Welch is right, right, and wrong

<p>I have only one problem with Mike Welch’s other wise good column of May 15th entitled “Small credit unions are not the backbone.” It has to do with three sentences and they just happen to be back-to-back-to-back: “Small by definition does not automatically mean good.” “Nor does large automatically mean bad.” “All credit unions are exactly the same from a structure and purpose standpoint.” My rebuttal is “Yes, but…,” “Yes, but…” and “Wrong!” Welch should have added: “Small by definition does not automatically mean bad.” “Nor does large automatically mean good.” “All credit unions are NOT the same from a purpose standpoint.” The reason all CUs are not the same from a “purpose standpoint” is because we (REAL large, medium and small credit unions) are not-for-profit financial cooperative organizations that know the difference in a member/owner and a customer, and some just hide behind our common name. Thank God for credit unions like Navy Federal (led by Mr. Brian McDonnell), State Employees in North Carolina (Mr. Jim Blaine), and Volunteer Corporate (Mr. Bruce Fahnestock) and Eastman (Mr. Olan Jones) here in the great state of Tennessee. They seem to illustrate “where people are worth more than money!” Brian Dever President/CEO PIAS Credit Union Nashville, Tenn.</p>