CUES and Currency Marketing have teamed up to create an outletfor the voices of the next generation of credit union employees tobe heard. Last week the two teams announced a competition to findthe next top credit union executive,www.nexttopcreditunionexec.com.

Inspired by Currency Marketing's “Young & Free” campaign,the “Next Top Credit Union Executive” challenge calls for youngcredit union professionals to submit a 60-second informationalYouTube video that discusses their role at their credit union and apitch about a current project or program they are working or anidea to advance their credit union or the industry as a whole.

“We want to make it easy for our CUES members to grow futureleaders,” said Barb Kachelski, senior vice president and chiefinformation officer at CUES. “Our members have told our board andstaff with the ?economy they've had to turn back on education, ?andthey have young people on staff they want ?to develop to becomeleaders at the credit union ?and in the industry.”

Applicants have until June 1 to apply. From June 4 through June14 members of the credit union industry can vote for their favoriteapplicant, applicants will be broken down into six regions, theapplicant with the most votes in each region will become a regionalfinalist. From mid-June through October the six finalists willcontribute two blog posts and one video per month on the progressof their project. Each finalist will receive a package worth $5,000to attend CUES' CEO/Executive Team Network in November and presenthis or her project to a judging panel. The winner will be selectedby a combination of online votes and judging panel opinions. Thewinner will receive a $20,000 educational package from CUES thatincludes registration, accommodations and economy airfare to CUES'CEO Institute I and CUES' Advanced Leadership Institute as well ascontinue to publish monthly updates of his or her project on theNext Top Credit Union Exec blog.

“It's hard to predict how many applicants we're going to get,but I think this is going to be really great,” said Tim McAlpine,president and creative director at Currency Marketing. “There areso many people in the blogosphere and on twitter to generateinterest.”

Parallel to the Next Top CU Executive challenge, CUES is alsolaunching a NextGen Membership for young credit unionprofessionals. The membership is available for a discounted $99rate and offers young professionals the same benefits as a regularCUES member plus the opportunity to be mentored by a moreexperienced credit union executive.

“The mentoring program is really a benefit to both ourtraditional members and Gen Y. There is a lot they can learn fromeach other,” Kachelski said.

Kachelski also said that CUES is working on adding educationalinformation online that can be accessed by CUES members and willhold free and low-cost webinars.

“We want to really focus on our mission, which is education”Kachelski added.

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