Cornerstone Credit Union League, the nation's largest regionaltrade association that serves 559 cooperatives in Arkansas,Oklahoma and Texas, will mark its one-year anniversary in July.

Dick Ensweiler, president/CEO of the Cornerstone league inDallas, reflected on the challenges of consolidating three leagues,what the regional league has accomplished so far, and its futureinitiatives beyond its primary advocacy role.

While legislative matters and advocacy will always beCornerstone's top priority, it also is exploring new programs tohelp to increase consumer awareness at the local chapter and statelevels, to help cooperatives expand into underserved markets and tofacilitate the growth of loan portfolios, Ensweiler said.

With little controversy, member credit unions of the TexasCredit Union League, the Arkansas Credit Union League and theCredit Union Association of Oklahoma voted to merge in April andMay. Cornerstone officially opened its doors at a Dallas office onJuly 1, 2013.

“When we sold the consolidation of the leagues, we said it wouldbecome a bigger, stronger and more relevant organization for creditunions,” Ensweiler said. “With size comes relevancy. That is whatwe anticipated and it's happening.”

Indeed, Cornerstone serves about 570 credit unions, representing9% of the nation's cooperatives that employ more than 27,000 andprovide financial products and services to 9.5 million members,according to the league. At the end of 2013, members' assets grewmore than $5.1 billion, reaching $95.3 billion. Although theaverage credit union is $150.6 million in assets, the median assetsize is still in the $23 million range.

One of the ways the league's sheer size manifested its relevancyoccurred at the exhibit hall during its first annual meeting asCornerstone in April. The exhibit hall held 122 vendors, includinga number of first-time national vendors, eager to meet more than900 credit union professionals.

“We had vendors tell us they have never seen a league levelcrowd like this and it reminded them of CUNA's GAC,” Ensweilersaid.

At the credit union level, Cornerstone carries even morerelevancy.

“Cornerstone has a much larger staff. They have people who areexperts in all different types of areas in the credit unionindustry,” said Linda Stanton, president/CEO of the $25 millionUnion Pacific of Arkansas Federal Credit Union in Little Rock.“They also have a group of people who solely work with small creditunions. So now we have a lot of different services that we weren'teven aware of.”

In Henryetta, Okla., David Dykes Jr., president/CEO of the $55million First Family Federal Credit Union, recently signed up forCornerstone's compliance service.

“That service costs about one third of what we would have to payfor a full-time compliance officer,” Dykes said. “The service is awhole lot more beneficial for us as far as the economics goes.”

Since Cornerstone, Gary Davis, president/CEO of the $104 millionChocolate Bayou Community Federal Credit Union in Alvin, Texas,said he's more than satisfied with the league's service.

“The communications and the follow-up I've been receiving fromthe league personnel I've been extremely pleased by it,” Davissaid. “I think everybody is excited and enthused by the new leagueand I think that contributes to better services for all of us inthe long run.”

Over the short run, Cornerstone's Board Chair Paul Trylko,president/CEO of the $669 million Affinity Credit Union of Austin,Texas, highlighted during April's annual meeting what the leagueaccomplished from July to December 2013, the first six months ofthe combine group's operations.

The league increased membership of councils by 20%, appointed 12up-and-coming young credit union professionals to serve as youngprofessional advisors, approved 301 grants totaling more than$384,000 that supported financial education, professionaldevelopment and disaster relief and forged two new key businesspartnerships, through Cornerstone's subsidiary Credit UnionResources, with CO-OP Financial Services and INTECH.

These accomplishments aside, Ensweiler said during the league'sfirst six months the toughest consolidation challenges wereintegrating the cultures of the three former leagues. After all,for nearly 80 years each league had been operating independentlyunder different management styles, operations and resources.

“Getting people to know each other and work with each other in anew organization was a challenge and we knew it would be,”Ensweiler said.

What's more, league employees also had to adjust to thecentralization of services of education, training, compliance,human resources, IT, public relations and accounting. The league'ssatellite offices, located in each of the state capitals of LittleRock, Oklahoma City and Austin, solely focused on legislativematters and advocacy.

It took some time, but league employees came around aftergetting used to working within the new organizational structure,Ensweiler noted. There were no personnel changes at the 3-employeeLittle Rock office managed by Reta Kahley, president of theArkansas Credit Union Association.

In Oklahoma, two of the seven employees' jobs transitioned toother credit unions and one employee was reassigned to a newposition as a Cornerstone field representative in Arkansas andOklahoma. Gary Jones, who retired March 31 as president of theOklahoma Credit Union Association in Oklahoma City, was replaced byveteran lobbyist Nate Webb.

Though local, state and national advocacy remains central toleague's purpose, Ensweiler said he plans to introduce newinitiatives this year to support the growth of credit unions. Amongthem, to provide tools to help credit unions increase consumerawareness and develop new market opportunities across chapterregions and throughout each state.

“We'd like to explore with credit unions how they would like theleague to support their promotions,” Ensweiler said. “We have acommittee that is looking at different ways we can help getmessages across to consumers for credit unions at the local chapterlevel and at the state level. We are just exploring that.”

Cornerstone is also looking at other measures including how itcan help credit unions reach out to underserved Hispanic and NativeAmerican markets and exploring whether the league can assist creditunions to put more loans on their books.

“Credit unions are experiencing growth in members and deposits,but they are not necessarily seeing a proportionate increase inloans,” Ensweiler said. “We have identified this as an opportunityto see if there is some kind of role we can play in that.”