BNI Leads group…yea or nay?

Joe - As a former BNI member, unfortunately, my experience was not a positive one.  It was early in my career (more than seven years ago) that I joined this group and after more than a year in the group, I had only received one referral that was a dud.

The biggest issue I had with that group was that almost all of the members were very new to their professions and they literally no little to no client database established.  Even though I passed on good referrals on a regular basis and was more than willing to give my fellow members a chance to prove themselves, none of them gave me the same courtesy.  Several of them were friendly with other LO's and would publicly (in other social events) give referrals to other people.

I eventually left that group and was asked to join another one and after visiting that group a few times, I discovered that most of the group had a very good relationship with the previous LO who had just left.  I never joined that group and over the years have been invited by a few other BNI groups to join their group and have declined all of them.

I'm not a big BNI fan but I most certainly see the benefit for those members who have experienced success with it.  If I were you, before joining the group, I would find out why the previous LO left.  That may tell you a lot.  Sorry for the long comment but you're doing the right thing by asking people for their experiences.