NAPERVILLE, Ill. — The Illinois CU League and ICUL Service Corporation (LSC) have announced a new alignment that they believe will help both organizations grow and innovate.
The alignment is aimed at combining best practices from both organizations in order to offer enhanced products and services while exploring new partnerships and opportunities.
"There's a vision that the league would like to be one of the most-admired leagues in the country, and LSC to be a leading provider of card and non-card products to credit unions of all sizes," explained Will Wille, PR coordinator for the league.
As part of this alignment, staff at both organizations have been merged, creating three teams to market ICUL/LSC products, respond to member CUs' needs and advocate for Illinois credit unions at capitols in Springfield, Ill., and Washington. The three teams are Brand, Manufacturing and Sales; Product Infrastructure and Delivery; and Office of General Counsel and Advocacy.
These changes are the result of two strategic planning sessions earlier this year wherein ICUL and LSC boards of directors examined the current credit union environment and how to best plan for the future. That includes increased investment in business intelligence, communication and marketing, innovation and adaptability, talent development and data analytics.
Part of the goal of all of that, said Wille, is "to engage members more in the conversation and better respond to members' needs."
While the two organizations will technically still be separate entities, said Wille, "Really, it's taking the existing structure that we've had, but now we're going to have the league and LSC staff be merged operationally."
While some of these changes were facilitated by the fact that LSC's EVP and COO George Fiegle will step down in January (though serve as a consultant to LSC through 2015), the changes have already begun. Wille said it was too soon to discuss the transition process, but said it was going well.
The end result of all of these changes, said Wille, should be a positive one for CUs in Illinois and the more than 2,000 credit unions served by the LSC.
"It'll be very positive through strengthening our system, improving our service delivery and really our ability to enhance educating and representing our members."
