ARVADA, Colo. – John Dill readily admits it's never easy coming into a position when there are some big shoes to fill, but as he approaches the 18-month mark as president/CEO of the Colorado and Wyoming Credit Union Leagues, he acknowledges that in his case his two predecessors – Carroll Beach and Doug Burke – made his transition into the corner office a bit easier by being "tremendously helpful and a beneficial source of information" to him. Beach of course, led the two leagues – the Colorado League has a management agreement with the Wyoming League – for nearly 30 years by the time he retired in June 2002; and Doug Burke, senior vice president for the leagues service corporation, Colleague Services Corp., served as acting president of the leagues when Jim Holt unexpectedly vacated the position after less than two years. From the get-go when he assumed his responsibilities in March 2004, Dill made it clear that the Colorado League Board "wanted to see the league take the next step and go to the next level. The board was very instrumental in charting our course, the climate was ripe for change. How much we've done in a short time speaks to that," he told Credit Union Times, adding that "like any business, there comes a time when it has to be restructured and repositioned for future growth." Dill explained that the changes made at the Colorado League reflect the changing role of leagues in the credit union industry and credit unions' expectations. Credit unions, he said, "want a greater and more effective degree of advocacy by leagues in the public sector both nationally and locally to make sure the climate is right for credit unions to prosper." They also want leagues to provide marketing, education and training, he adds, and they're looking for on-time training that's conveniently accessible and available at a decent price. A Running Start Dill didn't waste any time getting down to business when he first occupied the corner office. He couldn't afford to. When he came on board, the league had lost its longtime lobbyist at the State Capitol and it had been awhile since its three operating units – government affairs, education and training, and marketing and communications – had been thoroughly reviewed. To get things started, Dill held a series of planning sessions with the league's board to define their long-term goals. Together they defined three key areas – government affairs, communications, education and training – and evaluated what was necessary to achieve the goals in those three areas. Dill immediately got busy finding the Colorado League a new lobbyist, and by the summer 2004 he'd hired Pete Kirchhof as senior vice president for government affairs. Kirchhof had been a well-respected statehouse lobbyist for Qwest Corp. for several years before coming to the Colorado League. The league's advocacy in-house team has since been rounded out to include: Ron Rakowsky, manager of government affairs, who is also a deputy mayor of Greenwood Village, Colo.; Nancy Burke, manager of government affairs; and Christopher Kemm as manager of grassroots advocacy. Mark Robey was also promoted to general counsel a few months ago, and Dill says he spends a lot of time on regulatory matters as well. In addition, to further assist small and medium sized credit unions in the service area, Dill beefed up the team dedicated to this responsibility, headed by Dan Santangelo. He hired a full-time human resource specialist, Scott Birkhead, and Michael O'Neill, who has a comprehensive regulatory and operational background. They round out the team involved with planning and training activities that also includes Melia Heimbuck. Dill explains that the government affairs advocacy team's effort has been in two areas – pushing for positive credit union and pro-business legislation on the national and state levels; and combating bankers' attacks on credit unions. He says, "In the long run, our focus in the advocacy area is to activate credit unions' greatest strength – our advocacy – in a grassroots organization that can speak on behalf of our interests. If we could assemble just one half of 1% of our 1.5 million members, we'd have an unstoppable army of supporters." Capping Dill's efforts to increase the Colorado League's advocacy efforts and visibility, he hired Grace Stanton last March as senior vice president for marketing and communications. The former head of a major Colorado public relations agency who had worked with major corporations like Kraft and IBM, Stanton immediately got busy with rebuilding the League's marketing department and launched the Branding Task Force. Made up of nine Colorado and Wyoming credit union CEOs, the task force is studying the benefits of a branding campaign in the two states. It's already finished its first set of meetings, and the League Board has approved the first step that includes testing a campaign in Colorado and Wyoming. Dill also turned his attention to the league's LSC where he found many of the once-profitable lines of business at Colleague had become less profitable and "stale" as many credit unions found ways to purchase services through CUSOs and other vendors. Colleague used to offer 24 business lines, and Dill said he examined each one under traditional business lines of examination which meant asking some tough questions – is it making or losing money? What are the trend lines? From there, he explains, came a series of recommendations on each business line – keep the program as is, kill the program, keep the program and make changes to make it grow. "We asked ourselves `what is it we're in the business of doing at an LSC?' The answer is to make money, but that's not all. The number one reason to be an LSC is because you're providing something credit unions need," he says. So rather than getting rid of Colleague altogether, as the board and league management considered doing, they decided to continue Colleague and restructure its business model for future growth and opportunity. Among the most notable changes that have been made on the products and services menu at Colleague is outsourcing card processing to the Illinois Credit Union League; selling its item processing services to SunCorp; and rolling out new programs like the credit card affinity program "Rainbow Rewards" which Dill says "provides members a reason to keep coming back to the card." Of course all these changes for the betterment of the future of the Colorado League and Colleague weren't without a price. When the intended changes were announced in 2004, Dill estimated the changes could affect 18% of the total 113 employees of the league, Colleague, and CU Service Network (CUSN), the shared branching network. It was predicted that one of the areas most affected would be one of CUSN's 87 shared-branching and outlet offices. In fact, the league wound up closing one CUSN branch in 2004 which Dill said was "under performing." Burke, who was an 18-year veteran of the league, also moved over to CUSN as its full-time CEO. As for employee layoffs, the reorganization of the league and Colleague wound up costing the jobs of 20 employees. "Anyone who tells you they enjoy doing this sort of thing (letting employees go) isn't telling the truth. Every organization has to go through a renewal process and determine what lines of business it wants to be in. With the card services department, for example, the simple economic fact was that as good a job as we were doing, it wasn't as good as the Illinois League could do because of their greater volume. We tried to do the layoffs as humanely and sensitively as we could," said Dill. Like every league, Colorado has had to deal with a changing economic and demographic environment in its state as well as an aging membership among credit unions. There are currently 131 credit unions in Colorado with a total approximately 1.5 million members. Wyoming's 29 CUs represent a total 180,000 people. That works out to about one in three people in each state as being a CU member, a fact that credit union staff are encouraged to tell state and federal legislators when they meet with them. "Political people understand the subtext of that `one-in-three people.' It means a lot of their constituents are members of credit unions," he says. Dill's sense of taking initiatives has extended to the Wyoming League. In addition to the joint task force on branding credit unions in Colorado and Wyoming: * Two credit union-sponsored pieces of legislation passed in Wyoming, the first time in recent history that CU legislation passed through the state legislature. Senate File 142 raised the small claims court jurisdiction to $5,000; and Senate Joint Resolution No. 5 recognized the value of financial education for the State of Wyoming and will advance the mission to educate young adults and citizens to promote financial literacy. * The Wyoming League took the lead in having the state join 40 other states as a Jump$tart affiliate. * A three-year management contract was signed with the Colorado league that provides additional accountability. Economically, Dill says the state is probably on the lower end of economic performance as a result of the loss of many dot-com and technology companies and jobs and the confluence of telecommunications companies. Colorado also has one of the highest bankruptcy rates in the U.S., he points out. For credit unions, that's translated into lower Return on Assets and various economic challenges. Dill's confident though that "credit unions and leagues can weave their way through the wicket of mergers and consolidations they're experiencing now and will be the winners." The Colorado League is currently in the process of looking for new space to move into from its current 40,000-square foot building that's owned by Colleague. According to Dill, the building is almost 50% underutilized and the maintenance costs are high. He said the League is considering buying or leasing the new space, but its priority is that the new space is near the state capitol. The only problem is any space in proximity to the state capitol won't have adequate parking. In the more near term, the league will be asking affiliated credit unions to vote at their upcoming annual meeting in April on changing the name of the organization to Colorado Credit Union Association. Dill says the perception of the organization by key people they're trying to influence is critical and the term `league' is too vague and not understood easily by those outside the credit union industry. "If we have the right message we can move the needle on increasing credit unions' assets and members, increase our effect on state and federal legislators, and continue to implement our strategic plan," says Dill. -

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