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Members-Only Event

Thursday, August 21, 2025
11:00 - 12:00 p.m. Central Time
Presenter: Laureen Cirillo, HR Consultant

Engagement isn’t just about numbers, it’s about meaningful connections. In this discussion-based session, we’ll explore the power of building authentic relationships to drive engagement in any setting. We’ll discuss practical strategies to foster trust, strengthen communication, and create lasting impact, whether in the workplace, community, or beyond. Walk away with actionable insights to cultivate deeper, more productive relationships, one interaction at a time.

Key Takeaways:

• Participants will explore the tangible benefits of having a focus on employee engagement.
• Participants will learn specific actions they can take to leverage employee engagement.
   

For virtual education support, review these helpful steps and frequently asked questions.
 

About the Presenter:

Members-Only Event

Thursday, July 17, 2025
Presenter: Paul Dionne, Chief Strategy Officer & Lead Consultant, Quantum Governance, L3C

This session introduces artificial intelligence (AI), opportunities/challenges, and current and future use cases for AI in financial services. Participants will learn how to understand, direct and oversee AI adoption in their credit unions, and how to approach the creation of governance structures that effectively manage AI adoption.

Key Takeaways:

• An understanding of AI in general, current and future use cases in financial services. 
• An understanding of how to approach AI adoption in a manner that limits risk while allowing for effective adoption. 
• An understanding of factors to consider when building an AI governance framework.
   

For virtual education support, review these helpful steps and frequently asked questions.
 

About the Presenter:

Members-Only Event

Thursday, September 25, 2025
Presenter: Vaishali Jadhav, Leadership Development Instructor, Sanrekhana LLC

Leaders who ask better questions make better decisions. This session provides a framework for questioning with intention, helping leaders improve infl uence, clarity and alignment across teams. Learn from a former Gallup Consultant about the art of asking better questions.

Key Takeaways:

• The difference between directive vs. exploratory questions
• How to use questions to drive accountability and clarity
• A practical framework for crafting high-impact questions
   

For virtual education support, review these helpful steps and frequently asked questions.
 

About the Presenter:

CUES Unlimited/Unlimited+ Members-Only Event

Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Facilitated by Chad Helminak, VP/Talent Development Programming, CUES

Mastering the art of delegation is crucial for your success and your team’s. Learn how to determine what to delegate, communicate assignments effectively, and support delegated tasks. Join us for the CUES Quarterly Leadership Connection featuring the Delegating course from Harvard ManageMentor. Complete the course before the discussion date and come prepared to share your insights, key takeaways, and plans for integrating these practices into your daily routine.

About the Facilitator

CUES Unlimited/Unlimited+ Members-Only Event

Wednesday, April 23, 2025
Facilitated by Chad Helminak, VP/Talent Development Programming, CUES

Join us for a facilitated session with Chad Helminak to talk about the board’s role in leading the organization through change in uncertain times. This session is designed to be interactive and focus on idea-sharing and collaboration. Chad will lead the discussion and provide insights and takeaways to better prepare you to face change and lead your organization successfully.

About the Facilitator

Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Presenter: Deedee Myers, Chief Executive Officer, DDJ Myers, an ALM First Company

Mid-level managers are in a professional personal development crisis and resources to develop this level of talent are constrained and underqualified. Literacy rates are at an all-time low, organizations are hiring people into management roles with remedial critical and problem solving expertise, and mid-levels want to develop and need a lifeline for a development journey. The phenomena creates a causal effect that means too many executives, by default, are tactical and operational, which puts the organization at risk for defining and executing on a long-term vision and value proposition. Unfortunately, workspace environments are not conducive to connection and execution and we still, as organizations, need more execution prowess versus an overplay of collaboration and consensus. Employers are carrying a heightened sense of responsibility to provide skills, career development, and a compelling purpose to enhance organizational, team, and individual learning.

Key Takeaways:

• Participants take away a tool to reflect on how they spend their time, and how they should be spending their time as a leader. Participants will understand more about their choice points versus accepting the flow of their day as a fait accompli.
• Participants will deepen the understanding how learning is best done in peer groups and modalities for practical implementation of learning events to increase and evolve professional development.
• Participants will take away four questions to use in dialogue with their peer group around individual and team leadership.

For virtual education support, review these helpful steps and frequently asked questions.
 

About the Presenter:

Members-Only Event

Thursday, October 16, 2025
Presenter: Jeff Liford, Associate Director, Fenix24

In today’s cyber landscape, where threats are constantly evolving, one of the most vital yet overlooked controls is ensuring that you have immutable and tested backups with real Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs). While many organizations focus on perimeter defenses, firewalls, and threat detection systems, they often underestimate the importance of a backup strategy that can be trusted under the harshest conditions.
 
Threat actors are becoming more sophisticated. They are not just focusing on breaching your defenses but are also targeting and destroying backup systems, leaving organizations vulnerable to extended downtime and irreversible data loss. We’ve seen an uptick in attacks where ransomware groups and nation-state actors aim to lock up critical data and render backup systems useless, forcing victims into tough situations. As these attacks continue to increase in both frequency and severity, businesses without a robust backup strategy face a serious risk of falling victim to cyber incidents that can take weeks or even months to recover from.
 
The key to surviving these attacks is not just having backups in place but ensuring they are immutable, meaning they cannot be altered or deleted by unauthorized users, including attackers. Furthermore, these backups need to be regularly tested to validate their effectiveness in actual recovery scenarios, ensuring that you can restore operations quickly and with minimal business disruption. Without a reliable, tested backup system with established RTOs, the damage from a cyber-attack can be devastating.

As we look ahead, the importance of backup systems cannot be overstated. It's not just a cybersecurity measure—it's an essential part of your organization's continuity plan. You may be thinking about firewalls, detection systems, or encryption, but the most important control—one you might not be focusing on—is ensuring your backups are as strong as your primary defenses
 

For virtual education support, review these helpful steps and frequently asked questions.
 

About the Presenter:

Jeff Liford, Associate Director, Fenix24

Jeff Liford is an IT leader, educator, and cybersecurity resilience expert with more than 15 years of experience across the military, federal, and private sectors. Currently an Associate Director at Fenix24, he leads high-impact cyber incident recovery efforts and strategic process improvement initiatives.

A former U.S. Army Senior Intelligence Analyst and long-time Adjunct Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, Jeff blends hands-on technical expertise with a passion for teaching. His work focuses on building resilient systems, mentoring future engineers, and empowering teams to grow through disruption.

CUES Unlimited/Unlimited+ Members-Only Event

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Facilitated by Chad Helminak, VP/Talent Development Programming, CUES

Traditional strategic planning often fails to keep pace with real-world shifts. In this session, we’ll explore how to infuse flexibility, feedback loops, and scenario planning into your strategy process—without losing clarity or direction. Discover how adaptive planning helps organizations stay aligned, responsive, and focused on what matters most.

About the Facilitator

Accelerate Your Career. Get to the Next Level!

Explore the Program That Builds Future Executives 

Don’t miss your chance to explore how CUES Advanced Management Program from Cornell University will expand your strategic impact and position you for future leadership roles. In this free, 30-minute webinar, you’ll:

• Learn how CUES Advanced Management Program helps emerging leaders boost their day-to-day effectiveness while building strategic thinking skills  
• Hear directly from a graduate about their experiences and takeaways from the program
• Get insight into the program’s structure—it’s flexible, online, and designed for busy credit union professionals
• Explore how this program helps bridge the gap between tactical management and executive-level thinking 
   

Whether you’re planning your next career move or simply exploring options, this session offers valuable insight into how the program aligns with your leadership goals.

Learn more about CUES Advanced Management Program. Orientation starts July 8.