Member Spotlight: Sylvia Foster

CUNA Councils
November 6, 2006

I am the assistant vice president of business systems at Lockheed Georgia Employees' Federal Credit Union in Marietta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta. I manage the computer operators, programmers, and the records/imaging department and have been with the credit union for four years. Previously, I worked for a credit union data processing software company in Atlanta doing conversions and client support. I have worked in the financial industry for 21 years, starting as a teller and then working in mortgage loan processing and community bank operations.

I've been married to my husband for 15 years and he still has almost no idea what I do day to day! When asked, he tells people I do something with computers at the credit union. We have two daughters and I love that I live and work in the same community.

Biggest challenge for 2006

Our department's biggest challenge is always defining, prioritizing, and handling all of the projects the various departments want us to help them with. I relate this process to herding cats. This year my teams have been adding many new features to our home

banking product, automating many of the processes such as CAMs notification and card reissuing, escheatment account identification and reporting, and Fact Act compliance. We have also worked quite a bit on written policies and procedures.

Best advice

When herding cats (also known as project management):

1. Don't lose sight of your ultimate goal—what exactly are you trying to accomplish

and what is your time line for getting it done.

2. Make sure you have the right team assembled. It is so frustrating to get close to the end of a project and realize some key players weren't included, which invariably means

re-working at least part of the project;

3. GET IT IN WRITING. Get what in writing, you ask? Everything! Follow up every meeting with a written recap and get written approvals for every planned change.

4. Your first sentence of any correspondence should tell the reader the point of the

correspondence. Then the rest should tell him the when, how, and why.

5. For your own sanity, write a “press release” for each project upon completion. Most of the time, we all have so many projects on our plate, we move on to the next one without any acknowledgement of what we have completed. If you don't recognize your accomplishments, you will, more then likely, hit burnout with your job.

Greatest benefit of Council membership

Realizing I'm not the only one struggling with all of these issues we face in our industry!

I love the Listserv e-mails. They provide a great deal of information without being overwhelming. I also enjoy the CUNA Technology website “In the News” items.

Best part of my job

Getting to make a difference in someone else's life and making their job easier.

Hardest part of my job

Making one department understand why another area got their project worked on first. Keeping up with all of the technology.

Success story

Every time I get a "Great Job-Thank You" e-mail from someone we have done something for.

Hobbies and interests

Camping, gardening (my husband will tell you the extent of my gardening is telling him what I want), reading

People would be surprised to learn that I am . . .

An aspiring romance writer.

Recent book

A romance book by a local author. My days are spent reading and working on such technical stuff that when I read for pleasure, I want it to be pure fluff. I also like to support local artists.

Life goal yet to be accomplished

Writing that romance novel!

Something that always makes me laugh

My kids

If I had an extra hour in the day I’d . . .

Sleep for an extra hour!