Press

MEMBERS Development Company demonstrates strength, thought leadership in most successful owner meeting yet

COLUMBUS, OH (February 25, 2019) — Fueled by its recent growth, the success of multiple pilot projects and the internal development of several new ideas, MEMBERS Development Company (MDC), a research and development CUSO dedicated to delivering meaningful solutions to the 21st-century demands of consumers, held its largest-ever semi-annual owner meeting in San Diego, Calif. on February 5 and 6.Nearly 260 attendees, including over 180 owner representatives, gatheredin San Diego’s historic Gaslamp Quarter to discuss the organization’s recent successes, share new learnings and network with one another.

The meeting’s agenda was packed with over 20diverse presentations and discussions from MDC’s project partners, A-List industry speakers and fellow owners. Topics included successful results from a pilot project using a chatbot to serve prospective members, the cybersecurity risks posed by internet-enabled devices,guidance on how to best implement robotic process automation within the credit union environment, a keynote from Guy Adami of CNBC’s “Fast Money”, an expert panel discussion on best practices for CUs engaging with fintechs and more.

“We are very proud of both the agenda we had for this meeting and the value our owners consistently get out ofour two meetings each year, which is reflected not only in the positive feedback from owners, but also in the fact that owner attendance keeps growing,” said Sarah Lietz, MDC’s VP ofOwner Engagement.

In the twelve monthsbefore the meeting, MDC grew its ownership by 17 credit unions to a total of 69 owners. It also placed a cap on ownership in an effort to both keep the relationships in its network close and ensure that each individual owner’s voice remained strong within the organization. With 68 out of the 69 owners attending andsending an average of almost three representatives each, this year’s winter meeting was the largest yet.

“From an owner and board perspective, we are incredibly pleased with the accomplishments MDC has made in recent years both in terms of the network’s growth and the quality of the results we’ve produced,” said Tom Moore, EVP of BCU and MDC’s new Board Chair. “The pricing arrangements MDCestablishes with the vendors who complete successful pilots alone make our ownership valuable, but the real benefit is in the communal learning and collaboration. Credit unions only have an 8% market share in the United States, and the CUs in the MDC network have their eye on the other 92%. Coming together at our owner meetings and working together on MDC projects is how we cooperate in that effort.”

The February owner meeting also included pitches from the participants of MDC’sNextUP program, which delivered industry-leading innovation training to over 50 representatives from MDC’s ownership and then guided five teams in developing a new project idea for MDC’s network to take on over the past eight months.

“NextUP is an incredible and exclusive professional development experience for credit union professionals. Not only do they get the innovation training and the experience of developing new ideas from scratch, butthey also pitch the ideas to 200 of their colleagues at an owner meeting. During these eight months,they also build a strong network of peers at other leading credit unions by working together on their ideas,” said Kent Zimmer, MDC’s Director of Finance and the NextUP program leader.

MDC staff are capitalizing on the time they spent with MDC’s owners this month as the organization continues its mission to lead the credit union industry in research, thought leadership, innovation and development driven by its owners.

“The best part of these meetings for us is the opportunity to get face time with each of our owners, see their reactions to our ideas and get a real feel for where our ownership thinks we should be investing their dollars,” said MDC CEO Jeff Kline. “We come back fromowner meetings with confidence that we are heading in the right direction and that we know which course corrections we need to make to maximize value for our owners.”

MDC’s next semi-annual owner meeting will be held in Chicago on August 6 and 7.

Tom Moore

Sarah Lietz

Kent Zimmer

Jeff Kline


About MEMBERS Development Company

MDC is the credit union network’s multi-million-dollar R&D department. We scan the  horizon, research the issues, and create actionable solutions to solve problems for today – and tomorrow. By pooling the resources of 84 credit union and CUSO owners, MDC is able to deliver meaningful solutions efficiently and affordably. We learn the lessons of what  does and doesn’t work — without exhausting our owners’ budgets and resources for  exploration and development. We also believe that our research must be driven by our  owners, for our owners. While we do the heavy lifting, our credit union and CUSO owners  both advise and participate in the work not just investors, but as trusted partners. 

Contacts

Merideth Miller, M2 The Agency
281-882-3045
pr@m2theagency.com

Kristen Jones, MDC
Kristen.jones@membersdevelopment.com

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