Return to Nicholas Johnson's Iowa Rain Forest ("Earthpark") Web Site

Return to Nicholas Johnson's Blog, FromDC2Iowa
 
 

[Note: This material is copyright by the Press-Citizen, and is reproduced here as a matter of "fair use" for non-commercial, educational purposes only. Any other use may require the prior approval of the Iowa City Press-Citizen.]

Most financial institutions are not set up cooperatively, do not view their customers as member-owners and thus give little opportunity for direct feedback on such sweeping organizational changes. Most customers do not feel attached enough to their financial institutions that they would even bother to make their wishes known if they could.

On Wednesday night, 806 members voted against changing the credit union's name to Optiva. They did so out of a variety of reasons. Some were against any change that would sever the credit union's link to the region. Some understood that a name change eventually would be required, but considered Optiva to be unoriginal, unintelligible and "dorky." Some worried about the legal and ethical implications of taking the name when another financial service already was using but had not registered a trademark for Optiva. Still others couldn't have cared less about the name but worried about what would happen to their beloved credit union if the results of the "unconventional" Oct. 4 election were allowed to stand.

The UICCU board and staff have presented two arguable reasons for why the credit union's name eventually needs to be changed:

• Many newcomers to the area mistakenly assume that if a credit union has UI in the title, only UI employees can join; and

• Changing to a non-geographically-tied name would allow the credit union to explore expanding into other states and regions.

These reasons were enough that 631 members voted for Optiva on Wednesday. And the staff and board seem to have believed strongly enough in these reasons that they were willing to move forward with the name change based solely on the earlier 198-192 vote.

From the benefit of hindsight, of course, it's easy to say that the board and staff should have recognized that such a razor-thin margin was not a mandate. In other parts of the nation, it might have made sense to view the slim majority as winner-take-all option to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on new signs, stationery and marketing for Optiva. In Iowa, however, consensus is the rule-of-thumb for politics -- especially for institutions designed to be more cooperative than profit-driven. The board made the right decision in allowing the second election, even if it didn't get the result is wanted.

UICCU officials should be thankful that 806 members cared enough to lodge their frustrations rather than simply have reacted by withdrawing their money and investing it with a local competitor. It's a testament to the long-term strength of this credit union -- whatever its name eventually becomes -- that even its most critical members care enough to stick with it.