ARLINGTON, Va.-NAFCU President and CEO Fred Becker feels it isimportant to remain `an average guy,' so long as his tradeassociation is a standout. He noted that the former head of NAFCU,Ken Robinson, was a general and so was used to special treatment.Not Becker. "I'm continually taken aback by the people who treat melike more than I should be or that I feel that I am just becauseI'm someone who happens to be a national representative," he said."I think it's important that I try to stay down to earth and be theaverage guy-the guy who falls off his roof at Christmas and doesn'tpay somebody to get up and decorate his house for him." Beckerbroke his leg late last year hanging Christmas lights on the roofof his house. But, this `average guy' has proven a mover and ashaker within NAFCU. Though he said he did not know where he wantedto be in five years when he came to NAFCU, Becker stated, "I cansay in retrospect, we're much farther than we thought we'd be, if Ihad to Monday morning quarterback it." He said a vendor CEO advisedhim at the beginning of his time at NAFCU to "just put your headdown, don't look up and just keep going," which Becker said turnedout to be pretty sage advise. It fairly succinctly encapsulated hisfirst year with the organization. Fred took over from his first dayat NAFCU, Jan. 31, 2000. "The transition went marvelously well andthe transition went marvelously well because of Ken," Becker said."It's hard to come in and within six months or a year, to takesomeone's place, who today, is still loved by the industry.Toreplace an icon was very, very difficult." Something to Talk AboutOn that first day, Becker sent a personalized e-mail to each ofNAFCU's member credit unions that they had addresses forintroducing himself. He used that same idea to send two moremembership e-mails later that week on goings-on with bankruptcyreform. Becker and the staff later instituted "NAFCU Today," ane-mail service to notify members of the news on the Web site thatday, as well as some marketing of NAFCU offerings like economicsand statistics. "One of the things we've found is that there are alot of things we do that our members don't know we do," Beckerexplained. He also led the call to spruce up some of NAFCU'spublications, like the Update newsletter and the Flash Report.Becker took the same principle and began ensuring e-mails betweenthe membership and himself and other senior staff are personalizedas much as possible and signed by the sender, as well as includinga contact number. Additionally, he began what has becomeaffectionately known within NAFCU as "Fred-er" letters, which goout to member credit unions congratulating them on something uniquethey have done, such as a financial literacy effort or aiding thetroops overseas. "[It's] a benefit of a smaller association thatyou can reach out and touch and it enables us to take advantage oftechnology.You have to be smarter than the bigger associations,you've got to be faster, and you've got to be continuallyinnovative and I think we've done that," Becker said. "I think wehave a responsibility to continue to do that as we move forward."The CEO can be caught sneaking out of NCUA Board meetings followingthe approval of a community charter application to congratulate thecredit union before the agency even has a chance to notify them.Keeping Principles in Check Upon Becker's arrival, NAFCU alsodeveloped its `Guiding Principles,' seven items that theorganization would be driven by. Reviewing them, Becker noted it isvery telling of NAFCU's efforts. First item is preserving creditunions' uniqueness, which he said NAFCU is working toward even asthe group works to bring them into the 21st Century withlegislation like regulatory relief and the Credit Union RegulatoryImprovements Act. Along with this, the trade association felt itimportant to work to preserve volunteer credit union boards. NAFCUalso listed the pursuit of limited field of membership changes as aguiding principle. "The FOM Manual essentially was plagiarized fromour comments and that's fine," Becker pointed out with a chuckle."We appreciate that kind of plagiarism." Two items that tietogether are the maintenance of NCUA as an independent regulatorand keeping the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund-one ofthe founding reasons for NAFCU-under its watch. "You no longer hearthose calls anymore," Becker explained, to separate the NCUSIF fromNCUA. NAFCU was also interested in examining options foralternative capital, which has evolved more into a battle to evolvePrompt Corrective Action into a more risk-based system. In thismatter, Becker feels NAFCU has truly helped to set the agenda.NAFCU has been saying, "It's not secondary capital folks, it's PCAand look where we are today," Becker noted. "Everybody pretty muchagrees its PCA." NAFCU jumped in early and often on the need tolift credit unions' member business lending restrictions, Beckersaid. "Although we're a long way from getting member business loanrestrictions lifted-and that's probably the toughest thing ineither CURIA or reg relief-" he admitted, "we did succeed with the[Small Business Administration]." He also acknowledged NCUA's workwith NAFCU in the area. Becker concluded, "I think we've comepretty far." This overall effort to enhance the federal charter hasled to a slight favor of the federal charter, whether by averageassets, total assets, or number of institutions, according toBecker; previously the perception was that the state charters hadan advantage. These numbers "should be in balance," which theynearly are, he said. The Long Haul Becker paralleled the beginningof his NAFCU experience to being on an ice hockey rink. "For awhile here, I felt like I was the puck. It was one thing afteranother. Not a lot of time to sit back and reflect and think," herecalled. He also admitted that he had not had much experience inthat anyway. "I came from a background where, in the military, youworked at a job for two or three years, so you had two or threeyears to make your mark and do whatever you wanted to do with thatjob because you were going to get moved out. "If I made a mistake,I came into the job here like that. At the same time, I think itworked because we got a fast transition to where I wanted to bethan we would have otherwise." NAFCU/PAC has certainly come far inthat time, far outdistancing previous records in the last twoyears, as well as NAFCU's general prowess and presence on CapitolHill. "We've done a lot on Capitol Hill," Becker said. "I thinkwe've taken our presence on Capitol Hill to the next level." Heindicated the event NAFCU co-hosted for Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.)at the Democratic National Convention and the event for HouseFinancial Services Committee Chairman Mike Oxley (R-Ohio) at theRepublican convention. NAFCU also participated in a number ofinaugural events. NAFCU/PAC, which helped fund all of this, climbedinto the top 15% of all PACs the last election cycle (2003-2004).Becker pointed out that NAFCU lobbyists and board members were inCongressman Spencer Bachus' (R-Ala.) office the first day of thecongressional session to discuss credit unions' net worth issuewith the Financial Accounting Standards Board's proposal "and lookhow fast we are out of the box as a result." But there is more tobe done, Becker said "First of all, I would say we've beenfortunate-no big goofs," he said. However, he recognized, "We're asmall association. I wish we could do more in the financialeducation arena." Financial education is key in teaching aboutcredit, financial responsibility and savings to people of all ages.NAFCU does have FDIC's Money Smart program on its Web site and isworking with a credit union from New York to translate intoSpanish. Despite all the accomplishments regarding communication,Becker came back to communication as an area still needing work."We're not doing a good enough job of letting our members know allthe things we do," he said. In all, NAFCU has 804 members, whichhas held fairly steady in recent years, representing 62.1% offederal credit union assets. "I think we have a pretty stablemembership. What I'd like to do, however, is build it up," Beckersaid. Since its inception, NAFCU has been known for its capture ofthe largest federal credit unions. Of the 48 federal credit unionsover $1 billion in assets, NAFCU counts 39 among its membership.NAFCU also has 89% of federal credit unions between $500 millionand $1 billion in assets. But, as the assets shrink, so doesNAFCU's membership. For credit unions between $100 and $200million, NAFCU only counts 40% as members; the smallest creditunions are in the single digit percentages. Becker said theorganization is working to recruit smaller members and completed asmall member survey that helped identify some issues. One of themain things they found was that small credit unions do not want tobe segmented out and so the organization killed its small membernewsletter but began posting marketing-type articles on its Website, downloadable for small credit unions to use. At an NCUAPartnering and Leadership Successes workshop he attended, Beckersaid NRS Community Development Federal Credit Union CEO EuniceRogers raised the value of being a NAFCU member during her panel'sdiscussion. NAFCU needs to tout its value to small credit unions,he said. Becker commended Matz on discussing the decrease in smallcredit unions. Over the last four years 6% of small credit unionshave grown over the $10 million in assets threshold, while 22% aregone from mergers and liquidations. "The really sad thing is thatthere are no new ones starting up," Becker said. He pointed outthat there's a similar trend among community banks. Becker cited arecent speech by FDIC Vice Chair John Reich, in which he called thelack of start-ups a threat to community banking. "That's a reasonwhy in my view, the banks and credit unions need to join together,particularly the community banks, for regulatory relief, because inthe interim, as they sit and throw ducks in the water-yellowducks-they're dying on the vine," he said. "The tax exemption issueis not getting anywhere on the federal level. So they can continueto die on the vine while the larger banks continue to grow and dovery well because the regulatory burden doesn't bother them nearlyas much as it does the smaller institutions, or they can decidethey want regulatory relief." Becker specifically pointed to theBank Secrecy Act and the PATRIOT Act following 9-11, whichacknowledging that, often, the only way to catch the bad guy is tofollow the money trail. NAFCU must continue to forge ahead on thisissue and numerous others, Becker said. "I think the decreasingnumber of credit unions is going to continue to be a challenge andto solve the problem of the decreasing number of small creditunions is going to continue to be a problem and a challenge. Idon't know what the solution is." He continued that another problemfor credit unions is that they will continue to be harassed by thebankers. "I think that credit unions need to do more to articulatewho we are, what we are, and why we are different than otherfinancial institutions. We've been saying that for years too. SomeCEOs have said we should have been more aggressive earlier insaying, `Wait a minute folks. Remember who you are and what you'reabout.' And that may be true." To steer NAFCU down the path thatBecker now has envisioned for the organization, which only leads tothe future, he stated, "I think we've also got a responsibility tolook around the corner, think ahead, think strategically what'sgoing to happen, and what we can do to help [members] with thechallenges they may be facing from the trends we've seenoccurring." When and if the time comes for Becker to exit thecredit union movement, he hopes people will remember, "He caredabout the community, made the community better to the extent hecould, was focused on us. Got up in the morning thinking about usand went to bed thinking about us and how [NAFCU] could help us.[NAFCU's] been more able to serve our members to help them betterserve their members." [email protected]