Collaboration is for the Top: A YP’s Perspective on the 2024 World Credit Union Conference
By Deleanna Allen, Marketing Manager, Public Service Credit Union
Last month, I had the honor and privilege of attending the 2024 World Credit Union Conference (WOCCU) in Boston as the Michigan Credit Union League (MCUL)’s Young Professional Scholar. This event held many firsts for me — visiting the great city of Boston, attending the World Credit Union Conference (WCUC), taking advantage of an English interpreter while attending a breakout session presented in Portuguese and making connections with credit union professionals from across the globe.
I networked with professionals, such as CEOs, marketing professionals, project coordinators and board members from Indiana, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and Philippines, just to name a few. How often do you hear of a young professional marketing manager having the opportunity to have dinner with a senior director of events and a CEO of two major organizations? Not often! (Thank you, Janet Ormsby and Patty Corkery).
In Michigan and the United States, we often share stories of how we embrace the philosophy of "People Helping People." The level of purpose that we share globally is even more powerful. Being in the same space as credit union professionals from over 60 countries brought a more meaningful outlook to my career.
Every day during this conference, we gathered as advocates to collaborate on how we can offer financial services to support our members, share best practices to improve inclusion within our organizations and find ways to purposefully support the communities we serve.
Many credit unions locally discuss or experience certain issues, but did you know that these are common cases worldwide? For instance, WOCCU’s Financial Stability Board in Basel, Switzerland, addresses cybersecurity, incident reporting and operational resilience. According to Mastercard, 87% of US consumers take advantage of loyalty programs whenever they can. Employees are 9.4 times more likely to stay at an inclusive workplace. These facts were eye-opening and highlighted global similarities that impact most, if not all, credit unions.
I specifically challenge Michigan credit unions and partners to think about and discuss the following questions within your organizations during team huddles, strategic planning sessions, board meetings, staff training days, etc.:
- How are you offering an inclusive organization to your staff and membership?
- How are you implementing AI strategically while ensuring employees feel secure in their jobs?
- How are you planning to educate, participate and celebrate “One World” for International Credit Union Day?
A takeaway shared by Crystal Nguyen, a young professional (woohoo!) on the Supervisory Committee of Citadel Credit Union in Philadelphia: “Competition is for the bottom and collaboration is for the top.”
When asked how credit unions are different from a bank or fintech, recite that quote. This strong yet simple differentiator is how we will remain remarkably different and influential in the eyes of our countries, states, cities and communities. Let’s continue to offer young professionals a seat at the table, collaborate with our leaders, ask bold questions like “why?” and innovate processes, products and programs.
In closing, as they say in Boston, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” CHEERS to this year’s WCUC and to the future of credit unions! Thank you to Patty Corkery, MCUL, FUELmi and Public Service Credit Union for the opportunity and continuous support!
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