Thank you to all the delegates who came from England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Romania and Scotland to make this such a successful event. It was a unique gathering of credit unions, policy-makers, trade associations and suppliers, sharing insights and best practice. We have set a high bar for future events!
The themes were Collaboration and Communities, with presentations from several practitioners. A number of key points, practical insights and learning outcomes emerged during the day. At the close, Dr Paul Jones, Director of Research, picked out just a few, including the importance for collaboration of:
- Clarity about business outcomes
- Good and effective governance – and the role of the board in driving collaboration
- Coping with the loss of autonomy
- Recognising that there is not one sole path to collaboration – there are multiple models and approaches
- Developing relationships based on trust.
And in relation to ensuring the social and economic difference of credit unions, Paul stressed the criticality of:
- Ensuring a culture clearly based on co-operative values and principles
- Communicating those values and principles to the membership and the community.
Paul ended by thanking all participants for coming to the conference and making the day such a success. Go raibh míle maith agaibh! Mulţumesc mult!
A summary of the conference can be downloaded in PDF format here. The PowerPoint presentations from the conference are available here. The videos shown by Dundalk Credit Union on their Gaelic football and soccer sponsorships are here and here, and on the St Patrick’s Day Parade here, while the St Anthony’s & Claddagh Credit Union video on community activity is here. The conference programme, including attendees, speaker biographies, more information about the Erasmus+ Fincare project, can be downloaded as a brochure (.pdf) here.
