That's good news for the movement because it can provide the solutions to those financial challenges, Gabel offered, adding credit unions have always been very responsive to consumers' needs.

Members of i3 serve three-year terms, must be in a position of substantial responsibility (but not yet CEO), and are required to attend two national meetings each year. Since support from their credit union is essential, Gabel said they welcome senior managers because they can help drive implementation.

The i3 group has developed more than 20 projects over the past few years. Each innovation team is generally made up of four or members and has created a project with the goal of launching a pilot at participating credit unions. Some never got off the ground because their solution may have been ahead of the demand in the marketplace, Gabel said. Other projects didn't gather steam but sparked enough interest that would warrant more research to see how viable a product or service would be to certain segments of the population such as women or minorities.

"A team may have tried something and it didn't work but that's just as important to us–to capture the learning process from the pilots," Gabel said. "Part of the reason we pilot is to see if there's evidence that it will work."

There are a handful of projects that have moved forward, including What's the Big Idea, an evaluation tool that helps aspiring entrepreneurs evaluate the market worthiness of their enterprise based on feedback on market, management and money. The $333 million Mazuma CU and the $4.8 billion Alliant CU recently completed pilots, and the $1.3 billion Wright-Patt CU Inc. and the $4.1 billion America First CU are prepping to launch theirs (see related article on page 18).

Members of the i3 team that created the Flex.One account met in Chicago in February to discuss potential pilot rollouts. With the account, a member's entire loan is a line of credit, which allows the balance to be paid down when there is excess savings and withdrawn should those savings be needed. It also allows access via ATM, check writing, debit card, point of sale, ACH and other features, which aim to make a separate checking account unneeded.

Gabel said other projects that are experiencing a bit more activity are MatriMoney, a registry service; Prize-Based Savings, a savings account product that provides incentives to save through random drawings; LOT$A MO$TA, a financial education tool for young people; Virtual Finance, a program geared towards Generation Y; and Community Impact Center, a national shared resource to help credit unions partner with public and private enterprises to engage in community development.

All of the i3 projects are considered open source and will continue to be listed on Filene's Web site (www.filene.org). There is no cost to download the supporting materials, Gabel pointed out. Credit unions can tailor the models to fit their needs, she added.

With this next group of i3 members coming in, Gabel said more market research will be provided to fuel where the teams innovate and how they solve problems. She understands that nearly everyone has busy, harried schedules but challenges those people to think long term.

"Why not you?" Gabel asked. "What I think is interesting is many times we say 'My gosh, there is a need for these services, but I'm just too busy.' We can't be too busy to not see the solutions. We need the work of the many."

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