Floyd said that roughly 30% of the credit union members voted in the election. He added that the CU did not yet have exact vote counts from the firm, which had served as their inspector of elections for the voting.

An article in the Post-Bulletin, a local paper that covered the special meeting, quoted Paul Horgan, CEO of the credit union, as saying "We're free!" referring to credit union charter restrictions.

Sources in the Minnesota credit union community proved remarkably reluctant to comment on the charter change except to note that while there had been several blogs where members had voiced disapproval of the idea, there had never been an organized effort among members to block it.

Still, even without an organized member effort, the vote remained very close and the turnout relatively high. On the site of CU Financial Services, a firm that helps CUs covert, credit unions contemplating conversion are advised that between 15% and 20% of the members will participate in the balloting, a figure which has often held true. But the preliminary numbers indicate that Think's turnout was 10% higher than what has been the average and that the vote was a good deal closer than the sharply wide margins that have characterized previous balloting.

Jim Blaine, CEO of the $13 billion State Employees Credit Union and one of the founders of the Center for Member Trust, took hope in the close vote, noting that its presence even in a credit union where there had been no organized member effort to block the conversion signaled that credit union members nationwide might be waking up to the importance and value of their credit union charters.

Blaine said it was always regrettable when a credit union changed to a bank charter, but added that he thought it was significant that the vote was so close when there had not been an organized member effort to oppose the charter move. "I think this is, overall, a very promising sign," Blaine said. "When credit union members really understand what is at stake in these conversions and what they are voting to give away, they will vote against the conversion every time." Mark Cummins, CEO of the Minnesota Credit Union Network said the network regretted that Think had changed its charter, but repeated the Network's position that charter change decisions are solely the province of the membership and said that the Network would not be seeking to educate members about the values of the credit union charter as other leagues have done.

"We view that as the responsibility of the credit union," Cummins said.

In its announcement of the vote, the CU said that it had forwarded the results of the balloting to NCUA as per the agency's regulations. As of press time, the Office of Thrift Supervision has not yet approved Think's application for charter change.

Chartered in 1976, Think is the former IBM Mid America Credit Union. In a September 2006 letter to members notifying them of the intent to change the charter, the credit union cited increased products and services, including business services, as a reason for the conversion as well as increased convenience in the placement of more branches. But the CU acknowledged that most current CU members have not been seeking business services. –[email protected]