TUSCALOOSA, Ala.-Randall Chavarria had never heard of Tuscaloosa, Ala. and didn't know where it was. But after three weeks working at Alabama CU here, he won't soon forget it.
Chavarria was one of several Costa Rican CU employees who interned at American CUs as part of an internship program organized by the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU).
"Everybody knows about Miami and Portland and Washington, but Alabama? I felt nervous, and I talked with my wife and told her I didn't know what I would do there," Chavarria recalled of the time before his internship began. But now he says, "I really, really feel so many thanks for (the people at WOCCU and ACU) and God especially, because this is the most fantastic place I will be in my life. This was a really, really amazing experience."
Chavarria is financial director at Coopebanpo, but he spent time observing processes from a variety of departments at Alabama CU. One thing he was particularly fascinated with, he said, was ACU's intranet solution, which stores all employee contact information, credit union policies and procedures and more, making it available to employees at every level.
"I worked with everybody,' Chavarria said of his time at ACU. "One day I was in the HR department, one day in marketing, one day with the CFO, one day with the COO, and one entire day in a branch."
The major takeaway from that, he said, was the strong focus that Alabama CU puts on its employees. "In my credit union the employees are really important, but here the employees aren't only important, they are the most important thing inside the credit union. That's maybe the most important different thing that I saw."
While it may be difficult to institute that sort of broad cultural change at Coopebanpo, Chavarria said he plans to discuss it with his boss.
"It's ridiculous, but (CEO Steve Swofford) is really interested that the kitchen has sugar for employees for coffee, because Steve feels that the little things are really important for the company," said Chavarria. "This is the point I'll try to speak with my boss and others about: how the little things maybe can be the difference."
From Mercedes Benz to Roll Tide
Chavarria experienced a number of memorable cultural and social activities during his time in Tuscaloosa, including a visit to a Mercedes Benz plant and a watching a spring scrimmage to the University of Alabama's football stadium-which holds 101,000, while Costa Rica's largest stadium only holds about 35,000, he said.
Most memorable of all, however, was the commitment that employees at every level-from the executive team down to the janitorial staff, he said-have for helping members.
"That surprised me, because in my credit union we have two different groups of employees," explained Chavarria. "Most of the group feels like that (with a strong commitment to helping members). But we have a different group-maybe the younger group-that my company is something like a transition; it's temporary, and maybe I'll finish my college and go somewhere else. It's only for...maybe one or two years."
