iDiz Incorporated

I had the pleasure of participating in BarCampBank Chicago last week with some great Credit Union people from at least three states, including the Illinois and Michigan state leagues, CUNA, and even one lonely person from a community bank. There was no set agenda, the topics were determined by the group, you literally moved in and out of the discussions, and there was never a lull in the conversation – nicely organized chaos.

Here are just a few of the topics covered:

Is it better for credit unions to provide pay day lending services? If so, how many times do you let someone roll over a loan in order to keep them from going back to the pay day lender down the street?

Should compliance be part of the creative process? Risk management is supposed to manage risk, not delay or diminish it so much that ideas end up dying. Involve compliance at the beginning of your projects so that they are on the same deadline path as you are.

CEOs should think of social media as another teller. Just as tellers are both personal and professional, you should have a real person (or multiple people) manage your Twitter and Facebook accounts with that same personality and attention. Management trusts tellers to be human, and people online want real, not corporate.

Approach social media as sweat equity. It takes a lot of work, but your credit union needs a presence – if nothing else, to reply to comments and complaints that were always out there, but now are even more public. When you can show you care in that same public space, that PR becomes even more valuable.

Sometimes it is better to ask forgiveness than to ask for permission when it comes to social media as part of your marketing mix.

Will larger CUs start providing the back office support for smaller CUs that will allow them to stay alive? Back in the early 1980s there was something like 88 basis points separation between $100M CUs and $1B CUs. Today that has grown to 150 basis points. Will small CUs survive?

Does your board reflect your membership? Or do your board’s decisions show up in the membership mix? If the board is older, and the focus is on products that are important to an older market, then don’t be surprised if your membership age reflects that focus. It’s important to think succession planning and diversity for your board.

If Mickey can do it… CUNA trains CUs in the Ritz Carlton customer experience strategy that Disney has adopted. Ritz concierges apparently have the leeway to provide “wow” service to any guest. Disney looks at every level of every experience that they control that determines whether a guest has a good experience, and asks staff to provide that extra 1% more to make up hundreds of “Little Wows” — which is how you get little folded towel animals on your bed at their resorts.

Who’s going to pay for a national campaign? Probably not CUNA, since they already spend all dues monies for CU advocacy in Washington, and pay for the Madison office through fee income.

Will affiliations replace SEGs? Will connections with socially responsible organizations provide a national resurgence of credit unions? Or will they become the basis for nation-wide credit unions? Could AAA or the Sierra Club form a credit union since they already have dues paying members? What about the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation? Can you (shudder) imagine a Facebook Credit Union?

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Kudos to Carla Day, Christopher Morris and Stacy Dugan for organizing this event, and for the Illinois Credit Union League for hosting! If you are interested in attending the next one (May-ish 2010), contact Carla Day at CU Chat Up. You can also see a twitter search here.