I was upset by publisher Mike Welch's Aug. 3 column entitled,"There are Some Things That CUs Can do Without," as I've determinedthat our credit union is one of those that Mr. Welch says should beeliminated. I guess he would want us to convert to a bank charteras somehow our credit union is damaging the movement. We do notwant to be a bank, in fact. I thought we had an excellent creditunion until Mr. Welch explained how bad we are for the movement. Ihope that we can hire him as a consultant to get our credit unionstraightened out. We are struggling under the misconception thatpaying high returns to our members while charging low rates onloans with below market fees, if any, was benefiting our members.Our current rate on share accounts is 3.29% APY with CD's yields ashigh as 4.86%. Our new auto rate is as low as 4.50% APR while our30-year fixed rate real estate loan rate is 5.60% APR. We charge a$12 fee for an NSF and we have a few other fees. Our total feeincome is one of the lowest of a top 100 asset size credit union.Our goal is to return better than 70% of our gross income back toour members which we consistently do. We have 10 offices and a newoffice in the planning stage and we have 10 ATMs. Our membership-we have about 53,000 - has given us a very satisfied rating forthe past several years. When I started to work with our creditunion we had all the deposits loaned out. They accomplished thetask by limiting the amount of money that a member could depositduring a month and also the total balance in his account had alimit. I am sure that it is shocking to Mr. Welch that we removedthose limits and allowed our members to use us as their primaryfinancial institution. It seems to me that we have enoughfragmentations in the credit union community now without Mr. Welchtrying to create another one. To me something I could do without isa misinformed writer such as Mr. Welch. Larry Morgan President APCOEmployees CU Birmingham, Ala.