By Ashton Cooke

From July 24th to July 31st, I was in the Bahamas with my mom. I hadn’t flown in an airplane since I was four months old, and I also had never left the country before this trip. But as the photographer for the events, I got to attend the conferences held there, including the Underground Collision conference, plus the Global Women’s Leadership Network reception and forum, and the Project Storm session at WOCCU’s World Credit Union Conference. I was worried I would be unable to follow along, assuming it would go deep into the core of credit unions. I was pleasantly surprised when I was listening to the speakers that I was able to follow along and develop my own takeaways.

1. Marijuana Banking

• 33/50 states legalized marijuana for medicinal use, 11/50 states have allowed recreational use with applied restrictions.
• Marijuana use is illegal at a federal level, meaning national banking and credit union systems are not allowed to handle money made from selling bud without it being a federal offense.
• Sellers that are doing their business legally cannot safely store their income, so they have to either carry it around with them everywhere or leave it at their homes. Both are unsafe because you could get robbed and endanger your life.
• I support legalizing marijuana. I have never used it, but I learned from school, it cannot kill you directly. The choices you make affected by Mary Jane can endanger you, but you cannot overdose on pot.
• Because it cannot directly kill you, I think that credit unions should help protect legitimate sellers by serving their businesses. 

2. Disaster Recovery

• Disasters that can affect credit unions and their members range from business protests to natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, fires, etc.) to terrorist attacks on your business or surrounding businesses.
• These problems are on a global level and do not just focus on a single region of the world; they can happen anywhere.
• To better prepare for these situations, there should be an outlined plan for the security and safety of employees. All employees should be notified of these safety plans to make the procedures flow more smoothly.
• Credit unions can help other credit unions. For example, in the event of one credit union building being damaged, several other credit unions and associations can work together to help fund the repair. A for-profit company may take advantage of these opportunities, while credit unions are looking to help all the time.
• Despite the division of companies, there is one common factor: credit unions are all for support of consumers, especially in times of crisis. Leni San Roque, for example during Sue Mitchell’s panel on social disaster recovery at WCUC, talked about how her association of credit unions came together to help those who lost everything.
• I believe if you can help, then help. I like to help people, and I want to do business with businesses that help people. As someone who’s looking to go into the military, this is how I plan to live my life.

3. Young Leadership

• As a 14-year old student going into high school, I find that making space for young leaders of the next generation is a key factor in keeping a successful business running. I’m a natural leader myself, and I like to have an appropriate level of authority, whether I’m in a group project for class or running an event. But the next phase of people who will be running the world should learn how to do it right.
• Taking your work and your mentors seriously are an important part of learning. Wipe away that cocky attitude and swallow back those ignorant and sarcastic comments. Tyler Valentine, CEO of Laramie Plains FCU, says that if you want to be taken seriously as a young leader for your work, then you must take your work seriously. He also states, while you should work hard to make progress, you shouldn’t forget you can have fun with your work. As Jack Nicholson said in The Shining, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
• CEO of Police (UK) Credit Union, Paul Norgrove thinks that mistakes are going to happen when senior executives help train the younger employees, and it’s okay. I agree with this as well. You can’t expect everyone to be picture perfect the first time, or the 100th time they’ve done something. Mistakes allow you to learn how to improve and do better the next time.

4. Balancing younger/older leaders

• Brandi Stankovic says that you don’t need to be young to believe in younger leadership. Longer-term employees who have more experience and have been with a certain company some amount of years can still learn from younger leaders. I can definitely give the example with marketing with my mom. My mom is Gen X and I’m Gen Z. She may find Grumpy Cat memes on Facebook funny, but I enjoy nonsensical jokes that she doesn’t understand from TikTok.
• I think that a good balance of new employees and senior employees will help progress your business via marketing and in other ways.
• For example, there is a company called Lucidchart. It is an interactive flowchart that can be used for anything. The video advertisements are fun and appeal to a younger audience. They also have more serious videos for business. The fun ones will attract more audience as well as younger viewers, but it still gets them thinking, “Maybe I want to use this program?”
• The senior members can offer experience and workplace advice for the new generation, and the new, young employees may offer the “hip” ways to advertise their business.

5. Connecting with the CU

• Stacey Walker, member of the XCEL Federal Credit Union board, believes in working with others in the field and making room for others to come up behind legacy board members.
• Supporting the CU in whatever ways you can builds a healthier relationship between the credit union and the board, and the credit union and its members.
• Having a bond with the credit union will boost its reputation, overall building a better community for credit unions.
• Work with what strengths you have. Don’t fixate on what your weaknesses are, and instead work them out at a later time. If you’re better at one thing than another, work with what you are better at. There’s always room for improvement later when you can fix the weaknesses.
• Working with the younger employees will give the higher ups a better reputation in the mindset of the new employees. Everyone can learn from each other and working together to improve your skills will guarantee an improved relationship.

Besides the thrill of, “OMG mom, we’re in the Bahamas!” there was also the thrill of “OMG mom, I get to work in the Bahamas!” As much as I enjoyed going to the beach and eating the conch, I enjoyed being in an air-conditioned place where I got to practice photography, which I already love to do. Discover young peoples’ passions and help them develop skills that they enjoy using. That’s where I want to work and bank.