ONTARIO, Calif. (2/27/15)--The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues' REACH Innovation Group officially launched last week with a two-day experiential learning session, immersing the 17 participants in the Filene Method of Innovation.

The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues' REACH Innovation Group officially launched last week with a two-day experiential learning session. (California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues Photo)

The purpose of the 2015 REACH Innovation Group is to develop new ideas and innovations for credit unions. It was launched in coordination with the Filene Research Institute, and modeled after Filene's i3 (Ideas, Innovation, Implementation) program.

During the two-day session, held Feb. 18-19, the participants from credit unions throughout California and Nevada were split into four smaller groups and participated in exercises involving innovating around a problem or opportunity (CU Weekly Feb. 23).

"Now the teams will take what they learned and put that learning into action," said Tansley Stearns, Filene Research Group chief impact officer. "They will meet weekly remotely, and every six weeks they will connect via webinars facilitated by Filene. The webinars will include refreshers on the methodology, and each team will present its homework assignments. This will keep the groups on track to move their insights into ideas and their ideas into prototypes to be tested and ultimately presented at REACH 2015."

Participants will present their ideas at the 2015 REACH conference, to be held Nov. 4-6 in Palm Desert, Calif.