CMutual welcome CU Futures to Dublin

The CU Futures class of 2020 travelled to Dublin earlier this week thanks to CMutual.They attended this year's Credit Union Leadership Conference in Dublin, which offers unique insights from the  Filene Research Institute, aimed at supporting credit unions to become smarter, better, stronger organisations.

Head of Member Services at ABCUL, Rosanna Donovan said:"On behalf of The Credit Union Foundation and the CU Futures, thank you to CMutual for welcoming the group to Dublin and giving them access to inspiring leaders in our global movement."

In addition to the Leadership Conference which they attended alongside Irish credit union leaders, they also got to spend some time with George Hofheimer, Filene’s Executive Vice President & Chief Research & Development Officer, the day before in a smaller group and hear more about how Filene structures its young professional's development network, The Co-operative Trust among other things. Paul Walsh, CEO of CMutual also made time for the group and encouraged them to be ambitious for themselves and their credit unions, telling them "if you're good enough, you're old enough."

CU Futures participant Kieran Hughes of Enterprise Credit Union reflecting on the trip said: “Massive thanks to CMutual in making this trip happen. I got a huge amount of information and ideas from only two days and all of the speakers and hosts were a pleasure to listen to and learn from.”

The group also spent time with the Cathal Tyther, Manager of the Solution Centre, a credit union service organisation (CUSO), developing specialist products, support and solutions to enable credit unions to sustainably grow their businesses.

To round off the trip, the group were delighted to be able to visit Ireland’s first credit union, Donore Credit Union, thanks to the generosity of CEO David McAuley and his team. First opening in 1958 in its first year the credit union held assets of £100 and a membership of 100 and is now proudly headquartered in a building across the road from the terraced house where it was founded and has assets of €34 million and a membership of just under 4,300.

Reflecting on the group's visit, David McAuley said: "It was great to meet an enthusiastic group setting our on their Credit Union journey.  The Credit Union Foundation program is definitely something the Irish League of Credit Unions should consider replicating.

"From my perspective I wanted to show the group that a career in Credit Unions will be an exciting,  challenging,  varied role with multiple opportunities.  Ultimately , through their career  in Credit Unions they can do something and achieve something that not many other jobs in finance can do and that is really change people's lives and impact hugely on whole communities. From all at Donore Credit Union,  we wish your team success and we look forward to more cooperation in the future."

"Being able to give the group access to such innovative and inspirational leaders from across our global movement was a huge honour and we can't thank CMutual enough for supporting the programme in this way this year," says Rosanna.  "Strategic challenges and opportunities are highlighted through spending time talking to colleagues from other credit union systems and that is a huge part of what CU Futures is aiming to do in its mission of retaining and developing the best talent for our sector here in Britain."