Where Planning Meets Impact: Aria & Megan's Story

In this episode, we’re joined by Aria Ottenbreit and Megan Stander from the Michigan Credit Union League. They take us behind the scenes of what it really takes to plan impactful events at the MCUL. From the details no one sees to the moments that make it all worthwhile, they share how their roles have evolved and how they’ve grown along the way. It’s an inside look at the creativity, collaboration, and career development that power MCUL events.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to the Collaborative, the podcast for young professionals in Michigan's credit union world who are out here trying to connect, grow, and basically take over the cooperative finance universe. One episode at a time. As always, we're powered by Fuel Michigan because even podcasts need a hype squad. Whether you're tuning in on your commute, at your desk pretending to look very productive, or with a cup of coffee that may or may not be your second or your third, I'm just really glad you're here. I'm your host, Camille, and let's get into it before your coffee gets cold. In this episode, we're joined by Aria and Megan as they take us behind the scenes of what it really takes to plan impactful events at the Michigan Credit Union League. From the details no one sees to the moments that make it all worthwhile. They share how their roles have evolved and how they've grown along the way. It's an inside look at the creativity, collaboration, and career development that power MCUL events. Good morning and welcome, ladies. Thank you for joining me. Good morning. Thank you for having us. Of course. Thank you for uh agreeing to my little crazy idea randomly that I had about MCUL and the podcast. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

We love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

So I will admit I don't really know much about you other than seeing you guys on LinkedIn and going through. Tell me about your careers and how you got to where you are with MCUL. Do you want to go first, Aria?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Okay. I can go first. So my name's Aria. I'm an event planner with the Michigan Credit Union Leagues. I kind of took on this role pretty much after college. I had like a year of work experience beforehand where I was working as a consultant for my sorority. But that was like a contract role just for a year. I moved to the Lansing area and I was looking for a role somewhere in the Lansing area. And I saw Michigan Credit Union League was hiring. I put in my application. I went in for the interviews and I ended up working at first as an administrative assistant. And I worked a lot with our advocacy team. I did a lot of our programming. I remember beforehand, I didn't know anything really about credit unions. I had to research what PAC, so political action committee, meant. And I was like kind of nervous that I was not, you know, in the world. But as soon as I got in, you know, you learn a lot about what's going on. And I've moved around a little bit. It's been now almost three years that I've been with the league. And I now work with our education team as an event planner. So moved around a little bit, but really enjoy what we're doing here. So that's just a little bit about my background.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

Yeah, and we're so happy to have Ari on education. We saw her and we stole her. She's amazing. Well, I yeah, she's amazing. Um, I'm Megan. I started at the league, I think coming on eight years, and that number just keeps going up, and it blows my mind every year. Eight, nine, eight, that's the year late.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, really? That wow.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Obviously, never really thought about leaving, but I I just never thought I'd be here eight years. I'm like, how am I that old? So I started at the league eight years ago. It was my first job out of college. So I was just kind of looking for any job I could get. I was put in touch with the league through a family friend, and um, I just it felt like home right away. So I adapted super quickly with education, got really close to some of my coworkers, and I've been here ever since, from planner to now manager. Um, I just love doing the events, making them my own, being creative. It's kind of endless.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I do love it. I think you guys do an amazing job at events, by the way. Every event that I have been to has been fantastic. Never disappoints. Um, how do you create the space in those events? Like, what is day one, two? Because I just I show up, I register, I'm like, oh cool, I'm gonna go, and then I show up. What does that look like from the very first concept or even coming up with a new like kind of conference and kind of building that? And how many months does it take? And what does that look like?

SPEAKER_02 4:21

It kind of it depends on what event it is. You know, if it's if we're talking about ACE, those those plans are in are in motion for even years. Some of those contracts are signed years out, but I know I I've seen you at U Conference. That one it started from you know, bringing together just marketing and lending attendees, and then we wanted to throw in the compliance aspect, and then if if you want to go super like into the weeds, the U conference name came from literally just us sitting at the board table being like, okay, what could we call this conference? And then I think I like spelled MC well out, and I'm like, oh, that's marketing at compliance C you, like all we're missing is the you. So we just like try to think outside of the box, try to be creative, try to be funny. I know I mentioned earlier we wanted like this to be funny, but I just like to be punny in education.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I think people make take education so seriously. So it's good to have it fun and funny and not be so serious.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

I mean, we focus, I think, me and Megan, a lot on you know what we're providing for our attendees with education and as well as outside of education. Like Megan was saying, she, I'm gonna give her credit where credit is due. She is a great idea comer-upper. That's such a bad way to say it. So let me say it again. She has all of the ideas and she's able to really execute them well. As I was like taking my notes last night, thinking about what I was going to say here. I really enjoy helping Megan execute her cool and new ideas. Education is very important. Agenda building is super important, and we get, you know, we have a lot of people's opinions going into that. We have our education needs committee who helps us plan agendas. We reach out to credit union people to see what's going on with them, see feedback from our surveys to kind of plan out the agendas. But aside from that, our activities, our receptions, just like our little games that we play, that's kind of, I would say, our bread and butter, something that we really enjoy coming up with new things to do, coming up with new places to go. So it's a really cool like thing to be. So, you know, there's a lot of administrative tasks that go into what we do, but there's also a lot of like thinking and fun and coming up with new ideas and designing different flyers and different things that we do. So those are just kind of the small details and touches that we like to put on our events that I think really, you know, set the standard for what we do.

SPEAKER_02 7:15

And like what Aria said, like coming up with content, we use the committee, we use surveys, but the content's the hardest part because it's changing all the time. When we showed up to, I think it was you conference. I felt personally like a little lull in AI. Like everyone was like, now we're used to Chat GPT, now we're used to all this stuff, but like that's what the conference was focusing on. So it's like it's trying to think like 50 steps ahead. Um, and in terms of like the fun stuff, we we were like, what do we want to do? What would we want to eat? What would we want to get from this conference? What would my dad want to get from this conference? Or my grandpa, you know, if we're, you know, we just try to cater to our audience and our attendees through the people in our lives and through ourselves.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

I will say when I first saw you conference and like how it was the MTOL market, I was like, that's freaking genius. So like good job. Because I thought it was, I was like, I would never have thought of that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

So like We got we got to the post-meeting, like the post-event meeting, and I was like, you guys, it worked. People got it. When we were on site, we were like, you are the best. You, you know, like what are you doing? You know, it like it worked so well, and it wasn't the easiest sell, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

It was fantastic once it was done. Please never change that name because I love it. No promises, I know. Um, we'll see. So MCUL over the years, obviously they cater to everybody in the industry. There's been a lot of focus on AA, a lot of focus on young professionals, and it it doesn't feel like a lip service that they do. What's it like working for a company that seems to really focus on the future as far as young professionals go? What does it how does it feel? Do you ever feel like uh because I know some people come in, we have some people who are younger and they go and they talk to somebody who's older and they just are like, no, you don't know what you're talking about. That's kind of the general feeling across the board for younger generations. What's it like going through all of that? Do you do you ever feel it? Do you feel like up to you all is super supportive throughout?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

It's sorry, let me think for a second. I think that our leadership really puts a lot into their young professionals. Megan and I were having a little precursor podcast conversation and kind of touching on this. Patty has done a lot of work through her time as the CEO at the league to really put young professionals first, not only in like our credit union membership and really supporting the young professionals in the credit union movement, but also the young professionals at the league. I have been lucky enough to have a lot of growth opportunities within my career and even just the past, you know, three years, which that's not even like a high school career. That's not even a college career. Like I have been here for a short amount of time, really, in the grand scheme of things, but I do feel a lot of support from our leadership. It's uh so a lot of support and a lot of trust. Sometimes Megan and I are like, oh, it's kind of almost like maybe they shouldn't trust us as much, but they do, and it's really great to see how much support that we receive and how many opportunities we receive to like grow and move up. And you know, I've been able to, you know, change around what I'm doing a little bit, work with every department. So it's just it's really nice, and we have a lot of supportive, seasoned professionals at the league. And um, I don't think that you see that a lot in other organizations. So it's great, it's a great environment, really.

SPEAKER_02 11:13

Yeah, I think Arya and with I've always felt like Patty has had an interest in my career here at the league and wants us to do things and go places and do podcasts like this. Um, I remember she invited me to the ACUGAC and I was like, what? Like, I don't do I need to go through a training before I go here or something. But just little things like that make you feel so important and um, you know, you're you're able to sit at those tables and feel like you can share your idea or communicate to the or um what's the word? Contribute to the conversation. And I think Patty plays a huge part in that. And then just other departments, you know, people will come to me for ideas or aria for design stuff. Like we're not afraid to ask each other for help or um play off with everyone else.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

I feel like for what you said, MCUL really leans into the collaborative side of things, which is all what credit unions are. And so I love that it's not just on the credit union level, it's also on the league level, and we all just collaborate. And that's actually kind of where the name came from for the podcast was Josh Buck came up. He's like, Well, what if we call it the collaborate? And I was like, I mean, I like it, but what if it's like a group of people, collaborative? So that's how we came up with that. And I love that that's the theme no matter where you go in it. Sure. Yeah. What are some ideas that you guys have come up with? I know Social Club has come up with, I think that was Aria's baby, uh, last year. What are other ideas other than that and MCUL? What does how did it feel pitching those ideas, all of that?

SPEAKER_02 12:52

Oh, jeez. It's always scary at first for sure. And I lean on our boss, Janet Ormsby, a ton for that. She has never, like, even when the idea is bad, she is like, let's uh let's look into it. Let's let's dive a little deeper. I remember my first year at MCUL, and I was sitting at my desk, you know, with my little nameplate, and my co-worker worked in advocacy at the time, had a quote on her desk that said, Every time you get nervous to pitch an idea or to say something in a meeting, just remember that somebody pitched Sharknado, the franchise Shark Sharknado. That's a good one though. That impacted me so much because it it like lit a fire inside of me. And I from then on have shared, even if it's a bad idea, you know, maybe there's a little crumb we can get from something you said. But that quote, I laugh all the time, and I should honestly post it on my wall because it's it's helped me come up with these crazy ideas and feel confident in it because that's like a billion-dollar franchise, Sharknado. And a lot of people haven't even heard of it. So it makes me laugh.

SPEAKER_01 14:07

And it's such an out-of-the-box concept, too. And like, why is this a thing? It is.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Sharks and a tornado. It's crazy. But I think it's always hard to share an idea, even when it's coming from left field, if we haven't done it before. A lot of our like our boss, Janet Ormsby, has been here for over 20 years. So they've done a lot of stuff, and a lot of ideas are reused, but it's such a different time, and it's such we can do such different things that it's kind of fun to, you know, take their experience and then tune it up a little bit or just try it, try to do it a little bit differently. Before I go further, I'll let Aria go if you have anything.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah, I mean, I think that, like I said earlier, Megan is like the poster child for big and fun ideas. And I think that it is kind of scary, you know, pitching something. But like she said, our boss, Janet, and the rest of our team are really just supportive of what we want to do, and they're intrigued and they trust us, and they're ready, like they're love to see like it come all together at the end of the day. And I think especially, I think about like our annual convention and all of the different cool ideas that we have put forward with that. Last year we did a big superhero theme, and Megan came up with the idea to run decor through the entire convention as like a story. And we wrote a comic book and we displayed the comic book um for everybody to see throughout the event. And this is like an idea that I mean, I would have never been able to come up with something like that. And like I said, it was so fun to help execute it. We were, you know, together on meetings, writing copy for the comic, working with an artist to put it together, blowing it up, putting it up on big step and repeats. And it was just so cool to have start with, I want the annual convention or ace to be a story. Let's see how we can tell it. And so that was just a really cool idea. And so I think that stuff like that, it's really cool to see our team support us. And I'm happy to talk a little bit about like CU Social Club as well. Yeah. But so this was an idea. Once again, I think Megan mentioned sometimes we do our strategic planning sessions at the beginning of the year where we all sit down at a conference table and talk through, you know, what's our plan? What are some new ideas? That's how we came up with the name for the youth conference and some of our different conference ideas. But it's also where the idea of CU Social Club sprouted from. I had just started on the team, and I think I was just kind of looking for something to put myself into, a new idea. And I worked as a brand investor in college, and I thought doing a similar type of program for our events would be a cool way to get our attendees more involved in our events and have like a special experience. I, you know, a goal, part of the goal of it is obviously to reach different people, people who maybe we, you know, are in our in our database or don't know anything about the league because the credit union world, it's small, but it's also big. I don't know, you know, it's like I don't know everybody who works in there. I'm like talking to people and I'm they're telling me, oh, I work at a credit union, or I know someone who works in a credit union. And I'm like, okay, I work for the league. That's very exciting to me. And here are all of our events that we do, and they should definitely come. And that is actually kind of what helped spark the idea is I posted a picture on my Instagram and I had a badge on from our events, and someone I knew slid up and was like, Do you work at a credit union? And I was like, Well, actually, I work for the Michigan Credit Union League. And she had just started at a credit union in their marketing department, and it was just about the time when our U conference was happening. So I said, Well, you know, slate book for our U conference. You should definitely come check it out. And she did. And I was like, you know what? What if this could happen with other people? You know, you never know who you know. So that's kind of how the idea of CU Social Club started. And um, it's people like you, Camille, that supported us through that and you got involved. And I'm really appreciative of everybody who's been a part of the program so far. But yeah, that's kind of where it came from. And I also am lucky to have the support of my team to be like, yeah, let's see how this works out.

SPEAKER_01 19:08

I loved the idea when I read the concept of it last year, and I decided I wanted to like apply to do it because it's so far out of my comfort zone. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do it anyways, and we'll see. And I felt like a fish out of water because like the share for the you, I was the only one not in marketing. And I'm like, all the other girls are like, hey, it's great. I'm so marketing. I'm like, I mean, I'm a little scared, but I'm here and I'm having fun. So out of it. And I was like, yeah, I'm definitely not a marketing person, but I'm trying. But like then I meet you the conference people, so it works.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, and honestly, the idea to do it at the U Conference was hopefully to get marketing, lending, and compliance people involved. But because it's such a social media centric program, it makes sense that we've got a lot of marketing people interested. But I, you know, so appreciate you, you know, stepping out of your comfort zone and joining as our compliance person to, you know, reach that group of people. And it's just, you know, the support that I've gotten and the people who have been ambassadors, it's just like a really cool thing that I've been able to do with our team and our attendees.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

I wear my baseball hat like all the time now. And I've gotten a few questions. What is that? And I was like, it's poor work. There you go. So I have that baseball hat now.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

We need to sell the merch separately or something.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Cause oh yeah. I wear uh we did our Easter egg and it was really subbingy, and I had that in my sunglasses, and people look at me. I was like, mm-hmm, mce well.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Stop sign up. I think what I just wanted to add a little, a little note. See your social club also sparked our Instagram. So we didn't have we weren't on Instagram, we were the league was on LinkedIn, Facebook, you know, those social medias, but we had no Instagram presence. So it was it was really Aria who was like, we need to be on Instagram, we have to do this. And we brought that to our director of communications, and he was like, go for it. And then from then on, it's been me and our or Aria and I on. It kind of brought us closer together because we sat on a call every day for like an hour and we would do a post and we would we really worked hard on growing that presence. And then social club was born, and it's been so fun to watch that just totally take off in all of our events. And every year everyone's like, okay, now we should now we should probably do that at Ace. It went so well at U Conference, we need to bring it to all of the other events. So just one thing kind of leads to another.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

But I was excited to see you guys were doing it at Ace because I feel like that is.

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Are you coming?

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, girl. I'm actually a you ambassador again for that. Yes, I am I am there. I'm excited. I we have usually a It's like four or five of us, but we have like eight of us plus board members coming this year. So I'm excited to go and see my one of my co-workers first times and have her just be like, it's gonna be big, girl, but it's it's fun. It's gonna be good. I also like how last year at Ace you guys had the little badge ribbons, like the fun ones. That was such I remember I because I was part of the scholarship group, I didn't have the normal check-in. And so the first night I was like, Where are people getting all of these? And I like made it my mission to go find those badge stickers because I was like, I need one.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

It's so fun because it's truly the little things. It really is. It makes people so happy at events.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

Who would have thought? It made it it made it fun. It actually also inspired my custom made ones that say hard of hearing because I'm mostly deaf in my left ear and I wear a hearing aid, but that causes all of the noise. And I go to conferences and I'm like constantly asking, huh? Or I'm sorry, can you repeat? And so I was like, you know what? That was a that was a fun way of doing it because I was I found myself constantly looking at what people said of like what about them. So I was like, I'm gonna do this for my conferences this year. So thank you for sparking that idea. Yeah, thank you for sparking that idea. How do you make sure these programs stay relevant as you can? I mean, you got Instagram going, what else? It's an ever-changing landscape.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

I think that, you know, once again, me and Megan were having a conversation before this. And so I'm like tapping back into that. Um I think that we're able to stay relevant not only for like young professionals, but also seasoned professionals because of the way, you know, our team is laid out. For at least the education department, we have like a group of young professionals and then a group of folks who are seasoned professionals, not only just in their career, but really at the league. I think like one of our colleagues has been at the league for like more than 30 years. A lot of them have been there for like the majority of their careers. And so it's just like they have so much experience that, especially in the credit union industry, they know so much about what has happened in the past and how we've grown. And now we have, you know, our younger professionals who can come up with more innovative ideas and like come up with new things that maybe we haven't done and implement that kind of stuff, with also the knowledge of what's happened in the past and how we've gotten to this point. So I think that, you know, when we talk about being relevant for young professionals, I think it's important that young professionals play a part in the planning, in the agenda making. I think a lot with fuel, that's what's going on. You know, we they have a lot of support from seasoned professionals, but their programs, their events, their leadership are all planned and by and led by young professionals. And I think that's really important. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

No, I completely agree. I think the dynamic just on our team alone, the different experience levels makes it a little bit easier for us to, you know, kind of play off of each other and keep things relevant to everybody across the board. I also we're just we're again, we're always thinking, we're trying to think 50 steps ahead. At the end of every ace, we sit down and I feel like the questions asked, so what are you gonna do next year? You know, this year was the comic. Two years ago, what we put Patty in a hollow human. You know, it's trying to think of what, not only content-wise or like industry-wise, but like what's gonna keep people coming back? What's gonna keep people interested? When we went through COVID, it was it was hard. People still showed up. We had to cancel one ACE, but the um, I think it was the 2021 or the 2022 ACE we brought back, and it was completely different. So it was scary. And then ever since then, just has it been the same. So just trying to be creative against every little thing, try something different to um keep people coming back and keep people interested. I think content, but it's keeping people interested and wanting to come.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, I think a big part is too like Arya touched on it spans. Like you have the young professionals and seasoned professionals, and they really have to work together because you might come up with an idea, well, it didn't work before, and this is why. Maybe we can make it work this time, not just the oh, it didn't work, we're not gonna do it again. I hate when people say that to me. Like, but it could be different. Help me make it different. Exactly. Um, what skills you talked earlier, are you about advancing a lot and learning a lot in the last three years? What skills have you two like developed over the last couple of years that you didn't necessarily think you would or you didn't realize you would get those skills from the environment you're in?

SPEAKER_00 27:14

You learn a lot of acronyms.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

A lot.

SPEAKER_00 27:18

That's an important skill, especially in our you know, industry. You learn a lot. I remember coming in, and uh uh our EVP of advocacy gave me a whole list of different acronyms and what they all meant, and said, here you go to reference if you need it. And it is so true. There are lots of things like that.

SPEAKER_01 27:42

We had it in New Girl Fair a couple of months ago, and I was like, Oh yeah, I'm BSA officer. And my co-worker was like, she doesn't know what that means. And I was like, Oh, big secrecy app. Sorry. Let me tell you what it is.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

Um, also, I'm like, I know that because it's uh we uh host uh that as in a like a session at one of our events. So I'm like, it is important to know, and it's something that I've learned, but um, I think it also through that you learn a lot quickly. There's a lot about the credit union industry that I came in that I didn't know about, you know, I wasn't like super um involved at like my background isn't in like financial industry, my background really isn't in like, you know, a little bit of like nonprofit work, but still, um, so it was a lot to learn. But as you kind of get into it, it's easy. You have to be adaptable, I think, in our role at the association. We work on a pretty small team, not only just like our education team, but the MCUL team overall is a little over probably 20 people. So you work with a lot of different people, not only within the team, but outside of the team and different other companies and our membership. But I think you can be thrown into a lot of different projects and you just kind of have to roll with the punches, become adaptable, learn as you're working, figuring things out. Um, I think that in a lot of other organizations, you kind of just stick to your role and you stick to the same things that you do all the time. But with us, like we talked about earlier, it is really collaborative. You are working with different departments and talking to other people, doing different projects. So there's a lot of adaptability and learning as you work.

SPEAKER_02 29:40

We do a lot of the same events every year. You know, we probably have like a core seven that we do every year, but they are so different every year. Um, again, adapting to what's happening in the industry, what's happening in the world. So it just you you learn something new every year about even the same thing, which I think is pretty fun. I feel like I've adulted at the league. I've like, since I've been here eight years, there's not, I I couldn't boil it down to one, one or even two or five skills that I feel like I've learned here because I feel like I've learned everything. I remember sitting in meetings and thinking to myself, I might have to quit. I'm never gonna be able to do some of this stuff. And now I'm doing it, you know. So I don't, I don't know if there's a specific skill to call that, but um I just feel everything from confidence to problem solving to working in a group to working by yourself to working from home. Um, when we first started, when I first started at the league, we were fully in office. I went to Lansing every day, and now we're working from home. So it's just it's everything. You know, I feel like this this association has given me access bit of my comfort zone and outside of it, which I think is pretty rare.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Okay. Um, for anybody listening and anybody in general, what's the best first stuff they can do to to get involved, whether it just be with the MCUL, with events that you guys put on? How do you think email educate?

SPEAKER_02 31:17

That's what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

Email educate.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Email educate is a good idea. But yeah, I mean, even just reaching out to education or you know, running into a patty at an event, or yeah, reaching out to us.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

I uh like I said, I was listening to your conversation with Joey, Germa, and he mentioned how he kind of got started with I think fuel and kind of his first step was talking to his leadership at the credit union about how he can get involved. And I think that young professionals that that's a like a really important step. I understand that it's not always just like, oh, I'm gonna just decide to go here because I, you know, I want to. They're like, you know, you have to get permission from people. So I think a great first step would be learning more about our events, learning more about our like programs and initiatives. I mean, I think obviously come to one of our events, you know, we put on a lot of different kinds of events for a lot of different, you know, career types within the industry. But there's so you know, there's a lot of ways to get involved with the league. Um, you know, attending, we have, you know, our advocacy events and getting involved at the chapter level is also, you know, a way to start, you know, I don't know how to put it, but it's a way to like, you know, start digging your feet in or you know, seeing new opportunities. So come to an event, apply for a scholarship. We have a lot of scholarships that we award folks to not only small asset-sized credit unions, we have young professional scholarships to attend our events, networking opportunities. When you come to an event, go to the reception, go and talk to people, you know, put yourself out there, come up to the registration desk and say hi to us because we're happy to talk. We're happy to point you in the right direction, get you involved in what's going on, use social media, connect with people on LinkedIn, you know, people who you meet in person at an event, do a little connecting, do a little internet stalking, maybe. And you know, in fuel, that's a great way for young professionals to get involved, join committees, another plug for an event, see you spark tank presentations. That's a really cool way. I think the league has been involving young professionals and is kind of a great step if you have a fun new idea to get involved in something like that.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

You guys are always at every event just so energetic and friendly. And I don't know how you do it because it's exhausting. So I think you guys do a fantastic job at being welcoming and organized and getting everybody where we need to be and what we need to do.

SPEAKER_00 34:17

And we appreciate hearing that because we talked before about how, you know, you know, a big part of our job is being on site and you know, working and making sure everything is running smoothly. So our stress is a little bit publicized in a way. You know, we've got a lot of things going on. We're running around. I know before, I'm sure people have seen me like running across, especially at our ace between Amway and DeVos. I'm like working that sky bridge, like it's my runway. But I think that I appreciate hearing that we're able to be welcoming and that we love seeing people and we love working with the credit union people at our membership. One of my favorite parts of my job has always been attending our events and getting to be with everybody in person. So it is a really cool experience.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Got to see behind the curtain very briefly in 2024. So it was at Grand Traverse. Amanda, Amanda? Andrea. Why did I go with Amanda today? Anyway, Andrea was, she had a bunch of things to carry, and I immediately was like, here, let me help you, because that's just who I am. And so I wait, we wait into the room where it went, and it was like chaos everywhere behind the scenes. And I was like, this is fun for them. And I just like put it down.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

I was like, okay, I work a lot with the vendors, and one of them at the ace, A C and ECE always comes up to me and he goes, Megan, you're not running. If you're not running, if something's not going well. And I'm like, come on. It should be the opposite.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

It's going good, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

It's going well.

SPEAKER_01 35:57

I can walk, but you get your exercise in at those conferences, which especially I'm true.

SPEAKER_00 36:06

I think last year, not just exercise, I had totally me and one of my other uh one of our other colleagues, Rebecca, she's been losing her voice at conferences. I lost my voice last year at Ace. It was just like you're using a lot of your ta your vocal cords, you're using your legs, you're using your brain as much as you can. It's a lot, but it's fun. You say it's fun.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

It's exhausting, but it's a good time. I always live like a three-day weekend after Ace.

unknown 36:41

Always.

SPEAKER_00 36:41

Yes, and that's the best part. The, you know, successfully coming home and knowing that we did a lot of great things. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Final question is kind of everybody I ask, and it it might look a little different for you guys because you are more on the league side. Well, obviously you're on the more on the league side, um, and not totally like crediting your member facing. But is there like specific events or specific moments that you're like, yeah, this is why I love where I'm at in my career. This is why I love doing what I do with MCUL. Is there like a specific moment that stands out more than any or just all of it?

SPEAKER_02 37:19

I think it's getting to work with people like Aria every day, put our brains together and be creative and you know, feel empowered to pitch a new idea or change something up. That's that would be hard to walk away from. The environment here is just very, like we've talked about, collaborative. And I love that. I don't I don't think there's like a specific moment that keeps me here. It's just it's all of them. Like we've said, the events are hard. The events take a toll on me, but it's the conversations like this and getting to work with my coworkers and keep pushing forward that keeps me here, I'd say.

SPEAKER_00 37:58

I think that I think a lot about different things that keep me here. And even like something like this, being able to go through the questions and kind of reflect on my time with the league. It's just like, wow, this is a really awesome place to be. And I really enjoy working with all of these passionate people. And I think that the passion that, you know, a lot of our leaders have for what they do is super inspiring. Um, and definitely kind of is a reason why I'm like, you know, happy to move forward and grow in this organization. I think, like Megan said, working with people like her, working with a lot of amazing and you know, people who have a lot of ideas, people who are very supportive. Something I was writing about yesterday is that, especially within the league, and I think a lot of the credit union industry as well, there are a lot of strong and smart and passionate women who I work with.

SPEAKER_01 39:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

There are also a lot of smart and strong and passionate men as well. But I think it is super inspiring, especially at the league, to see someone like Patty be such a powerful leader. Exactly. She is really a driving force of the industry and how amazing it is to not only be a part of the company or the organization that she runs, but also be able to get to talk to her and be able to get to learn directly from her, and not only Patty, but also your VP, Renee Wirth. She is such an intelligent and funny person, and I love working with her. Our boss, Janet Ormsby, is like so supportive and amazing, and like the whole line down to us and our whole team is women. And I really enjoy being mentored and inspired by seasoned professionals. And, you know, I get to work a lot with Megan, who's been here for eight years, and she has inspired me so much, and I've learned so much from her. So it's just a really cool place to be. I love working with women, I really do. I've been, you know, like I said, I used to work for my sorority, and that was all women, and I loved it. And I was like, how am I ever going to leave here and go somewhere else? I want to work with women, and I ended up in the league, and I work with so many amazing women. That's very cool. And then, you know, not to like keep on rambling, but there's just so many like amazing parts of the job. I think about how um I left our executive summit this year to go directly to our all-on-boards conference, which is for our board of directors from credit unions. And I rode on the ferry by myself, like back from Mackinac Island. And I sat there and it was almost totally empty, which I I go to Mackinac Island. My family loves Mackinac Island, so it's very special to me. And I don't know, just like sitting there reflecting on the event that we did, knowing I was going to another event, you know, working really hard, but just being able to sit and reflect for a second. I'm in Mackinac Island on the ferry that's practically empty. I'm like, wow, life couldn't be better, could it? It just is really, we get, we are served a lot of cool opportunities. So it's just it's a very cool experience. Being able to work and go to all of these different places and work on site is just something that's very uh, I don't think you could find that at a lot of different organizations. So I'm I'm very lucky that this is what we get to do.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

You guys are amazing. MCUL in whole is amazing. Like I I can never say it enough. Um, especially the education department. Everything that you guys do is just fantastic. And I've never felt stupid emailing you silly questions about an event or a question or hey, I don't think I got or even like the registration for you because something got mixed up and just emailing you and like, hey, I know you're really busy, but like help. And I've never felt rushed or inconvenienced or like I was troubling you guys, and you guys just and everybody that I've dealt with at the MCUL level, like it's always welcoming. And I love that. I think that's very rare these days in a lot of organizations and a lot of industries. So I appreciate you and everybody there who always make it such a great time and make me not feel like an idiot when I ask questions. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 42:47

Just remember You're not an idiot.

SPEAKER_01 42:49

Yeah. Even when I email, like, why can't I join Miss List Surf? Because you're already part of it. Oh no. It might depend. I haven't had it. Like it it happens, but you guys, thank you so much for your time and talking and sharing kind of more behind the scenes of what you guys do. And I'm excited to see all of the fun for Ace this year. I cannot wait to see what you guys have.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

I think you'll like it. We got some good stuff cooked up. Thank you for having us, Camille. This is the fun. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Thank you so much. We appreciate it. And like big I don't know if we can, but I'm like plugged to Ace. Come out.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

We do have to pull these come to hear it. I am excited. I have had a scholarship the last two years, so I get to attend Corks for a cause and not work it. So I get to experience something completely new. Just enjoy yourself. Yes, that's what I plan to do. So thank you again. Thank you.