Pit Stop

I would like to welcome our very own Credit Union Association of Oregon CEO, Troy Stang, to YCUP. Troy joined the ranks of our membership recently and has kindly agreed to speak at our quarterly event, coming later this summer. If you have not heard him speak yet, this will be a great opportunity. If you have heard him speak, then you are probably just waiting to register for the event. More details will be coming soon.

Troy, thank you for joining us and showing your support!

 

Who is interested in having a great time and meeting some great new people in the credit union industry? We have setup a YCUP kickball team with Underdog Sports, and are looking for a few more players. The team is CO-Ed and needs a minimum of 6 Men and 4 Women. Games will held the dates of 3.29, 4.5, 4.19, 4.26, 5.3, 5.10, 5.17, 5.31 and start between 2 & 3 pm. This will be nothing but a fun time. Interested? Register or find more information in the Kickball group on YCUP's website. Just click here!

 In today's economic and regulatory environment it is more important than ever that the credit union industry band together with a unified voice. We must let the public and our legislators know what we stand for. In Oregon, March is an important month for this. With legislators in session, CU Day on the Capital, Government Affairs Council, and many important bills under consideration, it is time Young Credit Union Professionals  join other leaders of our industry. We will make a difference.

I hear many people ask, what can I do? Where does my money go? Why should I donate? The answer to this question is as simple as, "because it makes a difference". We may not understand all the ins and outs of the financing side or individual elections, but the great news is, we have people who do.

However there are more ways that we still need to be involved, other than just donating cold hard cash, that are just as important. Standing up for your industry through sending letters, attending town halls, assisting a campaign, and joining peers at CU day at the capital are just a few examples. The Association has done a lot to make all this easy for us. Simply put, you just need to attend a meeting or take a couple of minutes of your day to write a letter. The Association has made sending a letter to your legislators so simple, it takes only 90 seconds on a bad day, or 30 on a good one.

So how do we know what to do? Well, YCUP is trying to help. We are establishing a CU Advocacy Committee to follow the Associations lead. When an important cram down comes our way we will be help send letters, and assist in coordinating town halls. BUT we can do more, we just need your help. The first step is to join the Advocacy group on the website. This way we all stay informed of upcoming legislation and events. The next step is to act on the information we have. Now only one question remains: how much of a difference do you want to make?

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In an attempt to make the YCUP site more useful and user friendly we have made some BIG changes. If you have made it this far into the site then your probably have already noticed the changes. If not I am attaching a complete list here:

Who's Online:
Now it's easy to see who is online with you! Who's online displays any user that is currently logged into the site.

Groups:
This is one of the best enhancements. You now have the ability to create your own groups! Want to start a sports team or special YCUP program? Now you can start a group and invite members. Groups make sharing announcements and discussing programs easy. Try it out!

Twitter:
We are now integrated with twitter. Add this application to your profile, enter your twitter username & password and your twitter updates will automatically show up on your YCUP profile.

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PORTLAND, Ore. - There's a new gathering place for local young credit union professionals.

 

The recently formed Young Credit Union Professionals of Portland is a group dedicated to uniting and educating young credit union workers.

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 Today I look forward to the end of the week and can say to myself, "WOW".  Just a little over 2 months ago Young Credit Union Professionals (YCUP) started as an idea.  Today there are 54 members, representing 15 credit unions, with 10 board positions filled. We have held two board meetings and are looking forward to our first Quarterly Event this Friday at the Old Market Pub; where Rob Stuart, CEO of Onpoint CU, will speak.  

In our first two months we have seen an outpouring of support and encouragement throughout the Oregon credit union industry. We have received sponsorships from CU Business Group, Northwest Resource Federal Credit Union, and Unitus CU. We have begun developing relationships with organizations including Credit Union Association of Oregon and Oregon/Washington CUES. All of this activity has been set in place around our organizations mission statement:

Young Credit Union Professionals was founded to encourage the voices of young professionals within the credit union movement.  Our mission is to recruit, develop and retain, young talented professionals within the industry by engaging them in education, advocacy and growth opportunities.  We are individuals committed to improving our communities, our credit unions and ourselves by embracing the credit union philosophy of "people helping people". 

If you yourself have been looking for a way to become more involved, build relationships within the industry, and develop your career... this is it! You might be asking yourself, "How do I get involved?". Many of you have already taken that first step by registering for membership. If not, let's start there. The next step would be to attend an event or join the online discussion forums. Some of you might want more though. If that is you, contact a board member and join a committee or get approved to start a new one.  Best yet, look at the person who works next to you and ask if they are interested in what we stand for and get them to become involved with you.

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I was able to get the site converted a little early then expected. Everyone has probably noticed that already if they are reading this.  I have tried to find any of the errors caused by the site conversion and fix them. However with all conversion there is always a problem. With that said, if you find something that doesn't seem to work correctly please email me. Thank you!

Due to the larger then expected traffic some of you may have noticed difficulty in loading the website.  For this reason I am working to convert to a dedicated server over the next couple of weeks. For the most part the only changes you should notice is faster load times and less errors.

I plan to have the conversion completed by December 1st. The site may be down for several hours, but if this becomes necessary it will be either through the night or worst case scenario over the weekend. I appreciate you sticking with me through this. If you have any questions please shoot me an email.

 

I just finished reading an article at About.com by F. John Reh. The article is titled, "Moving Up in Management". It outlines several of the factors needed to move from a management position to a higher level management position.

In general it covers four points of interest: Being Qualified, Best Candidate, Replaceable, and Promotable. For the most part the information is common sense, but what struck me was being Replaceable.   Think about being replaceable, what it means, and how really important it is. It is a very interesting aspect to advancing your career to the next level.

I think most people tend to not like the idea. They feel like,  "There is no better job security then nobody else being able to do my job." , and " If I train someone, what happens if they become better then me?"

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I received an email this weekend, from Janus Capital Management Group LLC, asking me to take a quick 12 questions survey.  The goal is to gauge trends and/or changes within the current lending environment of different financial institutions. It was a fairly quick questionnaire, consisting of mostly multiple choice questions.  It couldn't have taken me any longer than three minutes to complete. In return they are mailing me a $25 gift card and the results.

Interested in taking the survey too? Here is the site: Janus Survey

When I get a copy of the results I will post them up here for everyone. Hope everyone had a good weekend.