The Chairman's Group met recently in Baltimore. The organization comprises mostly credit union chairmen but also other volunteers, and I was fortunate enough to receive an invite.

This particular annual meeting doesn't have many of the frills larger conventions boast, though they couldn't resist sneaking in the obligatory golf tournament and an Orioles game (best thing about that I'm sure was the stadium!). But the agenda was entirely developed by the members. Other than an opening speaker on the economy and a wrap up session on embracing change, there were no talking heads.

The agenda was set by the membership. There were five roundtable discussions and one person at each table was appointed to facilitate the discussion on topics ranging from CEO evaluation and benefit dynamics of a 21st Century board. An open forum was left at the end to discuss the top three questions submitted during the conference so everything was kept very fresh. The entire group was split into several rooms. There were about 10 people at a table discussing the subject matter, and they were all in the same peer asset groups. The board of a $50 million credit union has much different concerns than that of a $500 million credit union.