Are there opportunities today?

For credit unions I think there is a tremendous amount of opportunity. And the opportunity is not about gaining market share or share of wallet. It is about being the leading voice in the revitalization of the saving economy. There's the old saying..."he got his money the old fashioned way, he earned it." We have always been about helping members but today's economic downturn has turned that focus into a passion and it shows. I recently have had the chance to talk to a couple of our retail delivery leaders. When I asked about 2009, I got the same response. The staff is fired up about truly focusing on helping people. We are working on a couple of major education and counseling efforts that we will launch in 2009. (more to come on those in another post) By sharing those ideas with all levels of organization early we not only are getting their great input to make them better but we are also creating a common battle cry for the organization. In these tough times, retaining top talent is difficult and we have found just having a more defined focus helps us keep our best people loyal.

I go back to what the folks at Filene said 2 years ago at CUNA Mutual's Discovery conference. CUs need to get back to their roots. They maybe were thinking more about the common bond roots but I also think they were talking about our original purpose too. So props to Mark, George, Denise and gang for being way ahead of the curve. If we had only listened more closely!