Hello, NACUSO
Posted by Matt Dean on May 18th, 2006
Just got the following from the BlackBerry of one of our friends in attendance at the NACUSO conference in Las Vegas:
Your site is being talked about right now at the NACUSO conference by speaker to all attendees. Site shown on screen. Talk with you later.
Hope the speaker’s saying good things about it!
What an amazing world – living in Plano, famous in Las Vegas!
You guys are extending a very important conversation
-thanks!About a year ago, I listened to Matt Dean conduct a session at the CUES conference in Vancouver, BC. At that time, Blogging in the credit union arena was non-existent. Matt and his company have been faithful to the concept—one which I believe will only become important over the next few years.
Today, I was stunned to see the concept of blogging being presented as a new tool to provide members with unbiased answers to their questions, which will inevitably lead to trust and long-term relationships. Even more exciting was the fact that the speaker (Glen Urban – NACUSO Conference – Las Vegas, NV) used opensourcecu.com as the example of how blogging can be effectively used. My hat is off to the folks at Trabian for remaining persistent in this forum, and demonstrating to all of us how an open dialog can be of great value.
Before entering into the blogging forum, it is imperative that a credit union’s underlying structure be a solid one. The speaker talked about this today, and I am in 100% agreement. If service is substandard, than anyone attempting to launch a blogging forum should expect to be on the defensive immediately, and rightfully so. Spend time first on addressing fundemental concerns, and than move to this channel to better understand what members want and desire, at least younger adults that believe in this open forum of exchange.
Finally, leveraging technology is so important to effectively serving members today. There is power in the tools that are available, and it is just a matter of being innovative and thinking outside the box that we often become confortable living inside. Credit union executives should recognize that what has worked in the past is likely not going to work in the future. This is evident in the low levels of growth experienced in the industry in recent years. I agree with many of the experts that the current model has reached a maturity point, and it is time to shake things up from a long-term survival standpoint.
I was at the NACUSO conference but I didn’t attend the session where they mentioned you. I’m sure it was as a good example of how to correctly blog the CU movement. It was my first trip to this conference and I highly recommend it. Of all the CU conferences I go to every year, it’s one of the better ones.