Your CUNAverse team is excited for the upcoming year and looking forward to several improvements that will make CUNAverse a better experience for you… beginning with this post.

Take a moment to view our slideshow for our top 10 New Years Resolutions for CUNAverse. We hope this level of transparency reinforces the genuine nature of this blog, our commitment to providing you with valuable insight on all things credit union, and sets the tone in your mind for what is already shaping up to be a fantastic year.

As always, we want to hear your feedback. What do you think? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary for CUNAverse! It’s been a fantastic experience and we look forward to the year ahead.

We’re happy you—our readers—have come along for the ride since our official launch on May 3rd, 2010. The CUNAverse team can’t thank you enough for commenting on our posts, following our tweets and “falling in like” with us on Facebook.

Our gift to you on (the day after) CUNAverse’s birthday… is this excessively cute picture of a puppy and a cupcake.

Enjoy!

CUNAverse brings you the top 10 must-reads for April, 2011. As always, we highlight important credit union articles from a variety of sources, including U.S. News and World Report.

Vote for the 2011 CU Hero of the Year

Who should be the 2011 CU Hero of the Year? Follow the link to cast your vote and celebrate credit union leaders and heros.

Why You Need a Credit Union Account

Jim Wang’s post discusses the many advantages credit unions have over banks. In addition to discussing the major differences between banks and credit unions, Wang suggests, “if you’ve been searching for a way to sever your ties to a commercial bank, consider credit unions.”

H&FF Radio Covered Financial Literacy in 200th Broadcast

Sunday, April 3rd was a milestone for the Home & Family Finance Radio program. The broadcast was the program’s 200th show and discussed the importance of financial literacy and offered ideas to help consumers develop everyday financial skills.

The Jigsaw Puzzle: Redefining Tomorrow’s Corporates

Robert McGarvey reviews the current corporate credit union situation and why “…Topic A in the credit union industry during 2011 has to be how corporate credit unions will service natural person credit unions going forward.”

AmeriChoice Uses Grant for Youth Fin Lit Outreach

AmeriChoice FCU is on track to reach more than 10,000 school students this year after receiving a grant from the National Credit Union Foundation in 2010 for its financial literacy youth outreach program.

Credit Unions Look for a Lending Rebound

CU loan portfolios take a hit as members pay down debt at unprecedented rates.

First Tech CU Adds Amazon.com As SEG

NCUA has approved First Tech CU to serve Seattle-based employees of Amazon.com.

Review policies in wake of quakes, tornadoes

Do you know exactly what your insurance policies cover–and don’t cover–if you’re the victim of a tornado, earthquake, flood, or other natural disaster?

Council Honors Top Marketers

CUNA Marketing and Business Development Council’s Diamond Awards honors top marketers, best practices award winners also receive acclaim

CUs pick up the pieces in tornadoes’ aftermath

Credit unions in several Southern states have either begun to pick up the pieces from last week’s swarm of tornados and flooding or are standing ready to help.

2010 was an exciting year for our team - it was the year we kicked off CUNAverse!  In just 7 months since we launched CUNAverse 10,000 people have checked out the blog, we’re nearing 100 posts, many of you have commented and sent tweets and we’re looking forward to keeping the conversation going in 2011.

We wanted to take the time before 2010 came to a close to thank you for helping to make our launch in to the blogosphere such a blast.  As we near 2011 please leave us a comment here on the blog, send us a tweet, or drop us a message on our facebook page to let us know the types of things you’d like to see on CUNAverse next year.

For those of you that have just joined in on the CUNAverse conversation, here is a look back at our top 10 blog posts from 2010:

1. Does Your Credit Union Have a Social Media Policy?

2. What Credit Unions Can Learn From Pizza Hut

3. What Credit Unions Can Learn From Ritz Carlton

4. Compliance: Are You Ready For 2011?

5. Why Celebrate International Credit Union Day?

6. Turnover Increase on the Horizon for Credit Unions

7. Culture of Fear or a Culture of Love

8. Worried that CUs Aren’t Focused Enough on Upcoming Truth In Lending Changes

9. Taking Your Credit Union From Good to Great

10.  First Feedback on Bill Cheney as New CUNA President/CEO

16GB/Wifi Apple iPad

So maybe you’ve been reading the CUNAverse blog here for awhile now or you’re a new reader. Either way, we’ve come up with a contest to spread the word and get a chance to win a new Apple iPad!

(Note: contest entries had to follow us on Twitter and tweet about the contest).

In addition to the iPad, the lucky winner received a copy of the 2010-2011 E-Scan Report.

Thanks for participating and stay tuned for more CUNAverse contests this year!

Ever thought about starting a blog for your credit union? They’re an awesome opportunity to further connect with members.

In fact, it’s so awesome we decided a blog would be a great way to deepen the connection with OUR members… enter CUNAverse.

Resources such as Blogger, WordPress, and others make it easy to place blogs on the Web.  I’ve been known to set up a blog on the Web in less than an hour.

But it’s not the speed at which you set up a blog that determines its ultimate success. Careful planning and preparation before a blog launch is vital.

Yummy cake at internal launch

One item to plan for is the internal launch. Just like a new product being launched to the public, initial success for the blog is influenced by information shared internally before an official public launch.

Why? The more staff you have on-board, the more resources will be available to those shepherding the blog. The internal launch is your chance to efficiently build additional support, generate ideas, identify potential contributors, and educate those unfamiliar with blogs.

With that, I’m pulling back the curtain to share a glimpse of our internal launch for CUNAverse. This information will be helpful to those who wish to launch a blog for their credit union—and just plain amusing to the rest of you.

Watch the video:

Of course, I can’t just end a post like that! It’s kind of a let down if I don’t share more than just conversation and cake.

Here’s what we did for the internal launch:

1. Buzz before. We posted signs, e-mailed invitations, and implemented what turned out to be a “grass roots” effort to get staff curious and raise awareness. The signs were intriguing (featuring the Vicuna… a llama-like
   

   The Vicuna: A Llama-like creature

   creature), e-mails were informative, and the grass roots effort included sharing general information about what we were doing during meetings and everyday conversations around the office.

2. Interactive. We held activities, contests, and posted more signs in an informal setting for our internal launch. We wanted to do things a little differently than what staff may have been expecting to help grab their attention. Each effort helped communicate our mission, generated post ideas and identified potential resources.
3. Perpetuate excitement. Another contest was announced after the internal launch to keep staff interested and harness the energy and excitement generated. The contest awarded a prize for the “best” blog post on a subject of the writer’s choosing.

So, what do you think? Any tips to share from your own internal launches?

Isn’t it great . . . to be in CUNAverse!  It truly is great, exciting, fun, and much more for all of us – the staff here at CUNA, to be part of the launch of our blog CUNAverse. 

Over the last few years we’ve visited the idea of starting a blog and until now it always felt like the only reason we were considering starting one was because it was what everybody else seemed to be doing.  There are tons of valuable, insightful, provocative, and just plain hilarious blogs in existence both in and out of our industry.  While we loved staying up on all of the happenings in the blogosphere we just didn’t have a real purpose to throw our hat in the ring.  Until now.

As 2010 began, it finally started feeling like the time was right for CUNA to begin its blog journey.  The curveballs the economy has thrown at our industry and country have put a great spotlight on the real meaning behind the credit union philosophy.  As staff at your premiere trade association we are so proud of the hurdles you’ve jumped, the millions of members you’ve helped and the powerful way you’ve led your credit unions through these challenging times.  We feel inspired to bring you CUNAverse – a CUNA staff blog that will provide direct communication with our members and all of you who share our love of credit unions. 

We hope with this blog to be able to share all of the things that we find so wonderful about working in this movement, provide a place to discuss important industry topics, and have a platform for you to connect with us.  If you’d like to learn more about our goals of the blog please read the “About” section, you can also check out our individual bios to get to know us each a little more in the “Team” section.  

We’re so excited to see where this journey takes us!