GAC 2026 Preview: How Storytelling Can Strengthen the Credit Union Movement and Amplify Advocacy

 Todd Spiczenski from America’s Credit Unions. Welcome back to C.U. on the show for GAC preview 2026.

Awesome. It’s great to be here, Doug. Really looking forward to, uh. What I think, I feel like I’m a broken record every time you and I chat, but is another record, uh, breaking, uh, year for our GAC. Numbers are through the roof and our lineup and agenda is looking fantastic.

Great. Well let, let’s, uh, unpack some of those details. So,

all right,

the story, uh, storytelling right, is the theme. For this year as a GAC, tell me about that theme, like where did that come from and, and then wait a minute before we even go into that, tell me a story. Todd, would you tell me a story about how you got started in credit

union?

Oh, wow. Well, I don’t wanna tell you how many years I’ve been, uh, involved in the credit union movement, but let’s just say I’m a Wiley veteran, Wiley and a Wiley veteran, and, uh, way, way back in the day. Um, my wife worked at a credit union. She wasn’t my wife at the time, and, uh, I, uh, I took a liking to her.

So, and I was one of the members that would come in. So long story short, we started seeing each other and we dated because we met through, uh, the credit union that I was a member of, and that she was employed at. And I became, uh, pretty enthralled with her obviously ’cause we’re married, but two, um. Really interested in the credit union industry and movement.

And lo and behold, about the time we were, um, engaged in courting an opportunity came up to work, um, for a company called Cuni Service Group. And for the, uh, Wiley veterans that, uh, are listening to this, I’ll remember CSG. And I started there as an IRA trainer, individual retirement account trainer way back when, and I traveled the entire country.

Working with and for credit unions, doing presentations to credit union staff on IRAs. And I, I don’t know, it’s kinda like this story where you, where your values align with what you’re doing and you see the difference that people make. And man, I never left. I never thought that’s where I would be, but I never left.

And it started by meeting a teller at, uh, what was back in the day, CUNA Credit Union, which is now Summit Credit Union. You’re in Madison, Wisconsin.

And the rest is history.

The rest is

history. Beautiful. So, so at GAC there’ll be many stories being told, and I know the speaker line up this year kind of has the storytelling, uh, um, background or wrapped around it.

What’s the, uh, is the idea that the, uh, the hill hikers will take their storytelling skill that they gather from, uh, the meeting and use that to influence congress?

Well. Yes. You’re, you’re, you’re, you’re spot on, Doug. What we’ve, what we’re trying to do is talk more, have us as. America’s credit unions and as leagues, as their trade association talking to lobbyists or, uh, members of Congress and actually having credit unions tell their story.

So we built our kind of story arc lineup at the GAC around helping credit unions better articulate the wonderful things that they’re doing in their communities, and then tie that to our advocacy messaging. So when they’re going to the Hill, they have their own personal. Story about the members they serve, the constituents and their members of congress district tied to the great, um, great things they’re doing within their communities.

So our, our speaker lineup is fantastic, but that story arc starts at the beginning. Let’s. Let’s shape how we tell our story. Um, and then by the end it’s, we, we, we kind of integrate and move into shaping the future. And so we’ll be talking about how our stories that we’re sharing today help the shape, the future for credit unions and members, um, of tomorrow.

And there’s gonna be a lot of us telling stories. How are we, are we, you got record attendance again

this

year? Tell

us. The attendance is, I’ve, like I said, I feel like I’m a, I’m a broken record sometimes on some of this. Um, we’re, we’ve already surpassed last year’s record attendance. Um, we’re, as we’re filming this, we’re what, a couple weeks out from actually being at GAC.

Um, and we always get a couple hundred more. People that register between now and and the actual first day. So we’re numbers are fantastic. Exhibit Hall sold out, um, from a vendor partner perspective. Within, I think it was nine days of when we opened. Wow. So we were, we are, we are busting at the seams in the exhibit hall.

So we’re gonna have a record number of vendor attendees, record number of, uh, credit unions, attendees, record number of credit unions, um, that have registered. Don’t know what that final count’s gonna actually look like until, uh, till we get to March. But man, it’s looking really good.

Hopefully a record impact on, uh, on our legislators ability to remember a hundred

percent

the importance of the credit union industry.

A hundred percent. And Doug, and you hit it. Like that’s the reason we’re there. It’s, yes. We put on this fabulous, um, event, and we do that in conjunction, in collaboration with our lead partners from all over the country. But the reason we’re there is to advocate and tell the credit union story to members of Congress.

Mm-hmm. And, um, we can never lose sight of that because we, we, we, we continue to have to demonstrate why we’re a different, unique in the financial services industry and make sure that our, um, the people that are making the laws and the regulations understand why we’re different and why, um, why we need as much access, um, or why credit, uh, con consumers need as much access to credit unions as they can get.

Tell us a little bit about these, uh, speakers. I know in our warmup to the, uh, podcast you, you kind of got me fired up about some of these big speakers. Let’s hear about

it. Well, it is, uh, our lineup is our, our keynote lineup is fantastic. Kendra Hall is gonna start out on Sunday, sponsored by our wonderful councils, and she is, uh, gonna talk all about the power of storytelling and really taking, um.

How you make your stories and tell your personal stories and amplify them. Um, so she’s gonna kinda set the tone on Monday morning. Uh, we have Brene Brown, Brene. I’ve, um, I’ve been overwhelmed by the number of people in credit unions that have reached out to me that are. Just appreciative, thankful, begging for an opportunity to meet her in person.

Hmm.

Um, I’ve never, I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve never had so many reach outs about, um, a keynote speaker that we’ve been able to bring into GAC. She only does about three or four of these a year. Um, she’s been on our list for the last three years. We got her this year. Um, she’s gonna be fantastic.

Um, and talking about leadership and daring greatly. Um, and Tuesday we have Adam Grant. Um, Adam Grant, actually we discovered Adam. I don’t wanna say we discovered him. That sounds really pretentious. We had Adam Grant speak, um, at a legacy CUNA event about 12. 12 years ago in New York City. And, um, he has gone on to be a bestselling author.

Um, he is gonna be fantastic and he’s gonna discuss about hidden potential. Um, and we think credit unions have a lot of hidden potential. We’re like, we’re the best kept secret in the fi financial services industry. So he’s gonna share that story and we’re gonna close out with, uh, Rohit, uh, Bargo, who’s gonna talk about trends and shaping us up and setting us up for the future.

So the lineup. Every day is, is, is fantastic. And we’re gonna be, uh, probably standing room only in many of those general sessions this time around.

Yeah. So get so, get in, get in early and get a seat if you wanna have a seat, is what I’m hearing. That’s

right.

Well, uh, it sounds like a great meeting. I know.

Uh, I’m looking forward to it as always, and we’ll see, uh, all our credit union rather run there in full, uh, effort to hike the hill. So, any, any final thoughts on things that like, uh, we, we, you know, we get a lot of, uh, senior executives that listen to this podcast and. Can you think of anything that they would offer as guidance to their team that’s coming with them for the key messages that they wanna bring to the hill this year?

Obviously we’re talking stories, but anything, just any sort of core that we want, uh, in there to be consistent about.

In collaboration with our leagues, we’re gonna have and help any of the, any of our attendees and C-suite folks with like the advocacy talking points. Mm-hmm. What I would encourage folks to do is think about a really good story and they have tons of ’em.

You all have tons of great, yeah. I think about just one, just, just. Pick a story about how you or your credit union helped somebody in your community and bring that with you so that you’re prepared to go onsite and talk about, um, not just the, the ABCs of interchange and, you know, why credit card cap rates, um, uh, are great for, for the industry and those types of things.

But we have to wrap it around a really personal story. And so I’d encourage people to think about that. They do. You do it every day. Credit unions, you’re doing it and helping people every single day. Um, grab one or two of those. It doesn’t have to be how you met your wife in a credit union. It can be something that, um, that, that you’ve done recently to help some, you know, small business or a, a community member.

Um, get back on their feet and those are the stories we need to continue to share to show the credit union difference.

Excellent. Well, uh, uh, at, uh, this year’s GAC I’m gonna be trying to meet up with as many previous year’s, uh, podcast guests as possible. Uh, we’ll grab a selfie together and then repost the episodes.

I’m not sure if we did that, Todd, I don’t think anyone’s gonna listen to the last years’, uh, preview episodes, so we can still get a photo with just a, let’s, just a wave.

Uh, I would love to do it. Looking forward to seeing you on site, Doug, and looking forward to seeing all of our credit union friends on site as well.

It’s gonna be a great event and, uh, we’ll see you in a couple weeks.

Uh, thanks so much, Todd. Good to have you back. See you in a couple weeks.

Take care.