One could argue that Linda Moulin was born to be a credit union executive. The success she’s enjoyed in her chosen profession was recently acknowledged when the chief governance officer/SVP/corporate development at $2.8 billion Affinity Credit Union in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, was named CUES Future Leader for 2011. The award acknowledges tomorrow’s decision-makers for their ambition, and participation in and devotion to their CU and the movement.

A CUES member, Moulin didn’t know that officials at her CU had nominated her for the award. She was delighted.

“It was awesome,” she exclaims. “I was not aware that the board had submitted those recommendations. Reading them made me realize that everyone values the qualities of dedication, loyalty, integrity and effort.’”

Raised for the Role

The “hard work” Moulin is accustomed to started early in life, being born and raised on a small farm in the tiny village of Lintlaw (population about 200) in central Saskatchewan.

“When you grow up on a farm, you are immediately part of the community,” she says. “You have a great respect and love for your community.”

Moulin’s parents, who raised both grain and beef cattle, were instrumental in the creation of a small CU that still exists today in Lintlaw. In fact, Moulin says she didn’t know there were any other kinds of financial institutions until she was nine.

“What I found compelling about credit unions is that you, as the member, are an owner of the organization,” she says. “The credit union reflected the needs of the community it was serving. Folks were local,
so if you had a concern you were dealing with local people that you knew. And they knew you. You weren’t a number.”

Making the Community Better

Moulin says community development has always been “near and dear to my heart.” Such interest is evident in her role in the creation of a number of Affinity CU programs that have made a positive impact in the province.

One such effort, the Community Spirit Fund, grew out of a merger the CU undertook. As Moulin recalls, about half the staff at the merging CU embraced the idea that community involvement was a key to the institution’s success; the other staff members, she says, weren’t “so sure.” To help foster the idea that charitable work in the community was important, she proposed giving each Affinity CU staff member (a total of 615) and its 76 elected officials $200 in cash to help improve the community.

“I wanted to do something that would engage people in making their communities better in little ways,” she says. “We send very few of the checks directly. Most of them are hand-delivered to the community organization by the employee. You can just see the pride that our staff members have when they make the donation.”

The fund began operations in January of 2010 with Affinity CU employees making $136,400 in donations the first year. As of mid-November 2011, donations totaled $92,800.

Moulin also was a leader in developing a fraud protection program at Affinity CU.

“We put in place the program that teaches ‘Preventing Fraud for Seniors.’ We would also do talks on power of attorney abuse. That’s where we started.

“Then, it grew into a lot of interest around Internet fraud and cyber bullying. It’s evolved into a number of programs where interest has been expressed by both members and students. What we usually do is go into a school to talk about cyber bullying. We’ll do session groups with students during the day and at night we’ll do a parents session,” she says.

Affinity CU’s community development efforts were recognized last May by Saskatoon Awards for Business Excellence, which presented the CU with its Community Involvement Award.

In 2010, Affinity CU made $1.3 million in donations to the community. Additionally, the CU’s employees donated close to 25,000 volunteer hours for various community projects, at an estimated value of $604,310.

According to Moulin, Affinity CU’s visibility in community development has led members of Generation X and Y to join. She maintains that CUs cannot rely on traditional means of communication to reach potential members among the younger population.

“We’re going to have to reach them through social media and community work because they are interested in that type of thing. We have to do a better job explaining the cooperative principles in a way that’s relative to them.”

Engaging the First Nations

A major business development by Moulin for Affinity CU has been the CU’s engagement with 10 bands of indigenous people (collectively referred to as the First Nations) that call Saskatchewan home.

Moulin says she saw an opportunity because the majority of first-business start-ups in the province are by First Nations members. Those businesses, she explains, run the gamut from grocery stores and transportation companies to corporate farms.

“Those people have the most difficulty in dealing with financial institutions,” she says. “I looked at it from the stance that said, ‘There’s a service need with this group and this could be a win-win for both them and Affinity. We could reach out to them and figure out how to do business with them in a manner they thought was respectful. We wanted to offer services that met their needs from a banking perspective and could put dollars back into their communities.’”

Now in its fifth year, the Affinity CU/First Nations endeavor is “making us dollars,” she says. “We didn’t expect it to be profitable overnight. We’re at a point now where I believe we are going to see good growth in that area.”

Moulin describes that demographic group as young, highly-educated and business-savvy, the exact kind of members Affinity CU hopes to attract.

The relationship between the CU and First Nations deepened when the CU amended its bylaws to reserve two seats on the board of directors for tribal members.

Regarding Moulin’s efforts with First Nations, Affinity CU CEO George Keter says, “She created a vision and communicated it in an inspiring way, ensuring all stakeholders saw the big picture and were inspired to work together to make it happen.”

Leading by Example

Moulin’s community commitment extends well beyond her efforts with Affinity CU. She has been a volunteer with Saskatoon United Way since 2003, initially serving on the charity’s Citizen Review panel. She is slated to chair the 2012 Saskatoon United Way campaign.

She also is a co-founder of Stepfamilies Canada, a group dedicated to help those living in a non-biological family.

The group’s creation was a result of Moulin’s experience with her own family; she and her husband raised
seven stepchildren.

She says stepfamilies suffer from a high break-up rate and that her group has helped change that.

Dave Windsheimer is a freelance writer based in upstate New York.