Dear Editor,
I am responding to Gigi Hyland's comment letter on the Final Four Championship Matches of credit union leaders, which read as follows:
"What is it about our society and the fascination of pitting people against one another or reality TV, for that matter? Many, though not all, of the leaders mentioned are known as leaders because they are true collaborators and cooperators. They believe that cooperation doesn't mean competition. It means collaboration. I wish CU Times had demonstrated how these leaders, working synergistically, have brought the credit union system to where it is today."
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All credit union people enjoy and promote collaboration, however, depending on the location of your credit union, competition among credit unions does exist wholeheartedly. We are in a medium size metropolitan area with a few billion dollar-plus credit unions, several over the 500 million mark and many below that. We do cooperate where we can but there is competition among us as well as banks. I don't think the reality TV comparison is even applicable to credit union competing or collaboration.
There are even credit unions from other states "encroaching" by setting up indirect lending with all the car dealers in our area, and we compete with them all. It would be negligent asset liability management and poor management not to survey your competition among credit unions to manage your interest rates, and respond according to your competition and the market.
Any coach will tell you that competition is what makes a team or player better. It's the same for credit unions. Cooperation and collaboration is good, but that does not make competition evil. I respect all my competitors and praise them when I can, but it is not reality to think that credit unions do not compete in their local area. That thinking may have applied when most credit unions were single-sponsor or governmental, but it does not hold true for community credit unions.
Therefore, I think we can collaborate and share and also compete. This is not war, but it is business as well as a movement. Those leading in the credit union land daily trenches do not have the luxury of only promoting the collaboration part of credit unions.
Our daily collaboration is with the members of our individual credit unions – that is our mission. It is a tension we have to live with as this in the new normal for credit unions, and we should embrace and continue on the same honorable path on which credit unions always have.
Since I know your paper reaches credit union leaders, I hope it stays consistent with the mission and purpose of credit unions.
David W. Proffitt
President/CEO
Alcoa Tenn Federal Credit Union
Alcoa, Tenn.
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