Also on the panel were 24-year-old Kent Sugg, manager of member services at Tinker FCU in Oklahoma City, who suggested CUs are falling behind on how Gen Y members "really communicate with each other" and Amy Stanton, 27, assistant vice president of marketing at Connex CU, North Haven, Conn., who argued that lacking a national brand was hurting CU identity with youth.

All three, joined by moderator George Hofheimer, chief research officer for the Filene Research Institute in Madison, Wis., professed their committed loyalty to the CU cause but cautioned that complacency was harming industry growth.

"Look, my whole family life has been about my credit unions, my mom works in one, but I also see how difficult change is in credit unions," said Sugg who said he would "absolutely love to be on a credit union board" though he knows that may not happen soon based on CU governance.

Like the other Generation Y panelists, Sugg detailed for the Texas league audience their proficiency in using many of the new Gen Y viral tools and Web sites increasingly used by that age group.

While older generations rely on e-mail communication, "many of us are into Twitter, instant text messaging, microblogging" and on that score "we do constantly network with each other online," a phenomenon still not thoroughly understood by mainstream CUs, Sugg observed.

Social Networking

In his remarks, Reeme ran through a litany of social networks that he subscribes to from Facebook to Myspace and then provided breakdown of online programs that CUs "are having a lot of trouble reaching."

"On these social networks," he said, "you can easily find my birth dates, where I grew up, the names of all my friends, my job history and everything I do on the weekends. This freaks everybody born before 1980."

"But you've got to understand that I'm not that different from other 27-year- olds," he went on. "As an industry-like it or not-we're boring…. So how do we reach the most distracted, connected generation we've ever seen?"

Sugg of Tinker said he too agreed with Reeme's general assessment, but he said the "status quo and atmosphere" problems emanate from aging boards. "How can you justify attracting a young membership when you have board members all over 60?" asked Sugg.

The Tinker staffer also faulted CUs that use blogs as a vehicle simply to contain press releases rather than understanding how viral networks are used by Gen Y members for genuine communication.

Blogging "has to have a real benefit to the reader," and can't be used just for posting notices, said Sugg who like other panelists participate in Filene's think tank i3 committees.

Stanton of Connex said there is little doubt that today's youth has little understanding of how CUs work, and it relates "to the disadvantage in not having a nationally recognized brand." Much more work must be done to raise awareness "but it can be very tricky" considering the diverse nature of the industry, she concluded.

In his comments, Hofheimer maintained that people everywhere "have a need to network, but young adults do it differently," and CUs need to understand that better than they currently do.

On that front, he detailed Filene's plans to offer a series of Business Briefs, a monthly release available for download from the Filene Web site (www.filene.org) "that will raise awareness of the issues the young adults in the credit union movement are facing."

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