As we begin a New Year in credit union land, it is often appropriate to also look back on the previous year. I will always associate 2006 as the year my father and credit union pioneer, John Arnold, passed away. While the pain and grief is still tender, I am filled with pride for my dad and reflect that our careers are somehow linked together just as our lives always will be.

One of the fondest memories I have about my father is reading and discussing articles from the Credit Union Times. Whenever my wife and I would go by mom and dad's (invariably to drop off the grandkids!), Dad would often be sitting in his chair reading the Credit Union Times. He would always get his copy before me because my office copy would arrive weeks late after being circulated to my co-workers. There is a great line in the movie City Slickers where Daniel Stern's character is fondly remembering his father. He says, "When my father and I couldn't talk about anything else we could talk about baseball." For me and my dad, our version of "baseball talk" was credit unions. If we couldn't talk about anything else, we could always talk about credit unions. In many ways, my dad and I connected with each other through our credit union careers.

We often knew some of the same people. We'd catch up on credit union gossip: who was at particular credit unions and how they were doing. He'd tell old war stories about so and so and I'd keep him up-to-date on what issues credit unions were facing today. Of course, Dad always offered sage advice on my credit union career (whether I wanted it or not!).