The Enemy Within

Volunteerism is unselfish giving without financial compensation that benefits both the needs of people who are served and the need of people to be of service. This human need to be, “of service to others” used one of mans most powerful business systems – banking or to be more precise the creation of credit. It was the genesis of powerul force that enriched the lives of odinary people in so many different ways.

It is this ability to use money in the form of credit - use it today and pay for it tomorrow that creates and sustains whole societies. When it is threatened, as it is now, only then is its power to do well truly understood. And those who were trusted to protect did not are rightfully being held to public account.

Those that have abused the trust, people rested in them, to run credit insitutions safely and soundly need to be rooted out. No more so then many of the current generation of voluntary credit union directors.

Their role as community trustees was to make sure that the credit union they willingly agreed to watch over was able to continue doing what it is supposed to do.

Many have delivered but far too many have not. Far too many turned up to do well and were dominated, cajoled and bullied by clever people who get their kicks from “being important and being in charge”.

Credit unionists talk of the Dominant Director. Spotting them is easy. They have are the ones that have been in influential positions for far too long, manipulating rules they know better than others. Their power is derived from being good administrators and in depth knowledge of arcane rules. In short they arrange to paint the wall so they can enjoy the paint drying.

They are most dangerous when they elbow their way into the top spot. Here they thrive as their position and title allows them to abuse credit union resources. When challenged they use “rules” as their defence and employ lawyers to defend their aggrieved honour.

Irish credit unionism has allowed a generation of dominant directors hold power. Their hegemony, encapsulated in trade body politics resulted in the loss of millions of community capital. They are a generation who have squandered local community financial and social capital they agreed to mind and enhance. 

A cadre of dominant directors may take the credit union movement down with them. Bad things happen when good people stay silent. It is time for the good people to find a voice and defend credit unions from the threat from within.