Hood at YES Summit: Need young leaders

WASHINGTON (12/8/08)—At a national conference on strategies to promote credit union membership among the country's 18-to-30 year-old age group, or "Gen Y," National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) Vice Chairman Rodney Hood reiterated the details of his own Blueprint 2020 program.

Hood was addressing the Credit Union National Association's (CUNA's) YES Summit in Tampa, Fla. YES stands for Your Essential Strategies.

Hood reminded that his Blueprint 2020 initiative, first announced in June 2007, is meant to encourage strategic partnerships between credit unions and universities and trade schools to provide internship opportunities for young adults. Ultimately the plan is to recruit new leaders to the credit union movement.

Students would receive income, academic credit, and the opportunity for permanent employment. In the process, the interns will help sponsoring credit unions attract not only the next generation of members but also the next generation of leaders, Hood told the group.

"We have strong credit union leaders and wonderful boards," said Hood, but added that unless credit unions recruit young leaders, the movement could become stagnant and miss "essential new ideas."

Hood reminded his credit union audi9ence that NCUA makes it possible for low-income credit unions to participate in the enterprise by providing grants of up to $3,000 for paid internships.

courtesy of cuna.org