Last week in Las Vegas over 400 credit union collaborators gathered in the ballroom of the Encore at Wynn to hear a one-of-a-kind keynote speaker. Erik Wahl is an author, artist and performer that used music and visuals to transform us back into the child artist we all used to be. He received a standing ovation and beautifully kicked off an amazing three days.
One person in attendance had the “best day ever” winning the New CUSO of the Year Award and an Erik Wahl original painting that was part of a scavenger hunt.
Please enjoy the spotlight on William Arnold, CEO of Member Support Services, LLC
PART ONE: Life Story and Experiences
What’s your current position and can you give me a brief overview of what it is you do in your work?
I currently serve Member Support Services, LLC as President/CEO. While the CUSO was formed in 2012, I came on board in October 2015 as the first CEO of the organization. My days currently revolve around all the activities required to coordinate with my credit union owner/clients to get operational areas moved from the credit unions and into the CUSO.
What would you say most motivates you to do what you do? What are you most excited or passionate about?
I am an unabashed zealot for the credit union movement. I was drawn to this opportunity because, to my mind, it represents the best chance that we have, as a movement, to save smaller credit unions that want to be saved. The movement is cooperative, and the model that MSS represents is a highly cooperative arrangement while allowing the credit unions to retain their own culture, and brand.
I want to hear the story of how you came to work with credit unions. What attracted you to work for Member Support Services?
So, I came to MSS from Service Credit Union in Portsmouth NH. Before Service, I was at Purdue Federal in West Lafayette IN (who just turned $1B). When I came to Purdue Federal, it was from a Big Bank That Need Not Be Named (it no longer exists). Credit unions were not new to me; my first car loan was from a credit union, and my parents were staunch credit union members, but prior to Purdue Federal I never considered a credit union as an employment opportunity.
Now if we can go even further back, where did you grow up and what was it like living there? Where did you go to school?
This is similar to the question most people ask when they meet someone – “Where are you from?” My usual answer is, “Can we start with an easier question?” I was born in California, moved to Florida when I was 2. College in Florida (Florida Southern, home of the Striking Mocs), then off to grad school at Emory University in Georgia. From a job as a teller, then new accounts rep, at a mutual savings & loan in Georgia, to Indiana, where I worked at a small community bank, doing everything from collections to lending to investment portfolio management to branch management. Back to Atlanta for a couple of years working for an investment banking firm. From Atlanta to Gainesville, Georgia, and during that time I worked for the FDIC, liquidating the assets of failed savings & loans, then went back to school at the University of Georgia and got a Master of Science degree in Artificial Intelligence. Still living in Gainesville, I went to work for a software development firm in Atlanta, then to a position writing contact center software for AT&T Universal Card in Jacksonville, Florida. There were a couple of years in there where I wasn’t closely involved in financial services; I worked for a transportation logistics company as a network engineer, then started an internet service provider. When we sold that company, I left Gainesville as the result of a restrictive non-compete, and ended up in Charlotte, NC, running eCommerce projects for the Big Bank. My primary accomplishment there was launching a new business unit for the Bank. As soon as that was done, I became a credit union person. The second part of your question was, “What was it like?” Mostly it was a blur. Until I went to work for Purdue, I never worked anywhere for three years. I was looking for the right place; I found that place when I found credit unions.
Who were your mentors along the way? People who deeply influenced who you are, what you believe in and what you’re committed to in your work and life? Tell me about them.
My father was the best person I ever knew, but that’s a pretty frequent answer, I imagine. He once asked me, when I was about 35, why I couldn’t stay in a job. I reminded him that he had always told me that if I found myself in a place that didn’t feel right for me, I should move on, rather than make it the wrong place for other people. His response was, “Yeah, but by now you should have found that place!” He worked so hard, two jobs always; my mother was disabled, and dad’s primary job was with the postal service. He had a janitorial service on the side, where he had control of when he worked and when he didn’t and what he got paid. There were plenty of others along the way, people who taught me specific things, but dad gave me my personal ethics about work, and integrity, and personal commitment.
Finally can you share something interesting about you that would surprise our readers? It can be anything, a hobby, an adventure, sports, the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you.
With all the craziness of my life, and all the jobs I have had, the best job ever was the summer I spent working at Walt Disney World. I spent half of every shift sweeping up cigarette butts and emptying trash cans (a never-ending job at Disney) and the other half of every shift as the star of the Walt Disney World Wild Disco Dance Contest on the Fantasyland Stage. Four shows a night as a dancing Tigger was a blast. I learned a ton about customer service while working in the park, and about presentation and showmanship from the dance contest show. The combination has been helpful ever since.
PART TWO: The CUSO Business Story
Tell me the story of how your CUSO was created – the early days. Tell me about some of the memorable characters in the history, some that brought your story color, drama, comedy, conflict?
Since I came to the CUSO three years after the beginning, I can only relay to you the oral history that I have been privileged to hear. The CUSO was started by the CEOs of the three credit unions (Aspire, CU of New Jersey and United Teletech) over a beverage or two. The early days included a huge amount of assistance from the leaders of the shared services CUSO world – Mike Atkins, Mike Scully, Kirk Kordeleski were all instrumental in helping the guys who are now my Board work through all the initial issues. They still pick up the phone when any of us calls, and are all willing to listen and lend their advice.
What were the key relationships that mattered most? What were the key sources of support or resistance you encountered?
See above…The biggest resistance is with vendors who want to treat us as three credit unions (with three fees) instead of as one CUSO (with one set of fees, where those fees are appropriate to an $800M institution.
What have been the greatest successes in your opinion?
The technology platforms of the three credit unions in terms of member services have all been aligned, and all operate under master contracts that are held under the CUSO. That was a huge amount of work that the three CU CEOs accomplished without having a CUSO CEO on board. Since I have come on Board, we have moved one Business Unit into the CUSO from the credit unions (Collections), and have three more on the work plan for this year.
PART THREE: Reflections and Lessons
If you could start your CUSO all over again, would you do anything differently? Why and what would you do?
Our biggest issue has been that we needed to do some things “out of order” due to some compelling business needs within the credit unions. Specifically, we moved Collections out of the credit unions while moving into new office space, creating the whole internal network structure, without having an IT department. So, if we could have done IT first, that would have made it easier. In terms of the business itself, I think we are doing okay, it’s just some logistical issues.
Finally, when you think of the future, what gives you hope and what makes you concerned?
I think the thing that gives me the most hope is that there are so many people rooting for us to be successful. The CEOs of the three credit unions are really committed to collaboration, and we have a little success under our belts. It’s a huge job, but everyone wants it to work, and is committed to doing what it takes to make it work. My biggest concern is that we won’t be in time for all the credit unions that might find themselves in the position where they feel like they have to merge to continue to serve their members.
Our employee handbook includes the starfish story:
A man was walking along a deserted beach as the sun was rising and the tide receding. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water.
Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.
As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.
The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied, “I am throwing these starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die from lack of cover”. “But”, said the man, “You can’t possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can’t possibly make a difference.”
The boy looked down, frowning for a moment; then bent down to pick up another starfish, smiling as he threw it back into the sea. He replied,
“I made a difference to that one!”
That’s what brings me to work every day – making a difference to these three credit unions.
