SANTA ANA, Calif. — Over lunch or coffee, outside of the office, colleagues are more apt to talk candidly about the pressing issues of the day.
For a group of investment executives at several southern California credit unions, that's how the concept of a very informal, grassroots networking circle got its start nearly four years ago. Topics of discussion spanned the gamut from competing against banks to representative compensation kicked off by exchanges via Blackberry messages or a phone call.
Though it's not the official name, the Credit Union Professional Managers Association started with four-hour quarterly meetings. The agendas were simple: an open forum to discuss what's on your mind. The costs were minimal: mileage and a rotating schedule among the credit unions to play host and provide lunch. And, there was one key restriction: vendors were not allowed to attend.
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"No product providers, no hidden agendas," said Sandra deChastain, vice president of investments at $7.5 billion SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union "We wanted a nonthreatening environment with no outside influences."
Nearly 30 credit unions now meet through CUPMA and the group had its first annual meeting last year. The three-day gathering was split into a program manager track and a representative track. Twenty program managers and 50 representatives attended and six broker-dealers were there to bring another perspective to the meeting, deChastain said. The agenda included discussions on employee contracts, how to get referrals and comparing compensation plans. There were also continuous education courses.
"In Southern California, there are a lot of geographically concentrated locations, so we interact a lot and we're close knit," deChastain said on the net-
working circle. "As we talked, we found that we had common challenges. So, we started thinking about getting together to share ideas on how we approach our businesses."
In the spirit of collaboration, CUPMA sought out the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations to serve as a portal for those program managers in other parts of the country that want to replicate what California has done, said Pete Snyder, vice chairman of NACUSO's board of directors and president of Snyder Consulting Solutions, an investment and insurance consulting firm. NACUSO will provide Web communication tools and house topics, agendas and meeting minutes on its site.
"The goal is to really take the charm and beauty of what CUPMA has done in California and copy and paste it across the country," Snyder said. "We don't want to run them or create revenue from them."
This type of networking model is not new to Snyder. In the late 1980s, he was part of a peer group from $6.7 billion The Golden 1 CU, $4.4 billion Kinecta FCU and $2.6 billion Lockheed FCU that met quarterly to get first line managers in investment and insurance programs to work together. There were no industry resources, benchmarking reports or compensation studies to draw from.
Meanwhile, CUPMA is scheduled to have its second annual meeting this week in Indian Wells, Calif. Twenty program managers have signed on to attend, deChastain said. Because queries have come in from program managers outside of California asking how they can join, representatives from Arizona and Texas will share their input on how they plan to start other regional networking groups.
The agenda for CUPMA's annual meeting this year will only feature a program managers' track, said DeChastain to prevent any overlap with a Visa representative track meeting in June. Six broker-dealers are also scheduled to attend. The May 29-31 CUPMA forum features a half day of networking activities, several presentations and a panel discussion. Keith Pipes, executive vice president, finance and financial services at $3.8 billion Wescom CU, is planning to put together a business plan for investment representatives. A compliance expert may also provide a session, deChastain said.
The new group has also linked up with the Bank Insurance & Securities Association, the trade association representing those responsible for marketing securities, insurance and other investment products through commercial banks, trust companies, savings institutions and credit unions. More than 40 credit unions belong to BISA. The trade group can bring a banking best practices perspective to share, said Bill Partin, senior vice president of $789 million Partners FCU and one of CUPMA's early organizers.
"We don't want to go so collaborative that we lose focus," Partin underscored.
Staying true to the group's simple model of networking will continue to be the ongoing theme, deChastain said.
"In the end, we all decided we're all busy and we don't need another association. With all the challenges credit unions are facing, everyone's looking at the bottom line. We want to be a forum to help some of these investment programs."
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