With vacancies and terms expiring, President-elect Donald Trumpwill have the opportunity to nominate two—and possibly allthree—members of the NCUA board during his first year inoffice.

Trump's first move may be to choose current Board Member J. MarkMcWatters as chairman of the NCUA board if McWatters is willing tocontinue to serve on the board.

The board currently has one vacancy and the president ispermitted to fill two of the three slots on the board with membersof his own political party.

President Obama has nominated John Herrera, senior vice president for Latino andHispanic Affairs at the Self-Help Credit Union to fill the onevacancy.

“The Herrera nomination is certainly dead at this point,” saidDennis Dollar, principal of Dollar Associates, LLC in Birmingham,Ala. and former chairman of the NCUA board. Republicans are likelyto sit on most—if not all—of President Obama's nominations in orderto allow Trump to fill vacancies with his own choices.

However, Dollar added that Herrera still could end up on theboard. Just not yet.

Trump is likely to fill the vacancy with a Republican—giving theparty the majority on the board.

Trump still could select Herrera to fill the Democratic vacancythat will occur when current Chairman Rick Metsger's term expiresin August 2017.

Or he could reappoint Metsger to the position, if Metsger wantsto remain on the board.

The third board member, McWatters has been nominated to theExport-Import Bank, but the nominationhas not moved in the Senate and with the election of a newpresident, it may remain stalled.

If McWatters does move to the Ex-Im Bank, Trump would be able tonominate his successor.

If McWatters doesn't move to the Ex-Im Bank, he could becomeNCUA board chairman because the president has the power to selectthe chairman and that choice does not have to be confirmed by theSenate.

“The first thing that I see the Trump White House doing would beto name McWatters as the chairman,” said former NCUA Board ChairmanGeoff Bacino, now a partner with Bacino & Associates. “This could be done as soon as January 21, 2017.”

Dollar agreed.

“If history holds true, it is likely that Trump will make thesitting Republican board member McWatters into NCUA chairmanshortly after he is sworn in,” he said. “The second boardmember nominated in 2017 will be another Republican, probably muchmore aligned with McWatters than with the [former board chairmanDebbie] Matz and Metsger approach at NCUA.”

That would be fine with Marvin Umholtz, president/CEO of UmholtzStrategic Planning & Consulting Services in Olympia, Wash.

“Mr. McWatters' thoughtful policymaking remains sorely needed onthe NCUA board at this time,” he said.

But Paul Gentile, president/CEO of the Cooperative Credit UnionAssociation, said it is difficult to determine whether Republicansor Democrats are better board members.

“I think it's about the individual,” he said. “These days thoughthe party is likely more important as more initiatives are drivenon hard party lines as both sides have become more polarized.”

CUNA has urged the Trump Transition Team to place a highpriority on board membership.

“I encourage the Trump-Pence transition team to focus on thesevacancies in preparation for the president-elect to nominate NCUAboard candidates as soon as possible,” CUNA President/CEO JimNussle said in a letter to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whoheads Trump's transition team.