Announcing Board of Directors Election Cycle

The first quarter of 2023 has been a whirlwind of GoWest firsts, from launching a new website to releasing state-by-state economic and community impact reports in conjunction with a special Credit Union advocacy day in each of our region’s states. Now we mark another first—the beginning of the 2023-24 GoWest Board election cycle.

In 2022, the inaugural GoWest Board created the framework for a unified Association voice that will effectively serve the interests of hundreds of credit unions, large and small, and the 16.5 million members who rely on those credit unions to secure their financial futures.

The inaugural GoWest Board, consisting of 18 directors when originally consummated last July, leaned into its own strategic governance decisions, approving a new election timeline for the 2023-2024 cycle and modernizing the Board roster size down to 12 seats by Sept. 2023.

Four of the Board members who served so admirably in 2022 have concluded their Board service, effective Dec. 31, 2022:

• Trisha Baker, President & CEO, Lewis Clark Credit Union
• Larry Ellifritz, President & CEO, Consolidated Community Credit Union
• Teri Robinson, President & CEO, Ironworkers USA Federal Credit Union
• Vanessa Trexel, President & CEO, Power Credit Union

Please join me in sharing immense gratitude to Baker, Ellifritz, Robinson, and Trexel for bringing their commitment and passion for the credit union movement to the creation of GoWest. Future Board members will stand on their shoulders, working alongside other gifted leaders who will keep us future-focused and dreaming big.

Two incumbent Board positions will be up for re-election in 2023, and two additional Board positions will be sunset. A peer-driven membership nominating committee representing each state in the GoWest region will meet and oversee the discussion of possible candidates and their qualifications and essential characteristics.

Additionally, the Board elected Jennifer Kutcher, President/CEO of WECU, in Bellingham, Washington, to be Board Secretary, effective immediately.  Please join me in congratulating Jennifer for serving in this new role.

The GoWest team looks forward to working with all our Board members and each of you as we go forward together in this first full year of your GoWest Association.