Print
Sometimes people don't even realize that they want to volunteer; until they are asked. For all intensive purposes, the days of multiple members lining up to serve as a volunteer are gone.
For Jason Lindstrom, President/CEO of Evergreen CU, the current Board takes an active role in the recruiting process. "Our Board here at Evergreen CU does a board assessment annually to see what areas we may need more help in. The Education and Nomination committee then determines exactly what we are looking for on the board and from that, the Evergreen marketing team sends out an email to our membership to ask for board candidates. From that email, we usually get a number of candidates and the Chair of this committee contacts the candidates and informs them of the time commitments and responsibilities. In that process, some candidates drop out and others rise to the top. The committee then interviews a few and then makes its recommendation to the full board. In recent years, we have recruited an attorney and a technology specialist and have been very successful using this system. By assessing the board’s needs, we have been able to create a very well-rounded board with subject matter experts in many different discipline
At NorState FCU, Sue Whitehead, President/CEO, said the credit union places an emphasis on diversity when it recruits new board members. "NorState actively seeks out community minded and well known individuals within our field of membership. We are looking for a diverse demographic that accurately represents our membership makeup and look for forward thinking individuals that are involved in their respective communities."
Joe Gervais, President/CEO at Midcoast FCU, reported a similar recruiting process. "Whenever we have a vacancy to address, we start be determining our need. Would we benefit from having a volunteer that possesses a specific skillset such as a legal or technical background? Would it benefit us to have a vounteer from an under-represented segment of our membership, be it geographic and demographic? Once we narrow our focus, we then engage our front line employees, current volunteers and vendor relationships for potential candidates. It is an active recruitment process."
In addition, many credit unions cited technology and today's fast-paced world as adding to the changes in why board members are recruited. Several CEOs said there is less branch traffic because of products, such as mobile deposit, and less opportunity to interact with members who may be potential board members. Despite these changes, as evidenced by the more than 1,000 credit union volunteers serving on boards and committees at Maine's credit unions, members step up to serve.