LAS VEGAS – Early in his session at CUNA's America's Credit Union Conference Monday, Mark Sievewright read a group text conversation he had recently with his three children aloud to attendees. In the conversation, he mentioned he had a 90-minute presentation scheduled at the conference, to which one of his kids replied that he couldn't possibly hold anyone's attention for that long. 

This raised two points about millennials, Sievewright said: First, they have much shorter attention spans, and second, they have no problem communicating over text but usually refuse to answer the phone. The group chat story also led to a takeaway for credit unions. 

"If you don't adapt to the way new generations are doing things, you're going to lose and be irrelevant," he said.

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Natasha Chilingerian

Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.