I was invited to a chapter's "Visitor's Day" in late 2006. It was quite a drive to this chapter's meeting location, so I vasilated as to whether I should join this chapter. There had been 4 Realtors at the meeting that day, so my being hesitant cost me the slot -- someone jumped in ahead of me. That same day, I made the decision that I'd try to start a chapter, closer to my home. (After consulting with God, and the Exec Director for our State, I felt like I had the "GA" signal).
I knew of a few others business people whom I thought might be interested, and I followed up with other visitors whom I had met on that visitor's day. I wanted to see if they were going to join this other chapter (the longer distance one) or whether they might like to be in one a little closer. Both efforts quickly netted two interested parties, but only our original P&C fellow panned out (so he and I blazed the trail). We met a couple of times and stared across the table at each other. Not too exciting but you have to start somewhere!
Being the bright fellows we were, we knew that wasn't going to bring us much business, so I kicked it into high gear to continue to invite people. Fortunately, our Executive Director had the name of someone who wanted to join - a CFA, and he quickly joined. Then I got busy and found an accountant and a lawyer. (As a Realtor, you probably want to find people who you know you can work with and are friendly to you and your business. This is one of the reasons, IMO, that Realtors make good founding members - they already know a lot of different business people). Within a couple of months, we got to our core of 6.
Then, we had our Kick-Off meeting. Everyone worked hard to build their list to 20 to invite. Something like 100-120 letters were sent. I think we had 15-20 show up, and 6 or 7 of those joined -- it was a very satisfying effort and our members felt rewarded for their effort, but better still -- the new members had found an energized Chapter to join! We had pushed our numbers up to 13, and we've added a couple since then, so we're currently at 15. Not bad for our first 6 months effort.
We'll have a visitors day in late September, to try build to 25 members by the end of September, yet we continue to invite guests all the time. Would that we could just add one or two a month -- so we could have time to get to know each other -- yet we've made a decision that building it slowly and painfully is not the way to go.
One hint; the primary founder - the one with the burning desire to start a Chapter - must commit to being the primary recruiter. You cannot add a couple and then expect everyone else to do the work. No, you have to set goals for yourself (my current one is that the next person we add will be a Florist!), and then set your sights on finding that person. I call, then go out to the businesses, hand the owner/manager an invitation card, and try to meet them one on one. I want to invite a couple in the industry, but I think the face-to-face meeting is critical. People have to know that you're committed, and enthusiastic. Maybe there are other ways to get it done, but that's how I work it.
We hope to finish our first full year with 30 members. I'm 100% committed to reaching that goal. Might cost me some real estate business this year, but in the long run, I know it will pay off.
Hope this helps anyone who is planning to start a new BNI Chapter. Your mileage may vary, but that's how our group has gotten rolling. And now, we're large enough that others have some of the burn to invite members, too! Very exciting for this ol' boy to see that happening!
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