WASHINGTON – Credit unions shared the stage with representatives of a number of other cooperatives at the first-ever National Co-op Summit May 3, organized by the National Cooperative Business Association, which attracted about 300 attendees.
Texas Credit Union League President and CEO Dick Ensweiler participated in a panel on conversions of cooperatives to for-profit entities; he has a bit of experience with this after two large Texas credit unions converted to mutual savings banks last year. "I talked to them about what we've experienced in the credit union community over the last eight years," he said, explaining that was when the Credit Union Membership Access Act became law. "Reducing.the vote requirements has spurred more interest."
The most important thing he emphasized was that his members were properly informed about the changes they were voting on. Ensweiler explained that a new Texas law actually provides for a 30-day comment period for members of a converting credit union and the ballot clearly lays out that a "yes" vote turns the institution into a bank and "no" keeps it a credit union.
Ensweiler explained that it is crucial to get credit union staff and members on board with the credit union philosophy. "We need to try and make sure people understand why we're a credit union instead of a bank," he said. He noted that annual meetings are a good place to start educating the membership about credit unions and the cooperative structure.
NAFCU Director of Political Affairs Brad Thaler attended this session, which covered the various reasons given for different types of cooperatives to convert, including capital issues. "It's interesting to see how other cooperatives are going through the same thing," he said.
Cooperatives should band together on this and other issues, CUNA Mutual Group Senior Vice President for Corporate and Legislative Affairs Larry Blanchard explained during a panel he spoke on. His role was to discuss how the cooperatives can help each other out in the public and legislative arenas.
Blanchard provided information about what he called "the best of example of a cross-sector cooperative model that's ever been," credit unions' Campaign for Consumer Choice. During the rally to legislatively overturn a Supreme Court decision that would have devastated the progress of credit unions, the other cooperatives were there to help get the credit union message out and send letters to the Hill, among other things.
Another panelist explained how credit unions and others helped out the agricultural co-ops in Vermont.
CUNA Vice President of League Relations and Director of Disaster Relief and Preparedness Scott Earl moderated a panel on disaster recovery and how cooperatives can work together to cope with disaster; Earl was brought on at CUNA after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast last year. One key component of cooperation and survival will be to really focus on fundraising for the Cooperative Development Fund.
Cooperatives will also have to make connections with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, state emergency management, and local law enforcement to operate more effectively in a disaster. He pointed to one credit union that had a tanker of gas arriving for its generators, but local authorities confiscated it before it could reach them.
CUNA and NAFCU sponsored the event with several other cooperatives and CUNA helped with the planning as well.
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