NCUA and Gentile Miss the Point About FCU Bylaws Disputes

Both the NCUA and the Credit Union Times’ Editor/Publisher Paul Gentile are missing the point about credit union bylaw disputes. Who enforces the FCU bylaws, the courts or NCUA, is secondary to the core question of why does NCUA empower a mere handful of disruptive dissidents to petition for a special membership meeting in the first place? If NCUA’s standard bylaws allowed federal credit unions to require a responsible 10% of members to petition for these special membership meetings like so many state statutes and bylaws do, then governance-threatening disputes requiring enforcement would become extremely rare.

Although a handful of states have special membership meeting petition requirements worse than NCUA’s 750-signature cap, the vast majority requires many more members to call a special meeting. If DFCU Financial were a Michigan-chartered credit union, over 16,000 member signatures would have been required. If Maryland-chartered, Lafayette FCU would require over twice as many member signatures as the FCU bylaws.