Interested in Dabbling in Advocacy? Here’s How.

Recently I taught a class at Western CUNA Management School, and was joined by professors Pam Leavitt of the Credit Union Association of Oregon and Keri Bailey of the California Credit Union League. While listening to each of their presentations I noticed that every one of us harped on the fact that banks do a much better job of instilling the importance of political involvement than credit unions. I’m not sure why this is. Don’t get me wrong—I think we’re getting better, but I also think that we rise heroically to the occasion when threatened only to go back to business as usual when things calm down. Unfortunately, we keep going back to business as usual circa 1958, not 2008.

If you haven’t gotten involved in advocacy yet, you might actually find that you enjoy it like Daris and Andrew. Here are a couple of important tips and tricks to ratchet up your credit union’s commitment to advocacy in 2009:

1. Mark your calendar for two important conferences: the Washington State Governmental Affairs Conference, February 5-6 in Olympia, and the CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference, February 23-26 in D.C.

2. Budget an issue? The Washington State Governmental Affairs Conference (WGAC) is very reasonably priced. The CUNA GAC is admittedly pricey, but the Washington Credit Union Foundation has professional development scholarships available.

3. WCUF scholarships are awarded in three cycles. Unfortunately, this makes it a little awkward for those who need a scholarship for either the WGAC or the GAC so be sure to get your scholarship applications submitted by the due date: Friday, October 10.

4. What to budget? Registration for the WGAC generally runs about $250. The Olympia Red Lion runs approximately $125 a night (figure two nights at most). Add transportation costs from your location and a lunch, and you’ll probably be covered.

Registration for the GAC cost $795 this year ($400 for credit unions with under $35 million in assets). Hotels in D.C. are pricey, and you should budget about $265 a night (five nights). There’s lots of food provided at the conference, but you should probably budget for a couple of meals out as well. Transportation is a little trickier with gas prices being what they are. You’ll probably take taxis to get around, so budget $100 for that.

You’ll also need to get there, of course. There are three airports you can fly into: Reagan National, Dulles or Baltimore. Reagan is virtually downtown. Flights generally run about $550 (right now anyway) and another $15 to get to your hotel by taxi. Dulles is about 40 miles away from downtown D.C., costs about the same to fly into, but will cost you more to taxi to your hotel. Budget-conscious travelers may instead want to fly into Baltimore since it generally costs about $150 less, and is about the same distance from downtown D.C. AND there’s a free shuttle to a regularly-scheduled train that gets you to Union Station. From there it’s a very short taxi ride to your hotel.

More information about these conferences and League room block information go out closer to the end of the year.

Mark and I (and maybe even Daris and Andrew) hope to see you at one of these events. We’ll even chill the grappa for you…