Just a Member

Critical outlooks for the future of the credit union system are pervasive. From forecasts of dramatically smaller numbers, an “outdated” charter, or numerous existential threats such as cybersecurity risks or disruptive fintech innovations, negative outlooks are easy to find.

In contrast, a speaker at a recent conference asserted: “America today needs credit unions more than ever.” This comment referred to the person’s belief in credit unions’ destiny, that is what cooperatives can do for members and communities at this point in history.

The observation was based on the growing data about significant unmet member financial needs. More importantly, the judgment was grounded in a belief in the destiny of cooperative financial ownership.

I saw this same belief in a changed future in George Washington University’s eleventh New Venture Competition finals last week.

Nine startups were chosen from over 216 student teams competing for cash prizes of over $200,000 plus in kind legal, office space and mentoring resources of another $600,000. More than 500 students from all eleven faculty had competed for this final.

One winner was chosen from each of three business categories: technology, social and new venture tracks. The winners were:

1. Last Call–an online marketplace to enable businesses to discount surplus food and provide more affordable meals—thus reducing food waste.
2. Dulceology–an online bakery that uses social media to create its markets as well as pop-up shops to serve special events such as conventions.
3. Plast-ways–an engineering consortium of plastic eating microbes designed to extend the life of landfill waste disposal technology.

These three startups each received $35,000-$45000, plus the opportunity to receive experienced start up support or even venture capital. Their common hope was a passion to solve a problem or to change the way a traditional market was being served.

These entrepreneurs were driven by destiny-the desire to change the status quo to something better.

As a member, I ask do credit unions still share this idea of destiny?

Fate is the circumstances in which we often find ourselves. Sometimes externally imposed and other times self-imposed. Fate thinking is often packaged in negative forecasts when commenting on present trends.

Destiny is the capacity to go beyond legacy circumstances or present constraints. It is a form of faith, a way of seeing and seeking a different future.

Is there a difference between fate and destiny for characterizing an individual’s or an institution’s role in society?

Religion offers a singular example of the difference. Jesus’s fate was to die on Good Friday. His destiny was Easter morning. Something happened that first morning that transformed fate into one of the most powerful forces driving society since that event.

If we confuse these two ways of thinking about situations, we run the risk of missing life’s most satisfying opportunities.

It’s easy to look at present or past circumstances and see the coming recession, disruptive competition, or lack of adequate resources as fated. It’s another to see what comes as a matter of destiny.

For members the question is whether their credit union offers a relationship based on a person’s fate. Or will it support the member’s desires for a different, better financial future?

At the recent St. Patrick’s Day concert at the Kennedy Center, the Irish Ambassador was invited to share a ritual he follows. Every day the ambassador tweets out a poem written by an Irish author. He chose to read one by William Butler Yeats (1865-1939). By coincidence I saw this Yeats poem in a display case celebrating National Poetry Month:

The Choice

The intellect of man is forced to choose
perfection of the life, or of the work,_­
And if it take the second must refuse
A heavenly mansion, raging in the dark.
When all that story’s finished, what’s the news?
In luck or out the toil has left its mark:
That old perplexity an empty purse,
Or the day’s vanity, the night’s remorse.

As I transition to “just a member” status this philosophic statement raised two questions. Are life and work (The Choice) truly separate? And, how hard is it to make something worthwhile that will last?

Due to an eye treatment, I was unable to see the CNN pictures of the burning Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I could hear the commentators describe the event. But what moved me the most was the sound of the hymn singing constantly in the background. At times the announcer was silent. Only the sound of the spontaneous songs, once raised within the Cathedral, were heard accompanying the orange flames of the burning central spire.

Music was the crowd’s expression of shared sorrow. Something spoken words, nor even silence, could adequately express. The hymns were reverent, gentle and even prayerful in response to the ongoing destruction being witnessed. Momentarily helpless as almost ten centuries of human labor and history burned, they shared their individual emotions, together.

Music does transcend ordinary experiences. And it commemorates extraordinary ones. This, for many, is Holy Week, marked by a series of religious services. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Tenebrae services, Easter Vigils and finally the triumphal celebration of Easter morning.

Each of these shared observances will be accompanied with sound and song to augment what words alone cannot capture.

Music celebrates a fundamental truth of human experience. It requires both a listener and a musician to be fully realized. None of us is alone, even in moments of extraordinary tragedy or joyful exuberance.

As we observed the destruction of a historical monument, we have also seen the capacity of humans to share their most tender feelings as one. And that is the foundation for a new creation to emerge. Happy Easter.