I'm going to say it: Can I get those three minutes of my life back?

The key question was simple: Can you share with us some points from your presentation about where you see CUs headed in the next 10 years?

Answer: I am a unique expert in strategic planning.

That was a non-sequitur to a straightforward question.

Thanks for the note Morriss. Good point. :) I invite Dennis Dollar to expand on his thoughts further here as well as what other credit union leaders project to see in 2020. What are your thoughts for the future of the movement?

Well, the major trends are:
1) CU Consolidation - Smaller CUs continue to merge into larger CUs at a rapid pace, large CUs continue to merge with each other. An incredible number CU CEOs will retire within the next 10 years, which is what leads to the mergers in many cases.

2.) Technology investment is critical - CUs that win will be those that can be innovative with their tech and offer meaningful differentiation to their members with it. It won't be enough to have me-too online banking, bill pay, mobile banking, sms messaging, remote deposit capture, etc. The winners will offer their members a much more integrated view of their finances, and do it via real-time self-serv avenues.

3.) Meaningful voice in CU governance. What does it really mean to be a member? I get to vote once a year on the Board, who all I know about is a generic paragraph of what they'll do if re-elected? This isn't meaningful to people who are online who are used to having a meaningful voice
( http://www.chrisbrogan.com/are-we-addicted-to-giving-our-own-opinions/ ).

If Edward Filene were alive today, he'd be working to enable ALL members to have a voice, online, with CU management, and would be singing the praises of innovators in the area like
Ginny Brady ( http://www.theboardcast.net/weblog/ ). Oh yeah, and he'd do it via social media channels too.

Wow! Throwing it down. The merger thing is something I do think we will see and the retirements will add fuel to the fire. If a credit union wants to survive, begin looking to train and promote internally.

One of the biggest thing that blows me away is that a lot of credit unions want to target Gen Y yet the average of their employees is in the late 40s early 50s. Recruit younger, invest in their future, promote from within and give them a chance.

I think on the technology side of things credit unions also need to look at changing marketing strategies. Giving their members a reason to market for them and turn them into advocates. Their is no magic bullet for this but takes time to listen and learn about what gets your members excited.

Great last point to. Sad but true if you look at how much people turn out to the polls to vote in general elections. I think this is a tough one as the majority of people are apathetic and really don't care. Once again though, continuing to educate the credit union difference is important.

On the governance point:

Through Raddon (and other) MCIF analytics, we learn that the top 10% of your members are responsible for 150% of your profits (It's more than 100% because the bottom 50% of your members are costing you money.)

In the same way, 90% of your members don't care, and most will never care. But your 10% BEST members DO care (there may be some overlap with profitability, but it isn't an exact match either.)

Here's the mistake that KV FCU (in Maine) made in regards to member apathy, when they tried to merge their CU into the local community bank: I believe that when KV FCU embarked on this path, they were thinking about the 90% of their members who either don't care, or only care a little bit. I think they were genuinely surprised to discover that a vocal minority really cared, and enough so to mobilize, convert the people who were neutral about it, and defeat the attempt to convert to a bank.

Thanks for sharing those great numbers Morriss. An awesome story too about KV FCU. It's great to see that 10% were able to rally the silent majority to make things happen in a positive way.

Good exchange you two! Morriss, you nailed the main points. CU Consolidation has accelerated this year. Technology investment is easier for large CU's to understand, but more challenging for our large number of small CU's, but regardless vital to our ability to compete with other FI's. CU governance is probably the most critical point, especially for maintaining our tax exempt status! Then throw in over-regulation, compliance, CRA; the list goes on! One item omitted is, we really haven't gotten our message out. The Members Group posted this today 'Credit Unions Still a Mystery to Many'. CU's still have only around a 6-8% market share.

My totally speculative trends of CU's in 2020

1) Some traditional CU's will still remain but some will exist but under a different name - Everybody in the space knows CU's are dying/merging by the week. With that said, customers/members are becoming enabled via technology to conduct 'credit union' like services themselves. In 10 years, it will be completely feasible to create a 'CU-like organization' for your social graph and build a micro-economy within it...and they will decide whether they care about government regulation mandates or not.

2) Revival of the original CU concept - Extension on point 1 but CU's will exist, be profitable and effective based off of niche audiences (social graph, affinities like Apple fanboys/car enthusiasts/social changers)

3) This one is for me but I'd like to see a CU or any financial institution, to Morriss' point, to be held in compliance by the member base itself. Can community based regulation and sustainability exist?

Thanks for allowing the brainstorm!

Thx for sharing Brad! Was hoping you would chime as i know you have some cool thoughts on this end. Interesting note about creating our own economies.

This may be needed if government steps is and effs things up. But at the same time, your last point holds true. That is a larger issue to debate.

You still game to start a credit union? Remember SCMS... :)

This is the kind of dialogue more people in the credit union movement need to be involved in. Credit union roots were planted with cooperative spirit. It is that same spirit that can define and position credit unions forward.

Brad raises good points about what the future might look like.

I question when I hear comments about credit unions being each others competitors. How can we take the best of the credit union movement to position the credit union forward. (Hint: If you don't already, keep an eye on the great work being done by the Filene Research Institute and i3 team (www.filene.org).

Are people really wrestling with what the future of financial services, not just credit unions, will look like in 10 years?

What are we doing as a movement to be relevant to the broad membership base we should be serving? Why is the average age of membership over 40? Is this a trend that we are content with?

What are credit unions doing to tell their story and get their value message out to the public? It's time to hone story telling skills and take advantage of today's environment.

More questions for me than answers. Yet I believe if we keep talking, sharing and challenging each other, there is an exciting future ahead!

Keep innovating forward my friends.

Good comments here...

In my view, there is one document that holds the key to the future of credit unions...drum roll please...the credit union bylaws. Seriously. Issues related to purpose, board governance, field of membership, and cooperative principles are all illuminated there. A clear vision for the future will require a sharp focus on the member.

Thanks for your kind comments about Filene i3 Janine. Innovation and change must always keep the member--the consumer--in the center.

What if we added a to-do for 2010: Review the credit union bylaws and re-connect with the member/consumer?

Good points Denise.

Do your credit union bylaws support the credit union vision?

When was the last time your credit union bylaws were seriously reviewed and brought forward to reflect today's business environment? Are the bylaws a guiding light, structured to strategically position the credit union forward? Or, are they a hinderence, holding the credit union back?

As the needs and expectations of our members/consumers change, are we changing strategically to remain positioned to serve them?

Have you done a bylaw review recently and made serious, strategic changes? Did you learn anything through the process? Shout out and share with others as we work together to position credit unions forward.