With 260 unique voters the race is as follows:

• Audition 1 – The Vendor – Thrifty CU – 26%
• Audition 2 – The Director – Thrift 3.0 – 30%
• Audition 3 – The Loop – Andy Laflamme – 8%
• Audition 4 – The Warrior – Matt Davis – 36%

A close race – only 16 votes separating first and second. Keep them coming.

We now have 174 unique voters who have made their voice heard. I like Ron Shevlin’s descriptions for the contestants so here are the current voting results:

• Audition 1 – The Vendor – Thrifty CU – 26%
• Audition 2 – The Director – Thrift 3.0 – 30%
• Audition 3 – The Loop – Andy Laflamme – 4%
• Audition 4 – The Warrior – Matt Davis – 40%

As you can tell we have a hot race for the guest speaker spot. Keep the votes coming and we will keep you updated.

Brisk voting towards the end of the week and this weekend has brought the following results after 60 voters (remember one member – one vote):

• Audition 1 – Thrifty CU – Jwaala – 12%
• Audition 2 – Thrift 3.0 – Ginny Brady – 53%
• Audition 3 – Andy Laflamme – 5%
• Audition 4 – CU Warrior – Matt Davis – 30%

Polls are open until July 11 so please take the time to vote.

When Ron Shevlin speaks – we listen here at FORUM Solutions. Ron will serve as the host of the upcoming FORUM Solutions – Trabian Partnership Symposium and has been a big supporter of the event since attending and speaking at last year’s event. Ron suggested that we open up the selection process for the open speaking slot to you, ala American Idol. At the present time, we have four stellar entries to choose from. If there are others out there then please let us know. Please visit this page to view the video auditions and cast your vote. This is important stuff here so take your voting privileges seriously. Just ask Tim McAlpine. We want you to vote for the candidate that will add the most value to the symposium and not just the cleverness of the video – they are all exceptional so focus on the value. We also don’t want any hanging chads or Michigan and Florida delegate issues so we are asking you to enter your name and email address to validate the vote after you choose your candidate. We also wanted to avoid bots being written to vote non-stop in an attempt to sway the democratic process. Stay tuned for the results as we will post them periodically. Rock the Vote!

This post was originally a live blogging of an Indiana Credit Union League event entitled, The Power of the Network presented by Randy Karnes, CEO of CUAnswers. Then work got in the way so now three days have passed. The nuggets of wisdom are still fresh and are as follows:

Like Lending Tree, but for deposits – MoneyAisle. This is another example of an innovation that changes the consumer’s experience in conducting their financial affairs.

If you have time, please check out my guest post on the Open Source CU blog as I would welcome your feedback. Please know that this post is an expression of my opinions and should not be reflective of my employer or teammates here at FORUM. I probably should type out some legally correct way of saying that, but I wouldn’t do that to you. Also, don’t think for a second that I am calling out credit unions across the land and saying everything is perfect from where I sit. We have our own challenges and intense competition we are dealing with. What I can say is that I absolutely enjoy a great environment to contribute to the success of the credit union and attempt to offer innovative and relevant offerings for the good of the membership. Thanks Open Source CU team for the opportunity.

All of the speakers at the upcoming FORUM Solutions/Trabian Partnership Symposium are encouraged to submit a guest post to help promote the event. Being the not-so-subtle, highly over-exposed credit union marketer that I am, I thought I would just cut to the chase with an old-fashioned sales pitch. Here goes (best read with a high-energy, monster-truck-loving announcer voice).

Have you registered for the FORUM Solutions/Trabian Partnership Symposium yet? No? What's up with that? This is the hands-down best emerging technology conference in the credit union space. Here are five reasons that you need to stop what you are doing right now, mark your calendar for October 1 and 2, 2008 and register now!