Moreover, if the NCUA board approves another increase in the definition, from $50 million to $100 million, the agency could see the number of small credit unions climb to more than 4,700, according to Sageworks Bank Information.

Myers stressed that while his office specialized in working with small credit unions and helping them overcome their challenges, the office's goal is to help small credit unions grow.

"Being a small credit union is a bit like a being a teenager," Myers said. "It's an essential stage of life, but you want to mature and grow into a larger size."

Myers acknowledged the existence of smaller credit unions that remain fiscally sound while serving a niche market, but he maintained that in the end even these credit unions would need to grow.

"Whether the challenge is succession or changes in their field of membership, small credit unions need to get to the size where they can be sustainable and make it through these sorts of big challenges," Myers said.

Myers explained small credit unions facing a succession challenge often struggle to find executives with the necessary experience who are willing to work for the smaller salaries smaller credit unions frequently have to pay. Smaller credit unions facing field of membership changes sometimes lack sufficient reserves and resources to make it through changing their field of membership and likely rebranding, he explained.

He also pointed out that even though the NCUA tailors regulations to have a minimum impact on smaller institutions, smaller credit unions still struggled to meet compliance obligations.

Scott Butterfield, a longtime consultant who works only with small credit unions, also pointed to the compliance problem as one of the largest facing smaller credit unions, along with competition from larger community credit unions and the rising cost of technology.

However, he also noted that sometimes he found problems in something as fundamental as the small credit union's identity.

"I still see too many small credit unions who try to run the credit union similar to the chartering SEG," Butterfield wrote in an email. "For example, small city county employee credit unions who try to govern their credit union like the county government. This leads to unrealistic budgeting and lower CEO/staff compensation."

However, small credit unions have been doing a better job of growing closer to the communities and SEGs they serve, he observed.

"While the average board member is still an older white male, I am starting to see many more small credit unions with some diversity that reflects a changing demographic," Butterfield wrote. "I'm also seeing many more small credit unions actively seeking out underserved markets with an understanding that they have to do something different to remain relevant."

One plucky small credit union that remained in the fight as of June 30, 2015, was the $338,649, 89-member Queens Cluster Federal Credit Union.

A group of churches chartered the Hicksville, N.Y., cooperative in 1976 to serve the financial needs of their congregants, according to the credit union's CEO Gerald Goldenbroit.

Goldenbroit, a former NCUA examiner and economic development specialist for the agency, explained that when he arrived at the credit union in 2012, the cooperative had few loans on the books and was in dire need of expanding its field of membership.

"I went to the board and said we needed to draw more members if we want to survive," Goldenbroit explained and, when they agreed, he took steps to convert the credit union to a multiple-SEG field of membership.

NCUA records bore Goldenbroit out. In June 2012, the year he took the CEO position, the cooperative reported 10 loans on the books worth $33,000. By June 2015, the number of loans had climbed to 28 with $175,000 in balances.

Since 2012, the credit union has grown to nine SEGs, Goldenbroit said, and added more products and services, such as checking accounts and the ability to use the ACH system.

"We had to add the additional services because I knew as we grew people were going to come and ask me about checking and what was I going to tell them," he said.

The downside of adding additional products and services however, was the additional cost, Goldenbroit said.

"The Federal Reserve doesn't cut small credit unions a break," he said. "We have to pay the same fees to use ACH as the bigger credit unions."

These additional costs, combined with accounting for some poorly performing loans the credit union had on its books when he arrived, meant that the cooperative still showed negative income as of June 30. However, Goldenbroit noted that none of the loans the credit union originated since he arrived had been delinquent. He said he planned on the credit union ending 2015 in the black.

Goldenbroit explained the credit union's best chance to do that would come from its recent approval from the Small Business Administration to originate loans under the SBA's 7(a) small business loan program.

"They told me that we were the smallest financial institution in history to have been allowed to do 7(a) lending," Goldenbroit said.

Goldenbroit explained that originating small business loans both helps the cooperative's members as well as generates fee income for the credit union and provides a flow of interest income for his credit union and others that participate in the loans.

In his sixties, Goldenbroit acknowledged that finding and hiring more staff remained a top priority and said that he had found another former examiner and friend who agreed to come help him in work he loved.

"I got into this because I believe in credit unions and because I thought this was an institution I could help," Goldenbroit said. He added that his work now continued a shift he began while still at the NCUA, moving from being an examiner to being an economic development specialist.

While he acknowledged examiners help credit unions keep on track, nevertheless he said that too often examiners took a conservative track.

"Examiners are there to tell you want you can't do," he said. "Economic development specialists are there tell you what you can."