WASHINGTON—Representatives from CUNA and the state leagues, as well as credit union leaders. walked young professionals through the ins and outs of being an advocate during CUNA’s Young Professionals Advocacy Workshop, according to the trade group.
The three-day virtual workshop featured discussions on every aspect of advocacy, including a simulated meeting and panel of Congressional staffers.
“We’re all advocates, we were born advocates…,” said CUNA Chief Political Officer Richard Gose. “We can’t let barriers like ‘I don’t know enough’ or ‘I don’t have experience’ to hold us back from our important advocacy work. CUNA and the leagues are here to help with that through workshops like this. Everybody counts, and your opinion matters. Advocate.”
Adam Engelman, CUNA director of federal grassroots and programs, ran the workshop.
‘Something We Want to Change’
“Young professionals know their credit union, and know their members, but according to our pre-workshop surveys, around 70% of those in attendance had never engaged in advocacy,” Engelman said. “Someone even said advocacy isn’t even in the top 10 things they do for work, and that’s something we want to change. Advocacy isn’t just for the C-suite staff, we want to give tips and tools to get more people involved, show them what advocacy is, how to get better, how the process works.”
According to CUNA, young professionals in attendance had a wide variety of experiences, with some having participated in annual trips to the state capitol, with others advocating for the first time.
Jennifer Seber, consumer lending operations manager for USF FCU in Tampa, was quoted by CUNA as saying the training “provided tools for us to become successful advocates from understanding the inner workings of political offices to crafting our own impactful stories based on our daily interactions.
Keeping the Difference ‘Thriving’
“I look forward to bringing these tools back to my various (young professional) groups and encourage others to use this platform as a way to keep the credit union difference thriving in our communities,” Seber said, according to CUNA.
Added Hannah Mahaffey, director of community engagement for Greenville FCU in South Carolina, “My biggest takeaway from the workshop was the importance of sharing stories with our lawmakers. As someone that is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the credit union and can’t rattle off data and statistics as quickly as others can, I found it very helpful and reassuring to learn that lawmakers love hearing member success stories,” she said. “It was also incredibly helpful to hear from staffers who provided tips for successful meetings with representatives.”