Legislative Update with Jay Kruse

Jay is reporting from the annual AACUL Winter Meetings this week, where advocacy is front and center! Plus, a sincere “thank you” to everyone who supported this year’s Holiday Sweepstakes! 

Good Morning! Today I am reporting from Charleston, SC, the site of this year’s annual American Association of Credit Union Leagues or “AACUL” Winter Meetings. Yes, there is an association for everything – even associations! But the real question should be, why are these “Winter Meetings” so important?

First off, we pack a lot into a short week. I am a member of the AACUL State Issues Advocacy Committee, which held a meeting yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon to discuss the important progress the committee has made this year, most importantly, the recent completion of our Public Deposits Research Study titled Credit Unions and the People’s Money: Estimating the Benefits of Allowing Credit Unions to Accept Public Deposits. The innovative study reviews state statutes, reports on interviews with credit union stakeholders, and provides a national and state-by-state analysis of the advantages public entities could reap if they were uniformly allowed to use credit unions as depositories. Exciting stuff!

Today, the CUNA-League Advocacy Team, which is made up of my government affairs colleagues from across the country and at CUNA, is hosting a meeting to discuss the many legislative and regulatory advocacy issues we are all facing in our individual states. I find these discussions extremely helpful as we prepare for legislative sessions in both North and South Dakota this year. These meetings provide me an opportunity to start preparing for issues that are popping up in other states before they make it to the Dakotas, allowing us to work from an offensive position instead of always being on the defense!

Tomorrow morning, we will settle in for a full day of “General Sessions,” led by the current AACUL Board Chair and your DakCU President Jeff Olson! The morning session will include NCUA updates from both NCUA Board Chair Todd Harper and Board Member Rodney Hood, a report on the success of our Financial Well-Being for All journey, and an Advocacy Policy Session led by CUNA CEO Jim Nussle that will discuss our advocacy outlook for 2023 and beyond. In the afternoon we will hear from Chris Lorence about the Your Money Further credit union awareness program, followed by a panel discussion of the connection between CU4Kids and Financial Well-Being for All. Finally, we will end the day with a presentation on digital assets/payments and the AACUL Annual Meeting.
And then its back to frigid South Dakota!

2022 Dakota Credit Union CUPAC/CULAC Holiday Sweepstakes – Winners Announced!
The Sweepstakes came to a close last week, and the drawing to determine the winners of $5,000 in prizes took place last Friday, December 2. I want to send another huge THANK YOU out to everyone that participated in this year’s CUPAC/CULAC Holiday Sweepstakes as well as all the credit unions that made corporate donations to support our prize offerings this year.

I couldn’t do what I do without the support of those of you working in the Dakotas’ credit union industry. Your support does not go unnoticed and is sincerely and greatly appreciated!

Click here to see a full list of all the winners! As always, don't hesitate to contact me with any advocacy questions or concerns.