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- [00:00]
A
Sam.
- [00:40]
Welcome back to BNI in the Power of One. Thank you for joining me again today. Excited to be back and getting more recordings in. We are, we're back on our focus in the race to the first one to a thousand episodes. We'll see who wins but that's just a fun little thing. I, I do want to take a moment and thank Dr. Ivan Meisner for all that he's done. Obviously my entire life is tied to this organization, but able to be on the BNI podcast again that'll come out early next year. We had a good discussion around a topic that's been submitted a lot. So I took one question that I get a lot on this and brought it to that one around how to engage TIME members, how to re engage longtime members and he had some great insight on that as well. So we had more of a discussion. So just to have me on and to be able to co host that is a really humbling and so even though I'm helping create episodes in that, you know, race, he doesn't care about 2000. I don't want anybody to think I'm not extremely honored to do that. Also big news to share on on my end, I guess just because I am here. Super excited to announce that we are now also the franchisees for BNI Northwest Florida. We're super excited to be bringing this region on board in our organization and very grateful to my co executive director Karen Ellis who's staying on. We did purchase the majority share of it but she's amazing and has been a long time executive director, longtime friend. So I'm excited to be working with that region as well. I know on earlier podcasts Mike and I had talked about just kind of craziness and things to share. That is one update more to come. There's, there's more things happening but that has been a big piece of what's been going on and a little bit of the delays in the recording and, and all of that. So you know, I've been hinting at it and been talking about yes, we've been busy, that's why we haven't been recording. I, I'll keep you guys abreast of that. So very excited to bring on that fourth BNI franchise to our team and to be able to get involved in the panhandle of Florida. So with that we are back with Questions submitted@bnipowerofone.com As always, if you have any questions, topics, etc, go to bnipowerofone.com leave them there. I try to get to all of them or as many of them. A lot of them get repeated. So I try to bounce around a little bit just so that we're not kind of repeating topics etc. So if you have submitted one and I kind of hammered that topic already in an early one I will get to use it might just be a little bit more delayed so it doesn't get super boring for everybody. Today's as a lot of them have been and can that's perfectly fine again to do. Was asked to be kept anonymous, which is again perfectly fine. So we will do that. So here it comes. Says hello asking to be anonymous because it's already a heated topic. Don't want to stir anything else up. Perfectly fine. Can you clarify when decisions should be voted on by the full chapter versus by the leadership team or the executive leadership team? Our president has emphasized that the executive team handles all major votes, but I believe every member deserves to have their input considered, especially on decisions that directly impact the chapter as a whole. For example, when it comes to changing our meeting venue or who has the final say, we were told this decision falls solely under executive leadership. However, since a venue affects all members, considering factors like location, cost and consistency in scheduling, it seems like something that should involve broader chapter input. Could you please clarify how these decisions are meant to be handled according to BNI policy or best practice? So yes, great question. And you kind of answered a little bit on how it should be handled inside the question because it is two part.
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Number one, there is no B and I policy on any of this. So it really is best practices. And like most other large committees or boards or et cetera, you're going to want to kind of follow similar patterns. Chapter votes are very, very difficult. Okay, because.
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There'S a lot of cooks in the kitchen and there's a lot of opinions. And when you're talking about big things like moving a meeting venue, you will not please everybody. It's just frankly, probably impossible to do.
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So. The ultimate decision should be made by the leadership team. And when I say the leadership team, I would encourage that to be the entire leadership team because it gives you a bigger.
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Segment of the chapter than just three people. Okay, so for those who might be executive leadership, I'm taking as president, vice president, secretary, treasurer of the chapter. Leadership teams would include membership committees, education coordinator, visitor, host, etc. So typical average chapter, about 14 people versus three.
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Either way, whatever the chapter kind of does on that, you you an entire chapter vote is is going to be very difficult.
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And you would have to set Some kind of precedent on like, is it majority, is it simple majority? That kind of gets out of hand. However, any kind of change to the chapter that is impacting everybody.
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When, when I mean change, I don't mean like a policy change or something like that. I'll say, I'll talk about that in a second. But change like, hey, we're changing our meeting format. So we're going from like online to actually that one. We do chapter cheap venue. Let's just use your question. We're moving. We're going to move to this place. It might be a different town now, it might be a different cost, etc. Needs to have gathered chapter input. So the way the best practice is for the leadership team at a chapter meeting to explain we are looking to move venues. Here are the reasons why we might consider moving venues. We want. We need a bigger space. We need a more professional space. We need whatever the need is. We are looking at different options or we have come up with a different option.
- [07:24]
Ask for everybody's input to be shared. I would not do it at a meeting because that will get out of control real fast. But I would gather everybody's feedback via email and say, if you have an opinion on this, please email me. If I'm the president, let's just say by X date and time. So let's say my meeting, because my meetings were on Tuesday mornings. Be like, we are considering moving to this new location. Here's what the change would mean for us. Here's the good things. It's a bigger room, it's more professional, it's more parking, it's more centrally located, blah, blah, blah. Here's the potential downsides. It could cost more or will cost more.
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If you have a strong opinion on this or feeling either way, we want to hear from you, please email me by the end of the day Friday.
- [08:21]
Your thoughts and opinions. Because they do matter in our discussion as a leadership team. And then as a leadership team, I would take all of those opinions and discuss them as that group again, whether it's the top three or the rest of the leadership team.
- [08:40]
The leadership team is tasked with making the decision that is the best for the chapter, not any individual. Okay, what is going to be the best move for this chapter going forward? So I've seen chapters, they want to move to a bigger, more professional location, but that means the rent is going to go up, you know, 10 bucks a month per member or whatever the number is. And understandably there's members who don't want to pay anymore for Rent, you know, I mean, I don't want to pay an extra $10 a month for this. Completely get it. But it's the right move for the chapter as a whole. Because your meeting location is highly important. It plays a massive role in the success of the chapter. It's often overlooked how important it is. It sets the entire environment, the entire experience that your members and your visitors are having. Bigger, more professional is vitally important than cheaper.
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But there are going to be people who don't want to pay more. And so you want to gather that and see. Okay, like, did. Did you know, did everybody in the chapter just say they don't want to pay more? Okay, well, then that's probably not going to be the best move for us. But because it's going to upset everybody. Where there's some concerns about that. Sure. Where there's some who are in favor because of this. Sure. And they weigh all of that feedback and make the decision they feel is best for the chapter. Does that mean you're going to love every decision they make? Probably not. But that that's part of the dynamic of a group meeting. Format changes. So here in our regions, when we've had chapters, and frankly, we have. It's rare now, obviously, but we still have sometimes where a chapter might be hybrid and they want to go fully live, or they're fully live and they want to go to a hybrid meeting format. That's a fundamental change, that one. We collect, we hold the vote. I don't even let the leadership team on the vote. I personally hold the vote.
- [10:46]
To get the entire opinion of every single member. But we require a certain percentage of approval. So we tell them you need 65% approval, not 50, 51%. I want more than a simple majority that say they want to make this move. And then, and only then will we let the chapter make that kind of fundamental change. Because that's even a bigger change than meeting venue. Right. When we're talking about going from hybrid, which is live once a month, online the rest of the month to weekly live, that's a significantly bigger change than, hey, we move venues. And so. And that one is even more of a personal opinion than, like the venue and how much it might be, etc. So that can get even more heated or it can be misled. Like when, unfortunately, during the COVID times and coming out of COVID we had chapters that were chapter leaders who are really trying to push the chapter in the format that they wanted, but the majority of the chapter didn't want. And so that's why we control the vote. So that's a different thing. What BNI does not get involved in is your meeting location. We have to approve it. We have to be like, yeah, this is fine, but we don't get involved in your meeting location. We're not involved in your rent for meeting locations. We don't get to have anything to do with your chapter checking account. So we have nothing to do with, you know, how much the chapter might decide each member needs to pay monthly, quarterly, annually, whatever in chapter dues. We don't get involved in any of that. So that has led for the chapter to make the decision and we entrust the leadership team to make the right decision. Best practices, gather everybody's feedback, then as a team, make the right vote. That's the best practice. There things like, hey, we're going to start setting certain expectations of members. So like a chapter might decide we have an expectation that every member is going to be in the green.
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And or every member is going to go through member success program training again this year or every so many lates equals an absence or any kind of those things that is just decided as a leadership team. And there again, under the guise of what is in the what is best for the chapter as a whole, and there's no like really chapter discussion around it. What best practice is, is let's just use the power of one. For example. All right, we have an expectation of everybody's going to be in the green now that we've decided that we do education on, so your education coordinator on why that's important and ongoing education on how to achieve it. You also don't go from like, all right, everybody's going to be in the green next month. It's everybody's going to be in the green six months from now. So you give plenty of leeway, that kind of stuff. Same thing if you're going to do a hey, every two late sequels, something, whatever, you announce it, but you educate on it on why this is important and how to avoid it and blah, blah, blah, and you set that expectation moving forward. Those things not up for chapter discussion, those things again, too many cooks in the kitchen. Chapter meetings will get out of hand. So I hope I'm, I'm rambling a little bit, but I hope I'm kind of giving you the ideas. Yes. If the chapter's moving location and it's going to affect every member in the chapter, the leadership team should be gathering feedback and input before making the decision. They shouldn't just be blindly deciding on their own that they're going to do it. Now again, they should do the, they can do the research, they can find a venue, they can find all that. And then again propose. This is what we're looking at now. We need your feedback before we make a final decision. Gather that feedback. Then if members don't email, well, then we're assuming consent. Right? If they don't give the feedback, okay, if people give the feedback and they're like, hell no, I don't want to move, but there's only like one or two out of 30 or 20 or whatever. Awesome. You know, as a leader, they should talk to them and say, listen, I appreciate your feedback. I understand where you're coming from. However, the, the, you know where you are moving in this direction, most people feel like it is the right fit. This is why we think it's the right fit. And you know, you explain it. But yeah, you can't do a huge chapter vote on it. You definitely don't want full chapter discussions at the meeting on it because you don't have enough time to do that anyways. And it just pulls away from everything so everything doesn't have to happen at a B and I meeting. The right leader should not be blindly making decisions on their own because it's what they want and just telling you too bad it's my decision or our decision. They should be getting the feedback from people, but with that feedback, they should be making the decision that's best for the chapter, not best for them individually, not best for any one individual in the chapter. Right. Like things again, like the late equals absence stuff.
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That might be the right thing for your chapter to do. It would be wrong for you to not do it because there's one member who's always late. But we love them, right? So you got to do what's best for the group, not what's best for anyone individual, but each person's individual opinion should be factored in when making that decision. So I hope that helps. And as always, I thank you for submitting the question. And we've got a lot in there, so we'll continue to do these but continue to submit yours. Don't hesitate, don't wait. I really appreciate if you're finding value, leave a review, share it. That'd be awesome. Subscribe to it so you never miss one, but share it with another member. If we can get more people on board listening, we can impact more. That's all that matters to me. Appreciate you all. Have a great day.
- [16:53]
Sam.