She gave away her Councils membership so a colleague could find a mentor

During a career development conversation early this year, Angela Gargo asked a direct report at Community First Credit Union a simple question: Where did he see himself going?  

His answer was that he was thinking seriously about executive leadership someday, which prompted her to think about how she could help him get there. The answer, it turned out, was to give something up.

Gargo, VP of human resources at the Appleton, Wis.-based credit union, had been a member of the HR & Organizational Development Council for roughly five years. When she recognized that her colleague, Alan Thomson, the credit union's director of total rewards, could benefit from Councils' Mentor Match program, she made an offer: Take her membership. He applied to Mentor Match the next day.

"I think Mentor Match is a great program," Gargo said. "It's interesting because we are a larger credit union, but it's very eye-opening sometimes to hear from leaders at smaller credit unions who wear so many hats but face the same challenges that we do."

A program built around meaningful connections

Mentor Match is an exclusive benefit for members of America's Credit Unions' Councils. The program pairs emerging credit union professionals with experienced executives for six-month mentoring relationships, with matching guided by an algorithm that accounts for factors such as discipline and asset size. Sedric Brinson, America's Credit Unions' director of Councils membership and engagement, who manages the program, has emphasized that while the algorithm helps with initial pairings, the outcomes depend on genuine human connection.

For those who have gone through it, the results can be significant. Previous participants have credited their mentors with helping them navigate career pivots, build confidence, and sharpen their professional direction, with outcomes that often extend well beyond the formal six-month window.

At Community First Credit Union, the program has already become part of the fabric of how the HR team approaches leadership development. Kristy Hesse, the credit union's chief human resources officer, has participated as a mentor for several years and, according to Gargo, consistently finds that the relationship benefits go both ways.

"She always learns from her mentees," Gargo said of Hesse. "Just being able to talk to other leaders in the HR and OD space has been something that she has cherished over the years."

Making room for someone else's growth

For Gargo, recommending Mentor Match for Thomson was the easy part. The harder part was the budget calendar. Because the conversation about his career aspirations happened in early 2026, after the prior fall's budget cycle had already closed, there was no funding in place for him to become a Councils member.

Her solution was direct: she transferred her own membership to him so he could complete the Mentor Match application before the deadline. The move meant she would lose day-to-day access to the Council community she had come to rely on, including the shared file library, peer discussions, and policy templates she consulted regularly.

"It was a little gut-wrenching to think about not having that," she acknowledged. "I try to go out at least a few times a week and answer some questions, or I'll be doing research on how other credit unions are approaching this, that, and the other thing. I'm just so used to being able to go in there."

Still, she saw a clear path: The credit union's talent and HR services manager also holds a Councils membership. If Gargo needs a resource in a pinch, she can tap that colleague.

For Thomson, the offer landed with the weight it deserved. He and Gargo go back further than a typical manager-and-direct-report pairing: They were peers at the credit union years ago before Thomson left for another role. When he returned, Gargo had moved into the VP position, and he came back in a position reporting to her. That shared history gave him a particular appreciation for what the gesture meant.

"I was grateful for her to offer that," Thomson said. "Angela's absolutely fantastic. This is just another testament of how she is as an individual. She's like, ‘Hey, you can have what I have if it's going to help you.’ She's always focused on helping everybody else and helping the team grow."

Why Mentor Match fits this moment

Thomson's interest in mentorship is not new. Over the course of his career, he has had people who guided him and gave him room to grow, and he has tried to pass that along to others who are earlier in their professional journeys.

"I really enjoy helping others who aren't as far along in their career," he said. "The old adage of you don't know what you don't know. I try to fill in those gaps as early as I can for individuals, to prepare them to be ideally more successful than I could ever be."

Gargo sees the Mentor Match program as especially well-suited to Thomson's situation. As director of total rewards, his role does not carry the same built-in networking opportunities that more outward-facing HR positions often bring. Mentor Match offers a structured way to build those connections with leaders across the credit union movement.

"He's never really had an opportunity to network as much with other credit union leaders as some of the rest of us have," Gargo said. "The program immediately came to mind."

Thomson submitted his application and has since received communications about program expectations and timelines (matching had not yet begun at the time this article was written). While the outcomes of the pairing are yet to be seen, the path to the application started with a colleague who decided his growth was worth the cost of her own access.

Find more information about Mentor Match and the HR & Organizational Development Council.