By Frank J. Diekmann

You’ve certainly heard it. Probably said it more than once. You have an admonition or some advice or want to impart a lesson learned, and it goes unheeded. You are paid about as much attention as those “Please wait until your group is called” announcements when boarding a plane. And then you sigh and say it: “Well, that fell on deaf ears.”

As a confirmed slow learner, here is my annual admonition/advice/appeal that experience has taught will also never get past the collective CU cochlea: “Credit unions: Stop insulting credit unions!”

Like a slow-building pressure cooker, week after week I am on the receiving end of press releases from credit unions that are all about extolling the accomplishments of the sender, but which also for some reason feel a need to malign the broader CU community itself. They keep coming and coming until I can take no more and have to blow off the steam. Again. So here we go.

I’ve left out the names to protect the extremely guilty, but these announcements all promote the credit union’s own name, of course, and then make some snide comment about other CUs or all credit unions in general.

We’re Better Than the Others

In recent weeks I (and every other member of the media on the list) have found announcements in our inboxes that make statements like:

• “Cozy Co-op CU was the only credit union in the market to be recognized with such an honor.”
• “No other credit unions have received such a distinguished recognition.”
• “Unlike other credit unions, only Members Rule Credit Union provides this benefit.”
• “White Hat CU, which has more members, branches and ATMs than any other credit union in Member Town…”

It’s like reading the internal chat shared by the Mean Girls of CU Communications Instagram group. 

Time to Stop

If you’re doing this, stop. If someone who works for you is responsible for the cheap shots, time for a meeting. If you’re using a freelance PR writer, they’re sucking up to you to keep the checks coming. And if you have ChatGPT churning out your communications, it seems AI has an overall beef with financial cooperatives and the large language model it’s built on could use a swift kick in the prompts.

The self-congratulatory language and even bragging has its place—internally. Use it there. Let the staff take pride in their accomplishments and feel good about where they work. That’s fine, good for morale, helps build the “culture” and all that. 

But you’re also part of something much bigger, and yet as big as the $2-trillion-dollar-plus U.S. credit union community is, you’re still small. Combined, all CUs in the country are still not as large as the biggest bank, so why do some CUs insist on trying to make the credit union community even smaller? You can wave your own white hat without trying to splatter mud on everyone else’s. 

Neutralizing the Good Words

All the work America’s Credit Unions, the state associations and others do to raise the profile of credit unions and the work they do is basically neutralized when CUs pump out messages that are supposed to be about what’s right with their shops, but hey, while we’re at it, let’s take some pot shots at everybody else.

Maybe your clueless communications person/agency hasn’t noticed, but Take-A-Potshot at CUs, LLC, doesn’t need their help. The American Bankers Association, the Independent Community Bankers of America and the state bankers’ groups have already cornered the market when it comes to hurting the image of credit unions.

Open the Window

And that’s not all. Every day the extensive reporting on TheCUDaily.com includes new offerings and competition from the largest banks to the newest start-up fintechs. Maybe worry about them a little more and a worry a little less about your fellow credit unions that collectively have less than 10% marketshare. Sure, it’s easy to get siloed, but open a window–other CUs are not your competition. 

Maybe that other CU(s) in your market is smaller and doesn’t have that bell or whistle your ringing or blowing. Help them to get it. Now that would be a press release worth sending, because it wouldn’t just benefit the two CUs, it would benefit the entire community—not to mention members. 

The Principles Remain

Before writing this I wanted to make sure I didn’t embarrass myself because I missed the announcement that the Seven Cooperative Principles had been edited and amended and “Cooperation among Cooperatives” and “Concern for Community” had been subjected to the delete button in favor of two new principles, “Cooperation Be Damned” and “Every Man for Himself.”

But nope, they’re still there. And there for a reason. 

So, promote your accomplishments. Blow your own horn. Shout from the top of Mt. Co-op. You can do of those things without tarnishing others.

There, I’ve vented yet again in yet another year. Maybe, just maybe, the admonition will actually go in one ear and then—I can dream—pause there for a moment to be considered, before it goes out….  Well, you know the saying.

Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at the CU Daily and can be reached at [email protected].