In the course of a normal workweek, I end up communicating with several folks at credit unions-most of who are in a managerial or leadership position within their organizations. Recently, I've been checking in with many of them who placed projects on the back burner last fall or early this year because of the uncertainty of our economy. In many ways this was a very appropriate reaction. There's uncertainty. We need to batten down the hatches and ride this thing out.

I must admit, though, the current perspective of a good portion of these folks is somewhat surprising when it comes to implementing new technology to improve operations or increase member services. In general, the response is something like, "It's been a tough year. We've closed a couple of branches, loan volume is down, collections are up, and I've had to reduce staff to trim our expenses. We just are not going to be able to look at any of these projects until business picks up."

Are we missing the boat?