For awhile now, credit unions across the country have talked rather openly about the challenge to attracting "young" board members. I "quote" young, because young is a relative term. In any case, young board members are hard to come by for the industry as a whole. Some credit unions do well with Gen-Y board members, but they tend to be credit unions that have a field of membership largely composed of Gen-Y individuals.
USC Credit Union, the credit union for the University of Southern California, is a good example. They have a board seat reserved for a USC student to ensure that the credit union's governance process takes into account that vital membership demographic. In fact, it is through USC that we got to know Justin Ho - our resident Gen-Y expert and strategy consultant.
What I found interesting about the State Farm piece, pictured here in the blog, is the depth of their effort to incorporate the youth. Rather than just talk about the need to incorporate youth into their strategy, they put action to words and desire. For example, they have the State Farm Youth Advisory Board, which is tasked with the responsibility of overseeing a program called the Signature Service Learning Initiative and the program's $5M budget. Imagine that! A youth board with real responsibility.
I was curious, so I searched for additional information on this board. I found more than I expected at http://www.statefarmyab.com. This initiative is working. I encourage you to check out the page listing the board members. I believe there are 29 young board members spread across the country.
There is something to learn here. The push-back I get when talking to credit unions about youth board members, or volunteers in general, is that the youth are not all that interested in serving on boards and/or volunteering. That youth don't have time to participate. That the value of their participation may not be equal to long-standing board members. So on and so forth.
What the State Farm effort shows us, what we can learn from, is that all we really need is the institutional will to actively recruit the next generation. The youth will participate. The youth will volunteer. The youth will engage. Now, maybe not in ways familiar to long-standing boards - but who cares about that? When it comes to deliberations on strategy and governance, tradition can be an albatross.
If your credit union has the desire to incorporate the youth perspective at the highest level of the organization, make sure you have the will to proceed. The old saying "where there is a will, there is a way" rings true. Without the will, there is truly no way. If you don't have institutional will to proceed, then don't bother with a youth strategy because there is no way it will work.
