I am thrilled to announce that CUES Next Top Credit Union Exec is back for a third year. We gave the website a total refresh and have made a number of key changes including:
In conjunction with our day, we're kicking off a fun seven-day contest. There will be seven videos with seven clues to find and seven $50 iTunes gift cards up for grabs. It'll be fun and you should enter!
Money Mom marries a winning combination of integrated marketing and content strategy with a local voice and relevant banking products.
A PROVEN RECIPE
Based on our award-winning Young & Free marketing program, Money Mom finds a local mom to be the voice of your credit union. Her job is to connect on- and off-line with the local community to raise awareness and affinity for your credit union.
Our first Money Mom program was launched over two years ago with Seattle's Verity Credit Union as Verity Mom. We've helped Verity find two amazing Mommy Bloggers who have done a tremendous job connecting and building awareness for the credit union. At launch, Verity's average age of a new members was 39, but after just 12 months of running the program in conjunction with a rewards checking account, the average age of a new member dropped to 36!
"We wanted to capture the hearts and minds of the next generation. The best way to do that is by pleasing their moms. Moms make most of the spending decisions in a family and they hold the most influence over where their children will eventually do their banking. We look at this as a multi-generational strategy."
Shari Storm Senior Vice President Verity Credit Union
With this great success under our belt, we've decided to package this program and offer it to other non-competing credit unions.
KEY DIFFERENCES
Beyond targeting a different segment, there are a couple other key distinctions between Young & Free and Money Mom:
Each Money Mom program will carry its own unique name instead of all being under one master brand.
We recognize that moms have tons to juggle, so the Money Mom position is part-time, whereas the Young & Free Spokester position is full-time.
Mike Lawson of CUbroadcast recently interviewed Verity's Melina Young about the Verity Mom program. Verity is a tremendous partner and supporter of the program.
Sandy Pitkethly has been promoted to Vice President, Marketing! Sandy is now in charge of new business development and will be working with me on overall strategy and direction for Currency and our marketing programs. Our Program Directors, Michael, Kate and Cheryl, will report to Sandy.
Since joining Currency in October 2007, Sandy has been a key team member and, in this new role, I am sure she will continue to grow and flourish.
Congratulations Sandy! Please join me in wishing her continued success at Currency.
About two years ago now, Christopher Stevenson from the Credit Union Executives Society (CUES) approached me with an idea, "What do you think about partnering on something like Young & Free for the credit union industry?" I immediately thought that marrying an Apprentice meets Idol competition with the premier credit union professional development organization made perfect sense. From that conversation was born the Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge.
In 2010, 41 bright minds entered the competition, six were short-listed and Tina Hall from Verity Credit Union in Seattle, Washington emerged as the winner. In a truly cooperative moment, Tina handed over half of her $20,000 educational package to runner-up Ronaldo Hardy from La Capitol Federal Credit Union in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. There wasn't a dry eye in the house at the CEO/Executive Team Network in Dallas last November!
When I think back to that conversation with Christopher, I had no idea how transformational this competition would end up being. Both Tina and Ronaldo feel that being a part of the 2010 Next Top Credit Union Exec has transformed their careers. I am very proud of this program and it's wonderful to see that it has inspired many other industry organizations to look closely at the next generation of credit union leaders. It's about time!
If you are 35 or under, employed by a credit union and reading this, I encourage you to get out of your comfort zone and enter this competition. You will not regret it. As an added bonus this year, CUES is giving everyone who enters a free one-year NextGen membership.
We've freshened up the website for year two.
And put together a brief launch video.
We are extremely proud of our association with CUES and the Next Top Credit Union Exec challenge. I urge you to get involved—you won't regret it.
Now get to work on your video entry! Entries are due by June 7.
Every Young & Free region comes together when there are senior champions that believe in it and when there is a great supporting cast. Indiana is no exception. From the beginning, Jeff Meyer, the CEO and Lisa Philips, the COO, have both embraced the program and made it a strategic priority.
In addition, the marketing team—Michelle, Dan and Chad—have been great to work with.
Internally, this program was launched under the guidance of Kate Davies. Kate has done a great job of managing this project from start to now. This is Kate's fourth launch in the past three months! She definitely needs a holiday.
We helped the Maine Credit Union League (MCUL), representing 60 participating credit unions, roll out Young & Free Maine today. Maine is the 11th Young & Free region in North America to go live and the largest group to date!
The program in Maine came together because of the leadership and drive of MCUL's corporate marketing manager, Debra Trautman. Debra and her team (Diana, Jess, Jon and Karen) worked extremely hard to build consensus and excitement for the program.
Kate Davies and I travelled to Augusta, Maine in March and shot the launch video with 14 of the participating credit union CEOs.
The program in New Mexico came together because of the leadership and passion of a number of key people that believed in Young & Free, including Sylvia Lyons (CEO) and Denise Wymore (VP Association Services) plus 17 courageous credit union CEOs.
Launching Young & Free for a group of credit unions takes a great deal of cooperation and coordination! It allows small and large credit unions to affordably work together to make a big noise in their marketplace. We know it takes a lot to get on the radar of potential Gen Y members.
When Denise started at CUANM in the Spring of 2010, one of Sylvia's first requests was for her to check into Young & Free New Mexico. As luck would have it, I know Denise quite well! One thing led to another and here we are!
Kate Davies and I travelled to Sante Fe, New Mexico in February and shot this fun launch video with most of the participating credit union CEOs.
Side note: We do a lot of time zone-math in our office. Most of our clients are two or three hours ahead. It's nice to have another client that is just one hour ahead! Now, if we could only have a program running in Pacific time! :)
I wrote a guest post on the CUES Skybox on May 12 and Doug True at FORUM Credit Union left this comment.
"Your post also made me think how we really should bring back the Symposium. The foundation blocks are still there and FORUM Solutions would welcome the opportunity to host in Indy. If there is interest we just need to find out who the enablers will be and get together to work out the details. I only want to do it though if it adds value to an already crowded conference marketplace"
Further down in the comments, George Hoffheimer from Filene chimed in.
@Doug...Filene's in for next iteration of Symposium
I immediately emailed Doug True and Matt Davis and said let's make it happen. So, after a one-year hiatus, the symposium is back. We've got a new title, the CU Water Cooler Symposium, and a new theme, Bubbling up the best new credit union talent!
Here are some details.
This will be a unique experience in the already over-crowded credit union conference space.
It will be held in Fishers, Indiana on Thursday, October 28 and Friday, October 29. FORUM Credit Union has been gracious to donate the use of its wonderful FORUM Conference & Events Center.
It's dirt cheap. The $199 early-bird price basically covers the costs of catering.
Matt Davis and I will be your hosts.
The other 11 CU Water Cooler editors are each responsible for recruiting a speaker with a new story. These speakers will be revealed two at a time over the next six weeks on the Liquid Lunch.
There is a "Be a Speaker" contest. This is an awesome opportunity for someone with an interesting credit union story to tell.
Ontario joins (in order) Alberta, Texas, South Carolina, Alabama Tennessee, Mississippi and St. Louis to become the eighth Young & Free region in North America.
It's great to have a second region live in Canada! And it's not just any region—Ontario is by far the most populated province in Canada with over 13 million residents! Or put another way, 40% of Canada's population.
Ontario is our second region in North America and first region in Canada to undertake the Young & Free program as a collaborative initiative. The majority of our programs have been single credit unions representing a small section of their home state or province. This is unique partnership between two like-minded, non-competing credit unions that serve Southwestern Ontario. It’s exciting to see collaboration between two well respected credit unions. By coming together, they are able to share the costs and amplify their reach.
Nala and I travelled to Ontario in March and shot the CEO launch video while we were there. Jack Smit and Jim Lynn had a fun time working with each other and did a great job!
Tim McAlpine
