LATHAM, N.Y. -- State credit union leagues are starting to suffer sharp pains from so-called "disaffiliations" and the trend has grabbed CUNA's attention.

Acknowledging the toll mergers, slow membership growth and tight margins have taken on the bottomline of CUs across the U.S., CUNA disclosed last week it has formed a special "Affiliation Task Force" to plot ways to halt the CU member slide at leagues.

The five-member task force, which had is first formal meeting two weeks ago in Las Vegas during CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference & Expo is under the guidance of its affiliated American Association of Credit Union Leagues.

"Our goal is to enhance the value of league membership and sometimes there are so many intangibles when it comes to advocacy and awareness" the vital message of industry unity gets buried, said the chairman of the panel, Paul Mercer, president/CEO of the Ohio Credit Union League and a past AACUL chairman.

Other members of the Task Force, all president/CEOs of their leagues, include: William Cheney, California; James McCormack, Pennsylvania; William Mellin, New York and Guy Hood, Florida.

Members of the panel and a sampling of other league CEOs show the member retention problem is not necessarily widespread with some of the largest leagues feeling the attrition pinch more than smaller ones.

Nonetheless, the decline in several cases has had an impact in cutting or re-directing league services and is manifest, for example, at the New York State Credit Union League that said its "affiliation ratio" is now at 72%, a drop from 90% a decade ago.

It currently has a roster of 375 member CUs, but 140 New York CUs are not members and because of the dues shortfall, the league in one area will reduce its advertising expense for its annual TV/radio/billboard consumer awareness/advocacy campaign this fall. The campaign was to start after Labor Day.

Ordinarily, the league had projected spending $220,000, "but it now looks like that will be cut in half and we'll spend about $110,000," said Mellin, the New York CEO.

CUs Have Financial Concerns...But

In line with the task force's mission of demonstrating league value, the New York league said it is mounting an aggressive campaign of "dialogue and direct contact" with CU boards to bring wayward members back into the fold.

In discussing disaffected members in a "President's Message" in the league's May 28-June 1 newsletter, Mellin wrote that he sympathized with the many "challenges" faced by member CUs in today's economy.

He wrote that he realized CUs have a difficult problem in keeping costs under control as they undergo mergers, budget constraints, increased competition and other factors leading to the "decision to cut expenses and drop out of the league, a decision that on the surface may seem like the right thing to do."

And yet the consequences, he continued, of such actions are significant in reducing funding for the many outreach and awareness projects that support the CU mission.

"As you consider these questions, keep in mind that the league is only as strong as the credit unions that belong to it," he wrote. "Simply defined, the league is nothing more than a group of credit unions that has come together to support one another. Without members, the league no longer exists."

Elaborating on his message stressing "unity and cooperation," Mellin warned that the fallout from a weakened league structure could strengthen bank attacks and with poor support services harm future industry performance.

"Together, we work to create an environment that gives credit unions the opportunity to grow and prosper and together we work with our state and federal legislators to create laws that are beneficial to credit unions," he wrote.

"Together, we educate consumers on the purpose and mission of credit unions, but that could change without dues funding," he said.

Mellin confessed he does not have the answers to solving the problem, but a new effort to reach out to nonmembers needs to be pursued, a fact underlined in a series of "town hall" meetings which began last January "with two more planned this summer."

CUNA's Mercer said AACUL has been grappling with membership retention for some months adding, "I know Bill has some strong opinions on the subject which makes it important that the dialogue begin."

Still, disaffiliations are by no means pervasive and go in cycles, but some of the larger leagues, he said, have witnessed the problem to a greater degree. The Ohio League currently has an 82% affiliation rate also impacted like others by mergers and consolidation, he said.

The Ohio League, however, has long operated in the low 80-percent rang,e but in 1996 did get as high as 86%. Some leagues in the Midwest and West have affiliations in the low to mid 90-percent range

Like other league CEOs, Mercer said leagues with members in large urban centers facing high media expenses find themselves in difficult straits in trying to mount effective campaigns with a loss of dues.

A case in point is the New Jersey League which more than a year ago launched "Bob The Credit Union Guy" and found itself having to spend large sums for TV ads in the Philadelphia and New York markets, since delaying full campaign resumption, in part, for lack of funding.

Susan Newton, CUNA's senior vice president of league relations and executive director of AACUL, said "maintaining a high rate of affiliation" is an ongoing issue for both CUNA and trade associations "of all types."

For the CUNA/league system, "the numbers remain above 90% which is outstanding when compared to other associations."

However, she said in a statement, with ongoing earnings pressure "we feel an additional emphasis on strategies that focus on member retention and increasing value" are needed for a unified system.

Mercer said that the task force, which meets again in Boston July 18-21,would for now concentrate on sharing "best practices" among the leagues on those projects that are most effective in increasing affiliation rates.

Echoing Mercer and fellow league CEOs, Mellin noted that some boards cut their membership with the league years ago based on some long-forgotten personality dispute or clash over services and "today they don't even know why they stopped paying their dues."

The job of existing CUs, Mellin said, is to get these nonmembers to return for the sake of preserving unity, now becoming ever more urgent.

Mellin said "the more cooperation and unity we build, the greater our successes will be" and so he asked, "what should our course be with credit unions that are not members of the League?"

"Should we look for ways to involve them or should we shun them? If we do involve them, where should we draw the line between members and nonmembers? If we shun them completely, how do we foster unity and cooperation within the credit union movement?"

Those answers, he said, will have to come from the existing membership, he concluded.

Marla Marsh, president/CEO of the Kansas Credit Union Association with an affiliation ratio of 93%, said there has been slippage over the years but the problem has been "to get our arms around this issue of telling our advocacy story."

Offering routine products and services through field consultants has diminished in importance to government relations and advocacy and "it's hard to explain the benefits of a combined effort working for the common good."

"It is a hard sell," she said.

--jrubenscut@aol.com

Instant Insights /

League Member Decline Raises Alarms; Member CUs Asked to Help Rally Support

Related Stories

Recommended For You