While working at a 24-hour news radio station in WashingtonState, Jill Chase decided to take on a new challenge: Start up anew marketing department at a small credit union.

After successfully building the marketing department at the $384million Verity Credit Union in Seattle, Chase and another Verityemployee, Patricia Deeth, were charged with yet another challenge:Start up the growing credit union's internal audit department.

“We had no idea what we were doing. I mean my degree was inbroadcast journalism,” Chase recalled. Nevertheless, Chase'smarketing experience exposed her to every credit union department,enabling her to learn about its operations. What's more, Chase soondiscovered that she loved her new world of auditing. Afterreceiving her certified internal auditor designation from theInstitute of Internal Auditors, Chase credits her careeradvancement and success in part to the Association of Credit UnionInternal Auditors.

“I joined the ACUIA because I was looking for someone to help mefigure out what types of things I needed to be looking at to helpmy credit union grow,” said Chase, now vice president of auditservices at the $1.65 billion Washington State Employees Credit Union in Olympia. She joinedWashington State Employees eight years ago.

Celebrating its 22nd anniversary, the ACUIA established itsmission to become the “premier and quality provider of credit unioninternal audit resources.” 

Today, Chase chairs ACUIA's board of directors, recruiting newmembers and making credit unions aware of the association and howthey can benefit from it.

“I think internal auditing is a growth area for credit unionsbecause they are facing increasing challenges of staying on top ofthe compliance regulations and risk-assessment management,” saidChase. ACUIA assists credit unions, both small and large, indeveloping internal audit functions to address the changingindustry and regulatory demands.

The association's founder, Terry McEachern, got the idea for theACUIA after attending a professional seminar in 1988 when she met afew other credit union internal auditors.

“I enjoyed the rapport we developed during the meeting andwondered if there were other credit union internal auditors inWisconsin….could we expand these relationships,” wrote McEachern onACUIA's website. She is chief internal auditor for the $1.2 billionRoyal Credit Union in Eau Claire, Wis.

McEachern decided to organize the association's first meetingwith eight other credit union employees from Wisconsin andMinnesota. The ACUIA was incorporated as a nonprofit organizationin 1990. When first word got out about the new association,McEachern began fielding calls from other credit unions from aroundthe country.

“It became readily apparent that there was a need of ourorganization in other parts of the country,” she wrote. “We dividedthe country into regions, assigned regional directors and turnedour attention toward a national organization.”

From a small group of eight members, the ACUIA has grown into amembership of 640 strong.

“We are a very passionate group. We are a very active group andone of our greatest benefits is networking,” declaredChase. 

ACUIA's networking also extends to helping members learn fromeach other. One of the most popular features is an online forumwhere members from around the nation converge daily to ask andanswer questions on just about every internal audit challenge,issue or dilemma. The forum is coordinated by Warren Whiteoak, aninternal auditor for the $548 million Progressive Credit Union in New York City.

“The forum started two years ago, and it already has 15subsections of topics. The general forum has about 1,600 hits, soit's pretty widely used,” said Whiteoak. “Networking is one of themost interesting things in the credit union industry because peoplewill share information with you, unlike the banking world.”

Whiteoak also writes a column about the forum for ACUIA'squarterly magazine, which covers the latest industry news andtrends. To open more channels of communications with its membersand others, the association recently tapped into the social media,opening a Twitter account, Facebook and LinkedIn pages.

ACUIA also focuses on professional development and continuingprofessional education. The association's annual conference andregional meetings sponsor professional seminars. The associationalso holds three webinars annually to help members stay ahead ofexpected regulatory or industry changes.

“We really try to stay on top of whatever it is examiners arelooking at,” said Chase. “We actually like to know what examinersare going to look at before they know what they are lookingat.”

Although an internal auditor's primary role is to provide anindependent, objective view of the activities in the credit union,today's internal auditor wears many hats.

“These days, internal auditors are also active inrisk-management assessments and identify the key controls in placeand test those controls to make sure they are working properly…toensure something cannot go wrong in the [credit union's] processesthrough errors or fraud,” Chase explained.

She also noted internal auditors are becoming more involved inidentifying inefficiencies throughout credit union operations.

“Because we look at so many areas of the credit union, we canspot ways to improve efficiencies,” Chase said. “A lot of timesemployees are so focused on their particular area of work that theymay not see someone in another area who is doing the same work ordoing something else that could be making the work harder. So wehelp try to identify those things to help operationalefficiencies.”