RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.--The California and Nevada Credit Union Leagues’ REACH Innovation Group has officially launched with its first two-day experiential learning session, immersing the 17 participants in the Filene Method of Innovation.
The purpose of the 2015 REACH Innovation Group is to develop new ideas and innovations for credit unions. It was launched in coordination with the Filene Research Institute, and modeled after Filene’s i3 program, according to the leagues.
During the two-day session participants from credit unions throughout California and Nevada were split into four smaller groups, and participated in exercises involving innovating around a problem or opportunity.
“Now the teams will take what they learned and put that learning into action. They will meet weekly remotely and every six weeks they will connect via webinars facilitated by Filene,” said Tansley Stearns, chief impact officer at Filene. “The webinars will include refreshers on the methodology and each team presenting on homework assignments. This will keep the groups on track to move their insights into ideas and their ideas into prototypes to be tested and ultimately presented at REACH 2015. Seeing how well the teams connected over the last two days, we are so excited to see what they come up with.”
Participants will present their ideas at the 2015 REACH conference, to be held Nov. 4-6 at JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort and Spa in Palm Desert, Calif.
In addition to Baron, Plemel, and Lopez-Conti, the other members of the REACH Innovation Group are: Wesley Walton, CFO/CIO, Water and Power Community Credit Union; Kelly Cook, AVP of marketing, WestStar Credit Union; Patty Chang, vice president of e-Commerce, Greater Nevada Credit; Lixa Anderson, IT application systems manager, SAFE Credit Union; Amber Fielder, marketing campaign specialist, Xceed Financial Credit Union; Jim Hossfeld, manager of membership development, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union; Tracy Arroyo, COO, Inland Valley Federal Credit Union; Scott Ko, controller and special projects manager, University Credit Union; Tony Salse, VP of IT, SCE Federal Credit Union; Patricia Rocha, item processing/records manager, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union; Nicholas Tomimatsu, business analyst, SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union; Jennifer D'Amico, AVP of marketing, CommonWealth Central Credit Union; Lemuel Curry, virtual center associate, Xceed Financial Credit Union; and Elizabeth Freeman, SVP of strategic planning and chief investment officer, Golden 1 Credit Union.