Across the Globe

Sweden
BNI Borås Sweden


Borås, the Swedish home of business and trading, lies near the west coast of Sweden. It has long been overshadowed by Sweden's second biggest city, Gothenburg. But it has become more well-known over the last two years. In fact, the local soccer team is the Swedish champions. The city of 100,000 also has two BNI chapters. A third BNI chapter is in the works.

Borås is known throughout Sweden as "Knalle" town; the ability to do business and get the "best deal" is said to lie in the blood of the local inhabitants. BNI Borås now boasts two thriving teams. BNI Grand Borås was first, followed by BNI Knallen (www.bni-knallen.se). In total, there are nearly 50 members, including a lawyer from New York!

The driving force behind the establishment and growth of BNI in Borås has been Eva Bergsten. After living six years in Los Angeles, Eva (who is now the regional director) and her family returned to Sweden to settle in Borås. Another key player in the success of BNI Knallen is Bengt (Bengan) Larsson. Bengt received his black badge from Dr Ivan Misner during his visit to Gothenburg in April. Another black badge recipient, Anna-Karin Nilsson, is a founder member of the first BNI team in Borås, BNI Grand. She is a full-fledged BNI Assistant Director, and is about to set up a new BNI team in the area.

Submitted by Linda Kennedy Thorstensson, Member Support Services, BNI Sweden, Ambassador BNI Knallen


United Kingdom
"What BNI Means" Video

Adam Etheridge of Aspect Film and Video, a member from the Compton Chapter in Bristol, created a video featuring chapter members' testimonials of what BNI membership has meant for their businesses.

It was originally created for a Members' Day celebration in their region. It was such a hit that it's now used at information meetings all across the UK. It's also on the website.

Check out the video here.


Australia
Golden Mic for Gold Chapter!

Geoff Golding with recent winner, financial planner Jason Abrahams

Geoff Golding, President of BNI Gold City Chapter in Haberfield, wanted to ramp up the quality of 60-second infomercials by presenting a perpetual prize for the best presentation in the chapter. Being a business mentor, he wanted a prize the winner could brag about at their place of work, show to customers, and promote BNI with.

He and his wife Carol (also a business mentor with Olympic City Chapter) racked their brains for a couple of weeks, and found the answer in a $2 shop when they came across the "Golden Microphone."

As a result of the microphone being passed around to the best presenter for the week, visitors seem to remember the BNI chapter!




Taiwan
'100,000' Celebration in Taiwan

During the first week of August, normal meetings were set aside as the founding members gathered for the first regional BNI event on the island. Organized as a "Big Breakfast" to celebrate 100,000 members worldwide, awards were presented to recognize exceptional performances from the past year.

Guo Yu Zhi has been a member for only four months, yet it is just one member short of joining the Gold Club. Director Andrew Hall commented, "To sponsor five new members in just a few months is an incredible achievement." Little wonder that his chapter, Evergreen, also took the award for largest chapter on the island.

Taiwan Director Jihong Hall summed up the day: "It was exciting to have all of our members in the same room at the same time. Members' success stories brought home just how far we have come in our first year."

Submitted by Andrew and Jihong Hall, National Directors, BNI Taiwan, Hong Kong & China


Philippines
Genesis Chapter Visitors Day

On August 20, BNI Philippines's founding chapter BNI Genesis held its first Visitors Day since its kick-off in January. It was a standing-room turnout with as many as 100 business owners at MAX's restaurant in Quezon City.

Christopher Tan, President of BNI Genesis, led the entire meeting. Three event coordinators, Dr Lilian, Mark, and Pam, put the event together. Mr Sim Chow Boon, National Director of BNI Singapore and Philippines, was in attendance as well. Ms Edlynn Ng, Regional Director of BNI Philippines, gave an inspiring presentation to guests on how BNI can be a powerful tool for business.

Attendees were awed by the event and had only compliments to offer. At the end of the meeting, several applications to join BNI Genesis were received. The results prove that business people need referrals—and BNI is the way to generate the referrals for them.

Submitted by Sim Chow Boon, BNI National Director, Singapore and Philippines


Canada
Masters of Sales

After viewing the Masters of Sales video, I had an idea: Directors can take a laptop to BNI meetings and play the video at the chapter resource table, much like one would see at a trade show. They could mention a tip from the book in their infomercial, that they have copies available, and that an ideal referral would be a sales manager looking for a good reward or gift for their sales team.

To see the Masters of Sales video, go to http://www.mastersbooks.com/.

Submitted by Darrell Ross, Executive Director, BNI British Columbia, Canada
www.bnibc.ca


United States
Referring Their Way Down Route 66

Penny Head standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.

Hazel Walker, Central Indiana Executive Director, and Penny Head, the region's administrative assistant, recently completed a one-month road trip on Route 66, the legendary highway that runs from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Along the way, both women had numerous opportunities to use their networking skills. They were able to refer a businessman who was visiting Tulsa and needed to hire staff in New Orleans to Louisiana Executive Director Tim Paulin. They also referred numerous business owners to local BNI chapter meetings in regions they passed through. Hazel and Penny even took some time out to stop by and see Gayle Williams, New Mexico Executive Director.

To read more about their adventures, visit their blog at www.bni-indiana.com, and click on the car at the top of the page.



United States
Chapter Learning Library: Your Value-Added Chapter Membership Benefit

One evening, after attending an Advanced MSP Training Session, four of our chapter members brainstormed ideas to advance the educational process in our growing Central Florida Chapter. Our small, informal group included an accountant, financial planner, sales trainer, and banker.

What about starting a Learning Library exclusively for our chapter members? As our 'idea' took flight, we recognized several challenges: topic & title selection, book inventories, staffing, library rules, and distribution.

Topic & Title Selection: We chose books about small business-focused topics, including networking, selling, marketing, accounting, management and customer service. Our inaugural series included Dr. Misner's networking series; Zig Zigler's and Tom Hopkins' sales classics; best sellers by John & Sarah Edwards, Neil Rackham, Dale Carnegie, Frank Bettger, Kevin McCarthy, Brian Tracy and other authors. Now, we even include books listed on the Wall Street Journal Bestseller List.

Book Inventories: We started with 80 'loaner books' from the personal libraries of our four founding fathers. Later, we replaced these loaners with used books purchased from online book auctions, at a fraction of their original selling price.

Staffing: Two people oversee and manage our Learning Library.

Library Rules: Members, in good standing, can check out one book per month. We collect a $5.00 deposit for each title which is returned when the book is returned to us in the original 'checked-out' condition. We accept donations to purchase new and additional titles.

Distribution: A flyer, listing all book titles, authors' names and our KISS rules is made available, weekly, at our meetings and, one book is featured by our Educational Coordinator during one of his monthly presentations. We even include our Learning Library featured titles list in our Guest Information Kits.

How are we doing? One year later, our Learning Library has 90-110 titles and, in the words of one of our regular Learning Library patrons, "Not only do I get (and give, too) great referrals at our meetings but I sharpen my networking & selling skills, too. What a thoughtful service for our members."

Typically, we average less than 10 checkouts monthly, which now include books as well as audio & video training cassettes.

If you would like to start your own chapter's Learning Library, e-mail Gordie at eurekaman43@hotmail.com to request an e-mail copy of the Professional Connections' flyer, listing current titles.

Submitted by Gordie Allen, Professional Connections, a 2006 Founder's Award Chapter


United States
Bay Area Chapter's Recruitment Contest

Bay Area Chapter members serve breakfast to the winning team

The Bay Area Chapter in Mobile, Alabama, held a contest to build membership. "We divided the chapter into two teams, and the teams would earn points for bringing qualified visitors or visitors who became members during the contest," Fred Sievers, president of the chapter, said. "The team that had the fewest points at the end of the contest had to cook breakfast for the winning team."

Sievers, who enjoys his role as president, went on to say, "As you can see, my team lost, and we had to serve breakfast to everyone else. It was all in good fun, and a great time was had by all. In the end, I think we ended up adding two to three new members because of the contest."

Submitted by Melanie Thornton, BNI, Southwest Alabama & Northwest Florida


United States
Guilty of Creativity

Thursday morning and it's just another BNI meeting with another two 8-minute speakers, right? Not at BNI Miami Beach! When the Sports Chiropractor (Dr. Todd Narson) and Personal Injury Attorney (Judson Cohen) were scheduled to speak, they really spiced things up by presenting a mock trial. Other members helped by playing the roles of bailiff and judge. After all the grand entrances were made, court was in session.

Attorney Cohen's opening remarks led to a spirited line of questions for the witness, Dr. Todd Narson. Throughout his time "on the stand," Dr. Narson explained the role he played in helping the "patient in question" recover from the injury and some of the specific treatments and expected results. After Dr. Narson was excused from the stand, Attorney Cohen used the remaining time to make his closing statements in defense of the injured party to the jury/members.

The verdict was in: Both Narson and Cohen were clearly guilty of creativity!

Members received a refreshing and unique firsthand look at what these two do for people in real life. Plus, they were able to share their experience, education and expertise within the context of the courtroom setting as each was established as an expert.

Kudos to BNI Miami Beach for building on the structure of member presentations and offering something that made people sit up and take note. It was a huge hit and just one example of how this chapter continues to raise the BNI bar. I expect we'll be hearing more innovative ideas from this chapter very soon.

Submitted by Mavis Lamb, PR & Event Coordinator, BNI Miami-Dade


United States
Minnesota Gold Badges

The following members of BNI Minnesota have earned their Gold Badges:

Debby Ellering-Rosenburg of the Runestone Referral Chapter in Alexandria.
Linda Aasen of the Business Builders Chapter in Woodbury.
John Mack of Manitou Referrals.
Kimberley Bouzguenda of Fortune Builders.

Submitted by Nancy Giacomuzzi, Executive Director, BNI Minnesota