National Youth Involvement Board leaders carried their message of youth outreach to the 2013 CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference (CUNA GAC). Their focus was to increase awareness and generate support from legislators, as they strive to improve upon an already impressive accomplishment: 413,106 students reached with financial education presentations during the 2011-12 school year by credit union educators. By addressing state league and Association gatherings, presenting at a session for The Cooperative Trust, co-staffing the National Credit Union Foundation booth, and attending visits on Capitol Hill, NYIB Chair Julie McLean was motivated to go beyond the vendor hall to increase youth advocacy for the year ahead.
McLean emphasized that the work reported by 115 credit union educators in 31 states to the National Youth Involvement Board (NYIB) at www.nyib.org deserves recognition in meetings with legislators and others, because it underscores credit unions’ commitment to all young citizens. She added that, while impressive, these numbers do not provide the full measure of credit unions’ efforts, and they called on more credit unions providing financial education to join NYIB’s online reporting and surpass its 2012 -2013 goal of reaching 500,000 students nationwide. Data collected by the NYIB is also shared with the National Credit Union Foundation for its published material, as well as with Leagues and other entities as requested.
South Carolina Credit Union League Director of Public Affairs Brandon Pugh—a past NYIB chairman—said, “NYIB’s different approach at the 2013 GAC—getting directly in front of Leagues and credit unions at their briefings and working in tandem with BizKid$—exemplifies their active interest in uniting credit unions and partners for common benefit. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that as reporting of annual presentation data ramps up and their year culminates at the NYIB 2013 Annual Conference in San Diego.” Details of this “must attend” conference can be found at www.nyib.org.
The NYIB conference includes recognition of top presenters and ranking of states in outreach, quantified exclusively by data reported through the NYIB website. Any credit union advocate who wants to reach youth in their community can create a “MyNYIB” profile and obtain access to the classroom reporting feature, a searchable document sharing tool, and the ability to upload their own news and success stories. Membership in NYIB is voluntary and site features are at no cost to the network.
For more on the National Youth Involvement Board and its annual goals contact any of the NYIB Executive Committee at www.nyib.org/contact.php.