Take a good, hard look at the front page of Credit Union Times. Look at the items making headlines: credit union-to-mutual savings bank conversions, taxation, mortgages, and wise-use of technology. This is not an exercise in self-promotion but more to underscore the dramatic week credit unions faced. Are there any more core issues credit unions could be contemplating within the space of a week?

As if Americans aren't oversaturated with the 2008 presidential campaign, NCUA's new rules regarding conversions have created their own campaign season. I ask again, what could be more basic to the very philosophy of credit unions than providing the members an opportunity to make an informed vote about the future of their institution?

NCUA's new rules allow members opposed to a credit union conversion to send out materials, at their own expense, to the membership on why they believe a conversion would not be beneficial to the credit union and its members. In the Beehive Credit Union situation, the opposition movement was required to fork out extra money to pay for hard copies and snail mail delivery of its communication to those members who opted with the credit union for both.