WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – One look at the Credit Union Times' 2005Association Calendar on pages 28-34 and it's obvious that thenumber of credit union association conferences and events is on therise. Credit union associations rely on meetings for a couple ofthings – to bring in income and to get in front of credit unionleaders who ultimately decide the direction of associations. Topicsthat will surely come up in 2005 are banker attacks, capitalissues, serving businesses, finding new CEOs, CEO compensation, CUsconverting to mutual savings banks and other issues that are on theminds of credit union leaders. The three major conferences of theyear are CUNA's Governmental Affairs Conference, CUNA's FutureForum and NAFCU's Annual Conference and Exhibition. While thecredit union association calendar is jam packed, credit unionleaders are also flocking to credit union vendor meetings. More andmore vendors are moving beyond just users' conferences and tryingto attract more than just their own clients to meetings by havingmore diverse agendas and including an exhibitor program. CreditUnion Times will run its vendor meetings list in its Jan. 5, 2005issue. (See box below for more details).