By Frank J. Diekmann
In the credit union community there is only one group more stereotyped than Millennials, and that’s credit union board members.
Average age? Deceased. Athletic specialty: 100 Yard Dash to the Buffet. Primary interest in credit union conferences? Location (OK, there’s something to that one.)
I’ll admit to having trafficked in a few of those stereotypes myself, which is why it was such a pleasure, really a surprise in many ways, to sit down with five credit union volunteers at the recent Rochdale/Paragon Volunteer Leadership Institute (VLI) meeting (full disclosure: we were in Hawaii) to talk about why they give their time, whether it’s worth it, and where they see issues and challenges.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been completely surprised. What has always impressed me about the VLI meeting is just how engaged the attendees actually are. In 2016 I was the closing speaker on a Saturday morning at the VLI conference in Kauai. Almost anywhere else that’s a recipe for filling out your own evaluations, as the audience is composed of hotel staff who are texting to kill time and waiting for you to finish so they can roll up the tables and put the chairs away. And yet it seemed everyone at the conference was still there that morning.
The Not Quite Quintet
This year I had the opportunity to sit down and lead a discussion with five volunteers who hailed from credit unions in Florida, Connecticut, California, Washington and Wyoming. My goal was simply to hear what they had to say, to get their perspectives. The last time anyone really championed a role for volunteers in credit unions was when Norm D’Amours was chairman of NCUA. In other words, a long time ago. But think about it--for all the times we hear about the importance of volunteer board members at democratically run credit unions, especially when yodeling from the top of Mt. Cooperative about CU differentiation and the reasons for the tax exemption, the volunteers themselves remain largely invisible. It’s usually Volu-who?
But as CUToday.info reported here, as individuals they remain proud and happy about the work they do, the contributions they make and the importance of their roles.
When I asked if it was worth it, Mike Angel (whose story of how he got to the board is fascinating, so see the article) of CFE FCU in Florida, answered, “It’s absolutely, 100% worth it.” Layla Gjertsen, a board member at TwinStar Credit Union in Washington, said she’s a Rotarian and serving on the board helps fulfill a “commitment to the community.”
All of the board members were enthusiastic and animated about giving back to their fellow members and especially to youth via financial literacy efforts.
Each of the volunteers at the table had served at least 10 years and each has had an upfront seat to changes credit unions have gone through. They’ve had to wrestle with touchy issues on “gently” removing fellow board members who just weren’t cutting it. And many talked about how their boards have had to become more diverse in order to mirror membership changes.
The Slippery Slope
Everyone acknowledged they’ve had to bone up on understanding the balance sheet (thanks to requirements from regulators following the financial crisis), and they all were in agreement on another balance sheet issue: their personal ones. Each of the five at the table believed volunteers should be volunteers and not paid.
As Bob David of Sikorsky Financial CU said, “Our founders in New Hampshire did not have that in mind. It’s a slippery slope.”
As for that stereotype that most board members are fax machines in a digital world, I didn’t find that to be the case. Each was aware of the technology challenges and other developments facing them and the members they represent.
“Ten years from now is a big unknown,” observed Angel. “But if we don’t evolve, we dissolve.”
Frank J. Diekmann is Cooperator in Chief at CUToday.info and can be reached at Frank@CUToday.info or followed at @FrankCUToday.