Dreams Can Come True In 2013

This morning as I opened my eyes after a night of blissful dreams, I bid farewell to the holidays and set my gaze on a nascent new year and all that it might unfurl before me in the weeks and months to come. I pondered the lucky “13,” and wondered if life and its many experiences throughout 2013 would be any different from all years both past and to come.

As I got out of bed, and turned on the TV, I happened to catch one of the many commercials currently airing that promoteAmerica’s financial cooperatives—credit unions. The spot is part of a national branding campaign cooperatively managed and sponsored by credit union associations, credit union leagues, and food and electrical co-ops. It seems collaboration among all cooperatives has become the new norm, emerging from what many have discovered to be a golden opportunity for growth in both membership and services, coming of course, at the expense of corporations and big banks and the growing anger and mistrust consumers have of them.

Yes, life among cooperatives has changed dramatically. Now when I receive a check from any credit union organization and look at the name of the issuing financial institution, I no longer see the word, “bank.” Credit unions have not only learned to keep their money within the system, they also have come to realize that if they are to promote the value of their model over one benefitting shareholders, they ought to maintain their business checking accounts at another financial cooperative, not at a bank.