Welcome to Denver: 2015 CUNA/World Council Conference Begins
July 13, 2015 11:17 AM
CUNA and the World Council of Credit Unions are co-hosting the World Credit Union Conference and America's Credit Union Conference this week.
One of the founders of the Polish credit union movement and current World Council of Credit Unions Chairman Grzegorz Bierecki referred to the credit union ideal as a "priceless treasure to humanity." He quoted former Pope Benedict XVI as referring to credit unions as "the proof of love acting in the economy."
John Uchida, CEO of Space Age FCU in Aurora, Colo., welcomes attendees of CUNA's Americas Credit Union Conference and the World Council of Credit Union's World Credit Union Conference.
A long-held tradition, the joint event was kicked off with the colorful parade of nations, featuring the flags of all of the participating countries. When Canada's flag was brought in, a sea of people in blue shirts jumped out of their seats and applauded. It was a large contingent of representatives of Servus CU of Edmonton, Alberta, the third largest CU in Canada.
The American flag is paraded into the conference.
Given the dual conferences' location in Denver, it was no surprise that the American flag had the largest contingent applauding for it.
Cornerstone CU League President Dick Ensweiler was one of four winners WOCCU's 2015 Distinguished Award Winners. Nominated by CUNA, Ensweiler recalled his first exposure to the international credit union movement when his then-boss, former CUNA Mutual Group CEO Dick Heinz returned from a visit to Russia. Heinz told Ensweiler that when he was explaining that all that was needed to start a credit union was a few volunteers, a bunch of hands went up to ask a question. The question: what is a volunteer? "In a country with an oppressive government, people are not free to assemble. They are not free to help themselves," Ensweiler observed.
Nominated by the Confederacao Interestadual das Cooperativas Liguadas ao Sicredi, Roberto Rodrigues insisted there was no need for him to win an award for the word he did for no other reason than "I believe in it," he told the crowd. "It would be like winning an award for believing in God and praying every day." Noting the many people who play an important role in credit unions in his country, Rodrigues, who kicked off his speech by apologizing for speaking English similar to "Tarzan," said he was there to accept the award on behalf of all Brazilian CU advocates.
During his acceptance speech, Canadian Scott Kennedy warned against the dangers of losing relevance, saying there were four things CUs must do: commit to relevance, reinvent themselves, reach out and remember. By reaching out, Kennedy urged his colleagues from around the world to take this joint meeting as an opportunity to reach out to one another for support and ideas. "Remember your roots, your ideals," he said. "Remember the seven cooperative principles that have gotten you where you are today." Kennedy was nominated by Credit Union Central of Canada and Central 1 CU.
More than 30 years ago, Aloun Ndombet-Assamba joined the Jamaican credit union COK Sodality Cooperative CU, a day, she said, she'll never forget because she was also hit a by a car that same day. But her journey began even earlier, when she was 15 years old and a passage from the Bible caught her fascination: "If you love me, feed my sheep." Credit unions, she said, are a way of feeding Gods sheep. Its been more than a decade since Ndombet-Assabe worked for the credit union, "but I still get calls from people you say, 'you probably don't remember me, but because of what you did, my child went to school,'" she said. "I'm proud to say that every dollar I owe, I owe to my credit union."
Returning to the ACUC stage as emcee, Emmy Award winner Mark DeCarlo told the audience that he just recently saw the movie "The Wolf of Wall Street," and then compared all the greed and worship of money portrayed in that movie to the inspiring messages said by each of the Distinguished Award Winners in their acceptance speech, saying it made him proud to be a member of Actors FCU.
The opening session concluded with an ode to Hollywood and Broadway that featured live dancers choreographed to mimic famous scenes from stage and screen while those famous scenes were shown on the big screen just above the dance troupe.
