There wouldn’t be a YES CU Blog, that’s for sure. What’s less obvious is that NCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland wouldn’t be able to address this year’s attendees.

You see, Board Member Hyland felt it was important to be a part of CUNA’s Community Credit Union and Growth Conference. But other duties–including the October 22nd NCUA Board meeting–made traveling to Las Vegas for CCUC impossible.

All was lost, it seemed. Nobody can be in two places at once, right? Not necessarily. Behold the power of social media and Web 2.0 technologies.

CUNA will bring Board Member Hyland and CCUC attendees together using a live Web cam broadcast the morning of Friday, October 23rd. Attendees will see and hear Hyland’s address, and the Board Member will be able to see and hear attendees as they ask questions… all in real time.

Why is this a big deal?

To my knowledge, this is the first time an NCUA Board Member will address a group and field questions remotely via two-way audio/video communication over the Internet in real time. And the implications of this go far beyond enhancing conferences and events.

It opens the door for credit unions to deliver experts and thought leaders from across the country to employees and board members without incurring travel expenses. Credit unions may also leverage this technology to better communicate with members, perhaps offering online financial literacy seminars where members can actively engage with the presenter.

Yes, Webinars currently offer a similar capability… but the major difference here is that both parties are now able to see the other, instead of simply seeing text and a PowerPoint. It may seem ancillary at first, but this visual component further engages participants with speakers.

Very exciting stuff… especially for credit union/social media junkies like myself. So, stay tuned for more information about this session–and others–on Friday.

Bob Butler, Director, PrimeWay FCU in Houston shares his thoughts on today’s Keynote from Kirk Weisler…

According to Kirk Weisler, it’s all about being positively contagious and infectious.

That doesn’t sound like something you would want to be–especially H1N1 floating around. But that’s exactly what will shine a light of passion and vision inspiring those you work with.

Now I was never really a comic book kid to begin with because I thought they were too pricey to spend my precious paper route money on. The few comics I did come home with featured Spiderman, Superman, and an occasional HULK. That was over 30 years ago, so why am I talking comics now? I was asked by a group to theme my whole Leadership & Influence Keynote around any comic book hero of my choosing. With all the weird, wild, and wonderful characters to choose from, I found myself drawn towards a character whose comics I had never read….the Green Lantern.

Knowing virtually nothing about this hero – I think the initial draw was my thought that the lantern would serve as a good symbol of what an inspiring “level 5” leader must bring to take their organization or team from Good to Great. But the more I learned of the Green Lantern.. the more I realized he was the Hero who could best represent the solutions to some of the most relevant leadership challenges we face today. Skipping the nearly 7 page wiki summary & history of the Green Lantern…let me boil it down to the 2 major reasons for choosing Green Lantern as a symbol of the leadership we need today.

First… Hal Jordon – wasn’t bitten by a radio active spider, born on Krypton or freakishly changed by a DNA altering blast of gamma radiation. He’s just your almost average earthling who was chosen to be entrusted with a unimaginable power, the Green Lantern. Why was he chosen? (Notice earlier I said he was almost average?) He was chosen because he could be trusted, because those who chose him discerned that both his heart and head were in the right place. Hal Jordon wasn’t just willing to be good, but desired to do good! This desire compelled him to take action for benefit of others. Integrity matter, character counts, Trust is a MUST… but in addition to what we know is right, we must be willing to DO right. There is much more to discuss here, but lets save it for the conference.

Secondly – The Lantern, and the Ring it charges are indeed phenomenal symbols of what followers want leaders to bring to the table. Since the dawn of time light seems to have served as a symbol of hope, knowledge, truth, virtue and nearly every good and noble thing. In a world filled with darkness, depression, disconnection, desperation and despair… the need for Bright Leaders who can help us all to “Lighten Up” has never been greater. The Green Lanterns ring operates by 2 core principles that will be central to our discussion of what makes Green Lantern leadership powerfully contagious.

In this fun and fast paced keynote I’ll build on these 2 concepts essentially tying them together to show leaders how to immediately and sustainably increase levels of employee engagement throughout their organizations by being & becoming the Positively Contagious Leaders they want to be and that their people and the world need them to be.

Your leave this session with your Lanterns Lit and Glowing Green or I’ll eat kryptonite. See you soon in Vegas where there will be many lights on…but we’ll only be looking for your Green One.

It’s easy to consider the search for young adult gains, however, as a marketing challenge. Tweak the products and get the right message out, and everything will be better, right? Yes, for a while.

A little deeper into the challenge you’ll find a thorny HR problem. Young adults don’t want to work at credit unions. They certainly don’t object on principle, but credit unions are just not on their employment radar.

Consider Filene’s late 30 Under 30 group. Of these two and a half dozen rising credit union stars, not one had considered working for a credit union before they landed their first job at one. Once they did, however, many of them were hooked.

Adding to the challenge is the fact that, according to recent Filene research, employees younger than 30 and those with higher levels of education are less committed to credit unions. The causes of that disconnect are unclear, but if you can’t get future leaders to buy in, how do you get your membership to buy in?

So what’s a credit union to do to attract next year’s shining stars?

Here are four places to start:

1. Get on campus.
Whether at a job fair, through the career resources office, or working directly with professors in classrooms, credit unions almost everywhere need to raise awareness. Nearly 70% of interns receive full-time job offers upon completion of their internships, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers. If you’re not offering an internship, you may never even see many of the best students.

2. Cater to them (to a point).
As with sales, recruiting needs to emphasize the benefits to the prospect. A recent Net Impact/Aspen Institute national survey of MBA students showed that three factors far outpaced all others when candidates were asked to name what’s most important in a job:

• Work/life balance (56%)
• Challenging and diverse job responsibilities (51%)
• Compensation (49%)

It’s not possible to reset the credit union’s professional needs, but it is important to emphasize — for MBAs, college grads, or any prospective young professional — how the credit union is competitive on these three fronts.

3. Emphasize social responsibility.
Doing right by customers and contributing to the community is increasingly important among young professionals. The fourth most important employment factor from the survey above was “potential to contribute to society” at 32%. If priorities one through three are in place, credit unions have a clear case to make around social responsibility. In a private survey commissioned by Filene, credit unions were identified as the second most responsible financial institutions, behind only microfinance non-profits like kiva.org and Grameen Bank. Not everybody gets excited about social responsibility, but for those that do, it’s a key differentiator.

4. And if you’re credit union is in one of these 10 cities, you’ve got a little recruiting head start.

---

Ben’s session A Seat at the Table: Young Adult Directors and Board Advisors will be one of three break out sessions held on Friday, October 23rd from 10:15 am – 11:30 am at the upcoming CUNA Community Credit Union & Growth Conference in Las Vegas, NV.