Seeking to provide "actionable ideas and projects," the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations (NACUSO) held its first-ever Business Services Collaborative here.
The meeting follows on a similar CEO Collaborative held one month earlier in Kansas City, and is part of NACUSO's new strategy to provide a series of smaller, working group collaborative meetings in response to requests for members, the trade group said.
The Business Services Collaborative drew officials from existing CUSOs involved with providing business services and representatives from credit unions interested in forming and/or expanding services provided by CUSOs.
"This is NACUSO 'walking the talk,'" said interim president Vic Pantea, who is also president of Member Gateways, LLC, South Bend, Ind., in welcoming attendees to Chicago. "This is NACUSO breathing life into the new model we created for ourselves, which came about as a direct result of adapting to the marketplace in which we all must compete. In Las Vegas we laid out that streamlined model and asked you what we could do to help you fulfill your contribution to the credit union industry. You asked us to provide group meetings that could lead to actionable ideas and projects. You asked for smaller, working groups where interaction and networking could result."
The collaborative featured two full days of general, open-ended meeting sessions on topics that included Strategies for CUSO Integration, Ancillary Services for the Small Business Member, Funding Strategies, Small Business Administration Strategies, Opportunities and Challenges to Building Business Deposits, and CUSO Growth Strategies. Sessions were facilitated by NACUSO board members and representatives from NACUSO's Platinum Partners.
Micheal Hales of Counter Intelligence Associates, a CUSO owned by CommunityAmerica Credit Union, introduced Dave Coggins, president of the Business lending Group (www.businesslendinggroup.com), Appleton, Wis.
"Dave might be considered the grandfather of CUSO business services because he's the president of BLG, which I believe is the first multi-owned business lending CUSO."
Coggins then gave an overview of BLG's modest beginnings in 1999 to its present successful operation, before answering attendees' questions.
