At the start of your traditional Earth week and, subsequently, each Earth day, I make sure to update my purporting docket (a.k.a., Day-Timer) to help ensure I’m using my time wisely and efficiently. This week, I realized several of my required continuing education courses for credit union mortgaging were due. I slapped my tentacle between my eye stalks and exclaimed, “Shazbot!” (I learned that term watching some of your planet’s old data files—I wish I had the opportunity to meet that Orkan, Mork. He gave aliens a good name!)
With all my projects and tasks continuing to amass, I wondered to myself why I even needed to complete these courses every year. That was, of course, the cyclical management side of my cerebrum talking. So, I quickly retorted that these professional development courses need to be completed to help our credit union partners to be great mortgage lenders and to take excellent care of their members.
For starters, these courses help us to stay in compliance with industry rules and regulations. In fact, I just posted some information a week or two back on this very subject. If you haven’t already done so, you should check it out by Clicking Here.
In addition to compliance, the professional development courses provide much, much more additional information. From IT and cyber security to workplace safety and behavior, these courses all serve particular purposes, and they all help us to provide our partner credit unions with the knowledge and expertise they need to help more members with home ownership throughout the life of their loan.
I’m not a gambling alien, but if I had to wager 10 Amicitian credits, I’d bet each of your credit unions have similar professional development requirements. I urge you to take these to heart and complete each course—it’s not only for your personal development but also to the benefit of your members.
And let’s take that a step further: I encourage—or better yet, challenge—you to look outside your organization for other professional development opportunities. Whether you’re new to the credit union mortgage industry or a mortgage veteran, there is a wealth of courses, sessions and webinars that can make you a GREAT mortgage lender.
The best example I can provide is the myCUmortgage Training Team. Made up of three of my favorite colleagues—Angie, Torea and Danielle—the Training Team offers a variety of courses every month, including new and timely sessions on specific facets of credit union mortgage lending and servicing. Partner credit unions can check out the monthly Training Calendar to see what’s coming up and register for a session or two. You might want to join an Ask the Experts session on a subject you’d like to learn more about or sign up for a session by one of our quarterly guest presenters. They also have a repository of recorded webinars that a partner credit union can access and view at any time in the Training Smart Room.
The Training Team offers additional tools and resources. For instance, there’s a collection of user guides on multiple topics, systems and processes that can be used by mortgage teams every day. Probably the greatest asset they have to offer is their mortgage expertise. If you have a question about myCUmortgage lending or servicing, they are happy to help you! I know they’re working on a new webinar right now about Understanding Mortgage Lingo—I signed up for that one immediately! As much as I’ve been able to adopt your English language, these “acronyms” still prove to be very challenging. And we all know the mortgage industry LOVES their acronyms, so hopefully, I’ll see you in the session!
If you’re a partner credit union, I hope you’re taking full advantage of this “membership perk,” as I see it. In addition to the wide array of courses currently available, what other subject matter would you like to see offered by our Training Team? If you’re not a partner credit union, how do you stay up to date with your professional development?
I’d like to share a quote from author Brian Herbert: “The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.”
You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but you can educate an old alien on new space lanes to success. Are you ready to find your path to mortgage success? I hope so because the journey starts right now! Happy Learning!