|
 |
|
 |
|
Deep Sixin' Our Future
By Chris Williston, IBAT President and CEO
The Texas Independent Banker
Volume XXXIII No. 4 July/August 2007 |
|
It hit me about the time the crumpled up fax hit the bottom of the trash can. What a hypocrite, I thought.
How easy it was to justify to myself that somehow I was too busy or it was someone else’s job to take responsibility for our industry concerns. Besides, my job was to be an advocate for the banking industry…lobbying the Texas Congressional delegation on association and non-profit issues would cause nothing but confusion in the Congressional offices. I needed to save all my bullets for key banking issues.
What a hypocrite. Here I was practicing the very act that ninety-nine percent of the IBAT members practice when they get the call to come to Washington and lobby important issues. I was deep sixin’ the request. That’s when it hit me.
It wasn’t even a month removed from the IBAT annual Congressional visits where I found myself profusely thanking the twenty-four beautiful souls who answered the call, and in front of them again apologizing to them for not having a better attendance. I remembered the frustration of trying to cover with some kind of reasonable showing of strength the thirty-two Congressional and two Senatorial offices to plead our case for such important issues as tax and regulatory relief, unfair competition from credit unions and the Farm Credit System and limiting entry of commercial firms in the banking business by closing the ILC loophole. I remembered in office after office how the banking staffer reminded us of the hundred or so credit union people who visited them just the week before. I remembered the words of Congressman Chet Edwards as he addressed our group session, “I am happy to support your issues because I believe in your cause, but if you are serious about making a real difference for your industry, you had better bring a lot more bankers to Washington.”
I remembered my first day back in the office and getting a call from a banker in West Texas complaining about the unfair actions of the Farm Credit Bank and, while sympathetic, wondering where the hell he was last week.
So what was it really for me? Was it the time? Was it the insecurity that I didn’t really know the issues well enough? Was it that I just could not bear walking up and down the seemingly endless linoleum hallways trying to find Congressional offices, or getting lost in the basement mix master that connects the House office buildings? Or was it that I just could not think about having another mediocre cheeseburger at Bullfeathers?
Fact is…it was none of those things. It was just too easy thinking someone else would do it.
I dug the piece of paper out of the trash can, checked the box that said “I’ll be there” and took it to the fax to send.
On the flight home from DC this year I vowed that I was going to double my efforts to take one hundred bankers to DC in 2008. I even placed a bet with one of our loyal bankers who attends with us each year that we would have at least one hundred, or I pay dearly.
So what will your excuse be next year? What’s more important than taking two days out of your Spring to go to Washington and sit down face to face with your Congressman or Senator to let him or her know exactly how difficult it is to compete and prosper in our rapidly changing financial services marketplace. We have such a great story to tell. You have the relationships and you have their ear. Who else is there to help us if we don’t help ourselves? It’s your industry, your future.
Can you and I really afford to deep six it?
| 
