We’re looking for a few good folks

Borrowing a page from a well-known U.S. Army recruiting poster circa 1917: “We want you!” to serve on the Credit Union Magazine editorial advisory board.

So many of our stories stem from this board. Take our feature about board recruiting at Elevations Credit Union in Boulder, Colo. One of our editorial advisory board members mentioned Elevations’ innovative efforts to recruit new directors during one of our quarterly meetings.

In the article, Elevations President/CEO Gerry Agnes shares an idea that came to him during a conference presentation: “Given that we use recruiters for executives we hire, and the wide net it casts in terms of creating a professional and diverse executive team, wouldn’t it be appropriate to use executive recruiters in board recruitment?”

This practice now is part of the credit union’s intentional approach to board recruitment that takes into consideration member, generational, and community representation, he says. “Board positions are among the most strategic and important decisions a credit union can make.”

Then there’s Associate Editor Brock Fritz’s story about ChatGPT’s applications for credit unions. Idrees Rafiq, vice president of information security and risk management consulting at Cornerstone Resources—and an editorial advisory board member—shares valuable insights about the policy considerations credit unions should address before using this technology.

He advises prioritizing education so credit unions can make informed decisions about whether to use ChatGPT.

“We don’t want to be sitting here in a year with banks adopting it left and right, and credit unions saying, ‘we’re risk averse,’” Rafiq says.

We greatly appreciate the contributions credit union leaders have made to our editorial advisory board. We’re not looking to replace our current board, just to augment it with some new voices.

If you’d like to be considered for our editorial advisory board, contact me at bmerrick@cuna.coop with your name, title, credit union, and why you want to serve on the board. We’re looking for a few good folks to improve our coverage for you.

BILL MERRICK is deputy editor at Credit Union National Association.