NEW ORLEANS -
According to Diane Rector, credit union development analyst with NCUA's Office of Small Credit Union Initiatives, this is a challenge facing even the smallest credit unions with the most closely-knit memberships.
"Youth is not attuned to volunteer work," Rector told breakout sessions attendees at the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions' 33rd Annual Serving the Underserved Conference. "They don't realize how good volunteer work can look on their resumes."
Rector shared the lectern with Urla Abrigo, CEO of $5.4-million Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union, Los Angeles, and the pair discussed the challenges facing volunteer recruitment among faith-based credit unions.
Not surprisingly, many of those challenges are shared by credit unions of all types and sizes nationwide.
"Personalities play a role when populating your board," said Abrigo. "You need a diversity of professionals on your board, but there must be good fit among all of them in order to minimize conflict."
Rector and Abrigo offered advice and tips on how to effectively recruit members to the credit union board, with Abrigo extending her ideas to include staff recruitment. Both agreed volunteers must, first and foremost, realize the credit union is a business and must approach board positions in a business-like fashion. The challenges and opportunities facing facing-based credit unions also may impact other types of credit unions, the pair said.
The Power of Word Of Mouth
"Word of mouth helps us more than anything else," Abrigo said. Close-knit religious communities, in which congregation members know each other, can be approached with more familiarity, soliciting board members with well-known skill sets and through informal means, including church bulletins.
But such familiarity can be a double-edged sword, explained Rector.
"A big issue facing faith-based credit unions is confidentiality," Rector told session attendees. "People don't want fellow congregation members to know what they make when they apply for loans, and those volunteers who do serve have to treat that information with the greatest confidentiality."
Fraud is another issue that can plague faith-based credit unions, if only because too many credit union executives and volunteers assume that the institution's church affiliation protects it from dishonesty, Rector said.
If anything, faith-based credit unions need to be more vigilant to watching for signs of fraud.
"Just because you operate in a church doesn't protect you from acts of fraud," Rector said. "You never know what's going on in someone's personal financial situation. You're representing your members' money and you have to protect them."
Episcopal Community FCU had one case of fraud among its four employees during its 13-year history, said Abrigo, resulting in the dismissal of that employee. There was only one other staff dismissal over that same period, she said.
"We caught an employee in the janitor's room," Abrigo explained, "with the janitor."
Passion, Not Money
Good management practices and effective recruitment tactics can help credit unions of all sizes attract and retain the staff and volunteers they need to grow their institutions, the pair said.
As for the difficulty recruiting youth members to volunteer positions, credit unions should not abandon the effort, Rector said.
"You become involved in your credit union because you have a passion for it, not for the money," said Rector. "Get one or two of your youth members actively involved, and that will make a statement to other young people. That will help both you and them leave a legacy of service behind."
