CUES and Currency Marketing have teamed up to create an outlet for the voices of the next generation of credit union employees to be heard. Last week the two teams announced a competition to find the 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 young credit union professionals to submit a 60-second informational YouTube video that discusses their role at their credit union and a pitch about a current project or program they are working or an idea to advance their credit union or the industry as a whole.

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

Applicants have until June 1 to apply. From June 4 through June 14 members of the credit union industry can vote for their favorite applicant, applicants will be broken down into six regions, the applicant with the most votes in each region will become a regional finalist. From mid-June through October the six finalists will contribute two blog posts and one video per month on the progress of their project. Each finalist will receive a package worth $5,000 to attend CUES' CEO/Executive Team Network in November and present his or her project to a judging panel. The winner will be selected by a combination of online votes and judging panel opinions. The winner will receive a $20,000 educational package from CUES that includes registration, accommodations and economy airfare to CUES' CEO Institute I and CUES' Advanced Leadership Institute as well as continue to publish monthly updates of his or her project on the Next 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 are so many people in the blogosphere and on twitter to generate interest.”

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

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

Kachelski also said that CUES is working on adding educational information online that can be accessed by CUES members and will hold free and low-cost webinars.

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

–lsiegriest@cutimes.com

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CUES and Currency Marketing Are Searching for the Next Top CU Exec

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