At the recent National Association of Credit Union Chairman's annual meeting in Baltimore, the idea of board member diversification drew heated comments as it pertained to age. The agency and others, including this blogger, have been encouraging credit unions to recruit people of varying ages, educational background, ethnicities and genders to credit union boards.

Some at the conference expressed concern that they couldn't get someone with an IT background or marketing or HR up to speed on financials within the NCUA's proposed 90 days. I'd have to disagree; the NCUA isn't asking IT and HR specialists to become CPAs in that time period. All the agency is seeking with its proposed reg is a baseline understanding of the financials at the credit union. And, just because someone doesn't crunch numbers all day for a living doesn't mean they can't understand the financials if they want to.

My question: who would want to take on all the liabilities that come with serving on the board of a financial institution without that kind of knowledge?