BNI Blog » Social Capital

St Heliers Bay Festival

Graham Southwell — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 04:26:52 +0000

Had a great day on Saturday, helping out at St Heliers Bay festival. I thought I would share this email from Eastern Bays Hospice -

ST HELIERS BAY FESTIVAL:

On behalf of Eastern Bays Hospice and dove house I want to extend a huge thank you to all you wonderful people out there in the Village Community, Wendy Caspersonn, the Rock-up team and staff at dove house who give their loyal support and hard work for our cause year after year. It is truly appreciated, bless you.

Also thank you to our Chairman John Hackett and his team of Board Members who also joined us on this magic sunny day.

No figures in yet, but the Dove Shop, the children’s entertainments, and the sausage sizzle were buzzing the entire day, so it can really be counted on as a perfectly rewarding day for everyone. Of course we couldn’t have done it without our trusty volunteers, their friends and family, and those of the BNI teams who so willingly supported us as well.

Again my sincere thanks to everyone for your help,

Kind regards

Marilyn

Marilyn Nething

Manager of Volunteer Resources

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Japan Earthquake

Graham Southwell — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:01:03 +0000

Last night, BNI International established a matching fund to go to earthquake relief in the region. Any contribution you make will be matched by the BNI-Misner Foundation. BNI will match contributions up to a total of $10,000. 100% of all contributions will go to the Red Cross or other appropriate disaster relief organization. Go to this URL to make the matching credit card contributions to the Foundation:

https://grants.ccf-la.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=292

I am pleased to say that this morning, BNI HQ was in contact with our office in Japan. Our National Director (Asato Ohno) has received no reports of injuries to any of our members or Directors.

More details will follow.

Ivan Misner, Ph.D.

Founder & Chairman

misner@bni.com

www.BNI.com

www.NetworkingEntrepreneur.com

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BNI Christchurch – update

Fiona Harrop — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:25:15 +0000

Firstly as of tomorrow, all chapters in Christchurch will be put into a Fee Suspended state for the following 3 months. This means that your membership is in effect frozen as it is, and will not age for the next 3 months. This will give members and chapters alike time to reassess where to from here, whilst still allowing the chapter to meet and access members details and record stats.

Secondly we have negotiated with New Zealand Finance & Loans that any member currently paying off their fees via the Finance option, will have a moratorium for 3 months before they need to make another payment, however it will be up to the individual to cancel their AP payment as we cannot do this for you.

Thirdly Sue & Graham the NZ BNI National Directors will meet $1 for $1 any donations made to the BNI Red Cross site up to $5000.

Fourthly we have reactivated the BNI Christchurch Earthquake group on BNIOnline and are listing all offers of help on this site. We have offers of accommodation, use of offices etc. coming in as well as fellow BNI chapters wanting to support other BNI members. We are driving everyone to this site and would ask you all to make contact directly and also to pass this information on to other BNI members who may not yet have email or internet access. The Direct link is http://www.bnionline.co.nz/group/christchurchearthquakebnisupport

I will shortly be contacting all Presidents and VP’s to try and get a feel for how all the chapters are – I am guessing very few can access venues at this point – so I would urge you to make contact with your chapter President or VP and to also let them know of anyone else you have caught up with.

Know that we are all thinking of you and hope this offer will in some small way help as we believe that the support offered by your BNI groups in the coming months may be a very important aspect of doing business and supporting each other.

The following steps have been taken in support of our members in Christchurch – effective immediately.

Firstly as of tomorrow, all chapters in Christchurch will be put into a Fee Suspended state for the following 3 months. This means that memberships are in effect frozen as is, and will not age for the next 3 months. This will give members and chapters alike time to reassess where to from here, whilst still allowing the chapter to meet and access members details and record stats.

Thirdly Sue & Graham the NZ BNI National Directors will meet $1 for $1 any donations made to the BNI Red Cross site up to $5,000.

Fourthly we have reactivated the BNI Christchurch Earthquake group on BNIOnline and are listing all offers of help on this site. We have offers of accommodation, use of offices etc. coming in as well as fellow BNI chapters wanting to support other BNI members. We are driving everyone to this site and would ask you all to make contact directly and also to pass this information on to other BNI members who may not yet have email or internet access. The Direct link is: http://www.bnionline.co.nz/group/christchurchearthquakebnisupport or Click Here

Know that we are all thinking of you and hope these steps will in some small way help as we believe that the support offered by your BNI groups in the coming months may be a very important aspect of doing business and supporting each other.

Fiona Harrop

BNI New Zealand – Operations Manager

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Christchurch Relief Efforts

Graham Southwell — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 22:17:14 +0000

As we continue to promote the New Zealand Red Cross appeal – we are receiving an increasing number of requests for direct help from members as well as offers of support in terms of goods and/or services – and emergency accommodation. One of the things that we have learned from our relationship with Hospice New Zealand over the last few years is that whilst money is essential to any charitable operation – it is the sense of community and working towards a common cause that is key to any organisation.

That being said – I thought that it would be useful to refer the readers of this blog to the BNI New Zealand Social Networking site – which provides a forum for members and non-members in which they can communicate – request help and offer assistance.

To view the site – CLICK HERE

Graham

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Please donate to the BNI Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fund

Graham Southwell — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:28:52 +0000

Our hearts reach out to the people of Christchurch in their time of need.

Both BNI directors in Christchurch, Alastair Christie and Sam Williamson and their families, are safe.

We like everybody else, are waiting on news about the welfare of all our members in Christchurch. While we wait, our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time.

BNI New Zealand has set up a relief fund. 100% of any donations will be passed on to the New Zealand Red Cross to aid relief efforts in Christchurch.

To donate to the BNI fund for victims of the Christhchurch Earthquake – CLICK HERE

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The Three A’s of Awesome

Graham Southwell — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Neil Pasricha started his blog 1000 Awesome Things, as a small reminder — in a world of rising sea levels, global conflict, and a troubled economy — of the free, easy little joys that make life sweet.

He certainly didn’t anticipate that his site would gain a readership of millions of people, win two Webby Awards (“the Internet’s highest honor” according to The New York Times), be named one of PC Magazine’s Top 100 Sites On the Internet, or become a place where people from around the world would come to celebrate the simple pleasures of daily life. His just released first book The Book of Awesome has become a #1 International Bestseller and The Book of Awesome 2 comes out in Spring, 2011.

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Share in New Zealand’s unique espresso heritage

Colin Kennedy — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:41:33 +0000

You can become part of the Espresso Escape community that keeps New Zealand alive and vibrant.

Niki Grennell and Matthew Hawke are writing a book, The Great New Zealand Cafe, based on their road trip around New Zealand, exploring the country’s character cafes.

BNI is a sponsor of Niki and Matthew’s adventure. They add regular posts on what they’re getting up to on their travels; follow their progress on their blog.

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BNI Epsom – Fundraiser follow up.

Graham Southwell — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:07:42 +0000

I recently attended a BNI Breakfast with a difference! Following the successful auction evening as a fundraiser for Mercy Hospice – BNI Epsom decided to hold their weekly meeting at Mercy Hospice – and to take the opportunity to present their cheque for nearly $5000 to hospice themselves. As the chapter Director Mariska Mannes was unable to attend the meeting I was pleased to come along in her place – and was impressed by the chapter, the presentation and the welcome from Hospice. Many local hospices have function rooms similar to the one we used – and are happy to provide a breakfast to BNI chapters – so perhaps this might be something other chapters might like to consider as well.

Congratualtions once again to the chapter for this fabulous fund raising initiative.

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BNI Foundation offers support to Christchurch

Graham Southwell — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:48:11 +0000

Beth and I are keeping our BNI New Zealand organization in our prayers. We are opening an earthquake relief fund at the BNI Foundation and matching the first $10,000 donated (that means every dollar you donate we match)!Feel free to join us in our support by donating online now at:

https://grants.ccf-la.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=292

Please note that the BNI Foundation is part of the California Community Foundation.

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The hidden influence of social networks

Graham Southwell — Wed, 12 May 2010 04:05:20 +0000

We’re all embedded in vast social networks of friends, family, co-workers and more. Nicholas Christakis tracks how a wide variety of traits — from happiness to obesity — can spread from person to person, showing how your location in the network might impact your life in ways you don’t even know.

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