Dear CUES Members,

After I retired from the Army following 27 years as an enlisted man, cadet and officer, I never imagined I would find a career at CUES that would be filled with as much satisfaction and emotional highs.

By Louis Hernandez Jr.

Our nation and world have been rattled by seismic events, from the Great Recession to bank failures, high unemployment, economic uncertainty in Europe, a volatile stock market, depressed home prices and falling consumer confidence. We are also seeing accelerated global change, from the rise of Asia to the decline of the West. This represents a great shift in global power.

By Mary Auestad Arnold

According to John Moore, former marketer for Starbucks and Whole Foods Market, employees who have a passion for your credit union and who make a direct connection with members can separate you from your competitors.

By Lisa Hochgraf

This morning CUES announced the 2011 Next Top Credit Union Exec: Devin Selte, senior relationship manager, team lead with $11 billion Servus Credit Union, Edmonton, Alberta. Devin was recognized with a $20,000 educational prize package for his work on Servus CU's Young Leaders Network. Nice work, Devin!

By Barb Kachelski, CAE

Alexia (left), Josh, Jay, Devin, or Amanda…

Which one will be the Next Top Credit Union Exec? You don’t have to wait and wonder! You can vote and lend your support to your favorite candidate. 

By Lisa Hochgraf

It's campaign season and a candidate I've been following with interest sent me several brochures about his merits. I read and was interested. Then he sent one dissing his opponent and I had to take a pause. Was this person still someone I wanted to support?

By Jim Jerving

“External service” is, of course, how a credit union treats its members. Mystery shopping is a valuable method of measuring external service, but problems surface when credit unions fail to align the goals of mystery shopping with the organization’s service standards.

By Chuck Klein

By Fred Johnson

My birthday was last week… how convenient is it that I was born on International Credit Union Day? LaVonne Stodola, CUES' longest-tenured employee, brought in great peanut butter fudge brownies. The combination of the two flavors was amazing.

By Michael Hudson, Ph.D.