Tips on how to rejuvenate a chapter

The BNI Britomart Chapter (ex BNI City Fringe) has experienced remarkable growth in the past 6 months, and energetic President Robert Bruce is now receiving invitations to speak to other chapters to help them grow too!

Roberts’ group was sitting at 11 members, and was not a fully-fledged group, when the new leadership team decided to take matters into their own hands in November last year.

Thanks to the relentless energy and enthusiasm of Robert and his Leadership Committee, BNI Britomart has now grown more than 100% from 11 to 23 members (as at June 2011).

As well as the amazing increase in high-quality members, the chapter is also now making between 18-25 referrals a week, and has even starting to attract members from other chapters (the ultimate compliment).

Some of Roberts’s tips about how to rejuvenate a chapter are listed below:

Work out your goals for the group:

• At BNI Britomart, the goal is to become the ‘premier’ group in the country
• This means we intend to have: 
  • the best, most connected members
  • The most quality referrals per week
  • the highest trading amongst members
  • the best contribution to Hospice
• we wanted to reach 25 members by the end of the membership cycle (June this year)

Once the above goal was set, all other activity was planned around achieving those goals, including major changes such as:

Moving to a new venue:

• To run a professional networking group it makes sense to meet in a professional environment that reflects the ‘standard’ and lifestyle of the members.
• Try to avoid noisy cafes, or environments that are distracting.
• Worry less about the food, and worry more about the location!
  • A great location will bring visitors back, but food is simply ‘nice to have’.
• Try to be unique: BNI Britomart moved into the incredible modern/funky Mini Garage for a while, which was a creative environment to do networking
  • Be cautious though: environments not set-up for meetings may have noise issues, service issues, and may not have audio visual equipment easily available.
• The group has found its ‘ultimate’ home in the brand-new Generator complex in Britomart, which is also the home of SublimeNZ. The meeting room is equipped with views of the ocean, a separate bar, wireless internet, a lounge, and full audio visual equipment. www.generatornz.com
• A good option for many groups would be to move into the board-room of one of the members. See if someone in your group can facilitate everyone: tell them to look at this as an opportunity to dance with everyone, every week!

Change the group name:

• Once your goals are set, start thinking about a name that best represents the composition of your group (or, where you want to be).
• The name BNI Britomart came about because of the new proximity of the group in the bustling business hub in the CBD, which had positive associations with ‘big business’ and entrepreneurs alike
• What name best captures the energy in your group?

Get new members!

• Sometimes this starts with looking closely at the performance of your existing members, and perhaps replacing some with ‘new blood’
• Hand out the PALMS report weekly. Soon enough the under-performing members will either pick up their game, or move on
• It is not a bad thing for some long-serving members to move on to make space for a co-worker or competitor: the new members will open up a whole wealth of new referrals, or new visitors.
• Look at attracting PR/Marketing/Events/Website people: they are well connected, and meet lots of people in their day to day lives.
• Ask your members to invite suppliers, or people they want to do business with. This can help to create ‘hubs’
• Avoid the trap of one company capturing too many ‘categories’. In BNI Britomart we have:
  • Graphic design
  • Web design
  • Email marketing
  • Web optimisation
• Each of these members has some cross-over, but respect each others core offering, and does good business between one another.

The basics:

• Use PALMS accurately: use it to keep the group accountable for output.
  • If the V.P is not comfortable/experienced with using the website to update it regularly, then get someone else to do it.
  • Ask the VP to hand it out weekly during the re-build phase. It will show positive improvements, and also make non-performing members aware that they are being watched (in a subtle way).
• Time management:
  • Ensure everyone arrives on time!
  • Visitor Hosts should be at the venue at 6.45am at latest.
  • The V.P and I arrive at 6.20am every week at BNI Britomart, to ensure that the meeting room is perfectly set up, and that there is a great first impression for visitors
  • Ensure your 60 second and 10 minute speeches are kept to time, regardless of the size of your group. Time management looks professional: no one wants to listen to a 20 minute 10 minute speech!
• Getting the leadership team working well
  • Send your leadership team to a leadership training, if they have not been for a while
  • Make it a social outing, and have a beer and debrief afterwards
  • Ensure leadership meetings happen at least once monthly
  • See if someone else in the group wants to step up, to take load off someone who has been in the role for a while.
• Getting the VP doing his job
  • It is a temptation to let the President do everything
  • The VP is meant to ‘run the chapter’, meaning they need to look after the Membership Committee, and all of the PALMS information.
  • If your VP is unclear of his role, you should take him through his job description and take load off yourself.
• Monitor cash deals by using the new ‘Thank You For Your Business’ forms.
  • You should only record cash deals, AFTER the deal is done!

Whilst some of our strategies require a ‘hard line’ approach, the results are clear at BNI Britomart.

With strong leadership, a commitment to grow, and by getting the whole group on board- I am confident you can achieve growth also.

Robert is the managing director of leading experiential marketing agency SublimeNZ. www.sublimenz.co.nz