SEE YOU LEAD Episode 25: Glenn Welch President and Chief Executive Officer, Freedom Credit Union, Massachusetts

In this insightful episode of the SEE YOU LEAD Podcast, sponsored by NetGiver, we delve into the world of credit union leadership and its influence on communities. Recorded at the 2023 APEX conference, host Glynn Frechette welcomes Glenn Welch, President and CEO of Freedom Credit Union in Massachusetts.

Welch shares his unique journey from the banking sector to the helm of a credit union, highlighting the contrast between the two industries and his motivations for the switch. He recounts his experiences with Freedom Credit Union, emphasizing the organization's commitment to community involvement and charitable efforts, including initiatives like building beds for the homeless and organizing food drives.

The conversation also explores the collaborative nature of credit unions, with Welch discussing partnerships with other credit unions for community betterment. He highlights how such collaborations extend beyond monetary contributions, encouraging active participation from employees and members in various community projects.

Additionally, Welch addresses the importance of corporate social responsibility in attracting and retaining young talent, noting how Freedom Credit Union's community focus aligns with the values of the newer generation of employees. The podcast touches on the impact of COVID-19 on community engagement, with Welch expressing a renewed focus on encouraging employee involvement in volunteer activities.

This episode offers a deep dive into how credit union leaders like Glenn Welch are making a tangible difference in their communities, providing valuable insights for anyone interested in the intersection of finance and social responsibility.

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Transcript

Glynn: 0:01

Welcome to another episode of CU Lead, sponsored by NetGiver, the app and platform that enables donors and nonprofits to give and receive on a no fee basis. On this podcast, we feature credit union industry executives and the impacts they make on communities everywhere. I am Glenn Frechette, and today I am joined by Glenn Welch. Glenn is the President and CEO of Freedom Credit Union in Springfield, Mass., so Glenn, we're just starting to get to know each other a little bit. You and I have had three or four conversations now in total, some on camera, and now live in person. For those that don't know you very well our listening audience, which is a national one. I'd love to have them hear what your journey has included, as long as you've been influencing credit unions. Sure.

Glenn Welsh: 0:55

So, it's coming up on eight years since I joined Freedom. I did join as the president and CEO. I came from the banking side. I was with a smaller community bank in Springfield, Mass. But we went public in 2007. I took over in 2012, 2013. And I knew I would be the last CEO, unfortunately, of a 150 year old institution because we were a public stock bank. And some of the investors thought when my predecessor resigned, we were going to sell the bank. That was their investment strategy. It failed, but I took over and immediately got into some proxy fights and things, so we lasted a couple years, but in the end we had to sell out to a larger bank. So I was fortunate that I had a window of time where I could decide if I wanted to stay or go with that institution, and it was a six month window, and I didn't see myself working there. It was an institution that was about 12, 13 times larger than the one I came from. I was, I had a senior title, but I didn't really have a position. So, I didn't see myself being there a lot. So I was fortunate. I left there in October and I got a call from a headhunter same month. I was leaving and going to decide what I was going to do going

Glynn: 2:18

forward. Boy, that is just plain fortunate right in Springfield, Mass. Right in

Glenn Welsh: 2:23

Springfield where, you know, my whole banking career was. A little bit of time up in North Hampton, but mostly in Springfield as a commercial lender. And yeah, I was fortunate enough and it was very similar in that it was a community organization. We do do commercial lender and the opportunity arose and I was fortunate enough to. The unfortunate thing was I was interviewing and originally I thought it was going to be March when I had to start. Instead, I started on January 4th, I believe, so the two months I thought I could spend in the Caribbean went out the window. But I did have a couple months off, unfortunately. You know, October, November, December in New England are not

Glynn: 3:09

that great. Oh, man, I'm sorry for that. Yeah, the fantasy aspiration of twisting up a couple of cocktails in the Caribbean in between career moves is on everyone's mind. Yeah,

Glenn Welsh: 3:21

that would have been a good, but again, I was fortunate that this, this opportunity was available at the time we were. Freedom was smaller than the institution. I left by a couple hundred million, but doing a lot of good for the community when I really started paying more attention to what they were doing as I was going through the interview process it was very enticing opportunity for

Glynn: 3:45

me. Yeah. Well, that's a brilliant segue. Thank you for it. Because I would like to talk about the importance of being a leader in the community as it relates to nonprofits. Another interviewee sitting in that very chair has mentioned you by name and has talked about you as a cooperative partner credit union to theirs. So does that happen a fair amount where you sidle up next to other credit unions for the benefit of the

Glenn Welsh: 4:11

community? Yes, we do. In fact, we have, the CCUA has a Pioneer Valley chapter of credit unions. And I think we're the oldest chapter in the country, I believe I might be wrong and get corrected on that, but been around a long time and it's all the local Western Mass, the four counties of Western Mass credit unions belong. So a couple years ago before COVID, we did a build a bed event where we all got together at a big location like this and we're able to work together and build beds for the homeless. And we have various events again. COVID impacted the last couple of years, but we do have dinners that we get together and we raise funds for different things, toys for tots and that type of thing. But just in general, I think we all do a lot of charitable giving. In the communities we serve. But we're trying to, we just had a meeting about a month ago. And we're trying to organize something where we all can do something at the same time. You know, some sort of more public event to let people know. about credit unions and how we

Glynn: 5:18

support our communities. So my guess, in addition to Michelle Dwyer, who was the individual that mentioned you by name, it's all recorded, so you would have gotten that anyway if you listened to it. Yeah, she told me that on

Glenn Welsh: 5:28

my way as I was talking to her. So, yeah, I give a shout out to Michelle, too. Franklin First does a lot for the northern community. We have... two branches up where she's located. And I know a lot of good goes on up there.

Glynn: 5:42

One of the other CEOs with whom I have spoken during this trip to the Apex event is Rich Kump. So my guess is that's also one of the credit unions that is of course based in Western Mass, but one you probably interact with in a cooperative manner?

Glenn Welsh: 5:57

Yes. Yes, we do. And that's a good thing about credit unions. Banking was a little more cutthroat, especially when you're a stock corporation. You don't want to give away any of your secrets. In the credit union world, you truly can just pick up the phone and call somebody and talk through issues you might be having and, you know, you can have an honest conversation. And get good advice, and you can't always say you could do that in the banking

Glynn: 6:23

world. No, no, but I do recall him saying that he insists on his employee base really being active with their feet. Not just writing the big check, not to say that they aren't financial contributors, they are. I'd love to hear if this is also part of what you do at Freedom. Where employees are encouraged to participate in the community.

Glenn Welsh: 6:46

Yes, we definitely encourage them. And in fact, when we were looking at requests for donations of support, We try to find out if we have employees that are involved. And then... If we don't, we do try to organize things. I know some of my senior team did a United Way Day. I was away. But they volunteered in the community and we always encourage that. In fact, we give an extra day off for people that do volunteer on behalf of an organization to do some good for them. Whatever that good is, it hasn't really taken off as much as it should. And I keep going back to COVID. I don't want to go back to those negative days, but that impacted a lot of people. People getting out in the community and doing more. So we're really trying to encourage that again and make sure that it's just not writing a check. That there is, you know, more behind it than that.

Glynn: 7:40

Yeah, I think it's awesome. So I would like to spend just a minute on your employee base, because I like talking about people development, I like talking about cultures and what it takes to attract great people, and as importantly, of course, retaining them. Would you say that... Because you are philanthropic and because you are reaching out to communities and doing good, that that helps you in the recruiting game, finding great talent? I

Glenn Welsh: 8:11

think that does, especially with younger people. They want to make sure the organization they go to work for does good in the community. It's not just about a paycheck. So we really stress that again with the, like, VTO. We want to make sure people know that we want them to be out in the community. You know, somewhat for selfish purposes, but also to do good in the community. But we want to get our name out there and we want to make sure people think of Freedom Credit Union. We're trying to retain them more. We're doing some stay interviews now. We actually asked for people to volunteer if they wanted to do them. And we probably got about 10 to 15 percent of the staff that'll do it. And hopefully has. They go through it, they tell other people that it wasn't torture or that, you know, maybe it's worth doing it. But we're just trying to get feedback on what they like, what they don't like, where we can improve on things. And I'm trying to work with them on what their career path might

Glynn: 9:10

look like. I think it's great. You actually highlighted something in your answer that a lot of CEOs are saying to me. And that is, the social responsibility factor is coming up in the interviews. It's being stated as a request or an insistence on the part of the candidate. So if you're not prepared as a credit union hiring leader to give a truthful and satisfactory answer, you're probably going to be passed over by the younger generation, whatever that

Glenn Welsh: 9:45

means. Right, right. And even those that are members with us. generation want to see that we're out in the community doing good, too. Unfortunately, you know, the banks have, in many people's eyes, better tech and, you know, it's easier for them to work. But I think more and more, they're starting to look at, okay, but what is, you know, B of A doing for our community, really. Closing locations down at whatever and Santander pulled out of the market in Western Mass. So I, I, I do think we're seeing younger members because they're seeing we're out in the community doing

Glynn: 10:21

good. I love that you've just brought this up. It's something that, in fact, you and I have chatted about in the past because with NetGiver's solution, that is what we're really trying to do is to ensure your members care about giving in the same way you do. And putting it to use in the communities. So let's spend a second there, not a net giver per se, but spending a minute talking about how your members are perhaps, I'm going to use the word sidle up again, banding together. Do you see that your membership is working alongside of your employee base when doing community based activities? Is that happening? Do you invite your members to participate? We

Glenn Welsh: 11:03

do. We choose a charity of the month. Sometimes it's two charities. And we encourage through our website and through our branches, signage in our branches, for people to support the charity that we're supporting for the month. And then we make sure we have a press release that goes out to say how much we raise on behalf of the charity that was chosen. Right now I know in a back room we collected food for the local food bank. I'm always amazed. We didn't do things like that on the banking side. I'm always amazed at how much our members participate. We do a thing where you take a tag off of a tree. Around Christmas time and buy Christmas presents for kids who generally aren't going to get them. We work through the DCF with that program, I believe, and I'm just amazed, you know, you walk into a branch and there's bicycles, you know, bike helmets and hockey stuff. And it's just, you know, so it's, it's not a small. Thing is sometimes some people really look for it. Some of our members really look forward to that as well as our employees we We kind of have a dress down all the time now But we used to make them pay to dress down But we get a lot that still volunteer to pay a couple bucks a week But you know and that gets thrown into the pot of that month for that charity. Yeah, that

Glynn: 12:32

would a brilliant, creative idea. You're incentivizing employees with something that's important to them, which is casual dress, but it's going toward. goodness.

Glenn Welsh: 12:44

And we, we also try going back to where I said we and we look before writing a check to see if an employee's involved. We also ask the employees on what charities they'd like to support. And, you know, so that we're, we're not just choosing them, we're getting them to help decide what's important for them in their communities. Excellent.

Glynn: 13:08

It's all really good stuff. I want to, Not shift gears per se, but talk about maybe an organization that's personal for you as we close. You know, not to suggest that you're two people, you're one person leading a whole life. I get that you don't just... Act as a credit union CEO by day and become a different human being in the evenings. I get that. But maybe there is an organization that's personal for your family that you'd like to plug that you haven't already talked about through the credit unions efforts. Is there one?

Glenn Welsh: 13:41

I'm going to get in trouble because I sit on a lot of boards of organizations, so I'm not going to name them. I'm actually going to go back to the Food Bank of Western Mass. Okay. They used to be up in Franklin County, and they're moving down to Hamden County where Springfield is and they just built a building you wouldn't believe the size of it if you went by, but that's how much of a need there is. food in our area. So that's just the organization that I think does wonderful things. And obviously, during COVID, people were struggling a lot, too, and the need hasn't gone away. So, I really think what they did with their new project and what they'll be doing for, All of Western Mass is really important.

Glynn: 14:30

I will tell you this. I've been doing interviewing all throughout 2023 of CEOs, whether that be at GAC or regional events that we go to. And what you have just described as a pervasive problem in our country, which is food insecurity, it's the number one organization offered up, but of course on a very regionalized level, just as you've done. So sadly, I'm here to report that it's a growing concern. It's a growing problem. Understandably so. We have very compassionate, empathetic people. Well, sympathetic, I would say. Sympathetic people who walk around in a very privileged manner, as we all do. not concerned about where our next meal comes from. Yeah. And

Glenn Welsh: 15:19

it shouldn't be happening in our country. And it amazes me when we go to the market, there's three of us in the family and shop and we eat out more than we should. So we don't shop for seven days a week. And I just always wonder how a family of four that is shopping for a week and has kids who are drinking milk and whatever, you know, how expensive it is to go to the grocery store now. So, yeah, unfortunately, the food pantries are all that more important now.

Glynn: 15:52

Well, I do shop for a family of four and I do have two high schoolers that drink milk and eat the heck out of the fridge. So I can tell you it's an expensive endeavor. But I did have someone sitting right in that seat yesterday who did some math with me and we talked about this at a thousand dollars at times when you're going to Costco and you're loading up for a couple of weeks or whatever, you know, you multiply that out. Let's just say it's two grand a month for food bill only two grand, you know, multiply that by 12, you're at 24, 000. You have to make your first 50 to yield 24 and that's before you get started with the rest of your life, right? That's real. It is that's very real for all of us. Well, thank you Glenn. Well, thank you Glenn I promised it was gonna be painless

Glenn Welsh: 16:39

and it was thank you made

Glynn: 16:41

it easy. It was a good conversation, sir Thank you. Enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you so much.