Credit unions are supposed to be representative of the communities they serve, but their board members don't always reflect their audience's diversity. Many in the industry are working to change that.
Building on the discussions that followed the
Within the credit union industry, a longstanding issue of succession planning creates an opportunity to seek out fresh voices and talent, Susan Mitchell, chief executive of the consultancy firm Mitchell, Stankovic & Associates in Boulder City, Nevada, said during a panel discussion at CUNA Mutual's Discovery 2022 conference.
"Diversity is all about diversity of thought, and what we're looking at right now is a significant transition of leadership within our credit union space … For me, one of the critical areas we all have to think about is starting to develop succession plans for boards and start to develop the next level of [talent], because we need to have people that we pass the legacy to," Mitchell said.
At many credit unions, the boards are still reflective of the original fields of membership, despite any expansions to the institution's scope of membership or changes to the region's demographics, Mitchell said.
"You have to bring people in and then respect what's taking place, and I really believe that it breaks from the culture of what the board has created at times … Field of memberships are changing, and how many of our boards today still reflect that original group," Mitchell said. "Being intentional about that expansion is something that is a lot of hard work."
Credit union boards seeking such change have begun reviewing the makeup of directors against current fields of membership and are working to bring on people who better understand the needs of members within the local communities.
CoTrina Matthews, a district-level systems specialist for the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in Houston and a member of the board of the $340 million-asset Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union (also in Houston), discussed the importance of improving diversity, equity and inclusion.
"Our community at Cy-Fair has shifted vastly to a mostly Hispanic community in terms of numbers, but our board didn't necessarily always reflect that," Matthews said. "I am excited about the aggressiveness of our leadership to ensure that we have a board that is reflective of its members [and] of the community that it serves to have a more diverse thought process."
Recently, the credit union furthered its efforts for encompassing other demographics in March through a
As a component of
Michael Maxwell, vice president of strategic development for the advertising agency Smart Circle International and chairman of SCE Federal Credit Union, a $993 million-asset institution in Irwindale, California, explained that many boards are still slow to attract younger and more diverse professionals.
"We've definitely had this shift over the last several years into making sure that everyone has been included [and] has a voice," Maxwell said. "I would like to say that a lot of credit union boards have that, but we know reality is we know that they don't [and] we know it's one type of age, it's one type of thought, and you get to this group things that just never really promote that change."
But changing hiring practices and creating new paths to leadership is no small feat, and can take months or even years to properly execute, said Margo Byrne, CEO of Channel Islands YMCA and vice chair of the $1.3 billion-asset Ventura County Credit Union in Ventura, California.
"We have this desire to start a conversation and then have closure at the end of the board meeting on where things are going, and I think that we need to give ourselves permission that it may take us three, four, five or six meetings a year to really move something important along, and that it's okay for those strategic conversations," to be prolonged as long as they are productive, Byrne said. "We get in this habit of needing to start and end and have a conclusion and decision and next steps all within a 15 to a 30 minute time period, but you can't make important decisions in that amount of time."
Credit unions can look to active community members involved in philanthropic efforts as their next potential leaders.
"When I'm looking for new people to network with, have discussions with [and] I'm trying to get new ideas, I seek out the helpers in the community, the people that are around me, that are showing up and raising their hand and they're doing the work even in other industries," said Stacey Walker, board member of the $194 million-asset Xcel Federal Credit Union in Bloomfield, New Jersey. "These are the people around us who want to do great things, and the credit unions are definitely an avenue for that when it comes to board leadership."
