Cooperative Communicators Honor CUNA’s Mica With Outstanding CEO Communicator Award

June 11, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Pat Keefe, CUNA
(202) 508-6765; pkeefe@cuna.com

WASHINGTON -- Daniel A. Mica, president of the Credit Union National Association, is this year’s recipient of the CEO Outstanding Communicator Award presented by the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA).

The award, announced during CCA’s annual conference in Williamsburg, Va., June 2-5, recognizes Mica’s visibility as a national spokesperson for credit unions and the importance he places on communications within the organization and to the credit union community at large.

“Dan Mica has been a visible and effective voice for credit unions and cooperatives in the national media and on Capitol Hill,” CCA President Chuck Lay said. “Under his leadership, CUNA has put in place a series of innovative programs that have taken communications to a new and higher level.”

CCA’s 350 members are communications, public relations and marketing professionals who work for a wide range of cooperatives. The 53-year-old organization emphasizes strategies and ideas aimed at making communications more successful for cooperatives and helps members excel in communications.

The prestigious communicator award recognizes CEOs who provide leadership in integrating communication into the cooperative’s planning and management process, support the cooperative’s communications programs, and exhibit outstanding personal communications skills.

Among the programs CCA cited in bestowing this year’s award on Mica:

• A strategic communications plan launched this year to “change the conversation” on Capitol Hill about credit unions, emphasizing how credit unions “look out for the little guy.” The campaign involves innovative messaging, guerilla marketing techniques, social media such as YouTube, traditional advertising and direct communication with lawmakers;
• Media relations accomplishments with national-level visibility in such prominent venues as USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Business Week, CNN, The Hill, and The Politico where Mica highlights credit unions and cooperatives with their unique ownership structure and mission of member service; and
• The development of a full-day, national advocacy training program for credit union leaders that devotes half of the program to working with the media to effectively deliver key messages about cooperatives and credit unions.

Mica has been head of CUNA since 1996. With offices in Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wis., CUNA is the nation’s largest credit union trade group, representing more than 90 percent of the country’s 8,300 state and federally chartered credit unions that together serve some 90 million Americans.

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