I was attending a meeting recently when a member arrived
and announced that they had to ‘shoot off early’, so would sit near the door.
I have to say that I was surprised that ‘early’ actually
meant the member concerned leaving at 8.00am.
Now there are many reasons why leaving your chapter
meeting early is not a great idea but those are not why I’m writing this
particular blog.
You see the reason I’m putting fingers (or in my case
finger) to keyboard is because of the upset that is bound to follow this early
departure. You see at some point in the future the member is going to discover
that they were marked as absent for having left the meeting early.
It may not be until they see their monthly Member Traffic
Lights, but at some point their absences will come up and it will cause upset,
as the member will think that they should have been marked as being present for
the meeting; after all they had been there for most of the meeting.
However, the BNI Policy is very clear on attendance. Policy
number (3) states: ‘The weekly meetings last for 90 minutes. Members need to
arrive on time and stay for the entire meeting.’
So, if you know that you are going to have to leave your
meeting early, rather than be the cause of a later upset (and put unnecessary
pressure on your vice-president), it is far better to arrange a good
substitute.
