As you will see, serving on the board of directors of any credit union is an enormous responsibility. The qualification for serving as a director is you must be a member in good standing. Generally, one is considered a member in good standing if he/she has adequately met the eligibility requirements when becoming a member, has maintained the minimum share balance requirements and does not default on any loans to the credit union. After satisfying these conditions, the only thing required is you must be prepared to make the personal commitment necessary to meet the challenges and opportunities of serving on the board of directors.

How To Become A Member Of The Board
There are three ways a member of a credit union can become a director. First, any member can be appointed by the chairperson to complete an existing term held by a member who prematurely vacated his or her director's position. Second, and least common, is a member can be appointed by the supervisory committee, if the committee had reasonable cause to exercise its power to remove members of the board. And third, a member can be elected by the credit union membership at its annual meeting.

The board of directors are required to hold elections every year. Usually a credit union can choose one of two methods for holding such elections. It can either request nominations from the floor during the annual business meeting or it can petition members to serve on the board. Requesting nominations from the floor is the easiest method up until the point of the election process. Through this process the Nominating Committee would recommend a slate of nominees to serve as the board of directors. At the time of the election, however, if any other member decides that they would also like to serve, they can more easily have their name submitted as a nominee through a request from the floor. If this occurs the credit union is obligated to conduct a full ballot election in accordance to its credit union bylaws.

A credit union can circumvent nominations from the floor by selecting the second method for conducting elections, petitioning members to serve. This requires the credit union to do more communication with the members prior to the annual meeting, however, it eliminates the need to solicit open nominations at the annual meeting. The procedures necessary to follow in utilizing either method can be found in the credit union bylaws. The bylaws should also describe how many seats there are on the board, the length of each director’s term and whether there exist any limits on these terms.

Some time after the credit union holds its election, the board of directors will meet to determine who will serve as officers for the credit union. Usually there exist four officers, Chairperson, Vice Chairperson, Treasurer and Secretary, each having their specific role on the board of directors. Traditionally, all of the board of directors including the officers, are volunteers. As the executive body for the credit union, the board of directors have very specific responsibilities. These responsibilities include holding its annual meeting, developing a business strategy, hiring a Chief Executive Officer (CEO), holding monthly meetings and communicating with membership.