Credit Union Underground Collision Stands Up for Open Discussion and Action

By Sarah Snell Cooke

“Are credit unions champions to the level we could be?”

That’s the question Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates CEO Sue Mitchell posed to the most recent Underground Collision attendees at WOCCU’s World Credit Union Conference held recently in Singapore.

“The Underground Community’s mission is all about, we love credit unions and we love the difference we can make. And we need to continue to question each other and support each other. We need to get our thought leaders together like we did when we were small and talk about, ‘What else can we do?’”

CU Solutions Group SVP of Strategic Advisory Services Brandi Stankovic pointed out in her remarks at the Global Collision, “Credit unions are at their best in moments of tragedy.” Look at credit unions’ response to the tragedies in Las Vegas, Haiti and Nepal. Do we really need to wait for a tragedy to do more?

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“When was the last time credit unions came together to create something like shared branching?” questioned Patsy Van Ouwerkerk of Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates. Many credit unions seem to have forgotten the seven cooperative principles, which include cooperation among cooperatives and concern for community.

“I had the opportunity to serve on the California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues’ committee overseeing the cooperative advertising campaign,” Van Ouwerkerk explained. “We were doing good work to benefit all credit unions. The whole is greater than its parts, and we need that collective strength when our bank competitors on the same block are larger than all credit unions combined.”

While the credit union community should work to raise all ships, that does not include saving small credit unions for the sake of saving small credit unions. The credit union community has a sentimental and somewhat practical attachment to small credit unions, but we must ensure we’re saving the right ones, Van Ouwerkerk added. The community should not be propping up credit unions that are ineffective and inefficient, burning through member capital.

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That means we need to be able to openly and authentically discuss credit unions’ shortcomings, so that we can make changes for a brighter credit union future. “Credit unions don’t focus on member value. We need to reinvigorate our messaging,” Van Ouwerkerk concluded.

These issues are exactly why the Underground Community is needed. “Innovation comes from colliding together, but sometimes we’re afraid to have disruptive conversation…There are conversations that take place in the hallways, at the watercoolers, and there are times we’re hesitant to take it to the mainstage. Those conversations have to do with cooperation, collaboration and whether we’re doing enough to stand up for financial inclusion, diversity and more!” Mitchell exclaimed. The Underground Community blog and Collisions are a safe place for these taboo discussions, and the Collisions never conflict with other events’ scheduling. We’re beginning to be asked to collide with massive industry events.

And a diverse location, like Singapore was the perfect place to host an Underground Collision. “When we first brought forth the idea of the World Council’s Global Women’s Leadership Network, there was a real question about that. Now we’ll probably have 75-80 Sister Societies, with by male and female members, by yearend,” Mitchell commented, and it doesn’t stop at gender but all types of inclusiveness. The Singapore Collision only emphasized for Mitchell the need to cultivate the power of the worldwide credit union movement.

Numbers is all we need, Stankovic added enthusiastically. “You don’t need superpowers to create change…. We don’t have big budgets, but we can move people.” The simple action items for creating change, she said, were 1) investing in people, 2) cooperating to create change, and 3) don’t wait for tragedy to strike – act now!

Mitchell, referring to the Herb Wegner Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Credit Union Foundation she earned earlier this year, “When you get an award that says lifetime achievement, you think lifetime? No! This is a call to action. This is a step that says what’s next? What else do we have to stand up for?!