WASHINGTON - Dollar Associates officially opened for business onMonday. Following their six-and-a-half year run at NCUA, formerChairman Dennis Dollar and his former Chief of Staff Kirk Cuevashave formed a business partnership. Dollar explained that thequestion "was not how you're going to enjoy yourself after a joblike that, but how you're going to support yourself after a joblike that." Evaluating their options took the bulk of their timeover the two weeks before Dollar and Cuevas made the decision tostrike out on their own. "We did weigh out a number of options bothinside and outside the industry and really evaluated thepossibilities. We decided we wanted to stay within the [creditunion] industry if at all possible," Dollar said. Dollar Associateswill work with credit unions and related organizations to help themwith compliance regulations and get it right. The consulting firmwill aid credit unions with anything from preparing a communitycharter application to adopting an underserved area to evaluatingpotential products. Dollar explained that they could also helpvendors decide if a product is for the credit union industry."Credit unions would be very well served with our background," hesaid. Though "there is a little bit of apprehension with any newchange," Cuevas said his feels confident and that he could not havepicked a better business partner. Starting a business has been adream of both Dollar and Cuevas. Dollar said they realize it isgoing to mean a lot of travel and hard work, but he added, "Notonly are we not afraid of that, we're used to that." Even thoughthey had not officially opened for business yet, Dollar said theirphones were already ringing last week. He added that they have putout some calls as well to a few key players in the credit unioncommunity and that Dollar Associates has developed a brochure tomail out. Check out the Web site operational this week atwww.dollarassociates.com. "The response has been very reassuringthat this has been the right move," Cuevas said. Initially, thebusiness will only employ Dollar and Cuevas who are currentlyworking out of their homes in Northern Virginia while they look foroffice space. Eventually, Dollar said he would like to haveadditional employees and a satellite office down South, "closer tohome." As a former senior appointee at NCUA, Dollar is restrictedfrom directly lobbying NCUA for a year. Cuevas' limitations are notso strict. After one year, Dollar will be able to lobby NCUA onanything he did not specifically work on during his tenure at theagency; broad topics like field of membership and member businesslending would be fair game but not, for example, a specificconservatorship. Dollar's background in credit unions includessix-and-a-half years on the NCUA Board with three of those aschairman. Immediately prior to that, from 1991 to 1997, he servedas president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Federal Credit Union,which at the time was Gulfport Veterans Administration FederalCredit Union. Dollar and Cuevas have known each other for over 20years from Dollar's days in the Mississippi House ofRepresentatives where Cuevas was his page. Their first professionalwork together came at NCUA. Cuevas served as Dollar's executiveassistant and as his chief of staff when Dollar became chairman atNCUA. Prior to that, he was an attorney with State Farm [email protected]