By Frank J. Diekmann
One more note I made to myself during the recent World Credit Union Conference in Stockholm that I wanted to share. And it’s really more of a question: Have U.S. credit unions given up on changing the world?
While the gap between credit unions in countries with developed CU movements—the U.S., Australia, Canada and Ireland—has closed with those in developing countries (some could make a pretty good argument, actually, that CUs in other parts of the world have leapfrogged the U.S.)—there is one thing you still hear at the World CU Conference that you don’t hear when CUs meet in this country—idealism. A sincere optimism about playing a role that is greater than just a financial institution charter.
What do I hear when U.S. credit unions meet? Compliance. Regulations. Concerns. I’m pretty sure all three of those words are antonyms for optimism.
The Original Dreamers
One of my favorites is “challenges.” That’s something U.S. CU leaders like to talk about—the “challenges” they and their credit unions face. And there are plenty of them. But why not turn that around and think in terms of being the challenge? That’s at the very root of credit unions in this country, with the very first CU challenging the idea that workers in textile factories in Manchester, N.H. couldn’t pull themselves up and perhaps grab a piece of what would eventually become known as the American dream.
They and the credit union they formed are the original dreamers.
I don’t hear that dream so much anymore when U.S. CU leaders meet. It’s all about the numbers now, the efficiencies of scale, the cost management, the growth.
‘Everyone Prospers Together’
That’s why it was so noticeable when two CEOs shared their visions during the World CU Conference.
First, Mario Zwierewicz, president of Sicredi Campos Gerais e Grande Curitiba in Brazil, said that when he thinks about scale, he thinks about how his organization can scale social impact.
“Cooperativism is the great segment that is going to change the world and is doing that already,” Zwierewicz told the meeting. “It’s the segment where everyone prospers together and we can build a better world.”
You can read more here.
CEO Makes an ‘Appeal’
Later, Wellington Holbrook, CEO of Vancity Credit Union in Vancouver, B.C., eloquently shared this view.
“… I’m here, in part, to make an appeal to all of us as cooperatives and credit unions that it’s time for us to stand up again,” Holbrook said. “For many of you, your credit union was rooted in a time where your community needed change, it needed support and it needed help. That might even be very recently. But for many of our credit unions that have become more mature, we have perhaps become a little bit complacent about how we’re seeing ourselves play a role in supporting our communities. Once again, they’re going to be needing us and the call to action is here. Right now is the time for all of us to be thinking about how we’re doing things differently.”
You can read more here.
What do you think CU leaders in the U.S. need to be rethinking and doing differently? Or is no one thinking about that at all?
Idealism isn’t a line item on the balance sheet. For credit unions, it is the balance sheet. But I can’t think of the last time I was at a gathering of U.S. credit union leaders and a CEO stood up and spoke with such optimism about what credit unions could and should be doing.
Is It Getting Warm?
No one in credit unions has gotten their business degree or gone through one of the post-grad management programs and not heard the metaphorical tale of the boiling frog. Is it me, or is it getting warm? There’s still time to hop out of the pot and change the world.
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at the CU Daily and can be reached at [email protected]