Chapter Growth is A Choice

From November 2013

The BNI Belleville Story

By Scott Simon, Executive Director - BNI Missouri/Southern Illinois

Twelve years ago the BNI chapter of Belleville, Illinois, looked good on the surface with close to 30 members and solid production numbers.  Internally, however, the chapter was floundering.

• The majority of production was consistently generated by just 20 percent of the chapter;


• There was no accountability to produce;


• There was resistance to running the chapter like a business using BNI's proven system.

Recognizing they were in a rut, the chapter called Scott Simon, their BNI executive director, to help formulate a plan. They determined the only way to move forward was addition by subtraction.  Their plan started with changing the meeting time from lunch to breakfast; doing so would eliminate most of the "dead weight" and free them up to start over.

They welcomed remaining members to stay if they were willing to follow the BNI structured plan. The chapter dropped down to five members. But this didn't diminish their resolve to make their chapter one of the best.

Right about that time, Jay Taddei of Associated Physicians Group was denied membership in another local chapter due to category conflict. He found that the only local chapter available was Belleville.  Jay left the meeting thinking it was a waste of time.  However, two of the five members wanted to do business with Jay, so he applied and joined.

Six months later he was asked to be president.  "I knew the only way to grow the group was to run it as a business, which was still a novel idea at that time."  Jay met with the members and mapped out a growth strategy revolving around the BNI structure; he also focused on inviting and holding members accountable.

One year later they were at 30 members and the top producing chapter out of 80 chapters in the region for over a year.  That year the Belleville chapter won BNI's most coveted prize, the Founders Award.  They have since gone on to win this prestigious award nine consecutive years in a row.

The Keys to Growth

1. Using Power Teams was the key to stimulating growth; they made maintaining and building relationships easy.  Each Power Team made their own specific list of businesses that would best fit in with their group.  We scheduled eight Power Team Stack Days over 12 months, and the desired professions were recruited via personal invitations from current members.


2. Personally inviting visitors is difficult for many BNI members, so Belleville brainstormed simple invitation techniques.  It's important to not sell BNI when inviting a visitor.  Instead, let them know of a free opportunity to promote their business to a group of referral professionals. Then run a professional, fun, and productive meeting. If your meeting doesn't sell visitors, then take a close look at what your meeting is not doing.  Belleville's mindset is "How can anyone possibly attend our meeting and not want to join?"


3. Chapter presidents must be motivational leaders much like business CEOs.  They should lead by example at all times, and focus on making the meetings both fun and productive.  If the chapter president isn't hitting three or four Key Success Factors (referrals, visitors, 121s, and attendance) per month, how can they hold members accountable?  Fire up the group and make them proud to be part of the chapter!  Fun, enthusiasm, and excitement not only attract great new members, it restores BNI passion to the current membership.

Once you get your momentum going, you can accomplish any goal.  All incoming presidents and Leadership Teams: set a vision for your chapter and consider what legacy you want to leave behind.