the employer-based bond permitted credit unions to use future paychecks as collateral. The Credit Union National Extension Bureau, the forerunner of the Credit Union National Association, was formed as a confederation of state leagues at a meeting in Estes Park, Colorado, in 1934. Attendees at the meeting included Dora Maxwell who would go on to help establish hundreds of credit unions and programs for the poor in her lifetime and Louise McCarren Herring, whose work to form credit unions and ensure their safe operation earned the title of "Mother of Credit Unions" in the United States. The number of credit unions reached their peak in 1969 with 23,866 institutions and total assets of $16 billion. A museum on the history of credit unions, America's Credit Union Museum, is located in Manchester, New Hampshire. It opened in 2002. Constitution and regulation Credit unions in the United States may either be chartered by the federal government ("federal credit unions") or a state government. The states of Delaware, South Dakota, and Wyoming do not regulate credit unions at the state level; in those states, a credit union must obtain a federal charter to operate. All federal credit unions and 95% of state-chartered credit unions have "share insurance" (deposit insurance) of at least $250,000 per member through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF). This deposit insurance is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government and is administered by the National Credit Union Administration. As of December 2006, the NCUSIF had a higher insurance fund capital ratio than the fund for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). U.S. credit unions also typically have higher equity capital ratios than U.S. banks. As of the end of 2016, the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund insured more than $1 trillion in deposits at 5,785 not-for-profit cooperative US credit unions. For comparison, the FDIC insured more than $13 trillion in deposits at 5,980 banks and thrift institutions. The NCUA and the FDIC are both independent federal agencies backed by the full faith and credit of the US government. Membership restrictions In the United States, as elsewhere, credit unions were historically formed around a single church, place of work, labor union, or town. Membership was limited to those who were in the field of membership. The Federal Credit Union Act of 1934 limited membership to "groups having a common bond of occupation