From Bill Brooks: Values Should Lead The Way
Credit unions were charged with a mission of providing a place to save and borrow for members including those of modest means. The structure was based on 7 cooperative principles developed in 1844 by the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in Rochdale, England.
To evaluate success, you need a yardstick. To call yourself a credit union, the Rochdale principles are the yardstick. One has to consider whether today's efforts to change that yardstick is changing the entire credit union model? And, misleading potential members about our virtue.
The principle of member owned and controlled is gone with the wind! Members have little control over their credit union. The directors of most credit unions are self-appointed and self-sustaining. It was a pleasant surprise that SECU successfully tossed out some officials several years ago. I believe since then it has been a return to business as usual on the board. There may be some democratically controlled credit unions still out there, but I don’t have time to search for a needle in a haystack.
A major principle practiced is cooperation amongst cooperatives. The merger mania is a total failure to follow the concept of cooperation amongst cooperatives. The latest credit union, where I served as CEO, had a large list of suitors professing a desire to lend a helping hand, but also wanted a discussion about merger. Most members don’t understand the value of their organization. If they knew their rights to the reserves of the credit union, they would never vote to merge.
There may be good reasons for the merger, it is just that the members are getting screwed and the compensated insiders of the merging credit unions are usually the winners.
It is not that the changes that have happened over time have not been necessary. What is clear is that credit unions are presenting ourselves to be something that they are not. Presenting ourselves to be something that we are not is "unprincipled" Rochdale fraud. There is nothing wrong with the 7 principles, Rochdale still provides sound guidance.
But there is a major problem with practice.
"I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do." - James Baldwin
