I'm not in Australia

I'm not in a lot of places, but I'm sad that I am not at the World Council of Credit Union's Conference being held now at the Gold Coast, Australia.

One of the joys of my working career was covering their conferences in person. It meant 16 hour days running from presentation to presentation, writing them up and getting them filed. It meant interviewing world leaders like Nobel Prize winner John Hume or Irish President, Human Rights activist and Elder Mary Robinson, Vincente Fox and more.

I'm not name dropping.

None of them will remember me, but as far as Mary Robinson was concerned, I considered it an honour to have breathed the same air as she did. Listened to her explain how she was able to continue after horrendous events like seeing Rwanda after the massacre. She reached out, put her hand on mine and said,  "My dear, I always see the glass a quarter full." Would that we could clone her and make her president of every country in the world.

It meant meeting with wonderful, dedicated, intelligent people from North and South America, Asia, Europe and Africa. Some have struggles just to survive through wars, epidemics and famine and they still trying to help their fellow citizen.

I love credit unions. They prove financial institutions can be fair to all their depositors. Why anyone would use a bank if they could use a credit union is beyond me. Are you reading this Llara...? I don't care if you don't make me a grandmother. I don't care how or where you work if you're happy. That you do business with a bank makes me sad. And yes, I hear you say you don't do guilt trips.)

Back to the WOCCU conference. Although I'm not there, thanks to the wonderful staff there, I'll still be able to cover it from afar, using photos, press releases and information sent me, combined with my years of knowledge with the movement.

But I still wish it had been more feasible to be there. If only Scotty could have beamed me in.