North Dakota League Agrees to AACUL Analysis

BISMARCK, N.D. – The North Dakota Credit Union League could be due for a “makeover” from the American Association of Credit Union Leagues, a group affiliated with CUNA. During its annual conference here last week, League President/CEO Kermit Larson revealed the trade group has hired AACUL to do a formal audit or “custom analysis” of the operations and League structure in 2005. “We’ve been doing these custom analyses for years on Leagues when they ask us to come in,” explained Jeff Carpenter, vice president of League relations for both AACUL and CUNA. The Board of the North Dakota League, hit by conflict and resignations this winter following adoption of a new field of membership law and which in September 2004 pulled out suddenly from a consolidation with the South Dakota League, agreed to do the AACUL examination at a May 11 meeting. “We’re working out the timetable now on when the examination would start,” said Larson noting the AACUL review would take in the financial condition and structure of the League as well as the management of a data processing CUSO, Regional Service Center. Under the AACUL analysis, participating Leagues pay the expenses of an AACUL team of four or five staffers who spend about three days on site studying the books, interviewing employees as well as elected officers, said Carpenter. “We do about five of these a year,” said Carpenter noting that two were underway this year. He declined to name the states without pre-approval. But in remarks at the annual League conference, Larson said he had talked to the president of the Mississippi League regarding its AACUL analysis and was told it proved helpful in improving operations at that trade group. Carpenter said the analyses are often done when there is a change in top management at a League. Sometimes the analyses cover just organizational structure or might include a data processing subsidiary as in the case of North Dakota. Larson said the plan to call in AACUL has been in the works for months but “we felt now is the right time to move on it.” [email protected]