After CUNA'sannouncement Wednesday morning that it may rebrand andrestructure itself, the $6.3 billion, Tampa, Fl.-based SuncoastCredit Union's president/CEO, Tom Dorety, who is the chairman ofCUNA's System Structure and Governance Task Force, shared moredetails with CU Times about how the change could affectagreements with affiliate leagues, create more leagueaccountability, establish an advocacy fund and even rebrandleagues.

The trade association is considering changing its name toAmerica's Credit Unions, retaining credit unions' league choice andchanging its governance structure, including reducing the size ofthe CUNA board.

Dorety said the shrinking number of credit unions, sizedifferences in credit unions and what he called “lack of visiblesuccess that the trade associations have had” led CUNA to make themove. The organization surveyed members in February.

“The survey tells us that credit unions as a whole, whilethey're not totally disillusioned, they're not thrilled with whatCUNA and the leagues are doing,” he said.

League consolidation is also a factor.

“We want a more unified structure,” Dorety explained. “You nowhave leagues or associations and all sorts of different names. Itwould be nice to have 'America's Credit Unions in Florida,''America's Credit Unions in Michigan.'”

One of the priorities is to amp up advocacy efforts, hesaid.

“Advocacy was clear in surveys, focus groups and discussions –advocacy is what people want from the trade association, especiallyif you go into a room with large-credit-union CEOs,” he said. “Now,there are certainly other things that leagues and CUNA does thatare helpful to some credit unions, and so we don't want to ignorethat. But the overriding theme here is advocacy.”

League choice is also a priority, though a nuanced one becauseof concerns about its effects on advocacy.

“We are at this point in time reluctant to say anybody can haveany choice they want, because we don't want to harm the systemright now and pull resources out of the system at a time whenresources are pretty dear,” he said. “And by the way, we reallydidn't get much pushback on dues in the survey.”

“I want competition; I want choice, but in this arena, it's notnecessarily a good thing,” he noted. “We don't want leaguesparticularly competing heavily against each other to attract creditunion dues.”

Dorety said the NCUA also plans to create more accountabilityamong state and national trade associations.

Read more: Dorety would like to see a strongstructure and cooperative agreement between states…

“I'm not saying anything bad about leagues, but we all know thatwhen you've got that many different groups and that many differentpeople, it's difficult to have accountability,” he noted. “What wewould like to see is a strong structure, a cooperative agreementbetween the states, and between the states and CUNA, toinstitutionalize accountability to where there are things that areaffected and things that are delivered.”

The reforms also call for a change in thinking about dues.

“We would like for every credit union to know that all of itsdues are going to advocacy,” he said. “We think that's a strongstatement; we think credit unions would be very favorable towardthat.”

Dorety said establishing a national advocacy fund likelywouldn't mean a change in dues anytime soon, however.

“If this idea gets traction, then the leagues in the states needto work together to determine what level of funding is acceptable,”he said. “We're not going to go to credit unions and say, 'Oh, bythe way, we're going to create this great new system and you needto put in another $10 million. In today's world, that's not goingto work.”

Dorety said he'd rather create the system and prove it worksfirst. Stronger bills with more co-sponsors introduced in Congressand more press on credit union efforts are examples of signs ofsuccess, he said.

Getting the leagues on board is still a big part of the roadahead, though.

“The CUNA board can come in and say, 'It's all or nothing; ifall the leagues don't approve it, then we're not going to do it,'”he said. “I don't think they have to do that. I think you can get asubstantial portion of the system to say, 'Yes, we like this model.Let's move forward with it. I think we've proved it's a success,'and I think the rest of them will come along.”

Leagues that opt out, however, might figure out they're not aseffective or have effective communication, which could complicatemember relationships.

The System Structure and Governance Task Force has been meetingsince last fall and commissioned several focus groups, as well as anational survey of credit unions in February, Dorety said. It willmeet again in the next month and intends to present a formalrecommendation to the CUNA board by the end of 2015, he said. Bylawchanges at the league and CUNA level would follow. The wholeprocess could take three years, Dorety said.