r/bni

Without giving out too many details - our city has great potential for BNI. The city is small and most people prefer personal references for even the smallest of works. In less than 5 years, BNI grew to 1000 plus members in the city.

And then the franchise owner, who calls himself the “executive director (ED)” started becoming greedy. He increased the membership fees by almost double - one part goes to BNI office for standard membership fees, another part goes to ED’s company calling it “experience fees”.

There was a lot of backlash from members but his stand was if you want to stay you pay or you can leave. More than 600 members left. And since then, for past 6 years, the region has not gone above 400 members. Som really great support directors, training directors, and launch directors left because of unprofessional behaviour by their he ED. His singular goal seems to be to get more money - there is an increase of experience fees every year by 10%.

My question is - is there anything that a normal member can do in such a case? Does BNI global have any say in how a region’s membership experience is handled by the franchise owner?

I am leaving party/opinions out of the post. Do with that as you will.

I love BNI and feel like my chapter and the surrounding ones have been very good to me. I’ve even joined a smaller out of chapter group that is made up of a small amount of members a few nearby chapters. There is one person who I have been networking with, who is VERY vocally political. Each one on one or group meeting, they have made comments about Palestine, BLM, Trans and Gay people, and other similar topics. And their social media is a lot more vocal and clear on their beliefs.

Everytime I talk to them, it feels like I am being backed into having a political conversation, and that is NOT what I am trying to do when I network.

Outside of this, they are nice and successful, and have even referred me to others. I’m just not interested in hearing their political beliefs, and I don’t feel comfortable referring people to someone who’s going to share their political beliefs so openly.

How do I handle distancing myself from this member without creating unnecessary drama.