By Barb Kachelski, CAE
Two years ago, my sister and her family lived with us for a couple of months as they settled her kids into school and searched for a more permanent home. She asked my advice in finding “a bank.” I told her she was on her own if she were looking for a bank, but I’d gladly help her find a credit union. To her, the difference didn’t matter, and she happily took my advice to join a credit union.
To this day, when she’s running errands, she tells me she’s going to the bank, and every time I explain, “Carol, it’s not a bank… it’s a CREDIT UNION.”
To her, it might not matter. To me, the distinction is important.
I think about Carol as I see the plethora of “institutes” being offered for credit union leaders. At one point in our history, CUES offered this type of “institute,” but now our Institutes are Institutes with a capital I. Ask an executive with the letters CCE (for Certified Chief Executive) or a director with the letters CCD (for Certified Credit Union Director) the difference between a “small i” institute and a “capital I” Institute and they’ll say something like this:
- "institutes" take place at in a meeting room. Institutes take place on a university campus.
- "institutes" have instructors who have read a lot of books. Institutes are taught by internationally recognized faculty who wrote the books.
- "institutes" help attendees network and learn. Institutes provide an executive education experience with graduate-level understanding and innovative approaches to leadership disciplines. (Attendees tell me networking is even better at capital I institutes.)
Obviously, “small i” institutes attract attendees, or they wouldn’t be offered. But CUES CCEs and CCDs tell me the difference between an institute and an Institute is as significant as the difference between a bank and a credit union.
For more information on CUES Institutes, see:
- Advanced Leadership Institute, held at the Harvard Business School
- CEO Institute I: Strategic Planning, held at the at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School
- CEO Institute II: Organizational Effectiveness, held at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management
- CEO Institute III: Strategic Leadership Development, held the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration
- Directors Leadership Institute: Governance, held at the University of Toronto's Joseph L. Rotman School of Management.
Barb Kachelski, CAE, is CUES' SVP/chief operating officer.
