CUNA is expected to make a major announcement Wednesday morning regarding a possible major rebranding campaign and some structural changes.
The trade association is considering changing its name to America's Credit Unions, retaining a league/national connection with some credit union choice of league and making changes to its governance structure, such as reducing the size of the CUNA board.
CU Times obtained a copy of a slide presentation revealed at a Credit Union Roundtable meeting in Denver this week attended by some league presidents and credit union CEOs. Other league presidents who could not attend the meeting told CU Times they listened to the presentation during a conference call Tuesday morning.
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"The CUNA board, roundtable CEOs and league presidents received a report from the System Structure & Governance Task Force," CUNA CEO Jim Nussle said in a prepared statement in response to a CU Times inquiry about the Denver meeting.
"Several preliminary ideas were put forward for discussion focused on how our trade association can facilitate superior advocacy throughout the credit union system, including America's Credit Unions. These discussions will continue and we look forward to engaging with the credit union system on these issues," he said.
Findings of the report included that satisfaction with CUNA/League system was not high, especially among larger credit unions, and that the majority of larger credit unions said would prefer the choice to be a member of their state leagues or CUNA, according to the slide presentation.
The report also showed that credit unions were disappointed with a lack of results on big issues, and that there needs to be a "clear view of what's necessary to improve (the) CUNA/League proposition."
In addition to the proposed preliminary idea of changing CUNA's name to America's Credit Unions, the report's other preliminary ideas include establishing league/national interdependence and retaining league/national connection with some credit union choice of league.
However, CUNA did not recommend changing the dual membership requirement, sources said.
According to the presentation, other preliminary ideas included allocating national advocacy dues spread among credit unions, leagues and the system advocacy fund, introducing some choice on how dues are allocated, creating cooperative agreements between CUNA and leagues for accountability, funneling all dues used to fund advocacy and developing fee based services not subsidized by advocacy dues.
Three additional preliminary ideas on CUNA's governance structure were to reduce the size of the trade organization's board, align the credit union board seats with proportion of dues paid, and retain league presidents on the board with reduced proportion.
"We (CUNA & Leagues) have been discussing this for a year or more," Charles Elliott, president/CEO of the Mississippi Credit Union Association, said. "I think it will likely be implemented and the perception will be very positive."
Other league presidents also expressed positive views.
John Murphy, president/CEO of the Maine Credit Union League, liked the idea of CUNA changing its name to America's Credit Unions because it focused the attention on credit unions, not a trade association.
"I think it's the right approach," Murphy said. "We've been using Maine's Credit Unions as part of our statewide awareness campaign. Consumers aren't interested in the name Maine Credit Union League or on a national level CUNA. They want to see credit unions. We've been doing that and it's been very successful."
The System Structure & Governance Task Force based its preliminary ideas on five assumptions such as facilitating superior advocacy through the credit union system, providing opportunities for choice without harming advocacy, strengthening interdependence to support advocacy, institutionalizing accountability throughout the credit union system and focusing on 2025 demographic and economic realities.
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