The 2025 CU Ambassador Takes a Streamlined Approach
Interview with Cassie Rhodes
Written by Dakota Damschroder, Communications Editor, CrossState
The best ideas don’t only have to come from the top down. CrossState Credit Union Association’s CU Ambassador contest aims to spark creativity and innovation among nonexecutive-level credit union employees, encouraging them to seek new opportunities to make a difference in the movement.
Cassie Rhodes, our 2025 winner and a customer service quality assurance specialist with Members 1st Federal Credit Union, shares the story behind her project, her experience with the contest, and the importance of using your voice.
How did you get started in the credit union space?
Originally, my passion was for food; I actually went to school for culinary arts and was working in a restaurant on the grill. But then a family friend who worked at Members 1st suggested I get into customer service for the security, so I took a job here in 2019 as a phone representative. Within my first three years, I gained all three internal phone rep certifications and started helping with mentoring other associates. After that, I went for the quality assurance specialist position, and I’ve enjoyed it ever since. Being the front face of customer service when new people come in is really impactful.
Tell us about the knowledge base transformation project:
We had multiple different knowledge systems that our associates used to find answers for things, which was overwhelming. The goal of this project was to streamline all our resources and make them more accessible. Ultimately, we reduced 416 lengthy articles down to 284 concise, easy-to-use ones.
But even then, you need to know which system to go to and what keywords to search. Our new platform categorizes each article by topic, helping a lot with searchability. In the past year, this project has saved over 960 hours of search time and dropped calls to contact center supervisors by 35%, freeing our team to focus on helping members.
Where do you intend to take the project next?
Our goal for 2026 is to work with other departments to get their knowledge on the platform. Besides customer service, we have fully transitioned branch operations and are slowly working on moving over collections, loan servicing, and payment services. After that, my hope is to establish both an article standard for style and an annual review process.
What inspired you to bring this project to the CU Ambassador contest?
I just thought, “Why don’t I make this proposal and show it’s not just for us?” Because it’s not—it’s for every credit union. We use our CRM system, but when I started in this position, we had everything in Word before transitioning to SharePoint. Something like that is totally accessible for smaller credit unions.
How did the process challenge you?
Because I’m not in a leadership role, I needed to learn how to introduce myself to make an impact, which was a little intimidating at first. I had to speak to 18 chief officers about my project, and when I got to Phase 3 of the CU Ambassador contest, I had to get up in front of 250 people at the CrossState Connect Annual Convention to present about it.
But I do think it made me stronger. Particularly with public speaking, I realized that they don’t care if you stumble over words. They care what your process was and how you got to succeed.
How did it feel to be announced the CU Ambassador?
I was shocked. There were some great contestants, and when I heard who had entered, I initially felt like I didn’t even want to compete. But my chief experience officer reminded me that I have these numbers and can show the progress, and that gave me a good chance to win. I thought he was just tooting my horn, but he was right. It really shows that when you work hard, it pays off.
What advice would you give to somebody looking to apply to the contest?
First, you can’t be afraid to throw your idea out and say, “Hey, I think this would benefit the credit union.” Chief officers want to hear from us at the lower levels. And if we don’t say what we have, how are we going to know if it works?
My other advice would be to write from what you know and then find someone you can trust to help build on it. Yes, this was my proposal and I was named the 2025 CU Ambassador, but I wasn’t the only one making the impact—it was everyone involved in the training program. I was just the face of the operation. I only had this success because I was willing to share my idea and seek help from others.
Originally published in the 2025 CU Edge Special Edition
Find Out Who Wins the 2026 Contest at Connect!
Phase 2 of the 2026 CU Ambassador Contest is well underway, with the 10 finalists putting their projects to work. The top three will be announced in April and will present their projects during Awards Night at CrossState Connect Annual Convention, where the winner being chosen live.
Join us at Connect to see the thrilling conclusion of the contest!