I’ll see you at the match…

Imagine the scene the Real Madrid team are getting off the team coach, having just beaten Barcelona 4 – 0, Cristiano Ronaldo having scored a hat-trick turns to his team mates and says, “I’ll see you at the match next week”, smiles and walks away.

 Now of course this would never happen, even for the best player in the world (some say second best), because he would report for training along with the rest of the team the next day. He may be the best, done it all before, scored more goals than any other player, won more awards, but like every other member of the team he will attend training. I’ve also read that often he is the first player to arrive and the last to leave.

So why does he put in all of this effort when he is already one of the very best? I’m sure there are many reasons but three instantly come to mind. He wants to stay one of the very best, he is part of a team and he is a leader. Thought of a fourth. He wants his name to be the first on the team sheet for every game.

Now what has Cristiano Ronaldo got to do with BNI you are probably thinking?

Well that’s easy!

Very soon the new team to run your chapter will be picked and after that team training will be held.

Over the years I’ve heard many excuses for not attending this training, with the most common reason being ‘I’ve done it before.’ Well don’t you think Cristiano Ronaldo has been to training before?

However good a member you are, however many times you have done the training before, you will always learn something. And even if you don’t you will be meeting new people (networking), but even more important than that is that you are part of a team and a team works best when they train together.

I said earlier that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to be the first name on the team sheet. Have you ever wondered what it says about you if you aren’t asked to be part of your chapter team? I know members that breathe a sigh of relief when they aren’t asked but what they don’t consider is that maybe they weren’t thought good enough to help run their chapter.

So, teams are currently being put together and I hope that your name is on the ‘Team Sheet’ and that you already have your chapter training date in your diary just in case.

I’ve not got a referral yet!

It’s not something you want to ever hear from a member, unless of course they have only been a member for few weeks, but I have to say that I was stunned this week when I heard the words.

You see I was visiting a chapter and sitting in on the Visitor Orientation. So was one of the substitutes that day, and it was the substitute who chipped in with ‘Well, I’ve not got a referral yet’.

It soon became clear that out of the five people sitting around the table only one was a true visitor. There were two ‘visitors’ who had been a number of times before and were never going to apply to join (I asked them), and two substitutes, one an ex-member, and one, the person without a referral, who subbed so often that they were in effect getting free membership.

There are a couple of important lessons that can be learnt here:

1) A visitor may attend a meeting up to two times but obviously if it is clear that they are not going to apply on their first visit then there is no second visit.

Personally I don’t have a problem with a visitor attending for a third time as long as they are coming with a completed application form.

But have you ever wondered why we have this policy? There are in fact a number of reasons and two that are key, which would have avoided the situation at Visitor Orientation, are first that they are not going to see or hear anything different the third or fourth time but can be a negative influence and second, are most likely only attending in the hope of getting some business. Neither of these things benefit the chapter or its members.

2) Likewise the Substitutes. A substitute really shouldn’t come to a meeting more than twice and certainly not more than twice within a six month period. And to be attending so regularly that they expect referrals is a definite sign that something is very wrong.

Again I can see why you might think differently about this; in fact in my own chapter we had a police officer who came along a few times for a member.

But there were a couple of important factors here which you could argue make it different. He didn’t become the ‘chapter's sub’ and also he didn’t have his own business to promote.

A substitute who is eligible to apply (and doesn’t) and attends so often that they are getting, in effect, free membership (not even paying for their own breakfast), is totally different and again of little benefit to the chapter and again can be a negative influence, as this one was.

Substitutes on occasion can be hard to find but if you put in the effort to find them you will see the rewards and your chapter will be the better for it.

This blog might help you - http://bnigivers.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/death-and-taxes-only-certainties.html