The idea for the crashers was developed by Brent Dixon, a young adult advisor at Filene who attended CUNA's GAC in 2009 but had nowhere to crash overnight. He met up with new and old friends and managed to find a place to stay each night. From that experience, Dixon realized many other under-30 credit union professionals had little or no access to conferences like the GAC, and wondered if there was a way for them to experience it at little or no cost. From this idea, Crash the GAC was born. Today, Dixon is the co-founder and chief design officer for Trabian Technology in San Francisco.

Culp succeeds James Marshall, who grew the Cooperative Trust's membership from just 270 four years ago to more than 1,500 today.

"We've seen the credit union system open its eyes and its arms to the need for the development of young talent, of you!" Marshall wrote in a recent blog post. "We have seen more professionals than ever before come through our crash programs and leave with a new lease of life for credit unions and what they do. We've seen our crashers attend CUDE, become i3'ers and become credit union CEOs. Yes, we've really achieved something. I never could have imagined that we'd be here, achieving so much, together."

After helping with the Cooperative Trust's leadership transition process, Marshall intends to stay with Filene. His position will be announced at a later date.

In his blog, Marshall described Culp as an amazing individual who will advance the mission of The Cooperative Trust, which is supported by Filene and CUNA.

After spending a summer in Alaska six years ago, Culp loved it and decided to stay. She then landed a job as a financial services specialist at the $140 million True North Federal Credit Union in Juneau. More than a year later, she became a business lending associate and was responsible for loan administration, underwriting and compliance tracking. In addition to becoming a crasher in 2016, Culp participated in Filene's i3 Innovation program.

One of the first projects she is working on includes moving The Cooperative Trust's website to a new platform that will provide young professionals an expanded forum for networking opportunities and resource sharing. The new website platform is expected to go live in about two months.

In about six months to a year after the new website platform is up and running, Culp plans to develop and launch an online mentorship program that will match young professionals with industry executives.

Culp said the mentors may include former crashers and members of The Cooperative Trust who have a lot of industry experience and want to help coach or guide young credit union professionals through challenges that all of them face throughout their careers.

"Especially in an industry like ours where a lot of people know each other, it's really valuable to be able to make those connections with mentors to obtain a broader understanding of the industry as a whole," she explained. "People are no longer staying with the same company for 30 years or more and retiring with a pension. People are hopping to new jobs every two to four years and that's becoming very acceptable. And in fact, in some cases if you stayed at a job for much longer than two to four years, sometimes people may ask you why."

With this seismic shift in the workplace, especially among millennials, Culp believes young professionals would value the stability that comes from mentors who can help guide them through their career as they face the changes that come with new job opportunities.

Although crashers are seen and heard at several credit union conferences, another goal of Culp's is to deepen their participation at these professional gatherings.

"I think there is a lot of value that we can add to the conferences beyond just being there and attending breakout sessions and other events," she said. "So, one of my goals is to be able to quantify the value that we bring to these conferences, whether it's at the GAC, ACUC or one of the council conferences. I want to be sure that these young people are coming in and they're engaging with the people who are there and that they are providing valuable input."

To accomplish this, Culp said she will be working with conference organizers to determine where any opportunities are for crashers to deepen their engagement at conferences, whether it be working the registration desks, participating in panel discussions or personally meeting with industry leaders and executives. Likewise, for industry executives, it could be an opportunity to increase their understanding and knowledge of young professionals and members.

What's more, Culp wants to advance The Cooperative Trust's Young Adult Advisory Services, which includes more than a decade of Filene's research about young adults in credit unions. The research service, Culp said, can be customized to help executives attract young members by benchmarking their credit unions against what young consumers want, identify opportunities for product development and obtain marketing techniques that have shown to attract young members.

The research service can also be used to attract and retain young employees by helping executives and board members evaluate their credit union against a survey of more than 500 young credit union employees on what they want from their employer, as well as insights and best practices from members of The Cooperative Trust and Filene's young adult network.

The $2.8 billion Coastal Credit Union in Raleigh, N.C., has already taken advantage of the Young Adult Advisory Services, which was officially launched at this year's GAC.

Coastal executives wanted to gain insight about how to provide the right products and services for millennials, including Generation Z.

According to a case study, Coastal said it learned its young adult market average age was younger than the national average because of the technology companies that are based in the credit union's market area. Coastal also found that these young adults had higher incomes compared to their peers.

Although the credit union found that some of its products and services are a good fit for their market, they needed to be packaged in a more convenient and consumable way. While marketing to the millennial market, Coastal also learned from the research service that it is important that the credit union be consistently transparent in what it does, how it operates and how it communicates.

What's more, to improve its focus on the millennial segment, Coastal said a clear digital experience is key, one that focuses on simplicity and convenience, according to the case study.