By Frank J. Diekmann
Auld Lange Syne will be sung heartily, earnestly and even a bit (a lot?) drunkenly later this week by many a credit unionist—but mostly it will be sung ironically.
For the song is most often sung while looking forward to a new year, even though the Robert Burns’ poem that became the tune is all about “times gone by.”
In credit unions as much as any place, time has gone by and, sadly, we will once again forget that which is important, including those who, even though Star Wars came blazing back in 2015, the (Cooperative) Force could not save.
When it comes to reflecting on 2015 the talk in credit unions will be of risk-based capital and resurging loans, not the capital once raised in small increments, nor the lenders no longer around. Toasts shall be raised to the spike in credit union membership, but not to the members whose credit unions have been spiked.
So let’s remember the times that have gone by for those CUs that held their last meetings this year, cancelled the lease, or put the building up for sale. Let’s remember that behind each is a story, many stories, really. A need identified. Organizational meetings held. Five-dollar shares bought. A charter finally arrived in the mail—official looking and from Washington!—and maybe a champagne bottle uncorked as the first official photo was taken of a mostly guys in ties board in all its black-and-white glory.
And so another year closes and with it a page turns in the Credit Union History Book—indeed, America’s History Book. Before their names are not seen again unless some archivist happens upon them, we remember the last pie chart created by American Bakery Workers, wave bye-bye to Four Four, and regret that the ship finally sailed for Port of Seattle, Seaport, and Riverwood-Maritime credit unions.
We Pause And Remember...
We pause and bow our heads to reflect on the fact the prayers were never answered at Foss Avenue Baptist Church, St. Patrick (Croswell), Holy Name, St. Joseph’s, Bethel A.M.E. San Francisco, St. Martin’s, Mount Zion AME Church and Our Lady of Angels, and to note that even a Good Shepard (CU) occasionally loses one to the wolves.
Two-thousand-fifteen turned out to be a royal pain for Queen Employees, The Queen’s CU and Prince Kuhio; not that the news that arrived in the envelopes at La Crosse Area Postal and New Haven Postal was any rosier, where neither rain nor sleet could stop them from their appointed rounds, but examiners were apparently another matter.
We note the irony that Peoples, Peoples Choice and First Choice apparently weren’t; that Triumph Baptist did not; that Pepsico Employees fell flat; that they found themselves up one (or both) without a paddle at Two Rivers Community; that MEA is now MIA; and that Jeffco was let go.
How could we not observe that the last edition has been published by Capital City Press, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Employees and Lancaster Press Employees? That Healthcom, Bridgeport Hospital, Healthcare United, Richmond State Hospital Employees, Healthcare Community, Louisville Medical, Central Health and SF Medical all flat-lined (blame Obamacare?)
And I suppose the demise of VA Regional Office and U.S. Veterans Administration New Orleans won’t actually be processed for a few years, and then only after several-hundred phone calls.
The Curtain Falls...
We will miss U/U, Bennington E/E; note that you no longer are, Rio Grande Operating; will be left wondering if you were backed into a corner, Triangle CU; will ponder when they realized they were burned at Atlantic City Firemen’s and Roanoke Virginia Firemen; will hope there was a final round of applause as the curtain came down at Stage Employees, and will wish there was at least one last staff picnic at SF Recreation & Parks.
As the year closes we have questions. Where was Warren Buffet when Berkshire (CU) needed his guidance? що відбулося в Osnova Ukrainian? How did Suburban and General Drivers miss that merger combo opportunity? Or, for that matter, Purina and Sargent Employees? Was there no one left to protect Centurion, or able to design better defenses at Corps of Engineers? Were there concerns over the first signs of turbulence at Air Line Pilots Association and British Airways Employees? When death is in your name, can the end really be a surprise, Schuykill? And did N.E.A.R.M.C. Employees N.E.A.R.L.Y. make it?
We shall always be left to wonder what lessons might have been missed and what could now be taught us by boards and management at Ellwood City School Employees, Educational, Educational Employees, Tuscarawas Schools, Seminole Schools, and Chesapeake Public School Employees. And we continue to mull whatever became of what was once in credit union history considered the most stable of fields of membership, government workers. Maybe Redford Municipal Employees, St. Cloud City and County Employees, Newport Beach City Employees, NYC Employees, Public Employees, Midwest Federal Employees, McHenry County, Campbell County Employees, Fairfield Municipal, Freeport City Employees can tell us.
The Great Unanswered Questions
I guess that we shall never know whose initials appeared on the final forms at W.K., GDC, TCC, LMCC Employees, ATD, A.Y. McDonald, G.B.B.R., ILWU-FSC, KBR, CSC Employees, SMH AAFES FCU, D-B Employees, and NAVFAC. May you RIP.
The great questions not answered among 2015’s obituaries don’t end there. Did everyone at least pause for one last slice of Krumkake before Norway Community closed its ‘dor?’ Could a Texas Ranger have saved Walker-Virginia? Was there no 12-step program for AA? How often did someone mistakenly call looking for a cracker at Cabisco? When did they peak at Etoah Valley and Lehigh Valley? How long did they remain optimistic at Our Lady of Good Hope? Could they just not get over the hump at Quemado? And just what were they looking at as the warning signs emerged at Focal Point?
Once again 2015 again proved that no direction on the map is a safe haven from CU closures, as North Hawaii Community, Pacific Northwest, Northern Piedmont, Bell West, Community West, Gasco Eastern District, Southland Savings and Eastside Family demonstrated.
When credit unions go they take with them mile markers along the road of American industrialization, with signposts that are no longer there to see belonging to Niagara Falls Penn Central ECU, Industrial, Automotive Aftermarket Employee, Newport Site Employees, Dallas Santa Fe, Clay Electric, Chemical, Northwestern State Cement Employees, Panduit Employees, Pittco, Sony San Diego Employees, Phone-Co, Pluswood Group, Heinz-Del Monte, IBEW Members and Valtek.
And I suppose I’ll always be left curious about the stories behind Carver Branch and 65 Family.
Credit unions may be all about community, but not every community is about their credit union, as Noxen Community, Stark Community, Family Community, Morris Community, Winchester Community and just plain Community sadly made clear. Even hailing from a beautiful community proved no tonic, as Palm Springs and Oxford can testify. Financial institutions are also supposed to prosper with names that convey strength, so what to make of the fates of Benchsmart, Allied and Secure First?
Of course, we haven’t forgotten your departures in 2015, Premier Members, S.C. Membersfirst, Clements, Visterra, Oko, United Shoreline, Libbey, Premier, Nabco, Reznor, Bethex, and Sodes.
What We Shall Miss Most...
Most of all, as another year closes and additional credit unions take down their signs and put up new ones with generic, amorphous “brands,” we greatly lament the loss of the lyrical and poetic sounding names that once graced the pages of the CU songbook—Golden Key and Valley Bell and Empire State and Big Dutch Fleet and Lake State and Covered Bridge and Pacific Oaks and Moon Lake Electric.
The fate of so many was enough to make me want to reach for a Penacol (CU). I didn't, however, preferring to remember that at least we’ll always have Paris (CU). Alas, we shall not. Au Revoir to the times gone by.
Frank J. Diekmann made it through another year and remains Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info. He can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or followed at @FrankCUToday.