SEATTLE – The American Association of Credit Union League's summer meeting only lasted two days, but the agenda for the conference held July 20-22 in Seattle was replete with discussion on a wide range of timely issues facing the credit union industry.

Among the topics AACUL Chairman and Virginia Credit Union League President/CEO Rick Pillow said were covered were credit union-to-bank conversions, NCUA's data collection project, financial education and public relations/advocacy.

Attendees were updated on the Filene Research credit union conversion report released in May that analyzed the 27 credit unions that have either converted to mutual thrifts or merged with mutuals, and assessed the effects on members. According to the report, which is based on the examination of CU conversions by James Wilcox, Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkley, 17 of the CU conversions have occurred between 1995 and 2002, and as of May, 14 of those had issued some type of stock or merged with stock-issuing former CUs. Two other former CUs have converted to mutual holding companies that can issue stock without an additional vote by members. “Conversions are still popping up from time to time, and we wanted to remind the leagues the issue is still out there,” said Pillow, noting that more leagues are developing their own policies on CU conversions to make sure members are well-informed.