Praising the California League as the "premier, top of the pack" trade group in the U.S., York said cost benefits of belonging and receiving legal and compliance services "for free" outweigh the expense.

York's 15-member panel and a corollary 35-CU "peer" group made up of chapter leaders and

others began making personal visits and phone calls to the 132 nonmember CUs. There are 536 CUs in the league.

At the national level, the disaffiliation/dues loss problem and its impact on league services came to the fore in May when the New York State Credit Union League warned of trimming its annual fall advertising campaign because of the income decline.

In discussing the league's drop in its affiliation ratio to 72% from 90% a decade ago, the president/CEO, William J. Mellin, reminded New York CU leaders that "without members and cooperation, the league no longer exists" and that a weakened league structure only strengthens bank attacks and harms future industry performance.

Mellin along with William Cheney, president/CEO of the California League, are members of a new CUNA Affiliation Task Force set to meet over last weekend in Boston at the annual conference of the American Association of Credit Union Leagues, which is spearheading the national campaign to curb disaffiliations.

Also on the CUNA Task Force is Guy Hood, president/CEO of the Florida League, who told Credit Union Times he may have been put on the CUNA panel because of recent success in bringing back some large CUs that dropped out years ago.

"For me and my credit union, it was a case that I really needed to rejoin the league for help in disaster recovery since I had no background whatsoever in that field and really needed the networking and connections," said Janice Hollar, a former Dallas consultant who took over in January as CEO of the $400 million Kennedy Space Center Federal Credit Union, Merritt Island, Fla.

Hollar, whose CU was identified by Hood as a new league convert, said rejoining the league has been helpful in training staff and in receiving

consulting services, adding, "I know rejoining was a good decision."

But nationally there are scores of CUs that want no part of league/CUNA memberships until what they claim are reforms are made in lobbying and business operations.

For one CEO outspoken on the topic, John Fenton, president of the $1.3 billion Affinity Federal Credit Union of Basking Ridge, N.J., said he has no plans to join the New Jersey League, rocked by in-fighting earlier this year over the April ouster of Robert S. Walls, its president/CEO.

Fenton, like some other CEOs in N.J. have been critical of what they argue are ineffectual lobbying in Trenton and in Washington and a heavy emphasis on profit-making operations by some state leagues. The New Jersey League, for one, has defended its lobbying program and its service business as meeting the needs of CUs in the state.

In California there are nonmembers that bolted the league two years ago over mandatory advocacy campaigns.

"I really miss our involvement in the league and I think the league does good work in building grassroots advocacy, but I object to doubling our dues and conducting a campaign which for years was voluntary and now mandatory," complained Richard Harris, president/CEO of the $746 million Caltech Employees Federal Credit Union of La Canada Flint.

"It is simply wrong," he said to impose that burden on CUs, said the Caltech CEO.

But Caltech's York, a league director who was not involved in the mandatory advocacy launch two years ago, said the media ads are working well and besides, "it took a lot of courage" for the league leadership to adopt its stance risking the loss of members for the sake of putting out a strong message.

And, he said, those nonmember CUs "are still getting the advantage of the advocacy campaign and not paying for it," an argument often voiced by current league members. For the sake of industry cooperation, "I want to be engaged" and that means bearing the expense of belonging to a number of trade groups including NAFCU, the Marketing Association of California and the Defense Credit Union Council.

Hood said the disaffiliation problem might simply rest with both the paid staff and elected leaders not recounting the advantages of league membership in a meaningful or forceful manner.

In other words, "we haven't been paying enough careful attention to promote our real value to member credit unions in several areas including political action," said Hood.

The Florida CU League, with an 84.4% ratio holding 90.8% of assets, has been working hard to gauge member attitudes sending out a yearly survey with a 70-page summary of findings on the worthiness of all league activities including political action.

"Do you know I came back from a week's vacation and there were 422 e-mails waiting for me and so I call that suffering from information overload," said Hood. The problem for league staff and elected leaders is trying to respond satisfactorily to the queries and concerns expressed by the membership.

It is a major challenge, but one that the league has been working on, he concluded.

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