FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — NCUA Board member Gigi Hyland revealed that her original career dream was to be an ornithologist but comparative literature and the law eventually won out.

Her talk to NASCUS attendees was titled, "The grand Perhaps," an idea taken from Robert Browning's long poem "Bishop Blougram's Apology." It includes ruminations on "old misgivings and crooked questions," and the line "But friend, we speak of what is; not of what might be, and how 'twere better if 'twere otherwise."

"I admit I'm a comparative literature wonk," said Hyland unabashedly, as she made the seamless connection between poetic possibilities, the realities of credit union regulation and the grand notions that underlie movement philosophy. "Is the credit union model still working? Can credit unions stay member-centric or, is it all just about profits?" she asked. The answers to those and other questions are being sought by her through CU managers and other officials' participation in town hall meetings now being conducted in various cities around the country, she said.