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I’m always surprised at just how much of my time volunteering takes up. As chairman of the board, I am officially a volunteer, but I consider it my job, and I love what I do. I get to work with, help, coach and manage people. It’s a thing of beauty to experience.

I’ve been involved in credit unions for more than 30 years. Along the way I’ve tried various professional development and educational offerings for our managers and directors. Nothing in the industry was as good as I wanted it to be—until I started to attend the CUES programs.

CUES has a way of capturing what we need, when we need it, and delivering it in such a way that attendees can execute the ideas after returning to their organizations. The programs open your eyes to how things should be in the credit union environment. They also train future leaders in our industry.

All members of our senior management team have attended CUES’ management institutes which makes me comfortable from a succession planning standpoint. I think we have a number of candidates who could possibly replace our CEO if something unexpected were to happen.

Every director on our board attends the CUES’ director programs, such as Directors Leadership Institute: Strategic Planning. It gives me a level of comfort to know all of my directors have the opportunity to participate in programs and meet their peers, network and establish valuable connections.

When things get tough, such as this latest go-round with the economy, we’re going to have to work together, share our ideas, gather the best ones and go forward. Having my board members attend CUES’ director programs gives me the confidence that they are up-to-speed.

The first conference I attended was CUES Symposium: A CEO/Chairman Exchange. This was a wonderful opportunity to get away with my CEO for a few days, brainstorm, get a little closer together and understand where each of us is coming from. It was a valuable team-building experience and from that point forward, I was very impressed with CUES’ offerings.

CUES has helped me considerably with future planning, because I know I’m not going to be around forever. Sooner or later, I’m going to step down from being the chairman and pass the reigns to somebody else. I will be comfortable that there are people who have been trained and shaped to step forward and take the role of chair. I’ll be able to help select that person and feel comfortable that, with the help of CUES, he or she will be able to step up and transition smoothly into the role.