This author has not written his bio yet.
But we are proud to say that Kevin Smith contributed 87 entries already.
by Kevin Smith The topic of board diversity has been bubbling about the credit union industry for quite a few years now, and with good reason. A healthy, diverse board can have a dramatically positive impact on an organization’s performance. But I recently ran across a new angle to this argument worth considering. There is […]
Board Members – What do You Know? And how do You Know You Know? ‘Ya know? (Better Title: Governance Outside the Bowls) Tim Harrington and Kevin Smith, TEAM Resources Yeah, yeah, we all know (or should) … the board of directors has fiduciary duty in the operations of the credit union: From the federal regulations: […]
by Tim Harrington and Kevin Smith, TEAM Resources A credit union board chair recently contacted us with some questions regarding board communications. One issue had to do with the board’s communications with the staff. Now ordinarily, this is the kind of discussion that we try to shut down immediately with a simple cliché of “all […]
Take Responsibility for Your Financial Literacy (This post is also available in the March 2017 edition of the CUNA Directors’ Newsletter.) Regulators hold volunteers accountable for understanding key measures and ratios that indicate a CU’s health. Picture this scenario: It’s time for the annual exit interview with credit union regulators. You’ve been told they finished […]
Guest Post by Kevin Smith, Publisher, TEAM Resources “If you truly want to understand something, try to change it.” Kurt Lewin, often referred to as the father of modern Social Psychology. If you’re anything like me (and I assume that you are), then you have too many books piling up literally and virtually, too many […]
(From the forthcoming TEAM Resources publication: A Basic Credit Union Governance Guide for Credit Unions, by Tim Harrington and Kevin Smith) In our experiences, there is a range of board member behavior, from too weak to too strong. This represents the Governance Spectrum. The left side of the spectrum represents boards that are too strong, too involved […]
We’re headlong into planning and budgeting season, and after reviewing a few plans, a couple of things have occurred to me about communicating the strategic plan. Have you ever noticed that no one ever has a new strategic planning document that simply says, “Just keep doing what we’re doing. Things are going great”? And rightly […]
In a recent survey of nonprofits, 51% of board chairs said they “did nothing specific to prepare” for the role of chair. That’s a pretty staggering number. The survey “Voices of Board Chairs” from the Alliance for Nonprofit Management reported on the experience of 635 nonprofit board chairs from across the United States. Of […]
Guest Post: Kevin Smith, Publisher/Consultant, TEAM Resources There’s no lack of training opportunities for credit union volunteers, from the exotic to the pragmatic. But if you look carefully at the training, you’ll see that it’s generally not as inclusive as the word “volunteer” is supposed to imply. (Volunteer = directors, ALCO members, credit committee members, […]
D’oh! I just said the “M” word. Shhhhhh! We don’t want to talk about that. The leadership in the credit union movement treats merger talk as verboten. You don’t see much on conference agendas, or on webinars. And I get it – talking about it might come across as endorsing it, and there’s a school […]
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