Why more compliance examinations – not fewer – could actually help your credit union

by. Ken Agle

I am not terribly skilled in the art form known as golf. Though I have a set of clubs, and I do swing them every now and then, clearly, I could not be considered a Golfer with a capital G.

That said, a friend of mine tipped me onto a new-to-me golf phenomenon that looks to be fun even for us golfers with a lower-case g. It’s called TopGolf (don’t worry; this is not a TopGolf product endorsement). TopGolf is like a cross between golf and bowling, where players tee off in a multi-bay, multi-level driving range and try to land their balls in targets that range from 20 yards away to some 200 yards away. Chips inside the balls measure distance to the various targets and award points accordingly. Players don’t have to walk anywhere; they just aim for another target. Refreshments are never more than an arm’s length away. What could be better than that?

But imagine if golf had no holes, no targets, nothing to shoot toward whatsoever. Players just go out there and swing the club, hit the ball, and wherever it goes is fine. That could be briefly entertaining, but ultimately pointless. You could make up games of how far you could hit the ball, but eventually only the exceedingly strong would excel at that game. No, golf works because of the holes.

Now, imagine if there were no regulatory compliance examinations. I know, I know; you’ve pondered (and perhaps yearned for) that utopia many times, but I would assert that there is great value to such events. Examinations give us meaningful feedback on our performance and efforts, just like a shank on a par 3 tells us that we need to adjust our swing.

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