A couple of weeks ago, I attended Credit Unions at the Crossroads Symposium at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, Charlottesville, Va.
The event, organized and coordinated by Darden, UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce and $511 million University of Virginia Community Credit Union, brought together about 60 members of the credit union industry to discuss and try to solve some of the movement’s biggest problems.
The discussion was very robust. But one thing that kept coming up again and again was the need to act, not just talk.
Several attendees and presenters said that topics like the need for greater participation in shared branching and ATM networks, cooperative advertising, credit union vs. credit union competition, big vs. small credit unions, taxes, and secondary capital are talked about at every CU conference, networking event or meeting, in sessions, over coffee and on the golf course. Talk is good but action is necessary was the consensus. Have you ever felt that way after a credit union conference?
I see this as a problem for the industry as a whole but also for individual credit unions. How many times does your credit union have planning sessions or marketing meetings or a product summit where great ideas are discussed; cool new products and services are brought up; or a brilliant initiative is proposed by a teller and everyone is excited at the end of the meeting; then you get back to your desk and … you start responding to the emails that piled up? You put your meeting notes on your desk with great plans to flesh them out and write up an inspired proposal, but your regular tasks get in the way and you find your notes months later at the bottom of a pile of mail, magazines and memos.
How do you stop that from happening at your credit union? A few ways that come to mind. First you can assign tasks to meeting participants, including yourself. Put someone in charge of scheduling a follow-up discussion. Set goals and timelines.
But how does this translate to the CU movement as a whole, where there are thousands of individual organizations and thousands more people with their own ideas about what is best?
One idea floated by more than one attendee around shared branching—and the need to get more participation—was to continue moving forward and leave behind those who don’t want to participate. Accept that there will never be 100 percent agreement on a particular strategy, but if we can get to 80 or 90 percent participation, then perhaps the holdouts will eventually see the benefits or, potentially, be left behind.
On a more individual level, after a credit union event, make it a point to contact some of the people you met and continue the conversations. If, over a few drinks or a round of golf, you came up with great ideas for the industry, talk about them with your CU networks, locally and nationally. Try the ideas out at your CU and report back. Write a post for this blog or a letter to the editor for CU Management about your awesome ideas.
But don’t leave your ideas on a crinkled napkin in the bar, under a pile of mail on your desk or in a conference room. Take those ideas out for a spin.
Theresa Witham is a CUES editor.
