The Credit Union Difference: Good, better and best
I’ve spent my thirty-eight-year credit union career articulating the Credit Union Difference. Whether through marketing communication as a past VP of Marketing or knocking on doors as a VP of Business Development, community development evangelist, writer or speaker, volunteer “hike the hill” political advocate or as a consultant pointing the way on how credit unions […]
Purposely pivot and prosper
Seeing smaller credit unions merge frustrates me. I believe a majority of mergers could be avoided if credit union leadership had decided to strategically pivot at the right time. Of course, there are mergers that happen because of succession challenges. And unfortunately, I feel there are too many mergers used as a retirement strategy (bad […]
Credit Unions Watering Family Trees
Comments from a panelist at the recent CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference provided the inspiration of this article. During the Inclusiv’ Juntos Avanzamos (Together We Advance) Forum I was privileged to listen to Eva Gomez, Board Member at Premier America Credit Union. Eva shared her family’s story and connected it to the inspiring work her credit […]
What does it mean to be part of your team
I was blessed to facilitate forty strategic planning meetings in 2022, and in those sessions spent more time discussing human resource challenges and opportunities than any other topic. For good reason—successful strategies have always begun and ended with people. But times are changing. Credit union leaders find themselves in a very different human resource climate, […]
Global collaboration, inclusion and impact
Cooperation among international credit unions is important to the strength, sustainability and global impact of the credit union movement. A great example of this, and it is only one of many, is the relationship with UK and US credit unions and their associations. Expanding financial inclusion For the past 10 years, ABCUL and Inclusiv have […]
Break the ties that bind you
These days it is hard to avoid trade articles or hear watercooler conversations about mergers and the shrinking pool of smaller credit unions. There is a growing consensus that small credit unions just can’t survive the competitive road ahead. When I hear or read about these conversations, I’m reminded of credit unions past, that could […]