PEWAUKEE, Wis. — As credit unions slash their travel budgets, state leagues across the country are doing whatever they can to ensure attendance at their conferences remains high and CU execs at every institution are kept in the loop.
The Wisconsin CU League is continuing with its celebration of 75 years of CUs in the Dairy State and recently cut its registration fee in half, charging CUs a mere $75 to attend the two-day conference in May.
"We've certainly taken the state of the economy into account in that we've really scaled down our prices," said Jennifer Esser, director of education at the Wisconsin league.
"We want to make sure our credit unions can still attend, we know it is tough times out there," added Spokesperson Chad Helminak.
Esser said the league has been looking at its contracts with vendors, hotels and other partners to not only cut some of its expenses without diluting value this year, but also to curtail cost increases over the next three to five years. Conversations the Wisconsin league has had with those in the meeting planning industry left Esser with the impression that the venues and vendors are very flexible today; but looking to save member credit unions money on conferences is nothing new to the Wisconsin league.
"We haven't really changed our business practice when it comes to that; we've always been thinking about getting the best price for our participants," Esser maintained.
Attendance has dropped about 10% at the Missouri CU Association's eight annual conferences since the recession began in late 2007, leading the league to trim its expenses while offering unique discounts to entice CUs to send multiple employees to the events.
"MCUA is trying to control speaker costs by having one speaker possibly doing two sessions and asking speaker fee to be inclusive of travel," Liz Adams, vice president of education & training told Credit Union Journal. "We have trimmed additional costs by switching to lemonade and iced tea, rather than bottled water or canned soda. We are also controlling meal costs by making more affordable choices."
The Texas Credit Union League is likewise experiencing a drop in participation, said VP of Training and Events Tonya Farmer, but that isn't keeping the league from moving full speed ahead with its plans at each of its seven annual conferences.
"Just because the economy slows down doesn't mean business comes to a halt," Farmer added. "Our members need to be aware of the issues out there as well as products and services that can help them overcome this economic recession. It's more important than ever for credit unions to participate in these events and we are trying to make it possible for all."
To attract a larger number of CUs, the Texas league shaved the required number of attendees to get the early bird group rate discount for its annual expo from six to just two. Instead of the standard $325 fee, credit unions who registered before mid March paid just $185 per person. The League is also offered a complimentary hotel night for the first day of the 2009 Southwest Lending Conference when a credit union purchases an additional night.
For its part, MCUA is featuring a "send two employees, get the third one free" deal at several of its conferences. But for credit unions that simply cannot spare the expense, the leagues are doing their best to come to their members both figuratively and literally. Esser said the Wisconsin league's Internet-based distance learning program is seeing a spike and Adams pointed out that MCUA offers more than 50 webinars every year and also sends trainers to credit unions "to provide educational opportunities in-house" while the Texas league hosts free online and local training sessions for its member credit unions.
