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Dogs, Criminals, and Brown Sugar: Being Thankful

Sometimes it's necessary to stop and appreciate what we're thankful for.

By Michael Ogden | Updated on November 10, 2017

I’m thankful for my dog Olive and all nine pounds of her alpha qualities; as much as she drives me nuts with her protective barking at every sound as she sits near me while I work. I’m thankful for credit unions waking up to the plusses and minuses of fintech instead of blindly following along, and asking the important questions like, “Is this really what we want to become?” and “Will this help us grow our younger generations of members?” I’m thankful for stupid mistakes and the lessons we should learn from them; for instance, the four credit union employees in Idaho who dressed in blackface as the Jamaican bobsled team for Halloween. It was unbelievably stupid, and hopefully it will be a lesson that should have been learned decades ago: That there is no right in their actions – it’s all wrong.

I’m thankful for all of my iPhone chargers and the fact that I keep at least two with me at all times. More so, I’m thankful that airlines have figured out that we freakin’ need places at the gates to charge up before we get on a long flight on a plane without USB ports. I’m thankful that we are doing a tiny bit better with diversity in the credit union workplace – it’s not great, but it’s a little better and our team does notice these things when we receive all of the announcements from credit unions when they hire or promote executive leaders. I’m thankful that I don’t need half-and-half in my coffee. I’m thankful that eventually everyone gets caught, no matter how elaborate the scheme is, to steal money from credit unions. Peter Strozniak and I discuss this a lot and the discussions always end with, “Well, it might take years, but everyone gets caught.”

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Michael Ogden

Michael Ogden

Editor-in-Chief at CU Times. To connect, email at [email protected]. As Editor-in-Chief of CU Times since 2016, Michael Ogden has led the editorial team in all aspects of content strategy and execution, including the creation of the publication’s exclusive and proprietary research database of the credit union industry’s economic landscape. Under Michael’s leadership, CU Times has successfully shifted to an all-digital editorial product with new focuses on the payments, fraud, lending and regulatory beats. Most recently, he introduced a data-focused editorial product for subscribers that breaks down credit union issues into hard data, allowing for a deeper and more factual narrative for readers. In 2024, he launched the "Shared Accounts With CU Times" podcast, which offers a fresh, inside-the-newsroom perspective through interviews with leaders from the credit union industry and the regulatory world. He dives into pressing credit union issues, while revealing the personalities working behind-the-scenes to push the credit union world forward. His background includes years as a radio and TV anchor/reporter and a public relations and digital/social media manager, where he covered the food and music industries, as well as cooperatives and credit unions. Over the years, he has launched numerous exclusive video and podcast series, including a successful series of interactive backstage interviews with musicians at music festivals, showcasing his social media and live streaming production skills.

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