The 2025 shutdown was the longest on record but another could be coming quickly if Congress can’t reach a deal to fund the government before Jan. 31, 2026. If that happens, thousands of federal workers across the country will once again be furloughed or forced to work without pay until lawmakers reach a deal.

Whatever happens, FedChoice has a game plan. The Maryland-based cooperative has been here plenty of times before — after all, about 73% of it current membership has the potential to be impacted in these scenarios.

“Every time a shutdown looks like it’s coming up, we grab a cross-functional team and start having conversations because it’s not a singular impact for the credit union, it’s an across-the-board impact,” says Christine Wright, vice president of marketing.

That team typically comprises 17 employees from across the organization, including lending, business intelligence, the call center, fraud and compliance, and more.

The team meets at least once each week during the shutdown, although departmental teams may meet more frequently. The shutdown team goes round-robin style discussing what each team is seeing, pain points, where help is needed, and more.

“We triage,” says Al Gregory, vice president of lending. “If consumer lending is backed up, we assign people while all the stakeholders are together. It’s a lot easier than doing that by email or committee.”

A running Teams chat also helps keep different departments abreast of new developments and emerging issues.

Low-Hanging Fruit

One of the key focuses of the shutdown team is finding “low-hanging fruit,” or easy fixes to help members and staff.

“The lowest-hanging fruit we had [during the fall shutdown] was taking care of our coworkers — their mental health, their workloads,” Gregory says. “We have to make sure they’re just as well taken care of as our members.”

FedChoice took in 40% of its annual application volume (either membership or lending) during the 43-day shutdown. Approved loans totaled more than $2.6 million in that time, which meant employees were scrambling to process loans. One easy fix for members and employees alike was a new underwriting matrix intended to speed up the loan-origination process.

Member feedback shows even government employees who are members of other credit unions turn to FedChoice because it helps when others can’t or won’t, or it is simply faster, Gregory says.

The shutdown team also works across departments to understand the most common pain points the credit union needs to monitor to serve members most effectively. That was especially important in the last shutdown.

“We did the best we could,” Gregory says. “None of us knew this was going to last this long, but we worked together to get the right reporting out because the board wants to see this stuff, the executive committee wants to see this stuff, and all the employees do, too.”

Another Round Around The Corner?

The team’s work changed as the 2025 shutdown dragged on.

At the outset, the focus was almost business as usual from a product and process perspective, Wright says. But as the shutdown dragged on, the credit union became more data-driven to find inefficiencies and close gaps to improve service. • That covered everything from tweaking lending guidelines to rethinking staff notifications and more. Although the team could do some of that in-house, it also turned to FedChoice’s LOS from MeridianLink for reports from the Insights platform.

Gregory points out that staff also spotted issues in loan queues, and such feedback from staff helped improve processes.

“We were transparent that if something isn’t going right, bring it to the group,” he says. “We want less of that sidebar chatter, and the only way we can do that is to identify what needs to be fixed and fix it quickly.”

The shutdown team recently held a post-mortem with an eye toward making tweaks in advance of another possible shutdown at the end of this month.

“We have the opportunity for this to be back-to-back, without a lot of downtime in between,” Wright says. “If this one happens we need to take a hard look at the impacts of the last one on the membership. Part of what we did in the post-mortem is look at how members responded. We don’t have a lot of breathing room as we face the potential of another shutdown, so what are the impacts if we put everything back into place, both for FedChoice and for our members?”

Lessons Learned

FedChoice operated with a TIP charter for many years, a move that spread its employee base well beyond the DC Metro, and transitioned to a multiple common bond charter in mid-2025. One of the ways it showed up for its SEG partners was by hosting an on-site food truck to provide lunch for federal employees. All the credit union required was an employee badge.

“We didn’t have as many people as we wanted, but it was a great recharge for staff and an opportunity to connect with members one-on-one,” Wright says. “We talked about loans and mental health, and lunch was on us.”

Beyond finding those opportunities for connection and relaxation, Gregory adds that the biggest lesson in these situations is to simply remember to breathe.

“Remember that the folks working with you are your teammates and not your enemies,” he says. “When you need to take a lap, take a lap; when you need to breathe, take a walk outside and come back to it. Those 300 applications in your queue will still be there.”

He adds, “There is a light at the end of the tunnel — and it’s not a train.”

The post FedChoice Is Ready For The Next Government Shutdown – Whenever It Comes appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

HR executives tasked with guiding both culture and execution now find themselves helping employees understand how to use these tools confidently and responsibly while assuaging fears that these same tools will render them irrelevant in the workplace.

But a sweet spot is emerging, one that relies on messaging as much as machines. When employees participate in pilots, observe the real pain points addressed, and hear clearly that people — not technology — remain the focus, apprehension tends to give way to comfort and even experimentation.

HR leaders are navigating this revolution in real time. They explain where AI is already embedded in their organizations and how they’re preparing their teams to survive and thrive as these tools grow more capable and more common.

Foster Curiosity To Alleviate Fear

Laurie Butz joined Capital Credit Union ($2.7B, Green Bay, WI) as president and CEO in November 2021. She has been a SHRM Certified Senior Professional in HR since 1995.

Butz says her credit union uses generative AI as an efficiency play, automating routine tasks, improving search accuracy, and supporting faster decision-making. Its tools learn from employee behavior to deliver better procedures, create stronger first drafts for training materials, and automate workflow without impacting IT resources.

Capital also uses AI to analyze feedback from exit surveys to highlight trends and help leaders act on real concerns. In marketing, tools like Jasper support brand consistency, speed up content creation, and provide ready-to-use templates for campaigns and website updates.

How is your organization addressing employee fears and resistance around AI adoption?

Laurie Butz: Employees develop proficiency through hands-on tool usages. Our team members have trained on AI technologies, specifically Microsoft Copilot, under the guidance of a Microsoft-certified AI engineer.

At Capital, we foster a culture of curiosity and continuous improvement, therefore we haven’t encountered a lot of fear and resistance around AI in the workforce. For us, automation and support aren’t a threat to job security, so it hasn’t been perceived as something to be feared.

How important are education and open discussion in addressing barriers? How do you incorporate those strategies?

LB: We had Microsoft come on site and lead AI training for all our leaders. Now, we actively encourage leveraging AI to advance our objectives. We expect our senior leadership team to continuously seek opportunities to integrate AI into our processes and team strategies.

What strategies or tools are effective for upskilling employees and bridging the AI skills gap?

LB: Capital ran workshops to teach team members how to use Copilot for business tasks. The sessions familiarized participants with the tool, including creating AI-generated images. The aim was to show how AI can support their daily work and idea generation.

How are you leveraging AI in HR functions — like recruiting, performance management, or succession planning — while maintaining fairness and compliance?

LB:  We’ve enabled BryteAI, an AI module for our HR system designed to help leaders draft job descriptions. We process HR transactions via a conversational bot, and we write performance reviews with AI support.

There Is No AI Skills Gap

Ken Gardner has been with Greater Texas Federal Credit Union ($957.3M, Austin, TX) for 13 years, the past four in his current role as assistant vice president for HR.

Gardner has been helping the HR team adopt AI for daily operations such as drafting communications, improving processes, and strengthening the employee experience across the enterprise and its subsidiary, Aggieland Credit Union, in College Station.

His team is testing 11 custom GPT Assistants from OpenAI for launch in 2026. The assistants will guide employees and managers through policies, benefits, reviews, and core HR processes.

How is your organization addressing employee fears and resistance around AI adoption?

Ken Gardner: We envision AI as augmenting human work much like computers did in the 1980s and 1990s. Just as that technological shift transformed how people worked, AI will do the same. It’s clear that AI will replace some jobs, particularly within large organizations.

For credit unions of our size, we see AI as an opportunity, not a threat. It will help us manage headcount growth as we scale, allowing our teams to focus on higher-value work that requires creativity, empathy, and judgment. That’s why we’re placing greater emphasis on hiring employees who are adaptable and bring strong human skills to the table, skills that technology cannot replicate.

How important are education and open discussion in addressing barriers? How do you incorporate those strategies?

KG: For adoption, it comes down to showing people how AI can make their work better. Demos help, but what truly builds buy-in is giving people tools that solve real, repetitive, and often frustrating problems. Once they experience those benefits firsthand, the hesitation about AI tends to fade and curiosity takes over.

What strategies or tools are effective for upskilling employees and bridging the AI skills gap?

KG: For most employees, there really isn’t an AI skills gap. What they need is exposure to practical use cases. Whether it’s ChatGPT or Copilot, these platforms use plain language prompts that anyone can learn. That accessibility alone eliminates most of the perceived gap. The real challenge isn’t a lack of skill, it’s fear or resistance to change.

When it comes to developing AI internally, design thinking matters far more than coding skills. The real differentiator is thoughtful design: defining a clear use case, creating effective starter prompts, and making smart decisions on the back end to prevent errors and guide users.

For example, in the handbook assistant we recently built, we added clickable starter prompts to help employees begin a conversation. They include, “I’m new to the company, what should I know?” “What should I know about our benefits?” “What are our PTO policies?” and “I want to know more about FMLA.” This kind of design lowers the learning curve and helps employees feel more confident using AI.

As AI takes over more manual and repetitive work, it will naturally create more opportunities for employees to grow their soft skills such as adaptability, problem-solving, and communication. Those are the skills that will matter most in the future, and we are being intentional about hiring and developing people with these skills.

How are you leveraging AI in HR functions — like recruiting, performance management, or succession planning — while maintaining fairness and compliance?

KG: We’ve decided to limit AI in recruiting. Hiring is one of the most human parts of HR, and we want to preserve that personal connection. We are leveraging AI assistants to help create job descriptions, recruiting ads, and interview questions. These tools save time and ensure our materials are clear, consistent, and aligned with our standards.

In performance management, we’re developing an AI assistant that helps employees and managers complete performance reviews. It guides the employee through a series of methodical questions to build their self-review, then uses that input to prompt the manager with targeted questions that weave in relevant themes and feedback.

I’m particularly excited about this because it will significantly reduce the time spent writing reviews and shift the focus toward the actual performance conversation, one that is developmental and engaging rather than just checking the box.

Ultimately, fairness and compliance come from thoughtful design and human oversight. We use AI to streamline processes, not to make final decisions. Our goal is to enhance objectivity and efficiency while keeping people and our core values at the center of every HR process.

Employee Input For Better Output

Ami Iceman-Haueter has been with Michigan State University Federal Credit Union ($8.2B, East Lansing, MI) for seven years and for the past two and half has been chief research and digital experience officer.

Iceman-Haueter says MSUFCU is already using AI in several ways, most notably via virtual assistants Fran and Gene, who respectively support members and employees, enhancing the service experience for both groups.

How is your organization addressing employee fears and resistance around AI adoption?

Ami Iceman-Haueter: MSUFCU has been working with AI partners for several years, and we’ve included our employees in the process every step of the way. Our teams have been involved in everything from designing how our AI systems work to testing them before they’re launched to our members or broader employee base.

We place a strong focus on communication before introducing any new AI-related products or services, helping employees understand how these tools enhance efficiency while emphasizing the importance of keeping humans at the center of our approach.

Involving employees throughout this journey has allowed us to scale several projects, including virtual agents. Sharing the results and impact of these initiatives has been one of our greatest successes.

How important are education and open discussion in addressing barriers? How do you incorporate those strategies?

AIH: Education has been an effective tool, but it alone cannot create change within the organization. That change comes from our leadership team, our employees, and our shared commitment to understanding that AI is part of our toolbox, not a replacement for human talent.

We’ve spent significant time helping employees and managers see AI as a partner in their work while reinforcing that it’s not perfect and we remain responsible for the information it produces. Transparency has been key. Being open about our intent, strategy, and goals for AI has helped our employees feel more comfortable. They understand why we’re embracing AI, how we plan to use it, and exactly where they fit into that strategy.

What strategies or tools are effective for upskilling employees and bridging the AI skills gap?

AIH: We have made AI education a standard part of our training package. We’re also rolling out department-specific use cases and piloting ways to understand what information is most valuable for our managers, leaders, employees, and even interns.

This helps us bridge gaps thoughtfully and tailor AI tools to each access point. Different departments will use AI in different ways, some for automated decision-making and others in service capacities.

The most important part is identifying use cases that support our team’s everyday work. At the same time, we continue to invest in all other areas of training to keep skills and competencies strong across the organization. Our goal is to maintain a healthy balance between problem-solving with AI and problem-solving independently while helping every employee build the skills they need to grow in their careers.

How are you leveraging AI in HR functions — like recruiting, performance management, or succession planning — while maintaining fairness and compliance?

AIH: We’re not currently using AI in recruiting beyond helping to draft job postings. AI supported the development of our performance management program, and some managers might use it as a tool to help complete parts of the process. AI also played a role in creating our succession planning program, and we use it in several of our payroll processes as well.

Fight Fear With Fun

Rachel Schaming is a longtime executive coach and organizational consultant who has served We Florida Financial Credit Union ($719.5M, Pembroke Pines, FL) as its chief human resources officer for the past five years.

Schaming says the Florida shop uses gen AI to streamline loan applications, call center work, and deposit processes. For example, AI cuts loan decisioning time by 50%, speeding up member service and reducing manual review.

In HR, AI tools help create and update job descriptions, craft postings, screen resumes, draft policies, and write newsletter content, saving an estimated 30% of the time spent on these essential HR tasks. The credit union’s Innovation Team has also built two AI apps that give the workforce quick access to procedures, policies, and updates so they can find the information they need without delay.

How is your organization addressing employee fears and resistance around AI adoption?

RS: We use Kahoot quizzes and word searches to make AI technology fun. Our intention is to help employees see that learning new skills can be fun and create new ways to serve our members more efficiently.

What strategies or tools are effective for upskilling employees and bridging the AI skills gap?

RS: Employees are aware that our board requires us to provide a document indicating progress in upskilling with a particular focus on technology and AI competencies. We have an Individual Development Plan (IDP) process that is tied to our performance management software.

How are you leveraging AI in HR functions — like recruiting, performance management, or succession planning — while maintaining fairness and compliance?

RS: Over the past couple of years, we have held team and individual meetings to show employees how AI can enhance their job competencies with increased efficiency. We require all employees to include an AI course in their IDP. Because we require all employees at every level to include technology and AI coursework in their IDPs, we’ve had minimal resistance to learning the new technologies. 

Interviews have been edited and condensed.

Let’s Join Forces To Navigate AI In HR. Faster changes in technology make peer insight more valuable than ever. Callahan creates spaces for credit union HR leaders to connect, compare approaches, and improve performance through programs like roundtables, live webinars, ready-to-use documents, and more. Learn more about Callahan’s programs today.

The post How AI Is Shaping HR For The Next Era appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Welcome to 2026.

Out with the old, in with the new, as they say. That includes a new rule from the NCUA requiring federally insured credit unions to have written succession plans for key roles, including the leadership team and board of directors. With that in mind, this week’s content on CreditUnions.com is all about succession planning, skills and talent development, and how the industry is creating the next generation of credit union leaders.

Check out of coverage of:

• How Patelco revamped its succession planning strategy well beyond the C-suite.
• The top challenges to developing leadership capabilities.
• Four credit unions’ strategies for overcoming the AI skills gap.
• What the gap between board recruitment priorities and the most valuable skills in the boardroom means for credit unions.
• How the NCUA’s succession planning rule elevates the strategic role of credit union boards.

What about you? How is your credit union addressing succession planning and recruitment? Drop us a line and we could feature your story on CreditUnions.com.

The post Now’s The Time For Credit Union Succession Planning appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

CHALLENGES TO DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP CAPABILITIES
FOR 1,159 BUSINESS LEADERS | DATA AS OF MARCH 2025
SOURCE: HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

For credit unions, the importance of leadership development goes beyond staffing; it safeguards the mission and strengthens member value. Strong leadership development strategies help reduce disruption during leadership transitions and ensure credit unions are well-managed and future-ready. Understanding where gaps exist can be a low-hanging fruit that pays dividends when paired with a clear strategy. For credit unions looking to establish a succession plan, research from Gallup encourages organizations to think outside the box by assessing readiness and defining stages of development.

These principles come to life in practical strategies credit unions are using to strengthen leadership pipelines and retain top talent.

Strategic Insights

• Nearly 50% of organizations struggle with leadership development due to lack of time and unclear skill gaps, according to the HBR study. The pandemic and the Great Resignation taught credit unions that keeping great employees means meeting them where they are and investing in their development regardless of where they sit. “That means offering virtual conferences, webinars, online training — all with the same energy we used to bring to in-person programs,” says Lori Smith, chief human resources officer at Community First Credit Union of Florida ($2.9B, Jacksonville, FL).
• Companies that invest in leadership growth report higher engagement and lower turnover, especially in competitive talent markets. At Chartway FCU ($3.2B, Virginia Beach, VA), an emerging leaders is helping to create a strong internal leadership pipeline. “We wanted intentionality around retention and building a strong internal leadership pipeline for succession planning,” says Jill Edsall, director of learning and talent development.  “This program identifies a pocket of high performers where we can invest more time and energy.”
• Organizations that link leadership development to business strategy build stronger succession pipelines. Talent development is a key area of succession planning strategy at Patelco ($9.5B, Dublin, CA). The credit union has a three-tiered system that identifies employees it wants to retain, those ready for new roles and responsibilities, and those who need professional support. “We have clear expectations for our leaders based on talent assessments, cross-functional calibration, and transparent plans communicated to the individual,” says Susan Makris, Patelco’s chief people officer.

The post Is Your Credit Union Making Time For Leadership Development? appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

As credit unions nationwide grapple with meeting the NCUA’s new rule on succession planning, succession planning data from Quantum Governance, L3C, provides an understanding of what is needed to meet today’s governance challenges.

In the firm’s State of Credit Union Governance report, Quantum Governance asked two central questions:

1. What are the skills that add the most value in the boardroom?
2. What are the highest priorities when recruiting new board members?

The results are surprising.

WHAT BOARD MEMBERS VALUE IN THE BOARDROOM VS. WHAT IS PRIORITIZED IN RECRUITMENT
FOR STATE OF CREDIT UNION GOVERNANCE RESPONDENTS
SOURCE: Quantum Governance, L3C

Although Ability to focus on the future (prioritization 51% and value 76%) and Financial literacy (prioritization 50% and value 45%) fell in the top three responses for both questions, there was little alignment beyond this.

Most respondents prioritized Demographic diversity (53%) over Ability to focus on the future (51%). Hard skills like Financial literacy (50%), Specific operational expertise (48%) and Professional services expertise (43%) rounded out the top five responses.

But on the question of what skills add the most value, the respondents told a different story. Only one of the top five responses — Financial literacy (45%) — was related to hard skills; the remaining skills were human skills like Ability to focus on the future (76%), Independent mindedness (66%), Understands the membership (44%) and Consensus building (38%).

Strategic Insights

• Credit unions are not aligning their recruitment efforts with what they value most in the boardroom, but they should.
• The most valued skill in the boardroom is Ability to focus on the future — or directors with a strategic mindset.
• There is a shift away from valuing hard skills in the boardroom to valuing human skills.
• Financial literacy is the most valued hard skill in the boardroom.
• Although credit unions prioritize Demographic diversity most in terms of recruitment efforts, significantly fewer respondents actually value it.

The post Aligning Recruitment Efforts With Boardroom Value appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

The National Credit Union Administration’s new succession planning rule formally takes effect in January 2026. It’s an important regulatory milestone that underscores something many credit unions already know: strong, intentional governance is not optional; it is foundational to long‑term institutional health.

Although the rule requires federally insured credit unions to adopt and maintain a written succession plan for its CEO, C-suite and its board, its deeper purpose is far more strategic. It signals a shift toward more proactive, competency‑based leadership development across the cooperative system. For boards, this is an opportunity to strengthen governance practices, deepen alignment with organizational strategy, and ensure continuity in a rapidly evolving financial landscape.

To meet both the letter and the spirit of the rule, credit unions can focus on four core objectives that define effective board succession planning.

1. Establish An Ongoing Process That Is Fair, Transparent, Competency‑Based, And Inclusive. Then, Consistently Apply It.

Succession planning cannot be a one‑time exercise or yield a document that simply sits on a shelf. It must be a living process — one that is structured, malleable, and grounded in fairness and transparency.

A competency‑based approach ensures that director recruitment and development are tied to the skills and behaviors required for effective governance. When applied consistently, this approach builds trust among board members, reinforces the cooperative values of inclusion and equity, and supports leadership continuity during periods of transition.

2. Curate A Board Aligned With The Credit Union’s Strategic Goals

A high‑performing board is not simply a collection of well‑intentioned volunteers. It is a strategically curated leadership body whose collective skills, characteristics, and attributes align with the credit union’s long‑term direction.

This requires boards to:

• Consciously identify the competencies needed to advance the credit union’s strategy.
• Regularly assess board members’ current strengths and overall gaps on the board.
• Intentionally recruit directors who bring the right mix of expertise, lived experience, and perspective.

By purposefully shaping board composition, credit unions position themselves to navigate emerging risks, identify and then seize strategic growth opportunities, and remain relevant to the members they serve.

3. Build A Learning Culture Through Robust Evaluation And Ongoing Education

The new NCUA rule reinforces what strong boards already practice: learning is not optional for governance excellence.

A culture of continuous learning includes:

• Regular, structured board and individual director evaluations.
• Honest reflection on performance and effectiveness.
• Targeted education that strengthens governance competencies for the board as a whole and for individual directors.
• Opportunities for directors to deepen their understanding of industry trends, regulatory expectations, and strategic issues.

When boards embrace learning as a shared responsibility, they elevate their collective performance and strengthen their ability to guide the credit union through complexity and change.

4. Reinforce Accountability By Addressing Concerns Raised in Assessments

Evaluation without follow‑through is merely an exercise in futility. Effective succession planning requires boards to act on what assessments reveal — whether those insights relate to skill gaps, behavioral concerns, or opportunities for improved collaboration.

Addressing issues directly and constructively requires a culture of accountability. It also ensures that board service remains a meaningful, high‑impact responsibility aligned with the credit union’s mission and member expectations.

The NCUA’s succession planning rule is more than a compliance requirement. It is an invitation for credit unions to strengthen their governance frameworks, invest in leadership continuity, and build boards that are prepared for the future. In short, it can turn what can often be a risk for many into a strategic advantage.

By embracing fair and transparent processes, curating strategically aligned leadership, fostering a culture of learning, and reinforcing accountability, credit unions can turn this regulatory moment into a powerful catalyst for long‑term organizational resilience.

Quantum Governance is an L3C, a low-profit, limited-liability service organization, founded more than a decade ago and dedicated to the public good. Its experts in governance and strategy help organizations realize the full potential of their missions via assessment, consulting, planning, facilitation, and implementation services to mission-driven organizations of all sizes. 

The post Preparing For 2026: Why The NCUA’s New Succession Planning Rule Elevates The Strategic Role Of Credit Union Boards appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Makris has good reason to be enthusiastic about Patelco’s plans. In an effort to better position itself for success, the credit union has shifted away from the “9 box” and other traditional succession planning metrics over the past decade.

“We were spending more time having conversations about the box someone was assessed to than talking about the capabilities and needs we have today and in the future,” Makris says.

With that in mind, she and other credit union leaders met with the board to review the entire talent-management process, including succession planning and leadership frameworks. That was crucial not only for succession-planning efforts but also the additional regulatory requirements that will come into play when Patelco passes the $10 billion asset threshold.

The result is a simpler, three-tiered evaluation that classifies leaders at the director level and higher in one of three buckets:

• Top Talent/Next Gen: Leaders who have already mastered their current role and have the ability to take on work of a greater scale or scope. The credit union is likely to promote this individual within the next two years and wants to provide continued development opportunities.
• Key Talent/Pro In Place: These employees will continue to develop in their current role, with some growth and development opportunities available as warranted
• Monitor/Transition: These leaders might be challenged in their learning; the credit union will assess them for today and the future.

“We have clear expectations for our leaders based on talent assessments, cross-functional calibration, and transparent plans communicated to the individual,” Makris says.

The “Next Gen” pool includes eight to 12 people at the vice president level or above who could be promoted to senior vice president or a role on the executive leadership team within two years. That includes investments to help those staffers grow, whether it’s conference attendance, leadership programs, training and certification, and more. Those investments total anywhere from $2,500 to $10,000, but all go toward new opportunities and not the employee’s paycheck.

4 Key Agilities

Patelco’s training efforts contribute to a strong foundation for its long-term succession planning, where its work — for both planned and unplanned departures — all ties back to the strategic plan, cascading what’s expected of leadership down through the executive team.

At Patelco, leaders who want to progress must show strength in four specific agilities:

• Cognitive.
• Business.
• Execution.
• Leadership.

Demonstrated success here depends on how effectively a leader operates within those agilities and whether they have the capability to drive the business outcomes Patelco is looking for, Makris says.

That philosophy started with the CEO and executive leadership team and later spread to those at the vice president level and then at the director level.

Retention And Career Pathing

“We’ve always had the philosophy to hire not just for today but for tomorrow,” says Makris, who has been with Patelco since 2014. She adds that because the credit union is located so close to Silicon Valley, the war for talent is especially challenging, particularly as it relates to corporate functions like technology, HR, finance, and compliance.

“Those critical roles maybe aren’t directly front-facing but are super important in supporting our strategy and ensuring we have a safe and secure environment for our members,” she adds.

Patelco’s new strategy has helped retain talent that in the past might have gone to fintechs or other competitors, whereas a commitment to paying a living wage for those who aren’t yet senior leaders of the organization has helped retain lower-level staff.

“Our talent and succession program is imbedded in our ongoing talent-management program,” Makris says. “It’s not an event; it’s not once a year; it’s completely integrated in our year-round performance feedback.”

Patelco’s talent planning and leadership development is a subset of broader workforce strategies the credit union doubled down on a few years go as the pandemic subsided. Guided by a mission centered on financial health and wellbeing for members, CEO Erin Mendez and the board determined the credit union should be equally committed to those issues for team members.

“If we promote financial, physical, emotional, and career health as our four pillars that support overall wellbeing, how can we organically benefit from those efforts and experiences?” Makris says. “Ultimately, the objective is that our team members have experienced what it means to have financial health and wellbeing so they can deliver our purpose and mission to our members.”

The credit union formally rolled out that strategy in 2023. The work to support it has included more efforts around pay transparency, including ensuring team members are aware of the salary range for all positions, along with the skills and capabilities needed for roles. Staff can then develop plans to acquire the skills or certifications they need for specific roles if an opening becomes available, which can provide a path forward at the credit union.

“We’ve tried to lead with all four pillars,” Makris says. “If you have career pathing, we have good financial, physical, and emotional rewards to support the team member and ultimately give them opportunities to keep advancing.”

Looking For Succession Planning Inspiration? Callahan’s Executive Roundtables bring together HR leaders for candid, moment-in-time conversations on what’s working now and what’s next. Attend a roundtable, and you’ll leave with practical takeaways and a trusted peer network to call on long after the conversation ends. Learn more today.

The post How Patelco Credit Union Simplified Succession Planning appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Credit unions are navigating a period of rapid change. Retirements, along with unexpected departures, are putting pressure on organizations to maintain strong, stable leadership on both their senior management teams and board of directors. Yet despite this reality, succession planning often remains an afterthought instead of a strategic priority.

However, the days of treating succession planning as an optional initiative or a nice-to-have practice are officially over, particularly for federally insured credit unions. With the NCUA’s new succession planning rule that took effect on Jan. 1, 2026, every federally insured credit union must have written succession plans for their leadership team, board of directors, and all other key positions as designated by the board.

And that’s a good thing! The organizations that take a proactive approach to succession planning ensure they are not only compliant but also ready for whatever comes next.

Understanding The NCUA Succession Planning Rule

The NCUA’s new succession planning rule took effect on Jan. 1, 2026. All federally insured credit unions are now required to have written succession plans for their leadership team and board of directors. The NCUA has stated that the purpose of this new rule is to: (1) reduce the volume of voluntary mergers where a lack of succession planning is a factor, and (2) address the risk associated with the “Silver Tsunami” wave of baby boomer retirements.

The new rule requires credit unions to create written succession plans for all key positions, which includes:

• Members of the board of directors.
• Management officials and assistant management officials.
• Any other personnel the board deems critical given the credit union’s size, complexity, and risk of operations. This can include positions that might be critical due to planned changes in operations, supervisory landscape, or corporate structure.

At a minimum, the written succession plans must contain the following information for each key position listed above:

• The title of each covered position.
• The expiration of the incumbent’s term (if they, board members, are serving a term-limited capacity) or their anticipated vacancy date (for example, the incumbent’s expected retirement date or a year in which they anticipate leaving the board). An expected leave date is also required for management officials, assistant management officials, and other key roles. In conversations with NCUA officials, credit unions may use year ranges when adding their anticipated leave dates, such as <3 years, 4 to 6 years, 7 to 10 years, etc.
• The credit union’s plan for permanently filling vacancies for each of the covered positions.
• The credit union’s strategy for recruiting and developing candidates with the potential to assume the position.
• An estimate of the budgetary impacts of executing the succession plan. An exact figure is not required.

Succession plans are expected to be reviewed and updated, as necessary, no less than every 24 months. Best practice, however, is to review and update the plans at least annually, as a lot can change within your organization in a year. Many organizations are starting to meet with potential successors on a quarterly basis to ensure they are working through their development plans.

Also, it is important to note that the ruling does require all board members to be familiar with the credit union’s succession plans within six months of their appointment to the board.

By outlining exactly what must be documented and reviewed, the NCUA has made it clear that leadership and governance succession planning is no longer optional. But meeting the regulatory requirement is only one part of the equation. Understanding why succession planning matters is equally important!

What’s At Stake When Planning Gets Delayed

Every leadership team and board of directors evolves over time. Retirements, promotions, and unexpected departures can leave critical gaps — unless those changes are anticipated and prepared for in advance. When succession planning isn’t in place, credit unions may face:

• Disruptions in strategy, governance, and operations while roles sit unfilled.
• Not having developed internal candidates that could step up and lead a department/team or the organization when needed.
• A lower employee morale or anxiety across the organization as employees and board members question the future of the credit union.

Strong succession planning doesn’t just prevent these risks — it reinforces confidence and continuity at every level throughout the credit union.

Why Preparedness Matters More Today

Several industry realities are pushing leadership and board member continuity to the forefront:

• Regulatory Expectations Are Rising — As we discussed above, the NCUA now requires credit unions to have defined succession strategies for both board and senior management roles. Without a solid succession strategy, your credit union risks falling out of compliance with the examiners.
• A Wave Of Retirements Is Underway — A silver tsunami is still sweeping through the workforce, with many of the baby boomers retiring all at once. In fact, a 2010 PEW research study found that 10,000 people will turn 65 every day until 2030. That’s a ton of people reaching retirement age all at once. And with experienced leaders exiting faster than organizations can replace them, the need to grow talent internally has become essential.
• Greater Governance Accountability — Unexpected board vacancies and competency gaps can stall decision-making and delay strategic progress at your credit union. Succession planning ensures you understand where there are competency gaps on your board and establishes a strong bench of future directors to guarantee governance continuity.
• Competition For Talent Is Intense — Attracting experienced leaders externally is more difficult than ever, making leadership development within your organization a critical strategic advantage.

Succession Planning Doesn’t Have To Be Complicated

Common misconceptions about succession planning are that you only need to do it right before leadership retirements, that it takes too long, that it requires too many resources, or that it is too difficult to maintain.

The truth? When done consistently with the right tools and approach, it actually makes leadership and board planning simpler.

SUCCESSIONapp was built with that simplicity in mind. Our global award-winning platform eliminates the spreadsheets and guesswork, giving you a clear framework to create NCUA compliant succession plans. Easily choose critical competencies, identify and assess potential successors, and create individualized development plans with SUCCESSIONapp’s management module. Or simplify the board succession process by selecting critical board competencies, anticipating director departures, understanding your board’s competency gaps, and planning for future board leadership all in one place!

With everything centralized and easy to update, succession planning can become a continuous and manageable process.

Future-Ready Starts Today

Succession planning protects your mission, your people, and the members who rely on you. Do you think your organization is ready for management and board turnover? Find out with our “What’s your management succession planning readiness score” and our “What’s your credit union’s board succession planning readiness score” quizzes. Take the quizzes now to find out!

Yvonne Evers, the founder and CEO of SUCCESIONapp, LLC, is a succession planning expert who has successfully worked with hundreds of credit unions over the past 25 years. SUCCESSIONapp is the leader provider of online management and board succession planning solutions in the credit union industry. The global award-winning software simplifies the succession planning process by providing an easy-to-follow workflow. The mission of the company is to help leaders and board members create succession plans to ensure smooth and successful transitions.

The post Planning For The Future: Ensuring Strong Boards And Leaders Through Succession Planning appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

I recently came across a LinkedIn post from a company I first learned about years ago in a completely different context. Back then, I was looking for alumni to support my son’s rowing team, and someone directed me to a former teammate who’d launched a rooftop farming business in Washington, DC, in 2014.

The more I learned about Up Top Acres, the more I found it to be both unexpected and deeply practical, a mix of creativity and common sense. I’ve continued to follow its work, so when I spotted a social post of each farm taking stock of its season — what worked, what didn’t, and what mattered — it resonated. It made me think about the parallels for credit unions, especially at the branch level where purpose and community are entrenched in everyday operations.

As I sat with that post, a few themes rose to the surface, ideas that feel just as relevant for a credit union branch as they do a rooftop farm.

Up Top Acres applies elevated thinking to its end-of-season summary, providing not just numbers but also stories and areas of impact to highlight the value of its gardens.

Up Top Acres applies elevated thinking to its end-of-season summary, providing not just numbers but also stories and areas of impact to highlight the value of its gardens.

Up Top Acres applies elevated thinking to its end-of-season summary, providing not just numbers but also stories and areas of impact to highlight the value of its gardens.

1. Local ownership is the foundation of real impact.

Up Top Acres asked each of its rooftop farmers to speak in their own voice. The result was a hyper-local, authentic look at the results and impact of each individual location.

For credit union executives, the takeaway isn’t to push branches to do more; it’s to create intentional space for them to articulate what they see happening in their neighborhood. Branch teams are closest to the members and can surface insights that no centralized report will catch. Encouraging them to share those observations can help leadership understand the real conditions shaping member behavior.

2. Purpose-driven framing makes growth meaningful.

The farmers didn’t just report on yield, they explained why it mattered to the people they served.

Credit union branches already drive growth. They already build relationships. But when managers frame their work in purpose-driven terms — who they helped, what changed, why a particular effort mattered — it strengthens internal alignment. It gives teams a clearer sense of impact, and it gives leaders the language to talk about growth that means something beyond numbers.

3. Branch-level observation IS strategic intelligence.

Farmers notice early shifts long before the data confirms a trend. Branch managers do, too. They sense layoffs coming, hear budgeting worries rising, or see a spike in first-time homebuyer questions.

For senior leaders, the question becomes: How do we capture and elevate that quiet expertise?

Elaborate forms or extra processes aren’t necessary. In fact, tapping that expertise can be as simple as asking managers to share one emerging theme each month. Those real-time, ground-level signals can sharpen strategic decisions and reveal opportunities before they’re visible in the numbers.

4. Community engagement deserves to be surfaced.

One piece of the rooftop farm reflections that stood out was the community moments such as workshops, shared meals, collaborative projects, and more. These weren’t side notes; they were central to the story.

Branches already create moments like this: financial wellness conversations that go beyond the form, local partnerships that build trust, small events that draw in people for reasons other than transactions. Encouraging managers to name these moments brings their impact to light for the rest of the organization and serves as an inspiration for others to find meaning in their daily work. It reinforces the credit union’s role as a community anchor and strengthens the narrative executives can share with boards, regulators, and members.

5. Reflection is a growth engine, not a status update.

Up Top Acres didn’t ask each location to simply showcase success stories, it encouraged each site to highlight what they wanted to do differently next season. It was practical, honest, and forward-looking.

This is an area in which credit union executives can make a major difference. When leaders model a culture that values learning as much as outcomes, branch managers feel more comfortable sharing insights as well as results. Asking for a short reflection every quarter — “What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you?” — turns surface-level reporting into strategic storytelling. It seeds improvement without adding pressure.

Senior leaders often carry the responsibility of translating the credit union’s mission into operational priorities. But branches live that mission. Up Top Acres reminds that when leaders encourage front-line teams to articulate their local impact — in their own voice, with their own examples — it strengthens the whole credit union. It connects strategy to lived experience, numbers to meaning, and purpose to the valued employees who walk through the doors every day.

The post 5 Lessons About Ground-Level Intelligence From A Rooftop Farm appeared first on CreditUnions.com.

Matt Rarden, CEO at Kirtland Credit Union ($1.1B, Albuquerque, NM) logged roughly 15 years with IBM before making the jump to a credit union career. That background is shaping how the Southwestern cooperative approaches project management.

Rarden took the helm at Kirtland in 2020 and quickly started thinking about how to add more discipline and structure to the credit union’s project management work. With multiple initiatives underway simultaneously, it wasn’t uncommon for different projects to overlap in terms of the people and resources needed.

“We were stepping over one another,” he says. “Committing one another’s resources when we didn’t know they were committed. All that normal uncontrolled chaos.”

The solution started with bringing on a certified project management officer in 2021 — a role that now oversees two staff-level project managers. Beyond simply hiring dedicated staffers, Rarden also worked to put in place new processes and procedures around how to propose, review, and approve projects.

That structure includes a tiering system to rank projects by effort, resources, cost, criteria for approval, and more.

Tier 1 projects, for example, might require little effort or cost and involve only one line of business. Tier 5, on the other hand, might include mandatory regulatory requirements, involve multiple lines of business or stakeholders, or be a major revenue driver.

There’s a cultural evolution that has to happen. It sounds and feels like a lot of red tape, but we’ll collapse under our own weight if we don’t do this. We were already seeing that happen, and it was going to get worse for us as we grow.

Regardless, the credit union approves projects individually and maps them to its overall strategy to understand how to execute different projects simultaneously to reduce resource overlap.

“There’s a cultural evolution that has to happen,” Rarden says. “It sounds and feels like a lot of red tape, but we’ll collapse under our own weight if we don’t do this. We were already seeing that happen, and it was going to get worse for us as we grow.”

Oversight And Management

Although Kirtland does use some project management software, it designed the bulk of its structure internally. Project management became a key competency at IBM during Rarden’s time there, and he worked with the credit union’s leadership team to define each tier, determine how to prioritize projects, outline documentation requirements, and more.

The resource-management piece, however, is a bit harder. And according to Rarden, the credit union is still working on that.

“You’ve got to have some centralization from each of the lines of business and the key project resource folks,” the CEO says. “Understanding who is going to participate because of their expertise or position, understanding vacation schedules, and layering all this together is a big part of it, as well.”

To tackle resource management, a project steering committee meets monthly to examine project charters and determine which tiers are the right fit. According to Rarden, these senior leaders are the ultimate decision-makers, although approvals can go all the way up to the board if a project is big enough.

The committee members understand what’s going on and what resources are available. Internally, leaders evangelize for their projects, but if the credit union can’t work on multiple projects, then the steering committee has decide what to prioritize.

The easiest considerations are those that relate to revenue and business lines. The harder part is prioritization. If the committee agrees on the merits of a particular project but can’t make it happen during the current fiscal year, it might table the project for the future.

“It’s still something in our purview and we’ve agreed it needs to happen, we just can’t raise it to the level of priority now,” Rarden says.

Although the credit union might kill some projects, few are ever truly dead, he adds, and that’s generally only when outside factors make it impractical to pursue the idea further.

Lessons Learned

Along with improving communication, increasing efficiency, and better managing resources, the new project management system has also helped Kirtland operate more like a large company, all without impacting staff churn.

“This new way of doing business didn’t drive turnover, but it certainly drove frustration,” Rarden says. “We just had to work through frustration, understand why, and re-educate as to why we’re doing these things.”

With a few years of this structure under his belt, Rarden is quick to note that this type of structure isn’t necessarily an overnight success and that there will be bumps and frustrations along the way. In fact, he repeatedly cites one phrase when discussing this experience: cultural evolution.

“Everybody conceptually understands the need for project management and accepts that they don’t have total carte blanche over their part of the business because now they’re answering to a bigger body,” he says. “The cultural acceptance is not as easy as it might sound. It’s a different level of business acumen. Even though we’ve been doing it for four years, we’re still fine-tuning things.”

Even after several years, Rarden says if he could start the process over again, he’d spend more time building buy-in from the executive team.

“I’d spend more time making sure the executive team can evangelize it and enforce it and help everyone else on their teams understand it,” he says.

Still, Rarden is adamant that the process is worth the effort.

“Sometimes we have to slow down so we can speed up,” he says. “This allowed employees to stop having to do things twice, which ultimately slowed things down. We always want to be nimbler and move quickly.”

The post At Kirtland Credit Union, Project Management Isn’t Just A Task. It’s An Ethos. appeared first on CreditUnions.com.