by C.J. Stevenson
There's been much hoopla about the final rule for credit union directors. I've had friends and colleagues sending me emails with messages from professional development providers--both for-profit companies and associations--touting their solutions to the newly formalized rules regarding credit union directors' fiduciary duties and financial literacy. One question: why now?
Long before the proposed rule was announced last spring, CUES had been developing the Center for Credit Union Board Excellence (CCUBE), a single-source, online resource for director education. Why would we build an entire Web site, develop hundreds of pieces of original content and format it in a way that makes it easy to use for individuals and the board as a whole, and price it so it's affordable for all credit unions, regardless of their size, even without the burning platform of pending NCUA rules that emphasize the need for qualified directors? Because it's what CUES does.
CUES has been providing high-quality director education for close to 30 years, but we recognized that the changing economy and financial services marketplace required that boards of directors needed an even higher level of education, one that would enable them to address the needs of their organizations in an economy that seemed to be crumbling down around their ears. So we developed a flexible, high-quality educational tool for directors that would help them improve their governance. It's what they needed, so we provided it. Not because the NCUA required it, but because we are a professional development association and it's our mission to do so.
If you stop by the CUES HQ in Madison someday, you won't see staff scrambling around like Santa's elves on Christmas Eve, frantically trying to create materials to meet the higher standards for credit union boards. We've already created them. Because we worked with experts in governance from leading business schools, BoardSource, and the credit union movement, you'll know that the Center for Credit Union Board Excellence will meet the most demanding standards. And the content won't just address the top-level of the new requirements; it will help you and your board improve all aspects of how you govern your credit union.
I encourage you to see for yourself.
C.J. Stevenson is CUES' director of professional development.
