ARLINGTON, Va.-In the four years since NAFCU President and CEOFred Becker signed on, the organization has achieved nearly all thefield of membership goals that it has set out to accomplish.Four-plus years ago, field of membership restrictions were one ofthe reasons federal credit unions were converting to statecharters, which had much more liberal field of membershipregulations. Just in the last federal field of membership update,the trade, industry, or profession-TIP-charter was established,overlap protections were eliminated, certain geographic areas arenow automatically accepted as communities for community charters,an increase in the groups qualifying for expedited membershipprocessing from 500 to 3,000 was established, and wholly owned ATMswere included as a service facility in the definition of"reasonable proximity," among other things. "When I came here thiswas a big issue because there were a lot of conversions from thefederal to state charter. The general sense in the credit unioncommunity was there was an imbalance," Becker said. However, hepointed out, the trend now is slightly in favor of federal creditunions both in the number of conversions and in assets. "Balance isimportant to survival of both charters," Becker commented. Field ofmembership was a big issue on both the legislative and regulatorytract. As discussed above, the regulatory side is now easier andfaster. And during the Norm D'Amours administration, stateregulators were viewed as more credit union friendly, but immediatepast NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar turned that around and he said heexpects that same attitude to continue with current NCUA ChairmanJoAnn Johnson. Even the type of Democrat on the board has changed,Becker stated. "(NCUA Board Member) Debbie (Matz) has a verydifferent perspective than her two Democratic predecessors," heexplained. The legislative side of field of membershipmodernization has moved a bit slower, but is still chugging along.The Financial Services Regulatory Relief Act (H.R. 1375) passed theHouse earlier this year with 13 pro-credit union provisions.Financial services providers are now awaiting introduction of abill on the Senate side. The Credit Union Regulatory ImprovementsAct (H.R. 3579) has also been introduced in the House. A hearing inthe Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit isanticipated prior to the August recess. Both bills includeprovisions to permit community charter and select employee groupcombinations, which Becker said was the last field of membershipfix at this point. But is there a downside to this trend toward thefederal charter? Is it good for NAFCU? "Sure," Becker saidconfidently. "What's good for the industry is good for the tradeassociation." He added that it's hard to tell if the trend willcontinue; it depends upon "the extent to which preemption isimportant to [credit unions]." Becker pointed to the recent creditcard case in California where a new state law would have requiredall institutions with customers or members in the state to maintaina call center on their time zone and disclose to consumers how longpaying off a debt with only minimum payments would take and thetotal cost, among other things. The case was a "slam dunk" forfederal charters, Becker reminded, and even though the statecharters ended up receiving the same treatment, they did notnecessarily have to. Another of Becker's top goals for NAFCU is"the relentless pursuit of membership value." While this includesadvocacy on things like field of membership and bankruptcy reform,NAFCU's chief also has an eye toward other member services. Forexample, NAFCU Services Corp. has aligned itself with Fannie Mae tohelp credit unions better position themselves in the upcomingrising interest rate environment. NSC has also partnered withvarious vendors to offer discounts on Small BusinessAdministration-related services, member business lending, PATRIOTAct compliance, and many other services. "What do we think memberswill need and want in the future?" Becker said the organizationasks itself. NAFCU is also trying to put credit unions out in thelimelight by advocating them in the press, including a recentletter to the editor Becker wrote to Military Officer magazineoutlining how credit unions can save service people money.Additionally, NAFCU has added value to its services throughtechnology. "As technology continues to evolve, we will continue totake advantage of it," Becker stated. He said NAFCU has begunoffering online training for credit unions and post conferenceevaluations. NAFCU has a daily e-mail service it sends out to morethan 7,000 people with only 3% having opted out. NAFCU also usese-mail to get a read on what its members think of regulations whenthe association prepares comment letters and obtains surveyresponses for monthly Flash Report questions. The trade associationhas also recently completed a serious overhaul of its Web site(www.nafcunet.org). All of this had been accomplished with no duesincreases to help pay for it. Becker said his goal for NAFCU is tobe "smart and efficient and not create more work."[email protected]