NAPERVILLE, Ill. and LANSING, Mich.-The Michigan and Illinois CU leagues have entered into a strategic alliance to expand collaboration opportunities for both the trade associations and their business units.
"This agreement gives both leagues opportunities to collaborate and identify areas where we can learn from each other to improve our services to our members in each state on the association side," said Michigan Credit Union League and Affiliates CEO David Adams. "On the business side we are both unique in that we have significant operations serving credit unions nationwide. So we are intrigued by the possibilities of aligning and partnering. This is a deep collaborative effort that we hope will lead to some good things for our member credit unions."
Dan Plauda, Illinois Credit Union League CEO, said the two leagues have not partnered on projects in the past, but had been discussing working together. "We have been talking for about a year and a half and have had some very productive conversations. I think we felt it was time to take the next step."
Areas ripe for partnership on the association side, according to Plauda, are external education, public relations and communications, technology, and social networking. On the business services side, Plauda noted the Illinois league's strength in credit cards and MCUL's abilities within CU Village and Invest in America.
Both leagues emphasized there is no formal combination of the two organizations and that the joint agreement is not a merger or intent to merge. However, Plauda added, "We are exploring a more formal relationship and would not discount (a merger) happening. I am not saying it would happen, but certainly we are not ruling it out."
