What's more, how CUNA's new membership dues structure will affect affiliation is a significant unknown variable.

CUNA President/CEO Jim Nussle said he tasked the team to "re-imagine how we [CUNA] engage with our members and how we work with our league partners to do so in the best possible manner and in the true and critical spirit of interdependence."

Bell said her initial look at the survey results showed credit union members want more face-to-face engagement with CUNA.

"CUNA is here to support, protect, unify and advance the credit union movement, and our success at CUNA truly is the success of the credit union movement," Bell said. "And we want to operate in an environment for credit unions that's favorable to the point so that every American can choose a credit union as their best financial partner. So the engagement team in part is kind of bringing that strategy to life in the marketplace, and it's really the heart of everything we do."

CUNA has reached out to credit union members to gain a deep understanding of where they seek value, where they're getting value and how can CUNA better respond to credit unions, she said.

"We are at the very early stages of understanding that and using that information to shape our strategy and how we go about it," she said. "It's critical that we evolve in understanding our members' needs and being responsive to those needs."

Bell described engagement as a two-way street that builds long lasting, impactful and meaningful relationships with member credit unions, while at the same time continuing collaborative engagement with all league partners and unifying CUNA's system partners and vendors.

Read the April 20, 2016 print issue of Credit Union Times to learn more about Bell's new role; the purpose of the team that will include Greg Michlig, CUNA's deputy chief engagement officer, and others that have yet to be named; and how Bell sees this new project developing.