The 2014 CUYLM Think Tank took place at Portage Credit Union Centre on June 11, and drew 67 young leaders from credit unions throughout Manitoba.

The objective of the Think Tank was to provide our Manitoba young leaders with an opportunity to learn from their peers, increase awareness of the ‘big picture’ credit union system, and to gather information during group discussions.

In the think tank portion of the event, participants broke into small groups and were given two hours to brainstorm and discuss ideas around six questions about the future of the credit union system and the role of young leaders in it, with self development as a key objective. Some of the questions the young leaders considered were “what do you think the Manitoba credit union system will look like in five years? 10? 20?”, and “how, as young leaders, can we add value to our teams, our credit unions, and the Manitoba system?”

Attendees were also given the opportunity to participate in a “human library” mentoring session, where they could spend time with 14 mentors and leaders in the system to ask questions and share ideas.

Twelve young leaders were also paired with members of the CUYLM Executive Committee to continue the conversation after the event, and help with their career and personal development.

The post-event survey indicated that participants really enjoyed their time at the think tank and saw great value in connecting with other young leaders facing the same challenges, and many expressed interest in participating in a similar event annual or semi-annually.

Participants generated many great ideas to take back to their credit unions, and were challenged to share what they had learned with a minimum of 3 people they work with.

“I met some great people and re-connected with ones I met at the (CUYLM) conference in Winnipeg. It’s very important to have an ‘it’s up to me’ attitude as a young leader. We are the future of our credit unions and the system. It’s taking these ideas that were presented and putting them into action. I plan to work with my manager and my team to build out action plans for the future s othat we have a clear goal in mind.” - Think Tank Participant

Credit Union Young Leaders of Manitoba held our inaugural conference in Winnipeg, MB on November 26 & 27, 2013. During the intensive two days, we had the opportunity to meet many other young leaders with the assistance of David Gouthro, the host of the event.

Bob Lafond spoke on behalf of CUCM and he gave us the opportunity to recommend changes to current and anticipated challenges facing the MB credit union system. The CUYLM committee will be presenting at the CUCM systems meeting on May 14, 2014.

Terry Brock presented on opportunities to leverage social media to build essential member relationships in the digital age.

CUYLM along with Terry Brock and David Gouthro hosted pre and post webinars on utilizing technology. Also a panel of leaders shared with us their experiences and the importance of developing young leaders in the credit union system.

We thank our sponsors and all our attendees for the success of our inaugural conference and we look forward to planning our 2015 conference so we can further develop and strengthen our young leaders.