By Lisa Hochgraf

CUES Annual Convention has always been a favorite director development conference. Slated for June 21-23 in Orlando, this year's event promises to be "non-stop" in a couple of key ways.

Non-stop travel. Many people will be able to get to CUES Annual Convention on a direct flight. (Even I can do this from my cute little airport here in Rochester, N.Y.!)

By Tim McAlpine

Graduate from university, get an entry level position and make your way up through the ranks to the executive suite. Put in the time toiling in your cube and someday the corner office with the view of the parking lot will be yours. That's how it works in the credit union industry. Right?

That's one way, but there might be another path worth considering.

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

This morning my senior vice president, Barb Kachelski, added a new word to my lexicon: think-o.

According to Barb, a think-o is "like a typo but the totally wrong word." So if you say paradise instead of paradox, for example, that's a think-o.

I e-mailed Barb saying  I loved the new term and planned to use it--often.

When Barb e-mailed back, she changed my world. "May it foster a culture of learning!" she wrote.

By Lisa Hochgraf

Everyone at CUES is singing the praises of Bill Cheney this week, excited about his upcoming role as president/CEO of CUNA.

CUES and Cheney, currently president/CEO of the California/Nevada Credit Union League, go way back, and all the stories are good.

We first knew him as an up-and-coming credit union executive, who quickly stepped into the top slot at then Xerox Federal Credit Union (which has locations here in Rochester, N.Y., near this telecommuter's home office, and is now called Xceed Financial.)

Posted by Lisa Hochgraf

Even from afar, this telecommuter could tell that CUES was recently abuzz with the making of its first-ever Web video.

It felt like my colleagues were saying, "Wow! We're doing our first video. We have to make it really creative. Maybe we can make it funny. Let's make sure it's just right for promoting the launch of our online challenge and our new membership offering." 

And I have to say they accomplished just what they set out to do.

By Barb Kachelski, CAE

By Lisa Hochgraf

By Christopher Stevenson

Rob Rutkowski, managing partner of the credit union department of Weltman, Weinberg & Reis Co., L.P.A, last week shared a great post on his blog on the value of traveling to conferences and other educational events. He says:

By Dan Clark

In times like these, with bottom lines in trouble, I've seen many boards increase the amount of information they request. The belief seems to be, the more confusing things get, more information will help.

The case is the opposite. The more confusing things get, the more focused we need to become.