EL PASO, Texas — When Harriet May, now CEO of the $1.3 billion GECU first walked into the institution in early 1974, she planned to stay only about five years.

“I figured at five years I would be vested in their retirement system and I could move on and have a nice little fund set aside for retirement,” May explained, humor in her voice at the memory of her earlier life. “But I didn't count on this place–the philosophy that just seems to ooze from the walls of this place–getting to me as much as it did.”

May majored in math in college and had been anticipating a career in the sciences after one of her professors discouraged her from pursuing accounting, calling it “old science.” But with no immediate prospects for a laboratory job, May took her acumen with numbers into an area bank, following a friend to work at the credit union after about a year.

May has rarely looked back since. As she prepares to accept this year's National Credit Union Foundation's Herb Wegner Award for Individual Achievement, it appears that she has had as much of an impact on her credit union as her credit union has had on her.

May came face-to-face with the credit union philosophy early in her career.

“I don't want to look back and talk badly about my time at the bank,” May said, “but I liked working at the credit union much better.” May said the CU showed her greater respect, for one thing. Pay at the CU included time and a half for working overtime, moreover, she felt that a career at the credit union was going to be more about people than profits–a difference she came to appreciate as she moved through the ranks to eventually become CEO in 1996.

Interestingly, May's staff at GECU nominated her for the award in secret, foreseeing her objections.

“I was stunned,” May said. “I remember asking 'what have you done' and whether or not they were crazy.”

But when the Foundation reviewed the application and the sheaf of testimonials from staff and leaders of other organizations and credit unions, they decided that May deserved the award–particularly for her groundbreaking work in housing.

May recognized the importance of helping lower-income members eventually buy homes as well as the importance of timing. “You know, if you have a lower income member who comes to you and says 'I was in your homeownership seminar last week and I want to work with you on buying a home, it may be two or two-and-a-half years before that member finally qualifies for a mortgage,” she explained. “That's a lot of time and work and effort spent helping that member achieve their dream.”

Credit unions wanting to impact their members should realize that the purchase of a home will have a huge impact on a member's life, involving their relationship to saving, budgeting, and decisions made when the member walks outside and finds the air conditioner leaking. “It's a whole world of things they never had to think about, consider and handle before,” May noted. “All wrapped up in the home.”

In order to help empower GECU and eight other local credit unions better manage their mortgage programs, May was instrumental in founding the El Paso Affordable Housing CUSO, an effort the CUs launched with the NCUF, Texas Credit Union Foundation, and other local groups.

At first, GECU and the others created the CUSO to help handle some of the financial education and management aspects of their mortgage programs more easily. But they soon found the CUSO also served as a good vehicle to apply for grants and other types of downpayment assistance on behalf of their members and other local organizations, as well as to negotiate the secondary market and ensure compliance with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's rules.

Since the CUSO's launch, it has helped file over 32,000 tax returns so that lower-income credit union members can have access to Earned Income Tax Credits that they can, in turn, put into individual development accounts or otherwise save toward their new home. Over 370 financial education workshops have been held, reaching 6,200 El Paso residents and leading to 400 buying their first home. The CUSO has opened over 10,000 first-time homebuyer savings accounts and made $14 million in mortgages for lower income residents.

May feels that the thread running through all of her accomplishments was the credit union commitment to meeting the needs of individual members who–without the CU, might remain forever mired in poor financial habits and at the mercy of payday lenders and other unsavory financial institutions.

“As an industry we should continue to focus on what makes us different, what makes us credit unions and on how we can have the most impact on the financial lives and hopes of our members,” she said. “That may be our biggest challenge going forward.”

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