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What is the Education Slot?
As a BNI member you will be committed to continuing personal development in the skills of networking. You will have attended a New Member Orientation and should have benefited from three basic workshops on Networking, Referrals and Presentation. Your personal development is further facilitated each Wednesday at Chapter United with a three-minute educational slot. This is organised by the Education Co-ordinator, who arranges a rota of members to present educational topics. The Education Slot follows a proven structure:
Each topic is a "How to ......" topic to ensure that it adds directly to your armory of skills and knowledge. Each edslot topic gives simple, practical, easy-to-follow tips on a skill relevant to networking. The key points are summarised on one or two pages of a flip chart. There is a 'call to action', challenging members to focus their energies for just 20 minutes in the next week to apply immediately the new knowledge that they have acquired, ensuring they get maximum benefit. The information is reinforced with an over-sized bookmark distributed at the end of the edslot which summarises the key points. There is an edslot 'reality check' to see what successes have been achieved from previous topics.
Recent topics have included:
· How to find hidden assets
· How to solve any problem
· How to give and receive terrific testimonials
· How to steal the tricks of politicians to get a memorable marketing message
· How to be more confident
· How to pick a partner for marketing
What happens in the 10 minute Presentation?
Each week, one member will do an 'in-depth 10 minute presentation' about their business. Quite often, audio visual equipment, hand outs and props would be used within this presentation. At the end of the presentation, the other
members and visitors would have the opportunity to ask questions about the presentater's business.
What are the 60 second Presentations?
Each week, the members of the chapter give a 60 second presentation about their business and the type of referrals they are looking for. The 60 seconds would normally end with a 'memory hook' about the individuals business.
Visitors will be asked to do their own 60 seconds after the members have completed their presentations.
Can anyone join a chapter?
We only take one person per professional specialty. So if you are a residential real estate person and we already have one, we can refer you to another chapter, or allow you to open another chapter. Of course, if you are a commercial real estate person, you could be eligible to join this chapter.
How do you know new members are reputable?
The application asks for references and we have a membership committee that checks them. It's word of mouth, so before they even come to a meeting they have to have spoken to someone or been invited by someone in the group. Everyone has to have a sponsor, or one is assigned to them, and they interview them.
What if a member gets a referral and does poor work?
We have an ethics committee and it is imperative that anyone who gives a lead and finds out it was not satisfactorily
handled must report that to the membership committee, who will investigate.
What occupations benefit the most from networking?
It is not the occupation, it is the individual. The occupation can be anything. If you're focussed and you have a dream and you're willing to make a sacrifice, you are the person we want in the group.
Are members supposed to bring visitors?
You're encouraged to bring visitors for those occupations that are open, after the visitor has been pre-screened, if they're a viable candidate. It's pretty much a closed meeting except for potential members.
Do ethical rules for certain professions prohibit participation in BNI?
BNI understands the importance of the ethical concerns governing certain professions and acknowledges that rules can differ by location. As such, BNI therefore requires its members to uphold the rules of its profession so as not to violate the professional's ethical obligations. In the event that BNI's general rules could potentially violate a professional's ethical code, BNI's rules are superseded by the dictates of the professional's ethics' code. Significantly, a primary objective of BNI is to educate its membership in ways to market and grow business. It is BNI's intent to ensure that this is permitted.
If I specialize in a field within my profession, am I expected to be an expert in all aspects of my profession?
BNI understands that many professions are broad and that people often specialize within their profession. BNI does not expect, nor does it encourage, any professional to participate in an area in which the professional does not have expertise. On the contrary, BNI prohibits professionals from acting outside of the scope of their abilities.
My profession does not let me directly solicit business. Is BNI still right for me?
BNI's primary objective is to assist its members in ways to improve their business and to educate them concerning how they can effectively network. Business people get business when their expertise is known and others reach a comfort level with them. BNI provides a forum that allows members to meet other business peers who need to know effective and efficient business people.
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