A Direct Line Blog

By Donya Parrish, MCU VP- Risk Management

Several credit unions are hosting annual membership meetings in the coming weeks. Along with an update on the financials and past year, that meeting often includes board elections. Whether you are adding new board members, or perhaps shuffling board officers, don’t let the opportunity pass to do board orientation.

It is not enough to just find a willing and qualified candidate to fill an open board seat. You want to ensure the time an individual spends as a board member is productive — both for them and for your credit union and membership. That might mean an investment of a couple of hours now to make sure your new board member understands your credit union’s mission, strategic plan, local markets, and more.

This article on boardsource.org discusses some excellent tools for helping your team (the board) get to know each other, set expectations, and find communication that works. Doing those things can lay the groundwork for success at your monthly board meetings and avoid misunderstandings and wasted time.

After all, we all want to do our best, and we want to sure our time is valued and used well. That goes double for the time we volunteer. So it only makes sense to give your new board members a chance to learn the basics before you throw them into the deep end.  They’ll be much more likely to swim (or at least float), and your credit union will benefit.