It’s time foranother look in my potpourri folder to see what accumulated that insome way relates to previous columns or odds and ends that might beof reader interest.

• Like this tidbit: Bankers are climbing aboard the grassrootsbandwagon, but it’s their own bandwagon, not ours. ABA BankersWeekly, house organ for the American Bankers Association, hasoffered to put staff at member banks on the mailing list at nocharge. Their reported reason was the need to increase knowledgeand understanding of industry issues by bankers at the grassrootslevel.

• A final footnote to my “get young people involved” column: JohnD. Deese became president of THE Credit Union of Palm Beach Countywhen it was a million dollars in assets and he was 20 years old.Today he’s 32, still the president and his outside activitiesinclude chairmanship of the Florida Credit Union League. The creditunion is now $24 million in assets and growing.

• Recently I cited some rising and declining convention figures.Here’s one that won’t surprise you. The US League of SavingsAssociations, largest trade group serving S&Ls, meeting inalways popular San Francisco a few weeks ago drew a mere 948attendees, down from 1,449 the previous year. Industry suppliersseem to have lost faith in the S&L industry’s future at an evenfaster rate. The number of exposition booths plummeted in one yearfrom approximately 1,300 to less than 350. Ouch!

• The name Lawrence B. Lindsey isn’t household word yet, but itsoon will be. He’s the acknowledged “point man” for the WhiteHouse’s efforts to reform depository insurance programs. He’s 36and a former Harvard University professor. Stay tuned.

• “It’s man’s world” is a tired cliché that justifiably raisesthe hackles of women everywhere. That’s why I almost hate to pointout that men are replacing women in key credit union presidentposts at a growing rate, but especially so at large credit unionsthat over the years became identified with female CEOs. These wellknown ladies were replace by men when they retired: FrancesLesnieski, Michigan State University FCU, East Lansing; BettyGregg, Desert Schools FCU Phoenix; Ruth Kelly, University of NotreDame CU, South Bend Ind.; and Louise Hinton, Gainesville FloridaCampus FCU. All were replaced by very competent executives,but if this pattern, if I can call it that, continues, creditunions will lose another uniqueness, namely, a much higherpercentage of female CEOs than banks and S&Ls. Frances,Betty Ruth and Louise built their credit unions, all educationbased from ground zero to national status. Is that the only way awoman can become president of a large credit union? Is the “glassceiling” syndrome beginning to affect credit unions too?

• Keep your eye on Columbus, Ohio. It’s now home base for theelected heads of two major industries much in the economic news,real estate and the U.S. League. Harley E Rouda, 61, becamepresident of the National Association of Realtors, the trade grouprepresenting over 800,000 people, at the mid November convention inNew Orleans. In his full-time job he heads HER Realtors, a22-office firm with nearly 500 sales representatives. In hispart-time position with NAR, he has set as one of his toppriorities the lobbying of the Resolution Trust Corporation toconvince it to provide direct financing to homebuyers. Incompetition with the private sector, we assume? The newly electedleader of the U. S. League mentioned above is Donald Shackelford,53, chairman and CEO of State Savings Bank. Despite the work “bank”in its name, it’s a $1.6 billion asset S&L. Among hispredictions that came out of an early October interview by aWisconsin newspaper are these two: first, his industry willsurvive, but like many once large and strong airlines, it will bemuch smaller; and secondly, after al the noise quiets down, and allthe bills are introduced in Congress, don’t expect a lot ofchanges. We’ll see! Ironically, Columbus is a hotbed forcredit unions that, we suspect, will be keeping a watchful eye on,and keeping in close touch with Messrs. Rouda and Shackelford.

• Credit unions have been so enormously successful because theybuilt “a better mousetrap.” Can somebody ever come up withsomething better? It’s hard to see how, but then the credit cardfolks thought that too, until AT&T came along with whatincreasing numbers of the public appear to think is a bettermousetrap the AT&T Universal Card. The first million accountswere signed p in 78 days. The total is now over six million andstill growing. Beware of resting on CU laurels!