Sunday, February 19

Opening General Session
Leading with Integrity
Commander Scott Waddle USN (retired)
An inspirational leader with uncompromising ethical standards, we are very pleased that Scott Waddle will open the conference on Sunday morning.
CDR Waddle graduated at the top of his class at Annapolis. With 20 years of experience in the construction, maintenance and operation of nuclear-powered submarines, in 1998 he was handpicked from a highly competitive field of 250 naval officers to command the improved Los Angeles class Fast Attack nuclear submarine USS Greeneville.
As commanding officer of Greeneville, he managed a 140-man crew. On the fateful day of February 9, 2001, Commander Waddle's life was forever changed when he gave the order to perform an emergency surface maneuver that inadvertently caused the nine-thousand ton submarine to collide with the Ehime Maru, a 500 ton Japanese fishing vessel, killing nine people on board. Against the advice of his attorney and the Navy's direction, he took responsibility for the accident. Commander Waddle's compelling story about a tragic ordeal and the choices that followed is a lesson about integrity, faith and resilience.

General Session
Dodd-Frank Act: What Has Congress Built?
Your architect: Frank Drake
The Dodd-Frank Act was adopted as a corrective measure for misbehaving banks, not credit unions.  Nevertheless, we are required to take the same punishment. This session will focus on those portions of the act applicable to credit union lending and collections practice. The act will be enforced by a vigorous new federal watchdog. It is far easier to stay out of trouble than to get out of trouble. Learn how to stay inside the new deadlines and requirements to avoid becoming a target of both regulators and predatory lawyers representing disgruntled debtors.
Learning Objectives:

• Identify which provisions of Dodd-Frank apply to credit unions and which do not.
• Learn whether your CU will answer to the NCUA in the future, or directly to the new Consumer Protection Bureau.
• Discover the real difference between "administrative enforcement" and the "right of private enforcement."
• Understand when mortgage escrow accounts and balloon payments are required, allowed or forbidden.

Sunday Breakout Sessions
I Didn't See That in the Plans
Your Architect: Frank Drake
This session will expose the new styles of bedevilment inflicted on consumer lenders by over-ambitious "consumers' rights" lawyers looking for a sure win and easy money. Many debtors are defending themselves from collections and foreclosures with imaginative counterattacks, using rights of private enforcement against lenders. Obscure portions of the Uniform Commercial Code, federal RESPA, Req. Z and other make targets out of lenders. Compliance is cheaper and easier than contrition. Learn how to recognize the symptoms of non-compliant policies, and how to correct them before you have to defend them.
Learning Objectives:

• Realize which loan formats require procedures to reply to account statement requests and which do not.
• Identify the applicable 5-day, 20-day and 14-day response deadlines and penalties for violating each.
• Grasp the difference between non-compliance and incorrect compliance with federal regulatory requirement.
• Master the best methods to avoid the appearance of noncompliance and the risks of self-targeting.

Erecting a Plan to Benefit from Top Technologies
Your Architect: Ron Galloway
The mobile wallet is finally a reality. Facebook is making $1 billion per year in payments income. Google is offering a social network with enhanced privacy and group technologies. Artificial intelligence is used in stock trading. Biometrics are finding their way onto financial mobile apps. The common thread among these and other technological developments is the leveraging of Scale + new I.T. to enter the payments business, thereby posing a threat to the traditional interchange system. Credit unions need to be prepared not only to adapt to these changes, but to use them to become more competitive.
Learning Objectives:

• Spot the technologies that have emerged in the last 12 months that are the most significant to credit unions.
• Pinpoint the technology threat in the interchange system to credit unions.
• Know how credit unions can best use technology to their competitive advantage.
• Become aware of how financial fraud is being enabled by technology.

Creating a Framework for Financial Sophistication
Your Architects: Cheri Carter, Eva Gaudio, Tina Mike
Financial education is at the heart of the credit union movement and undoubtedly one of the best ways that we support our core purpose. Learn how to structure a comprehensive, robust and award-winning financial literacy program that ensures you remain relevant to your community while developing financially savvy consumers. Regardless of credit union size, session participants will come away with the framework necessary to structure their own effective and comprehensive financial literacy efforts.
Learning Objectives:

• Assess strategy (plans, budget & resources).
• Develop internal and external collaboration.
• Build internal and external awareness.
• Structure internal and external training.
• Incorporate youth and adults in instruction.
• Become a local, state and national advocate.

General Session
When It All Came Crashing Down
Your Architect: Ron Galloway
The financial crisis of 2008 resulted in many unforeseen consequences. Investment banks, acting as hedge funds, became wards of the Treasury. Moral hazard was wiped out, with banks realizing they could pursue even riskier behavior knowing they would be bailed out. Interest rates were pushed to zero by the Fed and held there to reliquify banks, resulting in the punishment of savers. Hundreds of banks failed. The entire economy is experiencing a period of deleveraging that may last a decade.
Is there an opportunity for credit unions amidst this chaos? Can credit unions offer savers a safe harbor from the banks? How should credit unions adapt to a prolonged period of low interest rates? How will credit union balance sheets be affected by declining real estate values?
Learning Objectives:

• Grasp the causes of the 2008 financial crash.
• Discover how credit unions can compete in a new economic climate.
• Examine the effect changing real estate prices will have on credit union finances.
• Become aware of the long-term consequences of derivatives on the financial market as a whole.

Monday, February 20

General Session
Don't Let Everything Fall Down in 30 Seconds
Your Architect: Anthony Huey
A crisis situation can destroy years of work in a few seconds. You can't be sure what the crisis will be or when it will strike. But you can be sure a crisis will put your credit union's hard-earned image and reputation up for grabs. Media will play a key role in what happens. This session will provide information on dealing with media during a crisis, what the media need, and how the media can help get information to the public quickly. Learn how to respond to questions briefly and directly, and with honesty and candor. Learn how to control the flow of information.
Learning Objectives:

• Unlock keys to doing a good news interview.
• Relate to reporters during a crisis.
• Utilize four answering techniques.
• Develop a 10-point crisis communications checklist.
• Avoid "no comment."

Monday Morning Breakout Sessions
Constructing Solid Media Relations
Your Architect: Anthony Huey
A news story is four times more believable than a paid advertisement. Media Relations 101 is an insiders' guide to the news media that shows you how to tap into this free marketing tool. Explore how reporters think and what you can do to influence them. Walk through a newsroom and learn how to meet, entertain and understand reporters. Discover how to perform during an interview and how you can use the media to your advantage and generate positive news.
Learning Objectives:

• Realize how to be proactive in dealing with the media.
• Know how to market your credit union for free.
• Understand what is news and how to generate positive coverage.
• Master techniques on working positive messages into interviews.
• Identify do's and don'ts of dealing with reporters.
• Develop relationships with reporters.

Careful - The Foundation is Shifting
Your Architect: Tim Harrington
Credit unions and the rest of the banking world are experiencing a fundamental shift in profitability. The business of making loans and taking deposits has been a money losing proposition for most credit unions for some time. Fees and other non-interest Income now account for most of the movement's profit, and those sources are in jeopardy of declining. Regulatory changes and market pressures have changed the equation dramatically. Credit unions must look at their basic business model and determine what changes--perhaps significant and controversial changes--will be required to create profit and guarantee survival. These changes also stretch the level of sophistication and resources of many credit unions. This course will discuss remodeling credit unions are doing to ensure they have the profit they need.
Learning Objectives:

• Understand the critical value of non-interest income in most business models.
• Consider some revolutionary ideas to find new profits.
• Determine ways to get more of your products in your members' hands.

Encouraging Gen-Yers to Move in
Your Architect: Jayni Sech
This session will review actual credit union practices (both successful and unsuccessful) to capture teens and young adults. Learn from your peers what works, what doesn't, and when you're just throwing your marketing dollars into the wind to capture those younger members.
Learning Objectives:

• Discern what motivates young adults.
• Analyze your current product mix to create and promote marketable products to this niche.
• Determine how to spend your marketing dollars to attract this group of potential members.

General Session
You Have to Start Somewhere
Your Architects: Denise Gabel and Bernard LaChance
Denise Gabel, chief innovation officer at the Filene Research Institute, will share her energy and experience as a change agent. Gabel will inspire you to stretch your budget by practicing innovation on a shoestring. She'll introduce Bernard LaChance, French-Canadian singer, and his inspiring story as a prime example. Funded by his life savings and sheer determination, LaChance employs innovative marketing techniques to achieve his goals. During this session, Denise and Bernard will undoubtedly entertain you and you'll find out how they met. But more importantly, you'll also walk away with simple innovation and marketing techniques you can use to reach your personal and professional goals through innovation, imagination, and initiative.
Learning Objectives:

• Exercise your ability to think big, but start small.
• Look outside the credit union system for growth opportunities.
• Right-size your innovation and marketing budget for experimentation.

Monday Afternoon Breakout Sessions
Building on a Shoestring
Your Architects: Denise Gabel and Bernard LaChance
Following up on the general session, Denise and Bernard will spend more personal time with participants. This session is like a backstage pass to work individually with Gabel and LaChance. Considering a change in your credit union's direction? Challenged by a lack of resources? Wondering how to innovate in a highly regulated environment? They will walk you through the six steps in the innovation and change process. You'll spend time applying these simple tools to tackle your real credit union challenges.
Learning Objectives:

• Absorb the six steps in the innovation process.
• Uncover additional tools available through the Filene Research Institute.
• Walk away with clarity around your credit union's future challenges.

You Better Know How to Read the Blueprints
Your Architect: Tim Harrington
Understanding financial statements and reports is vital for directors of a credit union; as a matter of fact it is a law. As of 2011, directors of credit unions must be financially literate. However, many non-financial volunteers do not fully grasp the nature of accounts, relationships between accounts and the importance of critical financial statement elements. This course makes financial statements so simple everyone will come away grasping them as they never did before. Examples of Statement of Financial Condition, Income Statement, key reports and key ratios will be reviewed.
Learning Objectives:

• Interpret the spread analysis and how we get to ROA.
• Gain a greater understanding of capital--what it is, where it comes from and how much is enough.
• Pick up new formats to report information to the board so they have a better understanding of Financial Information.

One Room Can Flow Into Another
Your Architect: Jayni Sech
This interactive session will share ideas that will help any credit union jump-start their marketing efforts. Sit back and hear about these everyday, easy-to-do tips that will help any credit union get the most bang for their marketing buck.
Learning Objectives:

• Discover strategies to obtain more business from your members.
• Identify opportunities within the credit union to increase product penetration.
• Learn how to strategically spend your marketing dollars for trackable results.

Using Parliamentary Procedure to Strengthen Your Meetings
Your Architect: Ronald Stinson
Does it sometimes seem as though your meetings resemble the disorder of an unruly middle school class? Do you wonder how to deal with that motion that was just made? If so, you'll want to attend this session. Ron Stinson, president of the National Association of Parliamentarians, will guide you to a better understanding of what to do in a business meeting and how to do it. Bring your questions, because Ron is great at answering one-on-one.
Learning Objectives:

• Refine your skills in conducting a meeting.
• Learn how to process motions.
• Identify the rules of debate.

Tuesday, February 21

General Session
Let Me Tell You About This Building
Your Architect: Brett Christensen
Story Time is the best part of lending and collections. Brett Christensen has earned more than five million frequent-flyer miles on American Airlines in thirteen years of extensive travel. He has made loans to credit union members in every state in the country and he has personally walked in to more than 600 credit unions. You will learn valuable lending lessons from real-life member loan experiences from Brett's travels. It is quite possible that this session will be the most fun you have ever had at a credit union meeting.
Learning Objectives:

• Arby's Sauce--The lending delivery channel that you must maximize.
• Fred & Ruth--Smart credit unions don't set their members up to fail financially.
• The Gambler--Do your lenders even know their job?
• The Tattoo--Is a member's loan glass half empty or is it half full?
• 478 or 781 FICO--Underwriting is much more than a credit score.
• It's Pizza Time!--Great sales people learn to use emotion over intellect.

Tuesday Breakout Sessions
Becoming Strong Enough to Survive Today's Economy
Your Architect: Brett Christensen
This is probably the most challenging lending environment your credit union has faced in the past 20 years. Members have cut spending in the face of a recession, unemployment numbers are high, car sales are average at best, real estate values have fallen, bankruptcy filings are high and there is certainly no guarantee this is a short-term situation. You can still grow loans even in a difficult environment. This session will give you specific ideas for changing and improving your lending operation to produce meaningful loan growth.
Learning Objectives:

• Reinforce skill sets needed in your employees to achieve loan growth.
• Organize lenders in your organization to improve results.
• Pick out which lending delivery channel sets you up for maximum success.
• Identify the pros and cons of indirect auto lending.
• Find out how to increase employee productivity.
• Become aware of the difficult steps needed to improve your credit union's sales culture.

i3: Tools from a Think Tank's Innovation Lab
Your Architect: Denise Gabel
Filene Research Institute's  i3 (ideas, innovation, implementation) program is continually generating new ideas to address the major issues, problems, and opportunities facing consumers. During this interactive session, you'll learn how credit unions are bringing new products, services and business models to market to affect the lives of future generations of consumers. You'll also meet some of the i3 members who are creating these ideas and hear directly from them. This session will feel like a quick trip down the grocery isle to pick ideas you can take back and implement at your credit union.
Learning Objectives:

• Take advantage of easy access to Filene's Innovation Lab.
• Meet the Filene i3 members and understand how your credit union can be involved.
• Leave with three ideas that can be applied at your credit union.

Hammering Home Your Outreach Efforts
Your Architect:  Julie Ferguson
Membership growth strategies do not have to translate to increasing the budget. In these challenging times creativity is king. There are infinite ways to generate growth within your existing membership base and communities that will set you apart from your competitors. During this session Julie will discuss how to think outside the box in the areas of membership growth, SEG penetration, community outreach, and retention strategies. You will leave with actionable ideas on how to strategically move forward on affordable and creative growth initiatives.
Learning Objectives:

• Leverage SEG relationships by becoming a problem solver.
• Transition community outreach initiatives from brand recognition goals to results-focused goals.
• Become more proactive in retention strategies.
• Apply creativity to get more out of your investment in growth strategies.

General Session
Erase Gloom and Doom From Your Design
Your Architect: Albert Mensah
Lately, the news about business and your personal life have been thick with phrases like "economic recession," "weak dollar," "unemployment," "housing crisis," "foreclosure," and "fears for the future." However, the gloom-and doom headlines obscure many bright opportunities. At this revealing high-impact session, Albert Mensah will analyze today's news and explain why he believes there are more opportunities now than before for everyone to be better servant leaders--if we will recognize where our strengths lie.
Learning Objectives:

• Gain lessons from various kinds of losses.
• Assess the value of old beliefs.
• Reality-test your current priorities.
• Turn others bad habits into gifts.
• Seize the advantages of being a life-long student.