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The Maine Credit Union League partners with its credit unions ‘to collaborate and cooperate for the futures of our credit unions and their members.’ Periodically, we feature one of our dedicated staff members in an effort to help you get to know the people working in support of your credit union team.
Jordan Inkley
With just over one year within the credit union industry, Conference & Events Manager Jordan Inkley has already developed a deep love for the individuals behind People Helping People. She enjoys all the ways she interacts with and supports them through growth and change.
“A typical day in my role consists of planning for and around our future and upcoming events and trainings,” explained Inkley. “I work with local hotels, venues, speakers, caterers, etc., to make future events a reality. I monitor our current events and trainings and their registrations and help to see those through to fruition. At this time of the year, the main focus turns to planning for the League’s 2024 Convention at the Holiday Inn by the Bay.”
Prior to her role serving both the Maine Credit Union League and Synergent, Inkley was working at a restaurant in Newport, Rhode Island as the Assistant to the Director of Sales & Events. When the Director took parental leave in early 2022, Inkley took over all of the in–house and offsite events at one of their restaurant locations. She realized “that is when [she] really fell in love with planning and managing events.”
“Working in a restaurant and planning bridal showers, weddings, rehearsal dinners, and everything in between is very different than planning for conferences and events for credit unions,” said Inkley. “This is my first time working for credit unions, but the mission and values that everyone shares with People Helping People makes it very special. I love planning and seeing a successful event come to life especially when it benefits our credit unions.”
As the Conference & Events Manager, she determines which events and trainings will be available to credit unions throughout the year. Her main goal when planning is to help credit union staff further their own knowledge and education to better help and serve their members. Inkley’s position is essential to the coordination and scheduling of all trainings, conferences, and events from Synergent and the League—including the League’s Annual Convention and Synergent’s Annual Connect Conference—and makes these crucial offerings even possible.
“We usually create the class offerings based on what we have offered in previous years, but the most important factor is feedback from credit unions,” shared Inkley. “Everyone this past year said they wanted Bank Secrecy Act training to be in-person again, so we are going to be holding it both in-person in the spring and virtually in the fall next year. Receiving feedback throughout the year on how we can improve our educational offerings, trainings, and events is the most helpful way for us to be able to move forward and implement what credit unions really would like to see and truly helps us have a better understanding of what will help them.”
During the beginning stages of putting an event together, Inkley focuses on choosing a topic and a theme before proceeding to build the event around that.
“Although it may not seem like it, a lot of event planning is in the research prior to the event,” explained Inkley. “As someone who is not coming from a credit union background, I try my best to make sure I am staying up-to-date on credit union news, what is relevant, and what will be impactful in this industry.”
Once the topic and theme are selected, she can start diving into which speaker(s) would best fit the topic.
“Speaker and topic suggestions are a huge help to me in planning future events because I would love to be picking speakers and topics that our credit unions want to see and are interested in,” Inkley expressed.
When it comes to the League’s big Annual Convention, a lot of energy, planning, thought, and coordinating goes into it. The 2023 Convention was Inkley’s first year taking on this incredible, daunting task, and she knocked it out of the park! In fact, she considers making it through her first Convention one of the highlights of her career with the organization so far!
“The first step over a year or so in advance is making sure we have our dates and location set, as May—when Convention occurs—is a super busy time of the year,” said Inkley. “The rest of our planning begins in early October when we have our first few meetings on the theme and our goals, as well as a meeting with the Convention Committee (which consists of credit union peers).”
While Convention is the largest event Inkley manages, it is surely not the only one. She also plans the logistics for the Synergent Connect User conference, as well as multiple virtual and in-person professional development trainings and smaller, content-focused conferences.
“I am proud of our Convention from last year and our most recent Volunteers’ Conference in early November,” expressed Inkley. “This past Volunteers’ Conference felt very successful, as well. We had a really amazing speaker lineup filled with content geared towards our volunteers and received great praise about the speakers specifically. There is nothing I want more than for attendees to walk away from an event and feel like they really took something valuable from it.”
Even with all the efforts of Inkley to make these events a success, participation and involvement from the credit union staff are what make it all come together and worthwhile.
“Credit union participation and attendance is important at the events Synergent and the League put on for many reasons,” mentioned Inkley. “I think as a League with 100% affiliation, it is so great to just get people together in one space where attendees are there for a common goal and can network and share their own knowledge with each other. Some credit unions may not realize that another credit union is sharing similar challenges or frustrations, and even just having a space to get together and discuss that is important.”
Another great reason for credit union involvement is that she does her very best “to obtain relevant speakers who have pertinent information to share with credit unions so they can continue to gain knowledge to help them better-serve their members.” Specifically, big events like the League’s Convention and Synergent’s Connect Conference are optimal times for credit union staff of all levels to come together.
“It is fun, educational, and motivational; we want people to leave and feel inspired about the work they are doing,” Inkley added.
The interaction her role has directly with “all of the incredible staff at the credit unions” is one of Inkley’s favorite aspects of her job. She feels everyone is so kind and welcoming, and she said it is rewarding to finish a successful event and receive positive feedback.
“Since joining the company in September of 2022, I have gained a community of people who would do anything to help their colleagues and learned that the credit union community is extremely special,” Inkley reflected.
The League and Synergent are grateful for Inkley’s efforts all year long and appreciate her constant hard work to help meet ongoing credit union needs. She is a valued member of our team!