For all of the great new ideas and initiatives credit unions and credit union organizations come up with, they also produce their share of duds.

Credit union leaders need to understand that if handled correctly duds are OK! We all have them! Duds may be too strong a term for what really happens in many cases. There are plenty of great ideas, concepts, products and organizations that start out very promising, but because of changes in the marketplace, they become irrelevant. One of the best traits of a good leader is knowing when something has failed and when it is time to pull the proverbial plug.

We have seen some good examples of late. The National Association of Community Credit Unions, after seven years, is shutting down. This association always befuddled me. It seemed like it had great potential, but never really took off. It's almost as if the engine was roaring, but with the emergency brake on. I think that's because it was working under the wing of CUNA. It's no secret CUNA wants to be all things to all people (can't fault them for that), and even though this group was a part of CUNA, the die-hard CUNA folks never wanted it. In fact, CUNA's own focus on community charter issues makes a separate association less necessary.