CUNA Councils Connect
Online Member Network

GROUNDSWELL AWARDS ENTRY

About the CUNA Councils: we are a membership organization that provides resources, information, networking and professional development to credit union professionals across six key areas of credit union management.

Councils are about helping individuals handle the day-to-day challenges as well as planning for future successes. Councils include over 4,750 individuals across the United States from credit unions large and small.

What is CUNA Councils Connect - the Councils' online member network?

CUNA Councils is like a list serve, bulletin board, membership directory, guide to consultants and vendor reference all rolled up and turbocharged. It is a private community where council members have access to:

• a cross-council, extensive member directory (that they can search by demographics, 125 areas of expertise, 32 categories of vendors, and much more.)
• targeted online discussion groups
• member blogs and more to find solutions and advice.

We worked with Leverage Software, a social networking software company to create our customized and tailored network.

Why CUNA Councils Connect?

Previously, each council's networking and idea sharing centered around a listserve, annual conference, and file library (place where members share templates, sample policies, etc) - six separate communities. Council leadership asked, "How can we use new technologies that are out there to enhance member networking and idea sharing? How can we make it easier? " Here is how CUNA Councils Connect helped us achieve that goal:

Member searching - Finding other members meant sending a blast email to an entire list serve with what a member needs or doing a search using a very basic member directory (which was basically contact information). Now they have member directory 2.0, with the ability to search across all six councils with very specific criteria visually via the custom "people map" or use a form to search and get a listing of members. This saves our members time and money.

CUNA Councils Connect also finds matches for members...even when they aren't looking! The system automatically suggests relevant matches for each individual via both by email and their customized Community homepage, which is based on intentions/interests that they complete as part of their member profile.

Discussions - Connect's discussion groups are like little list serves...on steroids! Call it the list serve 2.0 - members from all councils sharing advice and solutions in our targeted & relevant online groups around specific topics. Each council's list serve is for anything and everything related to that discipline….and  will continue to serve that purpose. However, with CUNA Councils Connect, members now have the ability to create a focused discussion group around a specific topic – regional, "users groups," areas of expertise, etc. – and have a targeted conversation(s) away from the hundreds of other members who it doesn't apply to. You also have the added benefit of:

• being able to converse with members of all six councils
• click through to each author's profile
• share files
• subscribe to topics or groups via email or RSS, and more.

Blogs - Blogs provide community members with their own information-sharing space, in which they may post ideas/opinions/thoughts to their very own online journal. Primarily, the list serve for each council (as well as online discussion groups in Connect) contain questions and answers between members - a member poses a question and members reply to that question. Our new blog is a place for members to share a longer, more in-depth piece of information with members (not a direct query perhaps, but more of an FYI). For example, members can post their thoughts on recent credit union experiences, events, or hot industry topics.

CUNA Councils Connect therefore both enhances and builds on existing resources and tools available to our members to help them find answers to save time and money. It's also private and secure.

How did CUNA Councils Connect?

This project was unique in the regard that most social networks are built and then much work is centered on growing the membership in the new community. Not in this case. We were looking to take our existing member community and enhance it with new social media tools.

From conception to launch was an eight-month process. We first set out a strategy - what we were trying to achieve and what our members wanted. Then, we picked the tools to execute.

Here is the process in detail:

1. A task force made up of executive committee chairs and communication committee chairs from each council convened via web conference multiple times to discuss Council needs - what networking opportunities can be improved ("What have members been asking for? What can be made easier?"), as well as the potential impact (both positive and negative) of introducing new technologies.
2. A list of desired functionality and needs (integration, single sign-on, etc) were put together.
3. Staff researched a wide variety white label & DIY social networking companies, narrowing the list down to four using the following metrics: features, community appearance and ease-of-use, client list / past work and pricing
4. The task force convened again and after discussing the four companies, we ultimately decided to go with Leverage Software, excelling in its match to our offerings and in price.
5. Months followed designing our custom community and putting together mini-task forces of each council to create the perfect profile questionnaire (what vendor categories should we include, areas of expertise, essential demographic questions, etc).
6. Testing, testing, testing by staff and focus group of members.
7. Marketing plan put together.
8. Launch!

Since then, it's been constant care and feeding - surveying members to see what's working and not, looking at site analytics, making tweaks here and there (disabling the chat feature for example since it was hardly used). The last six months have been focused on education of members on the network.

RESULTS

As previously stated, access to CUNA Councils Connect is strictly for current members of one of our six CUNA Councils. It is also an opt-in community, meaning they have to login and fill out their extensive member profile (instead of being automatically added). Given that, one year after launch - currently:

• 75% of members have a member profile completed (our initial goal was 50% based on previous opt-in member benefits!)
• 315 discussion threads with 841 posts.
• The network earned media coverage in all major trade publications.

"CUNA Councils Connect is the best of 'new school' and 'old school' when it comes to a list serve and a true online community.  The best of new school because you can blog, have live discussion groups and chats, and set up your profile to match members to your specific interests and needs.  The people map is totally cool and is your own tailored community of members with like interests.  It's the best of old school because you still have the list serve capabilities....new and improved with photos with easier abilities to connect with members one-on-one.  Now the membership directory actually has personality! 

I'm old school all the way but with CUNA Councils Connect, I have found the best of both worlds.  With the member profiles, you can quickly see members that you may want to connect with to share best practices, inquire about similar vendors, etc.  No more waiting for answers to your email on 'Who's using........'  Try it and get excited...I promise you will be hooked!"

- Carolyn Jordan, Chair of the Operations, Sales & Service Council
(from a post on the list serve shortly after we launched)

> CUNA Councils Connect Homepage