How does your board member selection process compare to your hiring procedures for other positions? Many credit unions have detailed vetting for staff roles that includes background checks and multiple interviews. Could similar rigor benefit board recruitment?
In this episode, hosts Joshua Barclay and Becky Reed welcome Stacie Sloan, COO at Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union, to explore the impossible choice between digital perfection and community roots, why board recruitment feels like amateur hour compared to executive hiring, and how the GENIUS Act could determine whether credit unions control payments or become glorified middlemen.
Can you really choose between digital perfection and community roots?
The forced choice between digital excellence and community relationships reveals everything wrong with how credit unions think about member experience. It’s a false dilemma that credit unions use to justify mediocre digital tools while claiming relationship superiority.
Stacie Sloan chose relationships without hesitation: “Hands down, relationships. That’s what credit unions are all about. Winning trust is so much more valuable than building a technology solution.” But her follow-up was more telling: “You might win them with the relationship, with the story, but if you want to keep them and you want to engage them, we have to deliver digitally as well.”
Becky Reed played devil’s advocate by pointing to Chime’s three million customers acquired with zero community presence: “The digital experience is the relationship.” Her insight cuts deeper than the obvious convenience factor. Tomorrow’s consumers want to bank where they feel the institution makes a difference, but that difference doesn’t require physical branches or community coffee hours.
The real revelation isn’t which side wins this hypothetical battle. It’s that credit unions have convinced themselves they must choose at all. Digital tools should amplify community impact, not replace it. You can have blockchain-based voting for board elections, digital donation platforms for local nonprofits, and mobile apps that connect members to community initiatives. The problem isn’t technology versus relationships. The problem is thinking small about what technology can accomplish for relationships.
Why board recruitment feels like amateur hour
In an article on CU Daily, Tony Ferris makes a bold claim that credit unions are falling behind because they treat board recruitment like an afterthought, relying on outdated models, internal referrals, and last-minute replacements instead of recruiting with the same rigor as executive hiring. His warning hits hard: “The future of credit union governance doesn’t start at the next board meeting. It starts with who’s sitting at the table.”
The credit union industry treats board governance like a weekend hobby while expecting boardroom-level strategic oversight. Stacie acknowledged the comfort of internal referrals: “There’s an inherent trust there that people feel comforted by. But the risk you run in not casting a wider net is that you miss out on other opportunities or other people that could just as effectively fill one of those board seats.”
Becky’s comparison to for-profit boards exposed the sophistication gap: “In a for-profit organization like a CUSO, oftentimes we have advisory board members that we bring on that don’t necessarily sit on the board and have a vote, but they might have a particular skill set that’s beneficial to the organization.” Meanwhile, credit union boards often prioritize nice people over knowledgeable people.
The good old boy network isn’t malicious. It’s lazy and expensive. The solution isn’t abandoning relationship-based recruiting entirely. It’s professionalizing the process. Create advisory positions for expertise without voting rights. Establish skills matrices that identify gaps before they become problems. Develop succession pipelines that don’t depend on who happens to know whom. Most importantly, recognize that serving on a credit union board should require more qualifications than being a member and having time to attend monthly meetings.
The payments war credit unions are losing by default
The GENIUS Act represents the regulatory framework that will determine whether credit unions become payment innovators or payment customers. Becky’s warning was stark: if credit unions wait to engage with stablecoin technology, they’ll end up “beholden to the same giant fintechs that provide them technology today.”
The math is brutal. Twenty-five percent of credit union operating costs relate to payments, including fraud. Distributed ledger technology offers dramatically lower costs and higher security, but only for institutions that build capabilities now rather than buy solutions later.
Becky described credit unions already forming stablecoin networks for inter-credit union transfers: “If you go and you look at your transaction data, just like when you look and you see that all the money is going out to digital asset exchanges, you’re losing your deposits that way.” The opportunity isn’t theoretical. Credit unions are hemorrhaging deposits to digital asset platforms and paying premium costs for payment processing that blockchain technology makes obsolete.
Stacie’s perspective captured the strategic reality: “Money movement is so critical for members, for humans, right? Money funds all types of activities, and we need to be able to provide that mechanism for our members.” The question isn’t whether credit unions should participate in payment innovation. The question is whether they’ll lead it or rent it from someone else.
The boards Becky addresses understand this urgency: “All of them, without exception, are like, ‘Yes.’ What I’m getting now is the how. How do we get started? Where do we start first?” The credit unions asking these questions now will control their payment destiny. The ones waiting for vendor solutions will pay vendor prices forever.
Takeaways
You must stop treating digital tools and community relationships as competing priorities instead of complementary capabilities.
Board recruitment requires the same rigor as executive hiring, with skills matrices and succession planning replacing referral networks.
Payment innovation through stablecoin technology will separate leaders from followers in the next five years.
Distributed ledger technology offers operational cost reductions that compound annually for early adopters.
The institutions building payment capabilities now will own their member relationships tomorrow.
Full Transcript
Joshua Barclay: Credit union community, let’s go over the topics we’re covering on today’s show. First up, we’re playing a little game. What would you rather have at your credit union, digital perfection or deep community roots? You can only pick one. Next up, the board recruitment process. Is it outdated and quietly sinking the future of the credit union movement? And lastly, we’re covering the GENIUS Act, and most importantly, what it means for credit unions. All these topics and more on today’s show.
[Music]
Joshua Barclay: Welcome to Grow Your Credit Union, the podcast where credit union leaders gather, learn, and grow. I am your host, Joshua Barclay, and joining me is my favorite person in the credit union movement, my co-host, Becky Reed. Becky, what’s up?
Becky Reed: Howdy, y’all.
Joshua Barclay: Becky, I’ve been seeing you all over town. Where have you been recently? And what I want to know, what have you learned? Because you’re going on tour to all these different events. You’re speaking to a lot of different people. So, the first thing that comes up in my mind, Becky, is what are you hearing out there on the street?
Becky Reed: Well, most recently, I was in Chicago meeting with a CUSO there around digital enablement for the members that they serve through their credit union clients. And I speak a lot to credit union boards and credit union executive teams about the GENIUS Act, which we’re going to talk about today, but the future of payments. And what I would say is most notable is that nobody, nobody in the credit union space is backing down on this new age that we are embarking upon. And so, that might surprise some people, but a lot of times I get, “Don’t boards just tell you it’s too technical and it’s boring?” And the answer is no. The answer is no.
Joshua Barclay: I can’t wait to talk about the GENIUS Act on today’s show. Becky, we’ve got an awesome guest. We always have awesome guests, but this one, pretty awesome. Let’s introduce her. Today, we welcome the chief operating officer at Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union, Stacie Sloan. Welcome to the show, Stacie.
Stacie Sloan: Thank you. I’m so happy to be here.
[Music]
Joshua Barclay: Let’s start with a little game. Stacie, you’ve proven that credit union leaders can be both tech innovators and community champions. You’ve led a digital transformation while deepening your impact through coaching programs, nonprofit work, all that good stuff. But I want to play a game. Like I said, what happens when you have to choose? This segment’s called, “Would You Rather?” I’ll give you two scenarios and you’ve got to pick one. I repeat, you’ve got to pick one. So, Stacie, would you rather lead a credit union with a flawless digital experience but with zero community presence, or one with incredible community relationships, but with clunky, outdated digital tools?
Stacie Sloan: I know you thought that was going to be a hard question for me to answer, [Laughter] but I’m glad that you asked it. Hands down, and at the risk of oversimplifying it, relationships. That’s what credit unions are all about. Winning trust is so much more valuable than building a technology solution, and when it comes to serving members, we know that we have to have that connection element, right? We all have a field of membership that we’re trying to serve. We all have members that have entrusted their financial wellness to us. And in order to serve them and remain true to the essence of credit unions, I think we have to continue to prioritize those relationships.
Joshua Barclay: I thought you might pick that one. I like this because I feel like Becky is going to go the opposite direction, I could be wrong. But Becky, if you have to pick one right now, an amazing digital experience with a crummy community roots, or great community roots with a crummy digital experience, what are we doing?
Becky Reed: Well, I actually agree with Stacie, but I can argue both sides.
Joshua Barclay: You can only pick one, Becky.
Stacie Sloan: I wasn’t able to pick one… I had to pick one, I couldn’t argue both sides. [Laughter]
Becky Reed: I know, which is I’m saying I can only pick one, right? That’s the choice that I have. So, I’m going to be devil’s advocate and I’m going to pick the opposite.
Stacie Sloan: All right.
Becky Reed: And I’m going to say one word. And that is Chime. Chime and other digital first applications, mobile applications, digital applications that are provided to consumers have zero community relationships built and have three million members in a year or customers. And as a matter of fact, Chime actually says that they want to replace credit unions. They wanted to disintermediate the credit union experience and win on the digital experience side of things. And so, I think that as we move into the future, the digital experience is the relationship. I think that it’s up to credit unions to make sure that the community aspect of it is still part of the relationship, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be physical.
Joshua Barclay: Stacie, the gauntlet’s been thrown down by Becky.
Stacie Sloan: [Laughter]
Joshua Barclay: Do you agree with what she’s saying? Or do you feel like credit unions can somehow… Well, first of all, we got to give credit unions more credit. This is a hypothetical, right? In this particular scenario, the digital experience is not good. So, let’s stick with that scenario. Can credit unions, you think, Stacie, continue to thrive with heavy community presence, but without having that Chime level of digital experience that Becky alluded to?
Stacie Sloan: Thrive? I’m not certain of that. There’s going to continue to be more and more competition, and we really have to be able to deliver to consumer expectations, right? You might win them with the relationship, with the story, but if you want to keep them and you want to engage them so that we truly can live out that full mission in terms of offering the products and services that we have that we know can benefit our members, we have to deliver digitally as well.
Joshua Barclay: Good point. To maintain the relationship, you are correct. I’m seeing that firsthand with my credit union, where if they don’t up the digital ante pretty soon, I don’t know how [Laughter] loyal I’m going to continue to be when convenience continues to become more and more of a priority. Becky, you said something that really intrigued me, which is Chime wants to disintermediate credit unions. Chime does not have a community presence. I don’t think Chime even intends to have a community presence. I don’t know what community presence they could possibly have. But does that mean in the future, it doesn’t matter whether or not we have a community presence? What are your thoughts on that?
Becky Reed: I would argue that, and I’m going to double down on what Stacie said, she talked about it starts with the community relationship, right? And then it ends with, and it gets maintained by the digital presence. Well, I think that tomorrow’s consumer, not to say that today’s consumer doesn’t want this, but tomorrow’s consumer wants to bank, and that’s a verb, they want to bank where they feel like that bank is making a difference. And of course, that is a credit union. I would argue that while Chime has a very slick and convenient front end, they have zero soul. And credit unions do have soul. And I think once we get that digital experience that is equal to or at least matches what Chime can provide, there’s so many things and so many ways that you can engage members regardless of where they are with community activities. I mean, you can have like a net giver, you can have giving back through your digital banking app, or they can donate to nonprofit causes that mean something to them. We’re going to talk about board engagement and board recruitment later, right? That’s another way to digitally engage people who might want to get more involved. You can actually have voting mechanisms. We talked about blockchain voting mechanisms and DAOs and tokenization of shares. All of those things are ways to further engage your community through a digital presence. So, I do believe credit unions have an opportunity where Chime just doesn’t care about that.
[Music]
Joshua Barclay: In a recent article on CU Daily, Tony Ferris makes a bold claim. Credit unions are falling behind because they treat board recruitment like an afterthought. He argues that too many boards rely on outdated models, internal referrals, seat fillers, last-minute replacements, and that they should be recruiting with the same rigor as executive hiring. In his words, and I quote, “The future of credit union governance doesn’t start at the next board meeting. It starts with who’s sitting at the table,” end quote. Stacie, do you agree with Ferris that credit union boards need to modernize the way that they’re recruiting?
Stacie Sloan: In short, yes. But I think there’s value in how it’s been done. If we want to stereotype the methodology that we see often play out in whether it’s credit union boards or other nonprofit boards, if we kind of connect it back to that relationship piece, it’s typically that referral. You have a colleague or a friend that when there’s a vacancy, we look to someone that we trust, right? And so, it’s typically from within the network of someone on the existing board that you might pull the next candidate or assemble the pool of candidates. I think there’s value in that because there’s an inherent trust there that people feel comforted by. But the risk you run, I think, in not casting a wider net is that you miss out on other opportunities or other people that could just as easily or just as effectively fill one of those board seats. For me, it’s less about how we go about recruiting the board members and more about ensuring that the composition of the board models what we want for our organizations. So, when it comes to values alignment, mission alignment, support for an organization’s core values and the members we serve, that’s sort of the non-negotiable elements. And then in all else, prioritizing diversity when it comes to background, experience, and skill sets.
Joshua Barclay: I agree with you there. Having a board that shares the core values and the mission of the institution, definitely first and foremost. Becky, I don’t know if you read, I know you’re big on CU Daily. That’s kind of my new jam. I don’t know if you read Ferris’ piece, but what is your take on, I guess, number one, do we need to modernize the way we recruit our boards?
Becky Reed: The answer is yes. I think that the good old boy network, unfortunately, lends itself to non-diversification oftentimes, and we all know that people who sit on the board tend to stay there for a long time because it’s a very rewarding position. And it allows people to see the inner workings of a financial institution, which is intriguing. It’s very interesting. But I will come down to, I have served on a lot of different boards. Of course, I have been the CEO of a credit union where I reported to a board of directors, at multiple different credit unions. But I’ve also sat on boards of nonprofits and of for-profit CUSOs. So, I’ve seen a lot of different styles of boards. I’ve sat on association boards, right? I’m on the board of NACUSO. And all of those different organizations take a different approach to recruiting board members, which is fascinating to me because prior to doing any of those things, I only knew what the credit union did.
But in a for-profit, I’ll just give you an example. In a for-profit organization like a CUSO, oftentimes we have advisory board members that we bring on that don’t necessarily sit on the board and have a vote, meaning that they’re not investors in equity in the organization in order to have a governance vote. But they might have a particular skill set that’s beneficial to the organization for a variety of different reasons. It could be they have a legal expertise, or they have a marketing expertise, or they have a programmer, developer, software expertise. And they not only can provide us with insight as we’re starting our organization and growing our organization, but they can also make referrals. They might know people that might help us. If we need a lawyer in a certain area, they might know somebody. So, I think that different organizations take a different approach to it, and I think it would be beneficial for credit union boards maybe to have that outside experience to draw from.
Joshua Barclay: Becky, when you were just saying that you’ve been on these different boards, it made me think a little bit because I don’t want to stereotype here, but when I run across board members at events, I feel like a lot of them, they’re not as in the weeds as I feel like some of them should be. Do you feel like that’s maybe the big difference between a for-profit and a non-profit is that these for-profit boards have people with more expertise? I just feel like some of the people on the boards, it’s like, because this is kind of like you can do it on your free time, it’s kind of a community. It’s kind of a giving thing. It’s kind of a charitable thing. You don’t really have to be there as much. Have you seen this between the for-profit and the non-profit boards? Do you think that there’s a quality difference?
Becky Reed: No, I don’t. And I’ll kick it over to Stacie to get her take on it because I think it would be interesting for her as well. But I’ve worked at like five different credit unions, so I’ve worked with five different boards and been on boards at four or five different organizations in a variety of areas. And I think that credit union boards, certainly, you have some that they don’t read the board packet. They don’t care. They’re just kind of showing up for whatever, for the food or the camaraderie or the networking or whatever it is. But I actually don’t find that to be the typical type of board member. I have seen plenty of board members that very clearly understand the credit union financials, very clearly understand the value proposition to members. And I have seen boards that actually do probably get too much into the weeds, and I have not actually seen that on the not-for-profit or CUSO side of the house. So, Stacie, what have you seen?
Stacie Sloan: Becky, I can attest to that. I’ve seen both sides on the board dynamics in terms of people that want to drill down way too far into the weeds, and then those that are there for the free cookies, right? [Laughter] Or it’s their free monthly meal or something along those lines. So, I haven’t experienced it directly, but I’ve observed it. I’ve heard about it. And probably not just in our industry, right? I’m sure this happens other places. But what I’ve also seen are people that are highly motivated to do the right thing for the member, that are very much in tune with our mission, what a credit union is, and what we should be driving toward, and keeping that people-helping-people mentality first and foremost, right? And I think that’s really a gift because truly, I don’t know the statistics in terms of how many are compensated financially and all those pieces, but when it comes to volunteers, someone could easily just want that position to pad their resume. But the vast majority in the credit union space that I’ve seen have that missional mindset to really do the right thing for our members, and oftentimes, it comes from them being a member themselves.
[Music]
Joshua Barclay: Okay, let’s talk about the GENIUS Act. It opens the door for fintechs to become major players in the stablecoin space, offering instant low-fee payments without relying on traditional financial institutions. And let’s be honest, most members already turn to apps like Venmo, PayPal, or CashApp before they even think of a credit union. Becky Reed, you published an article recently in CU Insight saying fintechs are coming for the payment layer, but what if they’ve already won? Now, Becky, I do want to get into the payment layer and a lot of the things you discuss in the article, but to start things off, because we’ve never talked about the GENIUS Act yet on this show, I think that we should start with, Becky, what is the GENIUS Act? Give me the SparkNotes before we kick things off.
Becky Reed: Absolutely. The GENIUS Act basically outlines what can be called a stablecoin, what constitutes a stablecoin. And a stablecoin means – it’s also called a payment token in the Act – the stablecoin has to be issued by a stablecoin issuer, which can either be a bank or credit union-owned entity, like a CUSO, or a fintech, a third-party fintech provider. There are some carveouts in there for large technological firms like Google, large like Walmart, you know, really big players in the space. And I say carveout because it’s actually not really like a specialty thing because they have to follow additional rules if they want to do anything in the space. They’ve got to partner with a fintech as well. So, it also talks about how to get registered to be a stablecoin issuer, the reserve backing, what has to back the stablecoin, and who the regulatory authorities will be, either on the federal side or the state side. So, really, it is just a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuance and acceptance.
Joshua Barclay: Thank you for that, Becky. Now, in this piece that you wrote, there was something really intriguing that really drew my eye, and it was about fintechs coming for the payment layer. So, Becky, let me kick things off with you. Do you think that credit unions have already lost the battle for member mindshare when it comes to payments?
Becky Reed: The comment that I made in my article was really about being a fast follower, and if credit unions wait to get engaged in this space, they’re going to be beholden to the same giant fintechs that provide them technology today. And I’m talking about those core providers, and the giant payment providers that they’re using that are expensive, that aren’t providing a good experience and lock them into contracts that are unfavorable. And so, my fear is that credit unions will just wait around and go – so I’m going to just use Fiserv as an example. Fiserv said they were partnering with a stablecoin issuer, and they were going to start using stablecoin, those stablecoin rails, the DLT rails for payments. As they should, as they should. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But what I don’t want to see is credit unions waiting two, three, four, five years, and now they’re ready to get into the space, and it’s too late to start themselves, they have to use the Fiservs of the world. And I would just hate to see that.
Joshua Barclay: Stacie, kicking things over to you, when you’re thinking about owning payments, it does seem like we as credit unions have been a little bit behind the eight-ball when it comes to that. But just thinking about your own institution, how are you approaching this whole payments thing with your members? Do you feel like you’re really pushing an initiative for that? Or do you feel like, “Yeah, we’ll let Venmo and these new fintechs kind of handle all that”?
Stacie Sloan: So, there’s been quite a transition at our organization from a technology standpoint over the last three years or so. We’re still developing sort of what that payments roadmap looks like, but this exact conversation is happening because we know that money movement, just generally speaking, is so critical for members, for humans, right? Money funds all types of activities, and we need to be able to provide that mechanism for our members. At Johns Hopkins Federal Credit Union, we’re really focused on that, along with a number of other really critical digital initiatives, but what we’ve found is that we can’t always make decisions out of fear. Credit unions historically have been not known to be on the leading edge of technology, and this payments piece is so critical because it will cost you that member relationship. Earlier, we talked about the member experience and that digital experience potentially costing you once you’ve won that membership. That relationship truly will be in jeopardy if you can’t deliver on the payments front.
Joshua Barclay: Well said. Becky, you at the top of the show talked about how you’ve been on the road. You’ve been talking to board members. You’ve been talking to all different types of folks about the importance of getting on board with this payments revolution, if we want to call it that. And what has the feedback predominantly been when you discuss this with a lot of these different folks?
Becky Reed: Well, what I help credit unions to realize, and Stacie really kind of mentioned this and proves my point, that as financial institutions, we provide payments so our members can live their lives. That’s what we do. They put their direct deposit into the credit union, and then they use that money to go buy things. Even loans is really just a payment at the end of the day. And so, we have got to make sure that we are using the best payment rails available to us, and it’s going to be payments on a distributed ledger. It already is far superior to any of the siloed systems that we use today. It’s about a 25% operational cost, payments for credit unions. Twenty-five percent of your operating costs are in payments somehow, some way, and that includes fraud. Fraud right now is just absolutely rampant on the payment rails that we have right now. And so, there is a better way. And what I’ve seen boards doing is all of them, all of them, without exception, are like, “Yes.” Stacie’s sitting there nodding her head. She’s nodding her head. She’s saying yes. And that’s what I see too. Now, two years ago, three years ago, that was not what I was seeing, but it is what I’m seeing now. So, there’s no argument in the boardroom about, “Hey, we need to do something.” What I’m getting now is the how. The how. How do we get started? Where do we start first? What are we going to do?
I have already had about 10 credit unions reach out about forming a stablecoin network where they can move money between themselves – a private network, shared branching network, where credit unions can move money in between themselves. If you go and you look at your transaction data, just like when you look and you see that all the money is going out to digital asset exchanges, you’re losing your deposits that way. That’s one way you’re losing your deposits. Another thing to look at is how many payments are being made to other credit unions? Either in an A to A, so Stacie’s moving money between her different credit union accounts, or I have a loan with another credit union and I’m making a payment from my checking account at this credit union. Those things all cost money. If they are riding on traditional payment rails, which they are, there’s operational costs that are attached to all of them that are infinitely less expensive and more secure on a DLT. So, everybody is looking at this, including the huge players like Visa and MasterCard. And so, everybody gets it. That’s what I’m seeing out there. Everybody gets it. They just need help understanding where to start.
[Music]
Joshua Barclay: That brings us to the end of the show. Stacie, any thoughts or final plugs that you want to give us here at the end?
Stacie Sloan: Josh, I will say thank you again for forcing me to answer that initial question [Laughter] between relationships and technology. But I would be remiss if I didn’t sort of clarify that these two pieces are not mutually exclusive, right? Relationship and digital experience, they mutually enhance one another. And then lastly, I would just encourage credit unions, we have this tendency to hide behind the great relationships that we form and maybe put too many eggs in that basket and use it as an excuse not to invest the way that we should in digital. And so, a solid digital experience is not going to detract from those relationships, and I think sometimes that’s the fear. But if you reframe that and realize that it will only deepen them, I think it’ll give you the courage to step out.
Joshua Barclay: That’s great advice, Stacie. Are you hiring right now?
Stacie Sloan: We are. Yes, we are. We’re hiring right now for a mortgage manager to lead our real estate lending department.
Joshua Barclay: There you have it, folks. If you know anybody, contact Stacie. Stacie, what is the best way for someone to get in touch with you?
Stacie Sloan: LinkedIn is great.
Joshua Barclay: All righty. Becky, final thoughts or plugs you want to leave us with?
Becky Reed: We talked a lot about digital experience today. We talked a lot about the role of the board as it relates to moving the organization forward. And then of course, we talked about emerging technology and how credit unions should embrace that and not wait too long in order to incorporate those things into their institutions. Which 10 years ago, it would have been hard to incorporate emerging technology into your institution. It’s not as hard now. So, the time to get started is now. And thank you, Stacie, for all your fabulous insights.
Stacie Sloan: Thank you. It was a pleasure.
Joshua Barclay: Becky, I want to thank you for being one of the best co-hosts in the entire world, one of my favorite people in the movement. I want to thank you, Stacie, for being an awesome guest. And I got to give a special thanks to our listeners for continuing to support and listen to another episode of Grow Your Credit Union. If you liked the show, follow us on your podcast player of choice and share it with somebody who would benefit from listening. If you want to be a guest or would like to talk about sponsorship opportunities, head to growyourcreditunion.com to learn more. Thank you for listening, and we will see you next time. Take care. Bye bye.
