Conclusion
Reflecting
on
his career as a
credit
union organizer,
Roy
Bergengren observed
in his memoirs
that
"we got
away
with something great
because
we did not
know
any better. We
beat
the dragons of
our
time because we
did
not know what
terrible
monsters they
were.
Our experience
will
have value only
as
it encourages
a
new crop of
dragon
slayers within
the
credit union
movement."1
Fortunately, in
the
decades after
his
passing, new
"dragon
slayers" did
indeed
come to fore
to
help negotiate the
hazards of
economic recessions,
banker attacks,
financial crises,
and rapid
technological change.
As
a result of
the
sacrifices and
hard
work of thousands
of credit union
volunteers
and staff, the
Vermont
movement has
grown
from its humble
beginnings
at the Burlington
Rendering Company
in
the 1930s into
a
cornerstone of
the
state's economy.
When Bergengren
helped
to found the
Vermont
Credit Union
League
in 1947, the
state's
movement was
comprised
of a few
scattered
and disorganized
institutions.
Sixty-five years
later,
the Association
of
Vermont Credit
Unions
employs 9 people
and has a
yearly
budget of
$1.7 million,
while its constituent
organizations boast
310,00 members
and $3 billion
in
assets. By
2012,
the vision of
the
movement's founders
that all Vermonters
be eligible for
credit
union membership
had
been achieved, and
half are currently credit union members.
With
tens of thousands
of members and
hundreds
of millions of
dollars
in assets, some
contemporary
credit unions
appear
quite different from
the
comparative tiny
institutions
of the past.
However,
the fact that
all
credit unions,
large
and small, exist
"not
for profit, not
for
charity, but
for
service" continues
to set them
apart
from other financial
service providers
in Vermont. Though
the
movement has
experienced
many challenges
and
changes over
the
years, the
one
constant has
been
a continuing
commitment
on the part
of
the state's credit
union
people to
remain
true to the
core
values of
credit
unionism. As
Bergengren
concluded at
the
end of Crusade,
The
pages
of history are
full
of the stories
of
great movements which
have
attempted to
win
by brute force,
lying
propaganda, bribery
and
corruption. In
the
beginning they
flourished.
In the end
they
were conquered by
the
Imponderables--courage, faith,
loyalty,
honesty, qualities
of mind and
heart
that persisted in
man,
whose yearning is
for
freedom. The
history
of the credit
union
movement is
unique
because it
conquers
with the Imponderables.
Idealism creeps
into
any organization
when
people have
more
interest in
what
they can do
for
each other than
what
they can get
out
of each other."2
So
long
as the "the
Imponderables" continue to be
central
to the work
of
Vermont's credit
unions,
the movement's
future
remains bright.
1
Bergengren,
Crusade,
354.
2
Ibid.,
354.
