I know, I know, I know...we are not a social organization. The business of BNI is business.
But small groups that are cohesive tend to be more productive than those that are not. One way to build cohesiveness is to share social activities with members of your group.
We joke around and call them DAD's, an acronym that stands for "drink-after-drink" and often carries a negative connotation. But the truth is that members in my most productive chapters find time to invest in EACH OTHER...as well as their friends, spouses, and contacts.
Julie Lohman, the current Vice President of the Belleville chapter, sums it up this way: “No one bothered to mention that it is truly the personal relationships in our chapter that make us strong. Regardless of personality differences, there is not one person in our chapter that I couldn't sit down and have dinner with and thoroughly enjoy myself. We might not have a social agenda at our meeting, but we are a social organization as well as a business referral group.”
Members of the Business Builders Central chapter might agree. These pictures show one of their most recent DAD's, with members enjoying the company of other members in a much more relaxed and informal setting. According to Vice President Tina Marie Jung, scheduling and attending DAD's has not only helped recruit new members, but it has also pushed current members to budget time for networking activities that raise everyone's comfort level for doing business with each other.
"You talk about things that don't come out in a BNI meeting," said Tina Marie. "We talk so much in BNI about how it TAKES time to build relationshhips, but it is easy to forget that we have to MAKE time for relationships to deepen. Our chapter is stronger because of activities like these."
Some chapters have gone so far as to rename the acronym to mean "Deal-after-Deal," which tells you two things: 1) Drinks are optional, and 2) Business is being done.
What does your chapter do to promote goodwill among the members?
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