Posts by Michael Daigneault

Key ideas about response oversight and future strategy If you’re like most in this world today, you likely feel like you’ve lived a lifetime in just the last week. I know that we have. As we write to you safely from our home offices, we send well wishes to you and everyone in your circles…

If you’re shifting to an ‘audit’ committee instead, be careful not to sacrifice independent oversight at the altar of efficiency. We’ve seen an important trend relevant to a good number of state credit unions nationwide. It’s one of those quiet trends that we believe could—in the long run—have significant governance consequences, perhaps for the entire…

Consider multiple perspectives and build consensus— not unanimity—to ensure your CU is making good decisions. If you Google “decision-making,” we think you’ll be amazed at what comes up in the search results: “The Top 5 Decision-Making Models You Need to Know,” “Models of Decision-Making: Rational, Administrative and Retrospective Decision-Making Models,” the “Most Popular Decision-Making Models,”…

Your strategic planning process is as important as the plan and should be ongoing. Recently, Henry Meier, SVP/general Counsel at the New York Credit Union Association penned a blog addressing “Why D.C.’s Policy Pronouncements are the Key to Economic Growth.” In it, Meier discusses the shifting sands of today’s political environment, as well as the…

In addition to playing an important role in managing the CEO, the chairman also plays a key role in managing the board itself. When we work with credit union boards, and in particular with chairs, we’ll often start by asking the provocative question, “Should boards manage?” Immediately the resounding response, of course, is “No!” But…

The constructive partnership between directors and the chief executive is a lot like teammates on one side of the court. If you’ve spent any amount of time with us folks at Quantum Governance—either at a large, general session at a CUES conference or in a private, retreat setting, you know that we talk a lot…

A best practice for chairs is to help the board look at the big picture while still having a specific opinion. At the September 2018 Board Chair Development Seminar, we asked the more than 60 attendees from all over the United States and Canada to share with us whether their board chairs voted on regular matters.…

1. Should chairs vote? 2. What’s the best way to ask a director to move on? Quantum Governance recently had the privilege of spending a few days with nearly 100 credit union board chairs, vice-chairs and others when we conducted the Board Chair Development Seminar for CUES in Amelia Island, Fla.  In this article, we put forth…