CUNA's proposed new membership bylaws removed language that required member credit unions to also maintain league membership. It also removed language that automatically made credit unions members of CUNA when they joined a league.

Three documents – the proposed restated bylaws, a comparison of the current and proposed bylaws and the current bylaws – were emailed to leagues and CUNA members Monday.

Download and read CUNA's new bylaw amendment package here.

Patrick S. Jury, president/CEO of the Iowa Credit Union League and the CUNA Corporate Governance Committee, penned a cover letter that accompanied the package. Jury wrote that the proposed bylaws provide credit unions with a choice of whether to belong to their league, CUNA or both, according to the letter the accompanying documents.

The proposed bylaws defined voting membership to include credit union leagues, natural person credit unions that are defined as cooperative credit organizations chartered as credit unions under United States federal or state law or credit unions organized and operating under the jurisdiction of the NCUA that are serving American military and civilian personnel at overseas installations.

In comparison, existing CUNA membership bylaws limited membership eligibility to leagues, credit unions that are members of leagues and credit unions that serve the military as defined above. Dual membership was also addressed in existing CUNA bylaws that defined leagues, stating that each of a league's member credit unions is also automatically a member of [CUNA].

The new proposed bylaws did not specifically state leagues can accept member credit unions without also requiring them to join CUNA. However, by removing language that automatically granted CUNA membership to league members, CUNA gave the leagues the flexibility to make that call themselves, CUNA said.

“The proposed bylaws provide credit unions with a choice of whether to belong to their league, CUNA or to both. Our proposed membership model will accommodate leagues who offer choice or joint membership,” CUNA Senior Media Relations Manager Vicki Christner told CU Times. “While we firmly believe that belonging to both a state league and CUNA provides the most value to members, we also believe that it is our member's prerogative to make that decision.”

Jury was unavailable for comment. An automatic reply email read that he was on sabbatical leave and is scheduled to return May 1.

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CUNA Proposal Passes Membership Choice to Leagues

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