FOLSOM, Calif.—“Ineffective lobbying” is not a valid reason to disaffiliate with CUNA, insists one CEO, who said credit unions are largely responsible for the movement’s lack of impact in Washington.
With CUNA reworking its bylaws as part of what’s expected to be a proposal that will for the first time give CUs the choice of joining CUNA or the state league, Henry Wirz said the biggest complaint CUs have with CUNA is that the trade group has not been very successful with lobbying.
"While some of the fault belongs to CUNA, most of the fault lies with the leadership of individual credit unions,” said the CEO of the $2.3-billion SAFE CU here. “CEOs and board members have not done their part to advocate. We all need to attend CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference in Washington and lobby our elected representatives. When we return home we need to lobby our congressional representatives in their district office.”
Those with state charters need to lobby state legislatures, Wirz said.
“We all need to support local candidates for city council, county board of supervisors and the state legislature because many of them will go on to Congress,” said Wirz. “We to need to write checks for campaign contributions. We need to fund and support our state and national PACs. We need to support phone banks and district walks for our candidates. We need to give our mailing lists to CUNA to map our members in Congressional districts. And we need to keep our members informed of key issues and how our elected leaders vote on those issues.”
Wirz emphasized that credit unions must weigh in on proposed legislation with comment letters.
“Clearly we have fallen far short of what we need to do,” he insisted. “We can’t blame CUNA for not winning if we don’t do our part. At one time it was felt that political advocacy was something others did for us, or maybe something that was unnecessary. Today it is an essential part of any CEO’s or board member’s job.”
Wirz added that CUNA should give each member credit union a report card each year on how well the credit union and its leaders have supported political, regulatory and public advocacy.