The Credit Unions Same Old Lang Syne

by: Bo McDonald

The Dan Fogelberg song “Same Old Auld Syne” seems to be a pretty accurate description of the relationship between credit unions and their members today. If you’re not familiar, here’s a brief synopsis of the song from Wikipedia:

In the song, Fogelberg is reunited with an old flame at a grocery store on a snowy Christmas Eve. She doesn’t recognize him at first glance and when the two reach to embrace, she drops her purse causing them to laugh until they cry. They eventually decide to have a drink somewhere, but are unable to find an open bar. Settling on a six-pack purchased at a liquor store, they proceed to drink it in her car while they talk and are toasting to innocence of the past as well as the present. The lover went on to marry an architect and is seemingly content with her life, though it is implied that she married for security instead of love. After a second toast, the conversation runs its course. They exchange their goodbyes and the woman kisses him before he gets out of the car. As she drives away, the narrator contemplates the good times they’d had long ago, hence the meaning and reference to the song’s title, Old Lang Syne.

Too often we circle back to what’s comfortable instead of embracing progress. I can certainly say this with grace because I’m guilty of this in my own life just as we so often are in our credit unions. Let me cut to the chase and give you a few examples over the next few weeks. Here’s the first in the series of examples of Same Old Lang Synes of Credit Unions:

“We can’t do away with paper newsletters because…”

I’m not picking on paper newsletters. It’s just one example of a stumbling block toward progress. Take a look at your invoices for printed newsletters from 2014. How much did you spend? A few thousand, or maybe for larger credit unions tens of thousands of dollars? Can you clearly identify a return on your investment in those newsletters?