Washington DC and Houston

Over the past two weeks I have had the opportunity to do some cool things.

Washington D.C. -

Last week, I was able to experience the i3 meetings first hand. I must say when Denise Gabel puts on a meeting, she gets stuff done.

-Sunday night, we attended a great performance of "Shear Madness," which relates well to innovation.

-Then Monday we were able to see the results of the hard work that the i3 teams have been doing for the last 6 months. I am happy to announce that there are going to be some great new ideas coming down the pipeline that will greatly assist CUs in helping their members. Look for the new publications from Filene for details. I have spoken with many of the team members on the phone about our projects, and now meeting most of them, I am happy to say that the collective wisdom, experience, and innovative thinking is outstanding. I look forward to seeing more and more great things come out of the team.

- Tuesday morning we had the opportunity to talk with two of NCUA's board members. Vice-Chairman Rodney Hood and Board Member Gigi Hyland both of them were excellent speakers and spent a lot of time answering our questions. The NCUA doesn't always get a good rep, because as the regulator they have to be the bad guy sometimes, but I must say if their leadership says anything, there are an amazing asset to the Credit Union Movement, one that we cannot allow to get lost within other regulators as proposed by the U.S. Treasury.

Houston -

I just got back into the office today after spending yesterday in Houston, at the Texas Credit Union League Annual Meeting, speaking with George Hofheimer, Trey Reeme, and Amy Stanton, to about 100 daring participates about Credit Union 2.0, Innovation, 30 under 30, and Social Media. After our presentation we participated in an excellent discussion about Gen Y, and Social Media. I feel that it was a very effective presentation.

Ahhh, now back to work helping credit unions implement innovation.