BOSTON–The World Credit Union Conference has gotten underway here with more than 2,500 people from 57 countries on hand—although many attendees were delayed by the Crowdstrike computer glitch that caused international delays in airline flights.
The four-day event, which has returned to the United States this year, is being co-hosted by the World Council of Credit Unions and America’s Credit Unions.
WOCCU Vice Chairman Michael Lawrence from Australia reminded American attendees and informed attendees from other countries that Boston is the home of Ed Filene, who was instrumental in helping to found and then grow credit unions in the U.S. in the early 20th century.
Lawrence said one thing that has not changed since the days of Ed Filene is the credit union mission of people helping people and “making a difference in people’s lives.”
A ‘New Level’
Lawrence also passed along greetings from Diana Dykstra, the outgoing chair of WOCCU and retiring president of the California and Nevada CU Leagues, who was not on hand for the meeting.
“Last year the World Council took inclusion to a new level by welcoming observers into the boardroom, one from the Global Women’s Leadership Network, and another from the young professionals network,” said Lawrence. “It was an effort to further strengthen leadership development, but in truth the observers contributed much to the board discussions. They have helped us to walk the walk on inclusivity. What started as a one year experiment has become permanent.”
Doing a 180 on Networking
Prior to the official opening of the World CU Conference, Elissa McCarter Laborde, the president and CEO of WOCCU, shared with a forum jointly hosted by the Global Women’s Leadership Network (GWLN) and WYCUP how her thinking has completely evolved from the days networking was something she had come to “loathe.”
“I used to loathe this idea of feeling pressured to always network,” McCarter Laborde said, adding—and noting it’s especially true in her hometown of Washington, D.C.—that after someone new says hello, they then ask what one does for a living, because they are assessing what you can do for them.
An Important Lesson
“One of my most important lessons in building networks offers this learning opportunity to first think about what can I do to benefit this other person and then how can they benefit me,” said McCarter Laborde. “An important lesson that hierarchy and age and youth doesn’t really matter. I have had someone who was a peer or a student who turned out to be an amazing professional whom I later called upon.”
McCarter Laborde shared the story of her first hire while working in Turkey to start the first microcredit company for women, who was a woman who worked as her interpreter.
In 2023, a massive earthquake hit Turkey and the first person McCarter Laborde said she reached out to was her former interpreter. It turned out this person had become the strategic advisor to a foundation doing recovery work and who was in charge of their humanitarian response team.
Keep Those Networks ‘Warm’
“For me that captures the essence of how do we authentically build networks in ways that honor the people around us,” McCarter Laborde said. “Every person in this room, regardless of title or hierarchy, in the long run has to keep those networks warm, because one day you may need to call upon them. Many of the young professionals in this room are one day going to be the boss. and I may be looking for a consulting job. The tables always turn.”