Chip Filson
The Seated Boxer, an iconic ancient Greek work of art, shows a grizzled veteran of the ring, equal parts resigned and ready to spring into action.
What I like is a sense of respite from competition, the powerful athletic physique and the tiredness that surrounds his humanity. Is he a winner this day? Are there more fights to go? How will his efforts be remembered?
These are questions that all of us encounter, in literal or figurative ways, in our daily efforts.
As I went downtown during rush hour yesterday, a gray haired, older lady appoached me with a small handout at the escalator. It was a snall flyer for where to stand locally in the No Kings rally this Saturday around the country at over 3,000 locations.
But democratic duties are not limited to national and local politics. Virtually all volunteer, non-profit and community organizations have some form of member oversight. This can be the elections of representatives or to changes in bylaws and/or structure.
If one owns any publicly traded stocks, it is likely there will be reminders of the annual meeting with proxy solicitation calls. In this case the voting is based on share holdings, but voting none the less.
Credit unions can learn from these other exercises in organizational governance. Especially what can happen when democracy is usurped by those in control at the moment.
Jim Blaine the former CEO, observed that an organized minority in authority will always defeat a disorganized majority. And democratic majorities are, by definition, rarely in unanimous agreement. Not everyone in Virginia thought the idea of Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, was a great choice.
One of the most important monitors of our various democratic processes is the press. This can be public press and broadcasts, industry publications, bloggers and those using social media to raise concerns, and even individual actors writin opinions for their local outlets. Here is how the press is covering a story of usurpation of democractic control in a major local powerful institution.
Recently the Houstan Chronical completed a five-part investigative series of a takeover of one of the largest Baptist Churches in the city by its pastor. (link)
While the details are behind a paywall, here is a summary of events.
Houston’s Second Baptist Church, with about 90,000 members, is a church at legal war with itself, since a group of influential congregants calling themselves the Jeremiah Counsel sued church leadership in 2025.
They’re challenging revised bylaws established in 2023 that deny lay members a vote in important church decisions, including the selection of senior pastor Ben Young, son of the church’s popular long-time leader, Ed Young.
The bylaw change was in a single sentence that seemingly slipped by most people and put the church at odds with its own faith: “Members are not entitled to vote in person, by proxy or otherwise.”
With those 12 words, the congregation at the now 98-year-old church lost more than its vote. It parted ways with a core tenet of Baptist doctrine: democratic rule.
The revolt started when a group of members realized they had given away their authority to vote on church business after an election in which hardly any congregants participated.
It didn’t take long for several influential church members — who are now suing to reverse changes made in that crucial vote — to realize where the new bylaws came from. They bear a striking resemblance to the bylaws of Fellowship Church in Grapevine.
Fellowship Church in Dallas, is another megachurch with family ties to Second Baptist. Second Baptist quietly copied Fellowship Church’s bylaws — and silenced its members.
One article in the series is headlined: How Second Baptist Church sacrificed its Democratic Principles: ‘You can’t fire the king’
The human tendency to rule by authority versus the more complicated exercise of democratic leadership is present in all organizations. But especially in credit unions. Because money amd, its use, is combined with power.
The result is that boards and senior management strive to limit any meaningful say in their oversightand leadership roles. Nominations for board seats are controlled by existing directors and limited to the exact number of vacancies. No voting needed, just ask members to approve by acclamation.
But when there is the prospect of members rising up, the next step is to copy the practice of Second Baptist. Specifically change the bylaws to make it impossible for members to self-nominate or to challenge the board’s control of the election process.
In the traditional FCU bylaws, members can submit a petition with 500 names for board nomination or to call special member meetings. The top three credit unions by assets,Navy FCU, SECU (NC) amd PenFed all took steps to make this member option impossible. Instead of a fixed number, the bylaws were changed to require a percentage of total members to sign the petition.
PenFed’s change came after a self-nominated candidate qualified for election. SECU’s board changed its bylaws after members challenged the closed board process in an open election. The board changed the bylaws and election procedures to make the process very difficult for member-nominated candidates to qualify.
All three bylaw changes to the long standing democratic process were approved by the reglators with members having no say or even knowledge.
Democratic oversight takes integrity, character and continuous vigilance. It requires a free press in all forms to cover uncomfortable truths and lapses in duty by those in power. Power in terms of community and local influence and those charged with responsibility for public oversight.
One of the landmark events in credit union land was when CUNA fired its presient. The story in brief:
Herb Wegner was an avid pilot and owned his own plane. He had an agreement with (CUNA) to be reimbursed the equivalent of a first-class ticket whenever he flew his own plane for work. However, disputes over these expenses became a major point of friction with the CUNA Treasurer, Fred Krause.
At a board meeting in 1979, Krause reportedly announced he was “tired of fighting Herb about airplane expenses” and unexpectedly moved to fire him on the spot. The motion passed, stunning most of those in attendance.
While there were other factors at play, today the highest honor credit unions bestow on their leaders is called the Herb Wegner award. An irony which shows the cooperative system’s ambivalence in managing its own shortcomings.
Democracy takes practice which is the root of the word participation. Here is my sign for Saturday.
,Over the past two months I’ve been hearing something that honestly breaks my heart about the credit union movement.
Several leaders at smaller, growing credit unions have told me they’re receiving unsolicited emails encouraging them to merge into larger institutions.
(I literally just jumped off a MiniBranch call with a local credit union CEO who just received an email today)
Sometimes these emails are framed as:
“Strategic partnerships.”
“Future sustainability.”
“Member opportunity.”
But in many cases, what’s really happening is much simpler.
Large credit unions are actively recruiting smaller credit unions to merge, and some of the individuals sending those emails are financially incentivized to do it.
In some cases, the incentive can be tens of thousands of dollars per successful merger conversation.
After a merger, the acquiring credit union may even bring the CEO on board to help identify and recruit the next credit union to merge. (As we have seen in a recent failed attempt thanks to the members)
I understand consolidation happens in every industry. But credit unions were built on something different.
Local leadership.
Local relationships.
Local service.
Many of the “small” credit unions I work with are actually healthy, innovative, and deeply connected to their communities.
They don’t need to disappear.
They just need the right tools, technology, and support to keep growing.
So if you’re a CEO or board member at a smaller credit union and you receive one of these emails, my encouragement is simple:
Take a breath.
Ask questions.
Remember the mission you were built to serve.
Because the credit union movement doesn’t get stronger when independent institutions disappear.
It gets stronger when they succeed.
And there are a lot of people rooting for that.
So, to all the Small (Growing) Credit Unions out there fighting day in and day out for your members, Don’t Stop! Keep Fighting!
Be sure to reach out to Joshua Urbick, CCUFC and Doug Wadsworth who are doing some pretty amazing things!!
March is named after the Roman God of war. Events so far are proving this month worthy of its name.
On March 21, the President posted the following warning to Iran on Truth Social:
If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!
In a phone call with the business channel CNBC on Monday, Trump announced a five day pause for further “negotiations.” The US stock market instantly took off and oil prices fell.
In this moment of March Madness, would a win-win solution be to send ICE to confront Iran’s Revolutionary Guards versus further deployment in US airports?
Recently I asked the former, now retired CEO of CU*Answers, to explain his observation that every organization is only one or two CEO transitions from failure. He did not necessarily mean financial failure, although that can happen. Rather, it is the loss of founding purpose coupled with the desire of new CEO’s to make their mark.
Cooperatives and their support organizations are especially vulnerable due to their passive, virtual democratic ownership model.
He compares this loss of identity to how some music lasts for generations, even centuries. These works are performed time and again in different eras, whereas other compositions or songs, while popular are long gone and forgotten. Risk from leadership turnover is high because each change can lead to a loss of past harmonies that brought everyone together.
“When the distinctive song that unites the hearts of a cooperative community’s stakeholders is no longer heard, the mission cannot be sustained.”
That image—a shared song—captures something essential about credit unions. At their founding, every cooperative has a set of beliefs, commitments, and lived experiences that bind members, volunteers, and staff in common purpose. It is not written down in a strategic plan. It is carried in memory, reinforced in stories, and expressed in everyday decisions.
But here is the risk: most credit unions are only one or two CEO transitions away from losing that song entirely.
New leadership often arrives with energy, ambition, and a forward-looking mandate. That is necessary. But too often, the past is treated as irrelevant—something to be modernized, replaced, or quietly set aside. The assumption is that the future is theirs alone to define.
When that happens, the cooperative’s legacy—its relationship competitive advantage—begins to disappear.
A useful parallel comes from music. Why do some works endure for generations—classical compositions, religious hymns, even certain popular songs—while others fade almost as quickly as they appear? There is no generational transfer because there is no institutional memory.
The difference is not merely quality or changing musical tastes. It is resonance. The music that lasts carries meaning across time. It is repeated, shared, adapted, and remembered because it speaks to something deeper than the moment in which it was created.
Credit unions are no different. Their founding “songs” endure only if they are remembered, retold, and made relevant for each new generation.
Without that continuity, erosion begins.
Members’ memories and loyalty fade. Their connection to the original purpose weakens as daily life, changing expectations, and competitive alternatives crowd in. The member’s song and the credit union’s song drift out of harmony.
Board volunteers lose the founders’ passion. Pressed by governance demands and operational complexity, they can shift from stewards of a mission to overseers of a business. The language of purpose gives way to the language of performance. The song becomes more professional—and less meaningful.
Management and staff follow the new CEO’s cues. Career ambitions push them toward conformity. Success is redefined in terms of growth, scale, and financial metrics. Gradually, a new song replaces the old—one that sounds increasingly like every other financial institution in the market.
And when that happens, the cooperative has not failed. It has simply become indistinguishable.
The challenge is not nostalgia. It is stewardship.
If credit unions want to sustain their independence and distinctiveness, they must actively renew their institutional memory. This is more than archiving documents or celebrating anniversaries. It requires intentional processes to capture the stories, values, personalities and decisions that defined the organization and industry—and to embed them in leadership development, succession planning, and strategic priorities.
Many cooperatives struggle with strategic myopia. Both inside and out of the industry the world sees credit unions as a tactical model for banking. From the beginning, credit unions were a community’s way to embed the customer-owner’s passion, heart, and needs in a shared solution. The cooperative song’s evolution is at the core of credit union resilience.
The truth is simple: institutions that forget their song eventually stop singing it.
And those that stop singing it lose the very reason they were created in the first place.
The move away from the virtual world of the Meta universe was announced several months ago in business news updates such as this WSJ December 4, 2025 article excerpt:
The decision marks a sharp departure from the vision Zuckerberg laid out in 2021, when he changed the name of his company to Meta Platforms, from Facebook, to reflect his belief in growth opportunities in the online digital realm known as the metaverse. Meta has seen operating losses of more than $77 billion since 2020 in its Reality Labs division, which includes its metaverse work.
This investment was to be the future growth engine for the company. There was much consumer buzz around the Oculus and Quest extensions of virtual reality glasses. Public discussion of virtual worlds including actual sales of real estate in these virtual landscapes were widely portrayed as the next big investment opportunity. People could now anticipate creating virtual avatars of themselves and even virtual friendship companions.
The metaverse was launched four and one half years ago. Now Meta’s Horizon Worlds VR platform will be closed on June 15. The app will no longer be available. No more virtual futures to escape to from this real world.
One article estimates that the Meta division responsible for VR and metaverse development has accumulated nearly $80 billion in losses since 2020. In the fourth quarter of 2025 alone it posted an operating loss of more than $6 billion.
The next frontier for Meta is now AI. What does Meta’s strategic misadventure mean for credit unions? What lessons might be inferred as the entire technosphere rushes to spend hundreds of billions in the data centers which will support multiple AI applications? Are there potential warnings about other virtual creations especially in the area of stable coins, tokens and bitcoin financial products?
If an $80 billion investment can fail in an established company with hundreds of millions of online media users, what does that suggest for credit unions investing millions in new fintech and virtual products touted as the next frontier of finance?
While there were product and creative shortcomings with Meta’s initiative, I believe there are larger lessons for credit unions.
I am not a gamer and have not tried VR. Readers who have this experience may have their own to add.
However there are examples where credit unions bet the farm or lost significant corporate momentum from an initiative that looked plausible, but failed. One needs only look at individual 2025 yearend performance outcomes for immediate examples.
There is always great interest in the next big innovation affecting the financial services industry or the members of a credit union. Today the two big things are the use and impact of AI and the expansion of virtual finance products such as stable coins and alternative investments.
The final takeaway from Meta’s shutdown is that perhaps there is more life in traditional business models even as one experiments with the next big idea. Even AI.
Rarely would I ask readers to view a 30-minute video not directly about credit. unions. This is worth your time.
Two days ago President Zelenskyy who has led Ukraine in an all-out four year war for survival made a speech to the British Parliament.
While English is his third language, he eloquently presented what is at stake for his people and the world. He shared past and present events to describe the future consequences of this conflict.
What is most remarkable is the last 6 minutes of his talk, He shows how the country’s leaders and citizens follow every drone and missile attack and Russian ground advance –in real time– on a laptop.
This unparalleled, instant communications capability gives civilians warnings on their phones. It provides immediate responses by Ukraine’s counter drone and missile interceptors as well as ground force protection.
Today Ukraine’s drone warfare capabilities lead the world, including the US. Ukraine has deployed its experts to the Middle East in the current conflict even with its own country under daily attack. It has entered into joint production agreements with allies around the world.
Wartime leadership does not create character. It reveals it.
How will history remember Ukraine’s leader? How will Trump’s conduct in his war with Iran be assessed?
Listen to this speech. Americans should be grateful for Zelenskyy’s example of the power of democracy to persevere even in the most extreme circumstances.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi3bGMay_pw)
History matters. Especially when an institution like the NCUSIF occuoies such a vital role in the integrity of he cooperative system. Following are important facts in understanding the unique value of share insurance today.
On April 15, 1983 NCUA sent a Report to Congress on the origins and future of the NCUSIF. It is required reading for anyone who wants to learn of the unique role of share insurance for the cooperative system and the basis for its restructure in 1984.
While all three federal funds responded to the special Congress’s request, only the NCUA’s proposals were adopted in the Deficit Reduction Act in 1984 changing the whole approach to cooperative share insurance.
Moreover, only the NCUSIF has continued to function in this financial structure for 40+ years. The FSLIC failed and was merged into the FDIC. The FDIC has reported negative net worth during several subsequent banking crises and experimented with multiple adjustments in its premium based financial model.
In Chairman Callahan’s April 15 cover letter he made four important points:
The Report was a unique document. It was based on comments from multiple cooperative organizations, historical facts, operational realities, not academic theory or untried alternatives.
It points out FCU’s operations had grown dramatically without federal insurance from 1934 to 1970.
CUNA and leagues opposed federal insurance for many years as incompatible with cooperative principles. Some of the reasons for opposition included:
When NAFCU and CUNA were able to compromise on a common bill in 1971, the environment was entirely different from the circumstances that led to the creation of the FDIC and FSLIC four decades earlier. The Congressional Report on the bill noted in part:
Despite the lack of insurance, credit unions have grown to the point where there are now more credit unions than all (other) financial institutions combined. Despite this remarkable and rapid growth, credit unions have maintained an outstanding record of safeguarding member shares. Your committee wishes to make clear . . .”federal insurance) should be considered as a reward for the outstanding job performed by credit unions.
At the time of this 1983 Report, there were a range of options available to credit unions reflecting the multiple efforts to provide system resources in the event of institutional problems. Several states or Leagues had created “stabilization funds” to assist troubled credit unions. Central credit unions were used to facilitate mergers and purchase of assets if credit unions failed. The private insurers developed in parallel with NCUSIF’s initial years covered 3,150 state charters with $12.4 billion in assets.
The purpose of insurance and its multiple cooperative predecessors was not to facilitate liquidations. The intent was to have a common pool of credit union capital resources to resolve problem situations both collectively and individually.
This collective role was used in 1982 when almost 100 credit unions that had invested in Penn Square Bank’s CD’s above in FDIC insured limit received non- earning “receiver;s certificates” with an estimated recovery value of 80%. Both the CLF and NCUSIF stepped in to prevent any institution from becoming insolvent.
NCUSIF capital was injected into multiple large problem credit unions from the turnaround at San Diego Navy FCU (the 9th largest in 1980), to the recovery of San Antonio FCU in 1990.
Because there is no private ownership or capital at risk, unlike the FDIC, credit unions’ collective insurance is more akin to a cooperative hedge fund. The purpose is always to find the most effective way to continue operations and credit union service, not to liquidate or induce mergers for someone else to figure out solutions.
That ability requires judgment, creativity and concern for the members’ and cooperative system’s future not just problem resolution.
There are other critical aspects of the NCUSIF’s operations versus FDIC’s approach. These include the safeguards put in legislation to address the concerns credit unions raised about federal insurance which were included in the 1984 redesign. Those will be in a later post using the latest data from the two federal funds.
Two stories of a credit union going the extra mile to help members with card problems. From a CEO’s monthly staff briefing, used with permission.
The stories are long and show the team efforts needed to resolve difficult circumstances in the member’s best interest.
A Blocked Card and a Member In Transit
Our member called in on Thursday, Jan 22, 2026, because his debit card wasn’t working. When our CC representative, Kristen, took a look at his debit card, it was discovered that it was restricted due to suspicious activity, and she confirmed that the transactions were fraudulent.
After explaining that the card would need to be blocked, he became very frantic and upset as he was working out of town. His company was sending him home due to the incoming weather. However, he was going to be stranded in South Texas without a debit card, no gas, and no access to funds. The closest shared branch was 75 miles from where he was.
Kristen went to Jami, her supervisor, to see if there was anything that could be done to help this member. Jami reached out to RISK and asked if an exception could be made for us to un-restrict the member’s debit card long enough so that he could go to an ATM and withdraw funds, and then immediately block it when he was done, so that the credit union could maintain operating control.
When Kristen got back on the phone and told the member the good news, he was elated, and Hope took the place of despair. Kristen stayed on the phone with the member until he got to an ATM. She then coached him on how to get as many funds as he could from the ATM (the limit for that specific ATM was $200 per transaction). The member had to do multiple transaction withdrawals wich Kristen walked him through. After the member pulled what funds he could out, Kristen immediately blocked the card.
The entire team did the right thing by this member and found a way to enact our Principles of Operating Control while realizing that Every Person Has a Story. The credit union was able to deliver a happy ending by enabling him to get gas, necessities, and a hotel room so that he could make it home safely in time to avoid the bad weather.
A member and his mother came to the local Member Relationship Center after a frustrating experience related to a credit card that had been charged off. The member believed he had only been an authorized user on the account, added by his father when he was 18, to help build credit. Sadly, his father later passed away after struggling with alcoholism, leaving an $8,000+ balance that began reporting negatively on the member’s credit. It was later confirmed that the member had signed as a co-applicant, making the debt legally his responsibility.
Prior attempts to resolve the issue had been unsuccessful, leaving the member and his mother extremely upset. Joley from the Contact Center supported them during an emotional call and proactively coordinated with member service reps Allison and Bella to ensure the branch team was prepared. Bella also followed up based on a prior review, providing the card provider the deceased accounts contact information and continuing to advocate for support.
When mother and son arrived the next day, emotions were high. During a lengthy call with the card provider, we verified account details and requested a higher up review. While the conversation was tense at times, the focus remained on de-escalation, empathy, and finding a solution. After nearly an hour and multiple conversations, the credit card proviider’s recovery agent agreed to accept a one-time $1,000 settlement on the balance.
The mother who is on Social Security with limited savings, was prepared to pay the settlement that day. By the end of the meeting, both she and her son were visibly emotional—this time from relief. They shared that they had felt stuck for a long time and were deeply grateful for the advocacy, time, and teamwork that helped them reach a manageable resolution.
This is the credit union difference in practice, not a PR slogan. These members were treated like owners whose special circumstances were recognized and resolved as a standard operating procedure (SOP).
Tomorrow I will show how this individual approach, intrinsic to cooperative design and purpose, carried over into the 1984 restructuring of credit union’s unique insurance saety net, the NCUSIF.
Working on several projects not yet ready for prime time, so will share several thoughts.
From a GAC presentation on credit union’s super power-but is it just credit unions?
“One of credit unions’ superpowers is that you’re connected to your communities,” said Williams. “It’s the fact that you’re part of the community. You understand the local conditions, the economic challenges, and the opportunities.”
Walking along 5th Avenue in NYC several weeks ago, I stopped at a store that had a roped line to enter. Joan and I thought it must be a restaurant or a nightclub.
We decided to find out what twas going on. It turned out to be a recently opened Lego store. Here is some of what we saw.
A New York City Taxi
The Statue of Liberty
A Lego tree in the main showroom.
A life size jolly green giant:.
Back to the real world. The Zamboni cleaning the ice at the Rockefeller Center skating rink.: