He added that the credit union has a loyal membership from its former field of municipal government employees and is slowly working itself into the community of San Jose–the nation's 10th largest city–after converting to a community charter about three years ago. Carroll also commented, "The credit union has historically priced products close to market and haven't had to go out and chase rates." The 12,000-member credit union has been gaining about 100 members per month recently, which he was pleased with. He said the new branch the credit union has opened really helped. The credit union, positioned in an area that has one-third of the population speaking Spanish, has a bilingual staff, but Carroll hopes to do more with that. He is looking at the pricing of the wire transfer services they offer, as well as check cashing, a product ripe for the credit union picking with 100 check cashing outlets in town versus 34 credit union branches. San Jose Credit Union also recently joined the local Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Some other initiatives Carroll has spurred include adding money market accounts to the array of services; bolstering mortgage lending, which was "not as robust as it could have been"; revamping the credit cards to offer bonus incentives; and looking into starting student lending.

Before digging in much deeper, however, he wants to ensure the infrastructure is there. San Jose Credit Union's Web site (www.sjcu.org) has all the "bells and whistles," including online first mortgage applications. Carroll said he is studying further IT and security upgrades. "We have to be diligent in the design of our delivery systems for members and potential members," he stated.

Still, his favorite part of the job, Carroll said, is "probably dealing with the employees. The employees here at the credit union are just great people."

And that is just what the accountant ordered to help boost shrinking credit union membership growth, which he described as "one of the things that frightens me." Another is industry consolidation. Carroll noted that there is a parallel between consolidation of the credit union and banking industries, but that is where it stops because entrepreneurial types will always come behind and open a new niche-market bank in order to sell it off and make more money. That is not happening with credit unions because credit unions start with no capital and there is no money to be made.

Carroll acknowledged that in the short-term for individual credit unions, mergers may be the best option, but consolidation is not good for the industry in the larger scheme. "The uniqueness of the credit union may dwindle away with that merger," he said. He continued, "Our industry needs little credit unions. We need that spirit…I wish there was a solution for those smaller credit unions, short of merger, to compete." Carroll recalled at one time when Silicon Valley companies would provide "donated equity" with no strings attached to start up new credit unions. "What would be wonderful would be philanthropic organizations that donate capital," he suggested. Credit unions need to be creative to get new credit unions up and running for the good of the industry.

"Where the credit union industry really needs to go is in the low-income areas and build them," Carroll said. He admitted on the other hand that the process has more than its share of negatives: it would be slow, expensive, and require capital build up.

Maybe history will repeat itself for Carroll, but hopefully not the era he has been studying the last few years with his daughter. Carroll and his oldest, who will be studying geology and paleontology in college, have been on three dinosaur digs, including the discovery of a new species. "It's never something I thought I'd do," he commented, but now he has a 77 million year old dinosaur bone in his office. –[email protected]