BEAVERTON, Ore. – Two years after affiliated members of the Credit Union Association of Oregon voted on and approved a recommendation calling for the restructuring of the association's board, the first steps have been taken implementing the plan intended to increase the efficiency of the organization and improve CUAO's governance structure. That first step included decreasing the size of the CUAO Board from 15 to 10 members. That was followed by reducing the representative-to-credit union ratio from 7 to 1, to 10 to 1; and for the selection of board members to be based on congressional districts, with two board members representing each of five districts. The latter change was made to better align the board composition with the population distribution in Oregon CUAO. The initiative to restructure and downsize the CUAO Board began two years ago when the board appointed a 10-member Governance Committee and charged it with reviewing and making recommendations on the entire governance structure of CUAO. Rick Hein, president/CEO, OSU FCU, Corvalis who chaired the Governance Committee, explained that the "entire governance structure" included: the qualifications, selection and election of CUAO association directors; qualifications and selection of OCUL Service Inc. directors; the role of chapters in CUAO; the geographic boundaries of the chapters; and a thorough review of CUAO bylaws pertaining to governance. Hein said the Governance Committee targeted "sometime in 2003″ to complete its work, but instead it finished by November 2002. Using CUNA's Jeff Carpenter, VP of League Relations, as a facilitator, Hein said, "Because it was such as tall order, we decided from the start that we had to get the entire committee to participate and be committed to review all the items without prejudice to eliminate any battles that could develop such as large versus small credit unions, and so we'd be able to move forward. We wanted to reinforce the idea that our focus was not what was best for large or small credit unions, but what's best for the entire association." The exercise was a three-stage process. During the first meeting, which lasted three days, Hein said the committee members "threw everything out on the table." After that they defined the steps to go through: Step one included identifying and discussing the issues surrounding the charge the Governance Committee was given. Second was identifying potential changes, and third was discussing ways to implement proposed changes and to address any obstacles to the implementation. In November 2002, the Governance Committee presented its report to the full CUAO board with the various recommendations for restructuring the board. Hein said the Governance Committee's decision to recommend pulling board elections out of the chapters and basing them on congressional districts came down to this: By defining what it perceived to be CUAO's primary roles – regulatory and legislative advocacy; to be an information conduit for affiliated credit unions; to provide educational networking opportunities for credit unions -the committee then asked itself what was the best vehicle to allow CUAO to deliver its responsibilities. "We want our directors to be legislative advocates for credit unions, both on the federal and state levels, and since legislative districts are developed based on population that plan made the most sense for us," said Hein. Under the previous board design, every chapter was represented on the board and then five at-large members were elected. Now all board members are elected according to their legislative districts, and the role and geographic boundaries of the chapters are back in the hands of chapter presidents to determine. CUAO affiliated CUs voted on the restructuring recommendation at the 2003 annual meeting, but the board waited until all directors' terms expired in 2003 to implement the approved redesign. The new CUAO board members' names were announced at the association's annual meeting in October 2004. Hein said all members of the previous CUAO board had the opportunity to run again, and six of the current 10 members sat on the previous board. He stressed that the current board is a mix of representatives of large and small credit unions. Paul Williams, president/CEO, Clackamas Community FCU, will continue to serve as board chairman. His term expires in 2007. "It was one of the hopes of the Governance Committee to eliminate the notion that we had to have a specified number of large and small credit union representatives," Hein said, adding that it succeeded in that goal. -

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