By Frank J. Diekmann
Having spent the past few weeks making people uncomfortable by talking about mergers, here are some belated nuggets out of CUNA’s GAC on everything from Colin Powell to Hooters’ cooks missing their weed, to re-using hotel soap. So, wash up, grab some wings, and enjoy.
- It doesn’t take an ex-politician long to do a 180 (and likely enjoy it more). CUNA CEO Jim Nussle, a former congressman from Iowa, told GAC, “We don’t need some politicians, some Washington bureaucrats, to tell us how to run our businesses.”
- There is a certain word that President Trump popularized while campaigning for office that popped up several times during GAC. During his remarks, for instance, Nussle said, “This is such a rigged system…”
- In an inspiring opening keynote, African immigrant and now U.S. citizen Derreck Kayongo talked about how he has built a $10 million business by combining “hope with soap.” You can read more about it here. But one of his observations had me thinking perhaps not everyone in the country got the memo, as he observed that being an American means to “not complain without having a functional result.”
- Kayongo’s remarks came at an interesting time to be in Washington for GAC, given the new Trump Administration attention to reducing immigration and expelling anyone in the country illegally. In addition to an inspiring message and life example from new American Kayongo––“Part of being an American is doing something remarkable. I resolved to be practical and to be part of the solution,” he said––Border FCU CEO Maria Martinez was recognized with the Herb Wegner Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement, which you can read more about here. In her acceptance remarks, Martinez shared how she had come as an undocumented immigrant to the U.S. as a child and how she spent 13 years hiding from the Border Patrol (she is now a citizen). It was also hard not to notice in the Washington Convention Center that hosts the GAC that nearly all the workers appear to be immigrants, and that at all the construction sites surrounding the Center it was Spanish you heard being spoken.
- Long-time credit union leader Dick Ensweiler, who is retiring this year as CEO of the Cornerstone Credit Union League, was not able to attend GAC this year due to an illness. But he made an appearance via a video at GAC, where the audience sang to him “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.”
- Credit unions got a plateful of strategic and branding advice, along with a side of wings, from Kat Cole, who began her career working at Hooters before being named a VP at 26 (it was an $800-million company at the time) and then president of Cinnabon at 31, as you can read here.
Her life and career trajectory changed when at 19 she jumped into what could have been a disaster and took charge. “I was working at Hooters and all the cooks quit one day—not sure what happened, someone stole their weed or something, and they all quit,” said Cole to laughs from her audience.
- Cole also beat me to the punch on an issue she clearly has heard before. I found myself thinking that being a female executive at Hooters must have its challenges, when she addressed that question head-on. “I was often faced by criticism as I got older on how can you work there and why do you stay there? I was doing a media interview as I was opening the first Hooters in Salt Lake City and the interview was with NPR; I didn’t know what NPR was. I thought the interview would be about our fabulous chicken wings. Instead, it was with a woman…who asked how I can advocate for women and work for Hooters. She said, ‘You’re a hypocrite.’ But I had earlier learned a lesson from a mentor, who said ‘If you’re trying to move fast and change a company in a traditional industry, the minute you are criticized, think for one second that the criticism is accurate. Your first mental activity is to assume the criticism is accurate. If it is accurate, don’t put your foot in your mouth. But if not, instead of debating, you focus on the why. And I replied quickly with what I consider a tenet of building incredibly resilient brands: We have the strongest tuition reimbursement policy in all of hospitality. So, I expressed my pride in what we build, and my gratitude toward the opportunities.”
- Later in her remarks, Cole observed, “If you don’t have a seat at the table, you’re on the menu. But do not confuse having a seat at the table with having a voice.”
- During a presentation on the NCUA examination process, the agency’s Director of the Office of Examination and Insurance, Larry Fazio, was asked by an audience member if “CAMEL 2 is the new CAMEL 1?” In other words, is it so difficult to be rated a 1 that credit unions should just be content a 2? “I don’t know. We still have a lot of 1’s,” responded Fazio. “I’d have to look at the data to see if we’ve seen a downshift from 1’s to 2’s. But there hasn’t been anything program-matic. If it’s something culturally, maybe, but nothing I am aware of that would be explicitly driving that. We are seeing credit unions engage in activities in which they don’t have a historical competency. And that’s fine. There is always some learning curve involved and some growing pains, so maybe there is some of that.”
- Former Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Colin Powell had plenty of serious things to say about the political climate in the United States and threats from China, Russia, North Korea and more. You can find more here and here. But as a man who does his fair share of speaking gigs, Powell also had plenty of laugh lines. He observed, “I have to be honest and candid; at this stage of my life and career, I’m just glad to be anywhere.”
- Referring to how one day he was an integral player at the top levels of government, and then the next day after stepping down he was not, Powell said, “I think every king or president or prime minister wanted to see me or wanted me to come see them. One day you’re the number one diplomat in the world, the Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the next day you ain’t. The communications people were pulling all the phones out of my house and I told them, ‘Leave me one to call Dominoes’.” As his security team was leaving him, Powell said he asked them, “Where are you going.” To which they replied, “It’s over.” Powell said, “‘But they’re still after me.’ And the security guys said, ‘Your problem.’”
- Powell said that one of the coolest things to have happened to him is there are nine different schools named after him.
- Elected officials are the unchallenged the masters of saying something without saying anything (and often getting applause for it), and this year’s GAC Golden Airbag for A No Position Position is hereby awarded to Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt for saying, “I’m in favor of every regulation we absolutely have to have, and I’m opposed to every regulation we absolutely don’t have to have,” and then, perhaps just to prove he belongs on top of the mountain, adding, “We need to get back to where things work the ways they should work.” Not that such blinding glimpses are limited to politicians. I heard Blunt offer those keen insights on the same day I heard ESPN college basketball “analyst” Dick Vitale toss out this gem: “Just give me guys who can score baskets.”
- But not every politician flew like a moth toward the light of the applause sign. Rep. Denny Heck (D-WA), who began his career working at Columbia Credit Union, actually challenged credit unions when it comes to the CFPB, even though criticizing the agency is red meat to the lions. “I know lots of people in those room don’t like the CFPB,” Heck said. “But take a moment to breathe and be objective. One reason it was created was to put all lenders, including payday lenders, on the same level playing field. I think that’s good policy, but it should also be a benefit for you. On short-term consumer loans, the NCUA has held credit unions to a much tougher standard than many short-term lenders are held to in many states.”
- As the meeting was in Washington just a month after the inauguration—and perhaps in part because he’s a Democrat—NCUA Board Member Rick Metsger came to the GAC stage saying, “I just got a tweet from the official Washington crowd estimator, and there must be a million and a half people in here.” Later Metsger added, “We know the president likes generals. So how about General Colin Powell for NCUA board. With an army of 106 million credit union members, bankers would never attack.”
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or on Twitter @FrankCUToday.