Mitchell Klein, senior vice president and general counsel for the $3 billion Police and Fire Federal Credit Union, Philadelphia, who presented a session on due diligence was a well-informed presenter. He laid out a road map to due diligence for others to follow. He even handled the pointed questions from the audience, stating that smaller credit unions didn't have the resources a $3 billion credit union has and how were they supposed to comply. He responded that it's all relative–a small credit union would likely have fewer contracts, which should narrow the field of work.

Former NCUA Board Member Debbie Matz, National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions Executive Director Cliff Rosenthal and Organization of American States Staff FCU CEO Carlos Calderon, representing the Network of Latino Credit Union Professionals, formed a panel on serving the underserved. The well-attended session sparked some debate over credit unions' ability to serve illegal immigrants–and yes, they can if they want to and have appropriate policies in place.

The Washington update, presented by NAFCU's lobbying staff and NCUA Director of Public and Congressional Affairs John McKechnie, was informative and entertaining. The group of panelists played off of each other well and was interactive with the audience–a key to keeping its attention when rolling through legislative provisions. They offered participants some insight into political inner workings as it relates to credit unions.

I also stopped in on an HR session presented by William J. Adler, partner with the firm of Styskal, Wiese & Melchione. He had a smallish but very dedicated crowd in the room. Particularly when the participants focused on a recent case where a credit union lost a suit for firing an employee suffering from cancer, the details of which are much more complicated than that. But, my point here is that the audience, despite being a Friday afternoon in San Diego, was really enthralled with questioning the attorney regarding the suit and other HR-related matters.

I missed outgoing Chairman JoAnn Johnson's remarks, as well as Vice Chairman Rodney Hood's. However, based on our article (see page 25) his tactic to devote much of his time to question and answer was smart and brave. You never know what you're going to get out of something like that, but it did seem to have worked out well. Board Member Gigi Hyland, whose session I did attend, was one of the best I've seen her do.

Other personal observations regarding NAFCU's annual conference: I thought NAFCU's conference blog was a good idea, but I was surprised it didn't get more comments. Maybe more marketing at the conference would have helped.

The online calendar for the sessions did not work for me at all. While it said when education sessions were happening, it didn't note which education session were when. This really made it difficult for us to decide in advance what to cover, and I'm sure credit unions experienced the same thing with so many going on at once.

In the exhibit hall, former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar was pumping his Who's Who in America's Credit Unions rather than Dollar Associates. Smart move.

And, if this bumpkin has to be in a city other than Washington, San Diego was it. Loved the venue.

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