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Research & Reports Research The State of Credit Union Governance, 2023 This report identifies four governing elements central to measuring good governance and what correlations exist between them. The State of Credit Union Governance, 2023 Download Report Research The State of Credit Union Governance, 2020 This report offers findings from 115 credit unions on Board structure, governance, leadership, strategy and decision-making. The State of Credit Union Governance, 2020 Download Report Research Should Credit Unions Pay Their Directors? This Report explores the state of director compensation and offers considerations when exploring paying board directors. Should Credit Unions Pay Their Directors? Download Report Research The State of Credit Union Governance, 2021 This report examines the impact of COVID-19 and increasing calls for DEI on the credit union community. COVID-19 and DEI: Revolution & Evolution in the Credit Union Community Download Report Research The State of Credit Union Governance, 2018 This report analyzes governance practices at 70 credit unions focusing on Board structure, leadership, fiduciary oversight and strategy. The State of Credit Union Governance, 2018 Download Report White Paper A New Model Based on Classic Principles This white paper presents discussion on a new approach to the credit union cooperative model. A New Model Based on Classic Principles Download Report

< Back Millennials Are Many Things, Including Your Future Board Leaders Michael Daigneault and Gisele Manole Jun 26, 2018 Getting to know them can aid your recruiting. If you had a crystal ball that allowed you to peer into the future, my guess is that a number of you might use it to—among other things—help ensure your credit union’s success. Critical to any such success, however, is the answer to the question: Who sits on your Board? Perhaps one of the most alarming things we at Quantum Governance discovered in our research for The State of Credit Union Governance 2018 was that a full 46 percent of respondents describe their credit union’s effectiveness at finding, recruiting and nominating new board talent as only adequate or less than adequate. The ongoing challenge to attract the best talent to serve on your board is as old as it is evergreen. So, while a crystal ball may be helpful in identifying who holds the keys to your credit union’s future, it likely falls short of providing you with a practical means to actually recruit future board members into service—particularly the younger generations of potential board members. As anyone who has endeavored to recruit talent to their board can attest, you have to know a thing or two about who you’re looking for. So who are your credit union’s future board leaders and how might you connect with them? As the large Baby Boomer generation (1946-1964) retires from board service, Generation X (1965-1980) does not have the numbers to fill their seats. As such, the Millennial generation (1981-1996) will have to be invited to serve in leadership positions as soon as possible. Don’t underestimate them...many are ready to serve effectively right now! Millennials are, of course, a unique generation and it’s more important than ever to understand the types of things that set them apart from previous generations. They are most effectively recruited by...other millennials. You should use any millennial board, associate board, board committee and staff members you may already have to actively recruit effective new young leaders. You can also reach out to connected members of the credit union and to key players in business, government and nonprofit organizations in communities where your credit union operates. Even if you don’t know them yet, find a way to reach out, make new friends, and actively introduce your credit union to them. They are the most ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history. We often hear that boards are striving to look more like their membership. The millennial generation embodies the diversity needed to ensure that members are properly and culturally represented. They are early adopters and technologically savvier than previous generations. As your membership migrates online, so do many of your products and services. Engaging your members through contemporary, user-friendly, and secure mobile and digital interfaces will help grow your credit union and attract younger members. They are optimistic about the future and educated. Positivity fuels productivity. Millennials see possibilities and have an eye trained on the future—which is exactly where you need to set your sights in order to succeed in fulfilling your credit union’s vision and mission. Millennials are often keenly interested in professional development opportunities. You can suggest that board service is certainly a great one! They are interested in helping people and supporting causes. To date, many millennials have been relatively unattached to religion or organized politics (although that may be changing). This leaves a critical mass of them open to the social purpose and mission-centered credo of credit unions. Sure, focus on excellent products and services, but don’t underestimate the power of “cause” and the good work a credit union can do. Ultimately, inviting new ideas and fresh thinking to your board meetings will have consequences. Appreciate the renewed energy and passion it brings. Appreciate also millennials’ talents. Be patient as you work through the challenges and questions that will also arise. As you bring on new board members, it’s important to remember that a robust orientation to your credit union and board service is essential to a successful transition. We are confident you will find that millennials are a vital human and leadership “investment” for your credit union that will pay off extremely well now—and far into the future. Previous Next

< Back A Matter of Culture Michael Daigneault Apr 1, 2014 What drives yours? Here are 10 elements to shoot for in your board room. I ask credit union leaders a lot of questions… Indeed, asking questions is one of the best things effective consultants do. Some of my questions have proved fairly easy to answer; some, much more difficult. In recent years, one of the most challenging questions for many credit union CEOs and board leaders has been: “What type of organizational culture are you trying to foster at your credit union?” The difficulty in answering this question has led me to ask a second question, which has proved even more vexing: “What type of leadership or governance culture are you trying to foster at your credit union?” I have tried to discover what makes it is such a challenge for leaders to answer to these fundamental questions—particularly at the CEO and board levels. Perhaps the notion of organizational or leadership culture is something they haven’t had the chance to think a great deal about? Perhaps they have been focused on other things—like survival, economic shifts, new regulations or financial ratios? Maybe culture is something credit union leaders simply accept as-is—or take for granted? Maybe the very notion of organizational culture—as applied to a credit union or its governance—is confusing and needs to be clarified? (It is a fairly new construct, dating back perhaps just a few decades.) Or maybe it is all of the above? Uncovering why it is so difficult to answer the “governance culture question” has taken me on a recent quest to figure out what organizational culture is at a deeper level—and to try to better understand why many experts feel culture is so important to organizational success. For example, in 2010 organizational culture guru Edgar Schein warned that “cultural understanding is desirable for all of us, but it is essential to leaders if they are to lead.” Jim Dougherty wrote in a 2014 Harvard Business Review article that “company culture is part of your business model,” and “the single most important attribute to successful companies.” If these experts are right—and culture is somehow central to success—then we should try to uncover the hurdles CU leaders face in understanding, articulating and building the culture of their institutions. In particular, we should try to identify and overcome any leadership and governance culture challenges leaders may face. What is ‘Organizational Culture?’ Every credit union has a culture. Just what that culture is can be hard for its leaders to describe—even if they have been with the credit union for a long time. Although long-tenured board members often feel they understand their CU well, they are frequently too close to it to really take a step back and identify the unconscious beliefs and assumptions that have been guiding their decision-making. It is, as such, a real challenge for board leaders to really see their own organizational culture. This can be the case concerning the CU overall (where leaders do not always have the kind of institutional access to pick up key cultural cues) and at the governance level (where leaders may be too personally involved to identify the underlying assumptions with any degree of objectivity). In his book Organizational Culture and Leadership , Edgar Schein formulates a formal definition of organizational culture, the essence of which is this: “what a group learns over a period of time as it solves its problems of survival in an external environment and its problems of internal integration.’ This leads us then to a new pair of questions you should yourself ask about your credit union: How much is your organizational culture simply an unconscious by-product of your founders’ or key leaders’ leadership style? And, on the other side of the coin: How much is your organizational culture the result of a conscious attempt to shape its values and assumptions? This last question brings us to look deeper into how credit union leaders can work together to improve their organizational and leadership culture. How Do Leaders Create or Change Culture? If you have been trying to make changes in how your organization works, you need to find out how the existing culture helps or hinders you. Accordingly, you need to determine what assumptions operate within the existing culture. Schein groups assumptions into three basic levels: 1) artifacts—all of the surface things you would first observe, see, hear or feel when you encounter an organization; 2) stated beliefs and values; and 3) basic underlying assumptions—the unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs and values of the group. In 1983, Schein wrote that when organizations first form, there are usually dominant figures or “founders” whose own beliefs, values and assumptions provide a visible and articulated model for how the group should be structured and how it should function. As these beliefs are put into practice, some work out and some do not. The group learns what parts of the founder’s belief system work and which should be left behind. This learning gradually creates shared assumptions. Founders and subsequent leaders continue to attempt to embed their own assumptions, but increasingly they find that other parts of the organization have their own experiences to draw on and, thus, cannot be changed. Increasingly the learning process is shared, and the resulting cultural assumptions reflect the total group’s experience, not only the leader’s initial assumptions. But leaders continue to try to embed their own views of how things should be and, if they are powerful enough, continue to have a dominant effect on the emerging culture. Board members need to be able to take a step back and reflect on how your organization either challenges (or doesn’t) these assumptions. Be aware that your response will be tainted by your own influence on the culture you have helped to build. This is where an unbiased third party who can remain objective and observe your board’s dynamics may be helpful. If you are trying to examine (or change) your governance culture, you may also find yourself fighting against the organization’s design and structure; organizational systems and procedures; the design of physical space, facades and buildings; stories, legends, myths and symbols; and formal statements of organizational philosophy, creeds and charters. Changing culture can be difficult, particularly because sometimes culture can act as a protective mechanism, with each existing assumption working to reinforce and support the other. If you try to change one assumption in isolation, the others will push back to reinforce the status quo. Assumptions are also driven by the individuals or groups who have influence within the organization. If you want to change the culture, you sometimes have to foster a culture change within your organization’s current leaders, or modify the organization’s core governance philosophy as well as its policies and procedures. While often the most effective, changing the behavior of key leaders can be so hard that modifying the core governance philosophy is often the best opening move. When all else fails, a change in personnel may be required. But there is hope. Change can happen. It takes a focused effort and commitment to the following types of primary mechanisms: what leaders pay attention to, measure and control; how leaders react to critical incidents and organizational crises; deliberate role modeling and coaching; operational criteria for the allocation of rewards and status; and operational criteria for recruitment, selection, promotion, retirement and expulsion. 10 Elements of an Effective Culture Once you and your colleagues—both the board and the senior staff leaders–have effectively recognized and thoughtfully discussed the underlying assumptions driving your current credit union leadership culture, you can turn your attention to identifying any weaknesses or gaps and shape a more effective leadership culture for the future. I challenge you to address each of the following 10 key elements to build an effective board culture for your credit union. 1. Commit to a culture of engagement. Nothing really improves unless the board and senior staff are actively engaged in the process. This means leaders have to do more than just attend monthly meetings and listen. It means they have to do their homework, and be genuinely prepared. It means they have to show up and actively engage in discussions. That way, they can co-create with senior management the future of their credit union. It’s the responsibility of senior staff leaders and all board members to be familiar with the credit union’s key programs and strategic initiatives. It’s also the responsibility of leadership to work together to improve them. To do so, you must be engaged. 2. Join with management to foster a culture of teamwork. There is a lot of literature in the business world on the importance of teamwork, but seldom is it applied directly to boards. Taking a page from Management 101, you and your colleagues must join together to foster a culture of teamwork. And not just among yourselves—be sure to include members of your credit union’s senior leadership. Who else will work with you, shoulder to shoulder, during times of challenge? Evaluate opportunities with you? Celebrate the successes with you? Share the burdens? 3. Build a culture of curiosity. Socrates was recognized by Oracle at Delphi as one of the wisest men on earth because he was a genuinely curious man who was open about what he knew and—perhaps more importantly—what he did not know. Bring your own humility to the board room. Come with an open mind and learn from both your board and senior staff colleagues. Curiosity is one of the most important attributes a director—and a board as a whole—can have. 4. If you are able to develop a culture of curiosity , you’ll likely also foster a culture of learning. You and your colleagues will bring to the table your own personal curiosities and, combined together, you will move in the direction of what Peter Senge, a leading 21st century management theorist, has called a “learning organization.” Indeed, you can then begin to look at board room (and many committee meeting) experiences not through the lens of “necessary data exchange,” but the lens of “collective learning.” Culture is a learned experience and learning models should help us to better understand culture creation and change. 5. To support your learning, you and your colleagues will need to foster a culture of inquiry. You will need to revise the very nature of your board meetings so they encourage a genuine dialogue and exchange of ideas, a culture in which great questions are recognized and appreciated. Gone should be the days of stale committee reports or—worse yet—committee reports that simply mirror the written briefing materials. 6. All this communication requires that CU leaders maintain a sincere culture of respect. Respect does not mean agreeing to everything anyone else suggests. It does not simply mean being “nice.” It does mean deeply listening to—and honoring—other leaders’ voices in the process of decision-making. It also means valuing others’ contributions and knowing the boundaries of the role you each are carrying out. 7. Be mindful that you have all committed your time, talents and expertise to the CU board for the same reason—to be of service. Focus on that commitment. Build a culture of service, remembering that the roots of the CU movement are deep. For more than 100 years, credit unions have been providing quality financial services to their members. Above all else, we are driven as a movement by our commitment to cooperative principles. Voluntary and open membership, member economic participation and rewards are at least as—or more important than—the bottom line. 8. Because you are stewards of other people’s funds and have committed to a culture of service, you and your colleagues should—and will—be held to a very high standard. You will need to, therefore, build a strong culture of diligence. Some components of this part of your culture will be informal. Together you and your colleagues will determine mutually agreed-upon standards and expectations for how you will act and govern the CU. Other, more formal standards will be imposed upon your CU by regulators. In either case, you and your colleagues must pledge that together you will be eternally vigilant on both the formal and the informal standards guiding your decisions and actions. 9. As stewards of other people’s funds, and because as a CU you are committed not only to a culture of service but also to cooperative principles, you must commit to a culture of accountability. Of course, you must hold each other accountable and, clearly, accountability extends to your credit union’s CEO and, ultimately, the staff. You must model a culture of respect from the top-down, the same way you must model accountability. 10. Ultimately what every organization wants to build is a culture of trust. You want a trusting relationship with your members, your staff, your regulators and with the public. It’s the right thing to do and can only benefit your business bottom line as well. In all, building a culture that breeds success for your CU will not be an easy journey, but is certainly one that’s worthy of the effort. Challenge your organization’s long-held assumptions. Commit yourself. Be engaged. Ask your questions. Leave your ego at the door. Respect one another. Hold each other accountable. And do the right thing. Having done so, you will earn the trust that your members place in your leadership! Previous Next

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< Back Transitions of Power Jennie Boden Jan 26, 2021 A perfect time to re-evaluate your organization and its direction is when a key leadership shift is on the horizon. The recent transition of power in our country got me thinking about transitions of power in credit unions—both at the board and CEO levels. I think as a community, we give the most thought to CEO transitions, and this is definitely smart. The CEOs of many credit unions have been around for years, even decades. These CEOs have shepherded their credit unions through incredible growth, sometimes from managing receipts in a shoebox to managing billions of dollars in assets. The change that CEOs have experienced in their credit unions over these years, even if their growth has not been quite that phenomenal, is substantial—just as significant as the change that the credit union community has seen. And it’s important to step back and take the time to think about the future before the critical transition of power needs to take place from one CEO to another. It’s important, as a long-tenured CEO prepares to depart, to re-evaluate the credit union’s future direction, even the future direction of the board. What you needed and wanted from your CEO 10, 20 or even 30 years ago is, by definition, different than what you will likely want and need today. And clarity is key. Be honest. If you’re a risk-averse board, hiring a progressive CEO could be a non-starter. You’ll be clashing before your first board meeting. Chair-to-Chair Transitions Board-level transitions of power are just as important as CEO transitions. The transition from one chair to the next is far too often overlooked from a strategic point of view. Perhaps it is because it happens with greater frequency, but we take for granted that every member of our board will know how to take the gavel in hand when it’s her or his turn, and that’s simply not true. Not every board member is cut out to be the chair, just like not every board member would make a great treasurer, for example. (I know that I wouldn’t make a good treasurer!) And sometimes, certain individuals would be best suited for specific moments in time. A board member who has experience with mergers and acquisitions, for example, would be terrific if organic growth falls last among your strategic priorities. We’ve also seen some credit unions place their officers on a moving conveyor belt, rotating individuals through the four positions every year or even two. This also doesn’t support a healthy transition of power. By the end of year one, like in most jobs, the officer is just learning the position and putting solidly into place the relationships that they need to govern. By the end of year two, things are just beginning to click, and then the rotation begins, and the process starts all over again. Consider a four-year term to allow for a healthier transition of power, on-the-job learning and a few years of smooth sailing. Reflection on Your Organization and Its Direction Finally, take these important transitions—each of them—to pause and learn more about your credit union and what you want it to be in the future. Reflecting on your vision, mission and strategy when a new CEO transitions into the credit union or revisiting the board’s governance structure, policies and procedures after a three-to-four-year period is prudent. This is not to say that we don’t support a consistent, rigorous schedule of self-reflection and even self-assessment—we do. But in particular, transitions of power—both within our country and within our credit unions remind us, as the nation’s new favorite poet reminds us: “And yes, we are far from polished far from pristine but that doesn't mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect. We are striving to forge a union with purpose…” - Amanda Gorman Previous Next

< Back Tell Me Something I Don’t Know: What You Need to Know About Assessments Michael Daigneault and Gisele Manole May 22, 2018 Solid financials aren’t necessarily a sign of a high-performance board. We don’t know what we don’t know. It’s such an obvious thing to state, and yet we would suggest this simple statement of fact may be the key to the future of your credit union. Often our clients approach us with a sense that although their credit union has a healthy balance sheet and continues to grow its membership and assets, there is something they could be doing better--that their board and committees could be more effective in the work they do on behalf of the credit union. Without an obvious or discernible problem, they just can’t put their finger on it. Maybe it is time to “take stock” or assess. Remember, the fact that your credit union is doing well doesn’t mean that your board is following suit. In our experience, a number of situations may be opportune for doing an assessment, including: When a new chair or CEO comes on board. Fresh ideas can get caught up in a web of procedure. Clarity and understanding of best practices and why they are in place makes getting to the heart of matters more efficient and ultimately more productive. When you want to take the CU’s leadership or strategy to the next level. If you’re sensing that your leadership is relying on older methods or governance practices that need modernization to keep up with the demands of the marketplace, or if your strategic plan is not agile enough for the credit union to accomplish what it has set out to do, the time has come for a deep-dive assessment. After a crisis. Any major internal or external shake-up that causes board members and management to pause and ask “what happened and how do we prevent it from happening again/” signals the right time to revisit what is working with your governance and what is not. When you’re experiencing very high-or very low director turnover. If your board is struggling to keep up with orienting new members each year, or if it needs to break out of its routine to advance your credit union and its mission, a targeted assessment may gather the intelligence necessary to shift lanes. When you have not done an assessment in the last three years. Simply stated, best practices indicate that there should be regular assessment to ensure that your board, culture and governance are fine-tuned and prepared to shoulder the responsibilities of exceptional leadership and service to your credit union. Where do you start once you have recognized the need to undertake an assessment? Although most groups, including ours, will tailor assessments to the needs and issues facing your specific credit union, there are a few general types of assessment to keep in mind. Assessment of the board “as a whole” Review of board committees Assessment of board officers including the chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer and committee chairs Self-assessment by individual board members, which may also include peer-to-peer evaluation Appraisal and review of CEO Risk assessment to address such topics as financial risk, strategic planning and risks associated with growing technologically Assessment in and of itself is strongly recommended (CUES and Quantum Governance together offer a survey-only assessment tool ). But in our recently published The State of Credit Union Governance 2018 report , we discovered that credit unions that don’t undertake a more comprehensive assessment at some point may receive results that skew almost exclusively positive. Such a skewed and rosy viewpoint could prevent some credit unions from taking necessary and corrective action. In many cases, a full governance assessment inclusive of surveys, interviews and document review is essential to truly understanding the challenges facing your credit union. Since we don’t know, what we don’t know, we need to stay curious. Asking critical questions of yourselves and holding yourselves accountable is the only way to ensure the success of your governance and leadership efforts, as well as its impact on your community. Previous Next

< Back The State Of Credit Union Governance 2020: A Summary Jennie Boden Apr 2, 2020 For years, we’ve dreamt of studying the state of credit union governance. We know what you’re thinking: Dream bigger. Some people dream of European vacations. Fast cars. Beach houses. But for governance geeks like us, it’s often all about the data. In 2018, we were fortunate to partner with CUES to realize our dream, and The State of Credit Union Governance, 2018 was published. We made some groundbreaking discoveries, like reporting that board members and CEOs frequently differ on their perceptions about governance—and that their perceptions diverge even further based on tenure. We even found that bigger really may be better: Board members and CEOs of CUs with assets of $1 billion or greater had statistically and significantly higher survey scores overall on 18 of the 21 key questions asked concerning matters of governance. And we were satisfied, for a while. But our compendium of data kept growing, and our drive to create more information for you, our colleagues, clients and friends throughout the credit union community, was compelling. Today, we are pleased to announce The State of Credit Union Governance, 2020, which provides updated figures for 2018-2019 and draws on data from the governance assessment of 115 additional credit unions—114 in the U.S. and one based in Jamaica—to enrich the findings from our 2018 report. This year’s report is a collaboration between CUES, Quantum Governance and The David and Sharon Johnston Centre for Corporate Governance and Innovation at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Our findings are also derived from a supplemental online survey conducted in September 2019 with responses from 320 directors and CEOs across 170 U.S. credit unions. While many of the key findings from 2018 still ring true today (if you haven’t read the 2018 report , we encourage you to begin there), the 2020 report is full of new discoveries that will challenge you and your credit union to new levels of governance excellence. 2020 Key Findings Board Structure and Composition: Demographic diversity was identified as the number one priority for credit union board recruitment (53%). The next highest priority identified when recruiting new members to credit union boards was an ability to focus on the future (51%). (See Figure 1.) Board members continue to think that soft skills, such as an ability to focus on the future (76%) and independent mindedness (66%), are most valuable in the boardroom. Credit union boards are more gender-diverse than their counterparts in other sectors. The average credit union board has nine members, of which three are women (36%) and one is a visible minority (16%). Board Governance: Credit union boards that focus on bolstering their governance tend to adopt a governance committee more readily than those that do not have a concerted focus on good governance. When looking closely at the 1,060 director responses in our sample, we found that directors on the same board would often report very different—and sometimes opposing—perspectives on their board’s effectiveness in four fundamental areas of board renewal: 1) periodic governance assessment; 2) the action plan based on governance assessment outcomes; 3) the director onboarding process; and 4) the frequency of board member renewal. Board Leadership: Survey respondents identified seven important leadership functions for board chairs that fall within two primary categories: 1) establishing processes (e.g., allocating time, setting the agenda, etc.); and 2) working with people (e.g., appointing committee members and chairs). Although most survey participants report that their boards do not limit the number of terms a board chair can serve, we found that more than a third do. Term limits for board chairs can range anywhere from a year to more than 10 years. More than half of the participants whose boards have a term limit in place for their chairs reported limits of less than five years. An impressive 92% of all surveyed board members report that their board is effective at maintaining a good working relationship with their CEO. However, as in the 2018 report, the average board member and CEO differed on how effective they thought their boards were on a range of key governance measures. In 2020, across the 81 surveyed CUs that provided a CEO response, we found that there’s disagreement between the board and CEO regarding the board’s effectiveness on 22 out of 49 survey questions, on average. Credit Union Strategy: We found that 32% of survey respondents do not feel that their board is effective in helping to develop the credit union’s vision, mission and strategy. Most survey respondents say they should slash—by a third—the average time they spend on routine items and operational oversight (i.e., items that do not require debate or can be approved with a single motion as on a consent agenda) and invest an average of 10% more of their time on strategic matters. (See Figure 2.) Decision-Making: Many credit unions have at least one director who says that the board is ineffective at asking hard questions (53%), holding each other accountable (54%) or engaging all members in the work of the board (49%). While directors had misgivings about how decisions are reached, most believe the decisions their boards made were ultimately good, and they could stand by them and speak with one voice. Recommendations Since many of the findings from the 2018 report remain relevant, we encourage you to revisit those recommendations as a baseline; they will serve you well as strong building blocks for any governance program. From there, we would encourage you to consider our newest recommendations from the 2020 report: Board Renewal: Focus on strategic thinking and independent mindedness. Your credit union is a complex financial institution navigating the era of greatest change in the history of the credit union movement. As a result, your board requires meaningful financial literacy, business acumen and specialized skills in such specialties as law, accounting and human resources. However, even boards with the most skilled members will fail to add value without independent mindedness and strategic thinking. Board Diversity: More than ever, credit unions are acknowledging the value of demographic diversity among board members, including gender, race/ethnicity and age. However talking about it as a priority is not enough. To ensure that your board is truly diverse, you will need to be clear in your objectives and work hard at executing them. Once you know the demographic balance you are looking for, you will need a plan to help you find the right people. Board Leadership: Take your board chair position very seriously. Although your CEO is responsible for carrying out your credit union’s strategy on a day-to-day basis, no individual in your credit union has more potential to add value than your board chair. Ensure that you have a robust, concrete job description in place for this important position. Board Governance: Build alignment around what “effective” truly means. It is both normal and constructive for board members to disagree. One might argue that without disagreement there can be no excellent decisions. In too many cases, however, our data highlights boards where one or more directors have assessed the board’s effectiveness at polar opposite ends of the spectrum. Ensure that you are engaging in these types of conversations in the boardroom—what does “effective” really look like for you? Strategic Thinking, Learning and Planning: Invest more time in strategic matters. The most valuable skill identified in credit union boardrooms today is the ability to focus on the future, yet we found that 32% of survey respondents do not feel that their board is effective in helping to develop the credit union’s vision, mission and strategy. Ensure that your board is doing everything it can to be effective in this fundamental role and responsibility. Previous Next

Services We are a team of experts in the fields of governance and strategy designed to help nonprofits, credit unions, associations and foundations realize the full potential of their missions. Our team provides assessment, consulting, planning, facilitation and implementation services to cooperative and nonprofit organizations of all sizes. Quantum Governance is an L3C, a low-profit, limited-liability service organization dedicated to the public good. Founded over a decade ago, our mission is to partner with mission-driven leaders to enhance governance and strategy effectiveness for exceptional outcomes. What We Offer Governance Governance Assessment Leadership Culture Assessment CEO Evaluation Peer-to-Peer Evaluations Director Skills Inventory Board Succession Planning and more! Learn More Small Credit Unions The Governance Check-Up Governance Skill Building Governance Evolution Learn More Strategic Planning Strategic Planning Facilitation Defining Your Vision & Mission Identifying Strategic Goals and more! Learn More Additional Services Bylaw & Policy Development Keynote Presentations and more! Learn More Why Choose Quantum Governance? We have an exceptional reputation among credit unions, nonprofits, associations, foundations and leagues. We've developed proprietary, best-in-class assessment tools , robust and insightful data and unparalleled deliverables from our contemporary Policy Library to our research and reports. We have experience working with hundreds of credit unions, nonprofits, associations, foundations and leagues from the very small to those with more than $33 billion in assets domestically and internationally. We are constructive partners and collaborators enthusiastically learning about your organization to efficiently deliver both short-term results and long-term evolution. We are lifelong learners and curious researchers dedicated to sharing our knowledge and expertise to strengthen the credit union industry as a whole through The State of Credit Union Governance report series. Let's talk about your organization's needs. Contact Us

About Quantum Governance, L3C Our Vision Exceptional Leadership for Mission-Driven Organizations. Our Mission Partnering with mission-driven leaders to enhance governance and strategy effectiveness for exceptional outcomes. Meet Our Team Who We Are Founded over a decade ago, Quantum Governance is an L3C, a low-profit, limited-liability service organization dedicated to the public good. We are experts in governance and strategy. Our work is designed to help organizations realize the full potential of their missions. Our team provides assessment, consulting, planning, facilitation and implementation services to mission-driven organizations of all sizes. Quantum Governance is a Callahan company. Click here to learn more. Our Values Authenticity. We are committed to being truth tellers, knowing that candor empowers our clients to better fulfill their vision and mission. Compassion. We connect with empathy, kindness and respect. Innovation. We strive for creative and nimble ways of thinking, doing and growing. Diversity. We advocate for the enrichment that diverse backgrounds,experiences and perspectives provide in shaping better outcomes for everyone. Inclusivity. We value the unique insights and contributions of each individual. Dependability. We honor our commitments and build trust through consistently responsible actions. Excellence. We set – and then work to exceed – the standard of what is being asked or expected to produce work of the highest quality.

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< Back Desert Wildlife Conservation This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. This is placeholder text. To change this content, double-click on the element and click Change Content. Want to view and manage all your collections? Click on the Content Manager button in the Add panel on the left. Here, you can make changes to your content, add new fields, create dynamic pages and more. You can create as many collections as you need. Your collection is already set up for you with fields and content. Add your own, or import content from a CSV file. Add fields for any type of content you want to display, such as rich text, images, videos and more. You can also collect and store information from your site visitors using input elements like custom forms and fields. Be sure to click Sync after making changes in a collection, so visitors can see your newest content on your live site. Preview your site to check that all your elements are displaying content from the right collection fields. Power in Numbers 30 Programs 50 Locations 200 Volunteers Project Gallery Previous Next