Credit union volunteer professionals in California arediscretely discriminated against for election to trade associationboards including the boards of corporate credit unions, CUSOs, CUNAMutual, WOCCU, and organizations such as the Filene Institute. Theprocess is so discriminatory that few dare to try to get elected.Credit union volunteers share some of the blame because they do notget involved in the voting process. They leave the voting to thestaff. Every ballot should reflect the position of the board withinput from the staff. In many cases, the board chairperson hasunfortunately been there forever and does not desire to address theissue. For CUNA Mutual board positions, I understand why staffdesire to rotate the vacancies among themselves because theyreceive handsome compensation from CUNA Mutual, and most of themreceive a nice monthly pension for life after they leave the CUNAMutual board. The argument that volunteers have to "earn theirstripes" to be elected to boards is without merit and is demeaning.Dan Mica's latest remarks about volunteers being on boards areinsulting (See related story page 1). Most volunteers have achievedgreat success in their occupations - more so in many instances thantheir CEOs. I have seen CEOs hired who were insurance salespeople,stock brokers, etc. Some have been very good and some not so good.Another invalid argument is that you have to get known in theindustry to get votes. Of course that helps. But, I would like forevery volunteer to recall how many staff people are on the boardsof CUNA, WOCCU, CUNA Mutual, Filene, etc. whom they know or haveheard of. So, if we have to know volunteers before we will vote forthem, why do we vote for staff people whom we do not know? Ipropose that from one-third to one-half of the number of positionson each board be dedicated for volunteers. Some semblance of parityis long overdue. The August 5th edition of Credit Union Timescontains a photo of Gerry Foley from Ireland who received theDistinguished Service Award for his service to WOCCU aschairperson. Foley is a credit union volunteer. Unfortunately, novolunteer from the USA will ever be eligible to achieve this awardbecause they are effectively blocked from eligibility to serve onthe WOCCU board by CUNA. This is indeed unfortunate. Equallyunfortunate is the practice of dedicating seats on boards for tradeassociation leaders. There is something very wrong when tradeleaders can be on boards but credit union volunteers areeffectively excluded. Additionally, credit union volunteers cannever serve on the credit union committee for NASCUS. Their bylawsdo not allow volunteers to be nominated to the committee. At onetime, NCUA supported this organization with an office and a staffperson. Why should our federal regulatory agency subsidize anentity which discriminates against credit union volunteers? For themost recent NAFCU Board elections, the nominating committeenominated credit union volunteer Bob Scott from Pentagon FCU for aboard seat. Although there is currently only one volunteer on theboard, Mr. Scott was not elected. A NAFCU director who was alreadyon the board but whose board seat was slated to be eliminated afterone more year was elected for a vacant position. Something isdrastically wrong when there is a vacancy and a person whose termhas not expired is elected over another highly qualified personbecause he is a volunteer! It is time for change. It can beachieved gracefully or volunteers are likely to sooner or laterexert their influence. I hope that those who direct the parade ofvolunteers to Washington each year to show legislators why creditunions are different will voluntarily understand the wisdom andbenefits of having a diversity of people with varying backgroundson all of our boards. The National Association of Credit UnionChairmen also deserves some criticism. From outside, it appearsthat they do no more for volunteers than attend a conference eachyear. They should be championing the cause of credit unionvolunteers. NACUC even excludes most credit union volunteers fromparticipating in their organization. When they were asked to uniteinto an organization which includes all credit union volunteers,they turned a cold shoulder. What kind of message does that send tothe rest of the credit union world and to our adversaries? It istime for NACUC to take a long and hard look at any benefits derivedby credit union directors from their organization and make changesto benefit all volunteers. Charles Dawes Director Credit UnionDirectors Association Roseville, Calif. (Editor's Note: The NASCUSCredit Union Advisory Council (what the letter writer attributes asthe NASCUS "credit union committee,") consists of member creditunions that are represented by an individual "representative." Thisindividual is designated by the credit union. Often the creditunion designates its CEO; however, that is it is not a NASCUSrequirement and directors can be designated.