“It Is not the ship so much as the skillful sailing that assures the prosperous voyage”  – George William Curtis

One of our original CUNAverse captains, Josh Jones, is disembarking from the CU spaceship this week.  Josh has dedicated his professional career to helping credit unions better understand and serve young adults. Not only have credit unions benefited from this devotion, but CUNA has as well.

Josh’s involvement with CUNAverse has been invaluable as he helped bring CUNAverse into reality, contributed 146 posts (!!!) to the blog, and was our application, widget, and administration wizard. Josh leaves behind a void that will be hard to fill, and we wish him all the best in his upcoming adventures.

Josh has been offered a great opportunity to share his many talents with the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council in Washington, D.C. He will focus on advocacy and social media (a pairing that he states, “are meant for each other”).

Mr. Jones will begin his  grand road trip from Madison, WI to Washington DC tomorrow – we hope he has plenty of playlists lined up to keep him entertained.

Please join us in wishing Josh the best of luck in his new endeavors.  And Josh – you know you can visit us anytime!!

Cheers to smooth sailin’, Capt’n!

Your CUNAverse team is excited for the upcoming year and looking forward to several improvements that will make CUNAverse a better experience for you… beginning with this post.

Take a moment to view our slideshow for our top 10 New Years Resolutions for CUNAverse. We hope this level of transparency reinforces the genuine nature of this blog, our commitment to providing you with valuable insight on all things credit union, and sets the tone in your mind for what is already shaping up to be a fantastic year.

As always, we want to hear your feedback. What do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Wow, 650,000 American’s switched to credit unions last month - more than all of the new customers who joined in 2010!  Here at the Credit Union National Association we are excited to see so many of you discovering what we’ve known all along – that credit unions are the smarter choice.  We’re celebrating the excitement and gearing up for bank transfer day in style - sporting shirts that are perfect for the occasion – one that shows a FEE-H8R license plate and the other says “I did the math:  CU>bank   credit unions are the smarter choice”.   Comment to let us know about your experience with bank transfer day – whether you’re at a credit union that is planing a big celebration or seeing member growth or if you are somebody who is making the switch to a credit union – we’d love to hear from you!  2 lucky commenters will be picked at random to receive one of our bank transfer day t-shirts.  Happy Bank Transfer Day from CUNAverse!

UPDATE (11/08): This contest has ended – congratulations to our winners, Alyssa and Aimee. They each won a  Bank Transfer Day t-shirt from CUNA. THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!

This competition is offered by Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and is open to anyone who comments on this post and is at least 18 years of age. Employees of CUNA and family members of such employees are not eligible to enter.

CUNA shall not have any liability for any malfunction of or damage to the prize. The award winner may be responsible for applicable state or federal taxes on the value of the contest prize.

Over the last 6 weeks CUNAverse Big Time Thursday’s have highlighted many of the things that make this year’s America’s Credit Union Conference & Expo (ACUC) the Big Time.

For the few of you still not signed up to join us in San Antonio here are the top 10 reasons why you can’t wait a minute longer to register:

10. Keynote speakers who are guaranteed to inspire you to take action to take your credit union in to the big time.

9. People are so excited about ACUC they started singing about it back in March at CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference.

8. ACUC has a jam packed schedule  that will leave you saying “Being so busy never felt so good”.

7. CUNA and CUNA Mutual are collaborating this year to bring you the Discovery breakout sessions, the most innovative and relevant educational sessions in the movement.

6. It’s a great time to visit San Antonio since 2011 marks the 175th anniversary of the Battle of the Alamo.

5. ACUC is the place to hear the most recent updates on the legislative and regulatory challenges facing the credit union industry.

4. San Antonio’s River Walk is perfect for nightlife, networking and entertainment.

3. Exhibitors who are committed to the credit union industry and helping us grow.

2. If you win this Big Time Thursday contest you get two registrations for the price of one to this year’s ACUC.

And the number 1 reason you can’t miss this year’s America’s Credit Union Conference & Expo . . .

drum roll please . . .

Comment here for a chance to win an iPad!

1. You’re going to want to capture all of the Big Time ideas on your very own new iPad!

That’s right, one lucky commenter is going to win a buy one/get one registration to this year’s conference and their very own iPad which they’ll receive when they arrive at ACUC. The CUNAverse team wanted to wrap Big Time Thursdays up with a bang, we’re excited to give you the chance to win.  Looking forward to seeing all of you in San Antonio!

FINAL BIG TIME THURSDAY CONTEST: We want to know: What is the #1 thing you are looking forward to seeing at this year’s America’s Credit Union Conference & Expo? Whether it’s a particular speaker, session or event – we want to know what’s bringing you to San Antonio.  Answer this question in a comment below and we’ll do a random drawing on May 19th of all commenters and give away a Buy 1, Get 1 free conference registration to ACUC and your very own iPad!

UPDATE (05/19): This contest has ended – congratulations to our winner, Sarah Brenner from the University of Illinois Employees Credit Union. She won a  buy 1, get 1 free ACUC conference registration plus an Apple iPad. THANKS TO ALL WHO PARTICIPATED!

CONTEST NOTES: Contest begins today and ends on Wed., May 18th at 11:59PM (ct). Winner will be chosen by a random number generator. Make sure you leave an email address where you can be contacted.  The winner will be notified via e-mail and will also be announced on the blog.  The odds of winning depend on the number of entrants received.  No purchase necessary to win. Void where prohibited.

This competition is offered by Credit Union National Association (CUNA) and is open to anyone who comments on this post and is at least 18 years of age. Employees of CUNA and family members of such employees are not eligible to enter.

CUNA shall not have any liability for any malfunction of or damage to the prize. The award winner may be responsible for applicable state or federal taxes on the value of the contest prize.

iPad® is a registered trademark of Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple is not a participant in or sponsor of this promotion.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary for CUNAverse! It’s been a fantastic experience and we look forward to the year ahead.

We’re happy you—our readers—have come along for the ride since our official launch on May 3rd, 2010. The CUNAverse team can’t thank you enough for commenting on our posts, following our tweets and “falling in like” with us on Facebook.

Our gift to you on (the day after) CUNAverse’s birthday… is this excessively cute picture of a puppy and a cupcake.

Enjoy!

The 2011 America’s Credit Union Conference & Expo (ACUC) is headed to San Antonio, Texas and this year’s conference is all about the Big Time.  Big Ideas & Big Opportunities are colliding to bring the credit union movement a conference experience like no other this June 19th through 22nd. 

But who wants to wait until June to start talking about big ideas?

Not the CUNAverse team, so we’re launching Big Time Thursdays;  weekly blog posts that we’re planning from now until early May where we will highlight some of the great things you can expect from this year’s ACUC speakers. Also, we know you are doing some amazing things. So another important part of Big Time Thursday is a question for you each week to give you the chance to share some of the Big Time things you are doing at your credit union. 

Did we mention there will be prizes?  That’s right, for each Big Time Thursday we’ll be giving away prizes to one lucky commenter each week.  As we get closer to ACUC the prizes are only going to get bigger and better so make sure to follow @CUNAverse and the CUNAverse Facebook page for upcoming announcements about Big Time Thursday. 

And now, time for our first Big Time Thursday: The ACUC in Texas!

2010 was an exciting year for our team - it was the year we kicked off CUNAverse!  In just 7 months since we launched CUNAverse 10,000 people have checked out the blog, we’re nearing 100 posts, many of you have commented and sent tweets and we’re looking forward to keeping the conversation going in 2011.

We wanted to take the time before 2010 came to a close to thank you for helping to make our launch in to the blogosphere such a blast.  As we near 2011 please leave us a comment here on the blog, send us a tweet, or drop us a message on our facebook page to let us know the types of things you’d like to see on CUNAverse next year.

For those of you that have just joined in on the CUNAverse conversation, here is a look back at our top 10 blog posts from 2010:

1. Does Your Credit Union Have a Social Media Policy?

2. What Credit Unions Can Learn From Pizza Hut

3. What Credit Unions Can Learn From Ritz Carlton

4. Compliance: Are You Ready For 2011?

5. Why Celebrate International Credit Union Day?

6. Turnover Increase on the Horizon for Credit Unions

7. Culture of Fear or a Culture of Love

8. Worried that CUs Aren’t Focused Enough on Upcoming Truth In Lending Changes

9. Taking Your Credit Union From Good to Great

10.  First Feedback on Bill Cheney as New CUNA President/CEO

16GB/Wifi Apple iPad

So maybe you’ve been reading the CUNAverse blog here for awhile now or you’re a new reader. Either way, we’ve come up with a contest to spread the word and get a chance to win a new Apple iPad!

(Note: contest entries had to follow us on Twitter and tweet about the contest).

In addition to the iPad, the lucky winner received a copy of the 2010-2011 E-Scan Report.

Thanks for participating and stay tuned for more CUNAverse contests this year!