A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

This week, I came across an article that I felt really hit on some key challenges facing credit union boards. Sean Galli, with On The Mark Strategies, suggested in Create a Board Career Path that the board “can be the institution’s biggest asset… or its biggest liability.”

In noting that board members come on with different backgrounds and levels of experience, and that some members may stay longer than they originally intended, Sean suggested that these three areas can help create success:

1. Starting at the Supervisory Committee
2. Teaching the Board How to Govern
3. Developing a Board Reflective of Your Membership

I found all three to be valuable topics worthy of consideration and maybe even more discussion with your team. This quote, in particular, resonated with me, “taking loss after loss on charge-offs should be a harder decision than deciding whose grandkid is cutting the grass outside the branches.” But, he also notes you have to “[T]each your board what’s important and how to think about it. Put them in the right headspace for governing your credit union.” That seems fair.

Give his article a read, and let me know what you think!