Councils connections elevate HR at Deseret First Credit Union

Spencer Park traces his journey from a first-time Councils participant to vice chair of the Conference Committee and the chair of the Membership Committee for the HR & Organizational Development Council, crediting the network for fast-tracking his leadership growth. Peer-tested AI ideas, policy templates, and stay interview guides have translated into tangible HR wins and stronger employee engagement at Deseret First Credit Union.

When Spencer Park stepped off the plane returning from April's HR & Organizational Development Council Conference in New Orleans, Deseret First Credit Union's chief people and administrative officer wasn't clutching vendor brochures—he was carrying a peer-vetted shortlist of secure, budget-friendly AI tools his team could pilot the very next week.

"I found new resources that I was unaware of that I can now go to," Park said. "That was really enlightening."

For credit union HR leaders racing to harness AI without putting member data at risk, Park's discovery is gold: proof that Council membership can replace guesswork with proven ideas and translate directly into operational wins back at headquarters.

A shockingly open network

Park joined the HR & Organizational Development (OD) Council in 2012 on the advice of his longtime CEO, after arriving from the student travel industry "not knowing much about credit unions." What stunned him first wasn't the content; it was the culture. "My boss told me to call the local credit unions and ask what they paid tellers. I thought, they're not going to tell me—but they did," he recalled. Competitors freely shared wage data so everyone could build fair scales.

That early encounter crystallized the movement's people helping people ethos and hooked Park for good. "I quickly fell in love with the concept," he said, noting that Deseret First's growing footprint—13 Utah branches plus remote staff in four other states—makes a national peer circle indispensable.

Today his questions land first in the Council's always on discussion board, where answers—and attachable templates—arrive within hours. "Not a lot of people realize how deep that library is," Park noted. "You can pull policies, forms, even past Q&As. It saves us a lot of legal review dollars and research time."

From volunteer to executive voice

Eager to give back, Park dove into the Council's Membership Committee his first year. "That really got me out of my comfort zone," he said, describing cold calling peers nationwide to talk renewals—conversations that forged friendships and confidence still paying off today.

His volunteering opened doors: he first served as co-chair of the Membership Committee, then as vice chair of the conference planning team, and today is in his second elected term on the eight-member Executive Committee, for which he now serves as vice chair. The role lets him shape conference agendas, welcome newcomers, and "play a strategic part in helping the Councils move forward, providing a benefit for all the other members."

The visibility reverberates at home. Deseret First's board briefings lean on Council sourced benchmarks for pay transparency policies and succession frameworks, and Park's reputation as an industry resource has only grown.

From deep dives to actionable ideas

While some HR megaevents draw tens of thousands, Park says Council gatherings trade spectacle for substance. The invite-only HR & OD Council Forum "really is a strategic deep dive… my head hurts at the end, but it hurts in a good way," he laughed.

Those deep dives turn quickly into action. Last year's HR & OD Council Forum spotlighted change management best practices; within weeks, Park challenged Deseret First's strategic initiatives team to sharpen its skills. He expects succession planning to dominate at this fall's Forum, aligned with a new NCUA requirement, and he's already trading draft frameworks with fellow executives by text and email.

Council Forum conversations also produced an AI shortlist that Park is now exploring—secure, budget-friendly tools his peers have already piloted for onboarding FAQs and résumé screening—giving him a head start on safe implementation.

Insights that move the credit union

Implementation is swift because the groundwork is peer-tested. When Utah adopted fast-moving pay transparency rules, Park posted a request to the Council Community for sample job ad language. Three credit unions shared counsel-approved templates, and his team adapted the best fit in a single afternoon—no outside legal bill required.

The same network boosts employee experience. Line managers now use Council Community-sourced stay interview scripts—brief, structured question guides that help managers learn why employees stay and what might entice them to leave. Employee engagement scores are trending up, and board briefings feature succession dashboards grabbed from the Council's best practice library. Park's HR dashboards—built from library samples—give the C-suite a real-time view of talent risks.

Volunteer leadership has been equally transformative. "You really are able to shape the future of the Councils while shaping your own career," Park said, crediting the mentor match program for pairing him with a seasoned chief human resources officer who helped refine his workforce plan and fueled his ascent to the executive committee within three years of joining.

More value than the dues

Each membership with Councils bundles complimentary webinars, a 10 percent discount on America's Credit Unions training, scholarships for professional designations, deep dive research reports, and access to an ever-growing document library into one annual fee.

"Most people recoup the cost with a single template or CPE credit," Park noted, "but the real return is how pivotal the Councils have been for my career and for how we do things at the credit union."

Credit union HR professionals ready to accelerate projects, expand their peer circle, and sharpen their strategic edge can take a cue from Park: explore HR & Organizational Development Council membership—because, as he put it, "It's an amazing opportunity."