By Helen Mickel
As I sit in the boardroom of ALPS Federal Credit Union on its last day before combining (no, I can’t say the word “merging”) with my own Tongass Federal Credit Union, I am – seriously--holding back tears.
As the CEO at Tongass I should be glorying in this moment. I should be celebrating the massive amount of work both of our teams have accomplished over the last several months. But there will be one less credit union in the nation and in Alaska tomorrow, and as a person who champions this movement, I’m feeling the loss.
At the special meeting of the ALPS members a little over a week ago, I got to hear concerns and memories from ALPS members. I was honored that one of their pioneer members, Bonnie – who I’m pretty sure voted “no”- stayed after the meeting for 45 minutes and told us stories about the credit union, its wonderful history, how it was created to serve the employees of Alaska Lumber and Pulp back in 1960. The local banks were charging outrageous loan rates and making borrowing difficult for young families in Sitka - a small, remote, island community, in southeast Alaska.
Earlier, we had driven out to the old ALPS mill site where operations ceased back in the 1990s. The industrial area is being used now by a fish processing plant and is a sanctuary for the Fortress of the Bear animal rescue, home to orphaned bears from around the state. On our way back into town, in the gray misty rain, a hallmark of living in beautiful Southeast Alaska, I had to say out loud to our crew how much I love the southeast, even in the rain. I thought of our own former mill site in Ketchikan, where Tongass Federal Credit Union took root in 1963, with help from the local Ketchikan Pulp Company mill workers credit union.
I reflected on the fact that both pulp mills had been supplied trees from the lush and extensive Tongass National Forest. The mighty Tongass is a 16.7-million acre forest, encompassing Southeast Alaska’s island and coastal communities, and is the largest forest in the United States.
‘Sister’ Credit Unions
Our separate mills shared the same natural resources, and our separate credit unions still serve timber workers, fishers, indigenous peoples, teachers, and all workers of southeast Alaska where we have grown and become community credit unions. Our credit unions have been “sisters” over the years, sharing policies, audit assistance, and goodwill. We have been friends and now we will be teammates.
A few years ago, Tsimshian Artist David R. Boxley created our “Spirit of the Tongass” design. More recently his friend, also a Tongass FCU board member and Tsimshian poet, Gavin Hudson, penned the meaning of the design. He wrote, “The ‘Spirit of the Tongass’ design represents the ancient and modern inhabitants of the Tongass Forest. It represents the complex interconnected life systems of Southeast Alaska upon which we all depend. It reminds us to help one another because people, like trees, stand strongest when we stand together, united.”
A Common Home
Tongass and ALPS were officially united on Feb. 1. But we have been sharing a common home and a common bond as “people helping people” credit unions since the early sixties.
Today, I mourn the loss of a charter. Tomorrow, I will celebrate the strength of a newly combined credit union. It is my honor and privilege to stand together with the ALPS Federal Credit Union team and our vibrant TFCU team, all of whom are strengthening Tongass Federal Credit Union for a future that will truly be “Southeast Alaska Strong.”
Helen Mickel is president/CEO of Tongass Federal Credit Union.