CU*Answers, a 100% credit union-owned CUSO, held their 2013 Annual Leadership Conference and Stockholders Meeting on June 19th at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The event brought together credit union leadership from across the country for a briefing on the organization’s overall direction and major projects in the works for the coming year. At a separate session, CU*Answers Stockholders met for the annual board member election and to hear a recap of the CUSO’s financial position and projections for the fiscal year.
“Once again, the Leadership Conference and Annual Stockholder meetings were a huge success,” said CU*Answers Board Chairman Chris Butler, CEO of Community CU in La Crosse, Wisconsin. “I am continually impressed at the pace, growth and success of our firms. The owners are showing up, speaking up, getting involved and receiving a significant value. We had multiple candidates for our Board election, and any one of them would have been a great addition to the Board. All the candidates spoke of their appreciation for and desire to be more engaged with the company. It was a great ownership opportunity.”
The day-long conference was attended by 150 leaders from 79 credit unions, along with 37 vendors and 38 internal staff. And nearly half of the credit union’s 111 owners attended the evening Stockholders Meeting, with many more sending their vote electronically or by proxy.
“This year we also moved to a new venue,” said Melinda Haehnel, CU*Answers VP Marketing and PR. “The J.W. Marriott’s beautiful facility in downtown Grand Rapids gave participants more time to network and interact between and after events, and we noticed quite a few impromptu hallway and lunchtime connections happening, with different credit unions getting together to talk about collaborative projects.”