust they will have a hearing while being being  treaed as “kin folk” not just another customer.

Continuing to implement this difference, which evolved naturally  in  credit union’s founding years, is just as impotant to credit union union success now.

AI “manned” institutions may dominate financial transaction in the future, but AI cannot duplicated the cooperative adantage when fully embraced by a credit union’s leadership team.

But being a cooperative  is not easy.  As Keillor says everybody knows a joke or two, but only a small number in a group are real story tellers.  For those who remember, consider how Bucky Sebastian brings life to any conversation. Ask him to tell how Ed Callahan went to the Burger King for lunch and asked for the quarter ounder special done his way!’

Tomorrow I will describe  how a credit union is putting cooperative at the core  of its business model.  Like humor, it puts humans as the central story.

What would such an event mean for the coop system?

Whether the termination of new coop charters was due to administrative policy, legislative chartering overhaul, or competitors’ making good on their legal challenges, what would credit union leaders say?

The reality is that those who might aspire for a coop charter will have no voice.  The only persons with standing to oppose would be those who already have the benefits of a charter-the members , the employees, directors  and senior management.  Would would be your reaction?

 Some Possible Responses

“No new charters are opening anyway, so how would this be any different?”

“Consolidation will just continue so preserving charters is not a movement priority.”

“We’ll be ok because we have plenty of capital.  If necessary, we could even switch charters if the system atrophies.”

“Credit unions were created in a very different era with  limited consumer choices. Now there are many options inclding CDFI for underserved communities  and low-cost fintech options available to almost anyone.”

“We’d be disappointed.  Credit unions have done much good. We still have our charter though.  I have more urgent priorities keeping my credit union going, so this would not be a top issue for me.

Finally,” I don’t like shutting the door for others, but what can I do about it? It’s not my problem.”

The Credit Union System’s New Charter Results

Denise Wymore, founder of CU De Novo Collective,  reports the following new charter results from the past 8 years (2018-2025):

Of the 20 total charters issued, 16 are still active and 4 or 20% are closed.

The distribution by size:  7 are under $1.0 million in assets, 7 are between $1-$10 million, and two are over $10 million.  At various times NCUA has reported having at least  90 new charter activities in various stages.

In this same eight  years NCUA in it’s 2025  Annual Report (page 165) shows 1,191 total mergers of which only 12 were assisted.   That means most mergers are by credit union with adequate capital ratios.  Leadership chose to give up their genreations-long charters.

A new charter survival rate of just two per year, would  not appear to be a viable response to the loss of independent credit union operations.

By doing nothing about this charter drought, the industry is just accepting the reality of the headline- no new charters- but without any discussion or angst.

Why Chartering  Matters

Two reasons.  No new charters means the industry is dying.  One can make all sorts of counter arguments, such as we have more members, more assets, more branches, while average asset  size increases to $570 million.

But it is not size, but rather the diversity and applicability of the charter to very different circumstances that makes a coop charter so attractive.  Credit unions were never intended to come from a common mold.

In most areas of human endeavor, one of the most powerful ties that bind is “local.”  Coop power is unleashed when when human beings show up for one another.

But the reality is that fewer and fewer communities have access to their own locally controlled and focused independent financial cooperative.  Decisions about members’ savings, loan priorities and even market presence are made elsewhere.

A  dispersed financial operation over multiple states and different communities compromises one of the primary advantages of cooperative design.   That does not mean credit unions cannot grow large; however ever increasing size requires careful thought to preserve the strengths of member-owned credit unions.

Secondly, there appears to be from NCUA’s own tally and from reported activity in other financial charters, widespread interest in new financial startups.   Certainly, there are multiple groups today that are  interested in managing their own financial institution.

The problem may not be on the demand side but rather the “supply” process.  That is  the regulatory hurdles that requires interested groups to invest years of volunteer time, energy and expense with application steps and then given a start up capital requirement  before the charter is active.  Just like a bank, only smaller scale.

Where is Our Future Hope?

What if the next credit union revolution were to start on a campus?   What if a new generation believed in the fundamentals of cooperative design so strongly they were willing to devote their student years to founding  a credit union?  And then making it their  legacy for all future students?

What if they were so motivated and capable that the facts above did not phase the group even a little?

What might we learn, or re-learn, from their embrace of a cooperative solution for their community?  With multiple online financial options available to students, why is a credit union charter needed?

Tomorrow we will meet a group of 31 coop entrepreneurs tailoring a new coop for their generation.  I believe it can remind all of the need and ongoing appeal for owning  and controlling one’s own financial institution.

This is the group showing the way for the next generation of coop leadership. Will this new era the credit union story start on a campus, versus a mill in Manchester, New Hampshire?  Their efforts tomorrow.

Following are two examples of non-profits reaching out to like-minded organizations to improve their institution’s effectiveness for  stakeholders. The first example is from Next City in an article : Inside a Kentucky City’s Unusual Experiment in  Citizen Led Governance.   This is a co-governance model.

The credit union applications seem obvious.  For in  the early years of a credit union’s efforts the sponsor often participated in co-leadership role.

The best example however, may be the co-governance leadership of the CLF from  1983 through 2008.  In these decades, NCUA and the corporate network joined to bring all credit unions access to the liquidity facility.  The model was broken by NCUA when it conserved US Central in 2008.  The CLF has not functioned in a liquidity role since.

A Co-governance Effort for a City

Here is the opening description from the Next City article:

Public trust in government is near historic lows. But Americans’ trust in their local government far outweighs trust in the federal government. It’s been this way since the mid-2000s, when the State of the Nation Project began keeping track. . .

For the past month, 36 randomly-selected residents of Lexington have been meeting regularly to develop and deliberate over policy recommendations for revising Lexington’s charter to produce healthier and more effective local governance. 

Marjan Ehsassi, executive director of the Federation for Innovation in Democracy (FIDE) says local co-governance models like these are part of the solution to rebuilding American democracy from the ground up: “People are feeling like, ‘I can control my local [government]. I can control what’s happening locally.’”. . .

Across seven sessions, the assembly members learned about the people and systems that keep Lexington’s roads paved and city hall lights on. They heard from subject matter experts and members of the public. They built mutual trust, changed their minds, and came to difficult compromises.

 And when the assembly issued its final recommendations on March 29,2026  members ultimately decided to trust their council representatives enough to recommend a large pay bump, in addition to pushing for increased attendance and accountability requirements. . .

At a time when NCUA is inundating credit unions with almost two dozen reviews of regulations following tradtional bureaucratic processes, this assembly approach might result in mre effective outcomes.

Strategic Brainstorming with AI and Students

Have you ever attended a strategic planning session where no new ideas came out? There was nothing proposed to get excited about?

A  linkedIn post describes a strategic brainstorming effort between a non-profit School the World and Boston University special help group.

Here is the opening:  Last night I saw the power of AI, collaboration, creativity, and youthful energy come to life at Hack4Impact BU’s Nonprofit Build-a-thon.

 The challenge given the four teams was to create a solution for thinking of ways to sustain engagement with our student service learning volunteers after they return from their week-long trips in Central America. Is there a way to continue to integrate these students in a continuing role in the charity’s educational purpose?

The post describes four strategic options created by the BU teams in 45 minutes of collaborative  AI powered research. (link)  Each volunteer team   outlined very different approaches to continuing the student’s role beyond their one week on the ground  at a foreign primary school.  Here is one example:

Team Project Social took the idea of how students could use their in-person and online social networks to expand the involvement of students with our mission. I was most excited about the idea they had to connect students in Central America with the volunteers back home in the US through a tutoring interface. They really took their lived experience and applied it to our challenge.

Getting outside the Box

Lexington’s city government and the non-profit School the World, engaged with outside resources from universities  to discover  better ways for organizational effectiveness.  The local universities were not experts in the organizations they assisted.

The co-governance model effort took  almost 18 months.  The strategic brainstorming session lasted an evening.  Both were cooperative, collaborative efforts assisting the leadership of local organizations.   Bringing in outsiders, even employing AI, created enthusiasm and ideas often lacking  in traditional planning or problem-solving efforts.  The city and the non-profit leaders went outside their usual planning efforts.

Can these examples help credit unions go beyond the usual ways of evaluating  business strategy and options?

The co-governance process has worked before with credit unions.   It was how the 1984 redesign of the NCUSIF was implemented. Today it would seem a novel way to engage members for their insights to credit union strategy.  Especially as most boards have opted out of any direct dialogue or engagement with members.

Can new insights for the cooperatives  be generated by innovative brainstorming with groups like Boston University’s Hack for Social Impact process?  Isn’t this the way cooperatives were initially conceived, by out of he box thinkers?

March is named after the Roman God of war.  Events so far are proving this month worthy of its name.

The US Military Draft Status

President Trump’s 48 Hour Ultimatum to Iran

On March 21, the President posted the following warning to Iran on Truth Social:

If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!

In a phone call with the business channel CNBC on Monday, Trump announced a five day pause for further “negotiations.”  The US stock market instantly took off and oil prices fell.

The  War Secretary and a Win-Win Solution for America

In this moment of March Madness,   would a win-win solution be to send ICE to  confront Iran’s Revolutionary Guards versus further deployment in US airports?

 Recently I asked the former, now retired CEO of CU*Answers, to explain his observation that every organization is only one or two CEO transitions from failure. He did not necessarily mean financial failure, although that can happen.  Rather, it is the loss of founding purpose coupled with the desire of new CEO’s to make their mark.

Cooperatives and their support organizations are especially vulnerable due to their passive, virtual democratic ownership model.

He compares this loss of identity to how some music lasts for generations, even centuries.  These works are performed time and again in different eras,  whereas other compositions  or songs, while popular are long gone and forgotten.  Risk from leadership turnover is high because each change can lead to a loss of past harmonies that brought everyone together.

Randy’s Song

“When the distinctive song that unites the hearts of a cooperative community’s stakeholders is no longer heard, the mission cannot be sustained.”

That image—a shared song—captures something essential about credit unions. At their founding, every cooperative has a set of beliefs, commitments, and lived experiences that bind members, volunteers, and staff in common purpose. It is not written down in a strategic plan. It is carried in memory, reinforced in stories, and expressed in everyday decisions.

But here is the risk: most credit unions are only one or two CEO transitions away from losing that song entirely.

New leadership often arrives with energy, ambition, and a forward-looking mandate. That is necessary. But too often, the past is treated as irrelevant—something to be modernized, replaced, or quietly set aside. The assumption is that the future is theirs alone to define.

When that happens, the cooperative’s legacy—its relationship competitive advantage—begins to disappear.

Melodies that Remind

A useful parallel comes from music. Why do some works endure for generations—classical compositions, religious hymns, even certain popular songs—while others fade almost as quickly as they appear?  There is no generational transfer because there is no institutional memory.

The difference is not merely quality or changing musical tastes. It is resonance. The music that lasts carries meaning across time. It is repeated, shared, adapted, and remembered because it speaks to something deeper than the moment in which it was created.

Credit unions are no different. Their founding “songs” endure only if they are remembered, retold, and made relevant for each new generation.

Without that continuity, erosion begins.

Members’ memories and loyalty fade. Their connection to the original purpose weakens as daily life, changing expectations, and competitive alternatives crowd in. The member’s song and the credit union’s song drift out of harmony.

Board volunteers lose the founders’ passion. Pressed by governance demands and operational complexity, they can shift from stewards of a mission to overseers of a business. The language of purpose gives way to the language of performance. The song becomes more professional—and less meaningful.

Management and staff follow the new CEO’s cues. Career ambitions push them toward conformity. Success is redefined in terms of growth, scale, and financial metrics. Gradually, a new song replaces the old—one that sounds increasingly like every other financial institution in the market.

And when that happens, the cooperative has not failed. It has simply become indistinguishable.

The challenge is not nostalgia. It is stewardship.

Living the legacy

If credit unions want to sustain their independence and distinctiveness, they must actively renew their institutional memory. This is more than archiving documents or celebrating anniversaries. It requires intentional processes to capture the stories, values, personalities and decisions that defined the organization and industry—and to embed them in leadership development, succession planning, and strategic priorities.

Many cooperatives struggle with strategic myopia.  Both inside and out of the industry the world sees credit unions as a tactical model for banking.  From the beginning, credit unions were a community’s way to embed the customer-owner’s passion,  heart, and  needs in a shared solution. The cooperative song’s evolution is at the core of credit union resilience.

The truth is simple: institutions that forget their song eventually stop singing it.

And those that stop singing it lose the very reason they were created in the first place.

(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%.