Four simple changes led to major growth for BNI Wine Country Hastings

Recently the leadership team at our chapter changed and we undertook a number of simple initiatives that have led to significant growth in our membership. The leadership team and I wanted to share these with you in the hope that it could inspire other chapters to try out some of these ideas. There are now 30 members in our chapter and in the last 6 months, since these four initiatives have been introduced, 12 new members have joined.

1. Look at other chapters for inspiration

When our new leadership team came in, we visited another chapter to get some ideas on what we could do differently. It was a great experience for the whole team because it allowed us to reassess what we had been doing in comparison to another chapter. It reenergised us as a team and gave us some pointers on things that we could change.

2. Think about a change of scene

One change that we made, which has led to significant benefits, was to move venue. This may seem like a major change, but for us it wasn’t traumatic and improved the atmosphere in our meetings enormously. The space that is selected to hold meetings is very important. It needs to be welcoming, business-like and large enough to hold a growing chapter comfortably. By changing our venue to one that ticked these boxes, we immediately had positive feedback about the new environment from our existing and new members.

3. Refocus on the core purpose of BNI

Over time, it is easy for BNI members (especially those who have been in a chapter for a long period) to become overly comfortable and a little too matey. Of course, it is important for people to get along and be friendly; however it is vital that members stay focused on the core purpose of BNI. We refocused on getting “back to business” in our chapter and it made an immediate difference to visitors coming in. They saw that we were process driven and purposeful – not too cosy and chatty. This change led to more visitors signing on as members.

4. Try incentives

To get visitors to sign on as members you need a greater number of new people coming through the door. One way to do this is to offer incentives. There are lots of different ways to offer incentives and what you can offer will vary from chapter to chapter. For us, we ran two promotions that we found were very positively received. The first was for members to get points for visitor signups. At the end of a few months the member with the most points won a prize – a GPS system. The second was called “every dance is a chance”. We ran this over a six month period, every dance participant went into a draw and one lucky member won a prize – a weekend stay at a beach home owned by one of our members. Be creative and think about incentives – you’ll be surprised by the results you achieve.

These four relatively minor changes have reaped major benefits for our chapter. Membership is up and the atmosphere is fantastic – why not give one or more of these a go in your chapter and see what rewards eventuate.

Glen Hales, President, BNI Wine Country