By Frank J. Diekmann
Stop. Before we all race to get into our 2022 resolutions and strategic plans, let’s pause. Let’s breathe (preferably through a mask if we ever want to get this thing behind us). And let’s first remember the credit unions that left us in 2021, from A(rrowpoint) to X(ceed). Let’s remember their stories, let’s remember what they teach us, and let’s especially remember why one now former CU’s name should be practiced by credit unions everywhere, especially if you want to see 2023 and 2033 and 2050 and beyond.
From the beginning credit unions have always been so much more than just little not-for-profit companies no different than the local oil change place or pizza joint; from 1909 on they have always been mirrors to their communities and pages in the American history book inscribed with the words from earlier generations--living, breathing snapshots of different eras until they live and breathe no more.
History pages from this last year that have turned for a last time include Boys Town (sorry, Father Flanagan) and Tin Mill Employees. It was also a goodbye to some old historical legacies that many believe deserve to be forgotten, such as Jeff Davis Teachers (2021 also meant, ironically, goodbye to Legacy CU, too).
Let’s Stand and Turn
So, before we get into this new year, let us all stand slowly and do a 360-degree turn as we wave one last goodbye in all directions, first toward Northern United, Tesoro Northwest, and Northland, then toward South Division, and finally in the direction of a sun setting on Western Districts, Western Rockies, Western Heritage and Western States Regional FCU.
Place names were once automatic when chartering CUs and why wouldn’t they be? It was the places, after all, that very often put the “field” in field of membership. Today, the fences have fallen, and “rebranded” credit unions select generic, fabricated names that have no geographic ties and suggest in an Internet age they are everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
We shall not forget those places and instead on the CU History Book pages we will record where you once lived, Dane County, Tallahassee Community, Sumter City, Waterbury Police, Des Moines Water Works, SUNY Geneseo, Town of Palm Beach, Virginia Beach Schools, Gloucester Fire Department, Essex County NJ Employees, South Bend Post Office, Romeoville Community (where art thou now?), Credit Union of the Berkshires, Texas, Borinquen Community, Lancaster PA Firemen, First Credit Union of Scranton (no word on whether Dunder Mifflin was a SEG), Greater Watertown FCU, Firestone Lake Charles, Nishna Valley CU, Munseetown Community, General Portland Peninsular Employees, Greenup County, Gloucester Municipal, Columbus Metro, Canoga Postal, Fairmont Village, Groton Municipal Employees, Fort McPherson, and Canaan (named for the land once conquered by the tribes of Israel, but, alas, no match for the tribes from the Land of Financial Services).
If the place name wasn’t automatically in a CU’s name, then a company’s name was. It was other bond in common bond. So, as the days of knowing who the sponsor was/is just by looking at someone’s nametag increasingly fade, we honor you as you SEG-ue into new CUs, Patterson Pump, Meadow Gold Employees, McKesson Employees FCU, Flowers Employees, Burns & McDonnell, Roper Corp. Employees, Holston Methodist, CONE CU, AE Goetze Employees, Norton-Troy Employees, Cal Poly, Central Hanna Employees, Construction Industries CU, Electrogas, and Bacharach Employees (I can only guess that all those raindrops falling on the CU’s head finally became a flood).
First Responders, Last Days
It’s difficult for the scribe not to notice as I roll up for a final time the last scroll listing all those credit unions that turned in their charters in 2021 how what was once an unspectacular but consistently nice, steady and solid field of membership—local municipal workers, firemen, police, etc.—is apparently no longer enough to be saved even by the first responders.
With a few exceptions, their FOMs never made for rapid asset growth, but they also didn’t see the nerve-wracking swings many CUs reported on their 5300s, thanks to a membership where employment was steady and there was often plenty of OT.
But, and it’s just a bit more conjecture here, it also meant boards seldom had to look outside the “department” to the broader market, where board membership was typically made up of city retirees who had spent careers in a world free of competition and where there was little turnover or fresh blood around the table, and where they could safely hire people who could “manage” the credit union even though they were wholly unprepared to lead in a changing financial landscape.
We Have Questions
As always, at the end of every year we are left with more questions than answers. Why did the flour not rise for Baker CU? Was it balance sheet murder most foul that did in Hamlet CU? If it was called Financial Advantage, was it really? Surely, White Gold CU didn’t run short on reserves, did it? Why wasn’t it First Choice? Why couldn’t Plain Dealer CU and Erie Times FCU make their deadlines?
And our queries remain unquenched. When did the seas become too rough for Silgan White Cap? And speaking of stormy seas, where will members of Lighthouse Community now look for a beacon (appropriately, it merged into Rivermark CU)? What shall become of Heritage’s heritage? Did Dill FCU find itself in a pickle? Was the security camera footage always obscured by the glitter at Glamour FCU? And what would old Abe, the rail-splitter from Kentucky and Illinois, make of Lincoln Maine CU?
Before we throw away the cufflinks—I mean, we’re still working from home in 2022 and the dress code doesn’t exactly require French cuff shirts—or shirts at all--we remember all the monogram CUs. We’re talking about you G.H.S., NMA, JACO, B.C.S. MEM, S.A.I.F., ATL (given the time I’ve spent laying over there, I regret having not joined), KASE, PATA, NAPFE, and CTA C&M FCU. Apparently, not even being a G.E.M. was enough to stave off the merger.
Not Magical for Everyone
“Shambhala” was more than just a top-charting song by Three Dog Night; it’s the name of a mythical kingdom in Central Asia where the people enjoyed harmony, good health, and well-being. But not so for Shambhala Credit Union, which very non-mythically merged. May the harmony live on, however.
Speaking of harmony, there was much waving of the red, white and blue last year in the country, although it didn’t help Four Flags Area or FLAG CU, which have sung their last anthem.
A Weakened Pulse
Trillions are spent on health care every year and yet as the books are shut on another fiscal it reveals sometimes the patient just couldn’t be saved, as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Maine Employees, Winthrop University Hospital Employees, Riverside Health System and Kuakini Medical & Dental demonstrated before flatlining. Not even divine help combined with the best of medicine could save St. Vincent Hospital, St. Thomas Employees or St. Francis Medical Center. Maybe they needed more time at the Tabernacle or the help of a Good Samaritan (then again, that CU has shared its last parable, too).
It is said it is gift to reach new horizons, and yet that literally did not prove true for The New Horizons, New Horizon, or Horizons credit unions.
Rivers & Dams
And, no, we won’t let you pass without one final mention, Florida Department of Transportation, Tenn-Am Water Co., Municipal Employees, Commfirst, Fieldale, Leyden, Morton Weeks, Coshocton FCU, McNeese, Financial Center, Chabot FCU, Utilities CU, All Souls, First Reliance, Riegelwood, Artmet, Xceed Financial, Consolidated Controls, Diversified, First General CU, Arrowpointe, Unity, Solano First FCU, Members Choice (we hope so), Unity, and Premier.
Even some of the most-lovely of monikers couldn’t quite paint as pretty a future as was needed, as proven by the last board meetings at Belle River Community, Elm River, Mountain Gem CU, and Green River Basin. Perhaps it was the Otter Tail that dammed them. And speaking of dams, we don’t know if it was a loan drought or a liquidity issue, but RIP Grand Coulee Dam CU.
Indeed, all that water didn’t prove to be the substance of life for Third Coast, Coastal New England or Gulf States. Perhaps the culprit was global warming.
A Few Final Things
A few other thoughts before we get too far into 2022 and only remember 2021 for being the year COVID was over, and then it wasn’t:
- How sad that even a double-dose of cooperativism wasn’t enough to carry Midland Co-op into a new year.
- My Credit Union? It was, and it is again, just with a different name that will require the new CU (and every CU) to always remind members it is their credit union—because if you don’t tell them, who will?
- Short of a trip to the Google machine I suppose we shall never know what a Dor Wic, Telbec, Honea, Owosso WBCV, or a Viriva were all about?
- I most certainly hope there was no animus expressed during the wake for Animas CU.
More Than a Name
As I gave one more look to the list of credit unions that left us last year, a list that perhaps will not be read again until someone dusts it off and pulls it from a shelf at America’s Credit Union Museum, I was struck by the name of one CU that disappeared in a merger that sums up what credit unions will need to continue to be about if they want to avoid having the entire industry someday become a museum display itself: United Neighbors.
United Neighbors. Two words that sum up everything credit unions are all about—or should be.
Credit unions, you will always need to act as neighbors united in helping Americans to a brighter future. Be good neighbors and stop with the cheap shots at other CUs by some of you. Practice a little—no, a lot—of that cooperation among cooperatives. Plus, you have much bigger neighbors to worry about, and the only thing they’re united over is getting you out of the neighborhood.
After all, your future isn’t guaranteed toward infinity. But, hey, don’t take my word for it--just ask the now former Infinity Credit Union.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief of CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info. Mr. Diekmann is also author of several new book, including the brand new “The Last Lyric,” a humorous satire about a murder investigation at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in which every line of dialogue is either a classic pop/rock song title or lyric. Available on Amazon, Apple iBook, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Mr. Diekmann is also author of a non-fiction compilation of the very best & worst he has seen and heard in covering more than 500 CU meetings and conferences, “501 Name Tags: How Everything You Need to Know About Business Can Be Learned at a Conference & Forgotten in the Trade Show.” It is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Lulu, and Smashwords.