FAQ'S
We believe that our networking group will only be a benefit to its members if we are not competing against other networking groups. It is our group’s decision that if you are member of BNI, Master Networks, or another group that
The group will meet on the first and third Friday of each month from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. If we need to adjust the meetings due to a holiday this will be decided as a group. To respect everyone’s time our group will hold to a strict one-hour meeting.
Attendance is critical in the success of a high functioning networking group. Consistent attendance creates the necessary culture of valuing your partner’s time and energy. This is key in building trust and mutual respect for all the group’s members. Building that trust is essential in achieving the goal of growing everyone’s businesses through passed referrals. Our expectations are outlined below.
- Attendance to the group is acceptable via in person or via the zoom link.
- Another individual outside of the group may represent you at a meeting. They are expected to represent you/your business and not themselves. You will need to be responsible for providing them your “ask” for the meeting.
- Please let the leadership team know in advance if you are not able to attend or have someone represent you. “No call, no shows” will not be taken well.
- After two missed meetings, the leadership team will discuss if we should continue the relationship of the group member. This decision will be based on length of relationship, how many referrals have they given to group members, is this a one-time thing or is this habitual, etc.
- The President will reach out to you to let you know the outcome of the meeting.
Visitors will be welcome to attend two meetings with no obligation. After that, the expectation is that if someone wishes to continue coming to our meetings then they will need to go through the onboarding process to officially join the group.
If you wish to join our group as a new member you will be asked to follow our onboarding process.
Step 1: Sign a document stating that you have read our bylaws and agree to abide by them.
Step 2: Pay your annual dues into the group’s fund within the next 2 scheduled meetings.
Step 3: Your first meeting after being accepted into the group you will be expected to present yourself and your business. This will be your opportunity to really highlight who you are, what you do, and who your ideal client is so we can help you grow your business.
A large fee should not be required to participate in a networking group nor should one be necessary to make someone feel like they have “skin in the game.” However, there are minor costs that come up when running this group. Every group member will contribute $50 cash per year. These funds will pay for the website, social outings, etc.
The Community Coordinator will be responsible for collecting and tracking the use of these funds and report any updates at each meeting. It is very important to us that we are intentional about keeping our costs as low as possible.
The $50 contribution will be due for existing members by February 1st to align with the transition of the new leadership team. We will allow a 30-day grace period. After that you will receive one 15-day warning from the Community Coordinator. If your payment is not received by the next meeting following that email you will be asked to leave until that is received.
For new members: If you join the group between January 1st and June 30th you will pay the full $50. If you join the group between July 1st and December 31st you will pay $25. In either case, the full $50 will be due again each subsequent year you are a member.
Our current leadership structure is a President, Secretary, Community Coordinator, and a Technology Coordinator. The responsibilities of each position are as follows:
President:
Our president is responsible for leading meetings and keeping them on topic and on time. We value everyone’s time and try very hard to keep our meetings to an hour.
The president will also be responsible for contacting any members who we are parting ways with for attendance or any other reason, and for taking the lead to resolve any grievance that a group member has.
Secretary:
Our secretary role will be responsible for preparing the agenda document for each meeting, sending out both meeting reminders and meeting Zoom links, and for updating our attendance tracker.
Community Coordinator:
Our community coordinator will be responsible for managing the finances of the group. They will take the lead in collecting the $50 from each group member and will track all transactions of the use of the group’s funds.
The community coordinator will be responsible for setting up two social events for our group to attend each year. By setting up at least two such events, our hope is that every member of the group can attend at least one, if not both. Attendance is not mandatory at these events but strongly encouraged. The only way you will see referrals being passed through networking is if you are making a conscious effort to further your relationship with the members of the group.
Technology Coordinator:
Our Technology coordinator will be responsible for managing the website for the group. They will be sure that all contact data is updated in a timely manner if members have any changes.
They will also keep track of the blogging responsibilities of the group. Their role will be to set the schedule of who is to blog and when, sending email reminders as necessary to ensure the blog stays active.
We will elect new leadership every year with the voting process starting on January 1st. A third party will be selected by the group to tally the votes. Votes will be emailed to the approved third party. Final votes will be tallied and counted by the end of January with the new leadership team starting February 1st of the new year.
If any member has a grievance that they wish to be addressed, it will be their responsibility to contact the group President. The president will then investigate the issue and bring it to the leadership team to discuss a resolution. The leadership team will be expected to come to a resolution within 30 days of the grievance being submitted.
Attendance will be recorded after each meeting by the Technology Coordinator.
If you invite a guest and that guest attends a meeting it is your responsibility to mark yourself as having a guest on our tracking sheet.
If a group member takes the time to have a one on one meeting with another group member, each member will be responsible for making sure that they receive credit for taking that time to further that relationship.
If you receive a referral from another group member it is the responsibility of the member who received the referral to report that referral from another member.
Anyone in the group is free to use our website blog if they wish at any time.
We want to make sure that our blog stays active. To that extent there will be an assigned schedule where each group member will be expected to update the blog when it is their turn. This assignment can be found on our tracking sheets. It will be each member’s responsibility to find out when they are expected to blog and do so.
All updates to the bylaws will be submitted in writing to the President. The update will be voted upon during the next meeting. If 75% of the group approves the change, we will then update the bylaws with the change taking effect immediately.
Our group will always only have one individual per profession. Each member will only be allowed to represent one profession. If your profession ever changes you will need to reapply to the group through our application and onboarding process.
We believe that our networking group will only be a benefit to its members if we are not competing against other networking groups. It is our group’s decision that if you are member of BNI, Master Networks, or another group that operates with a one profession rule you will not be allowed into this group. We feel that would create a conflict of interest and create unnecessary competition.
The group will meet on the first and third Friday of each month from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. If we need to adjust the meetings due to a holiday this will be decided as a group. To respect everyone’s time our group will hold to a strict one-hour meeting.
Attendance is critical in the success of a high functioning networking group. Consistent attendance creates the necessary culture of valuing your partner’s time and energy. This is key in building trust and mutual respect for all the group’s members. Building that trust is essential in achieving the goal of growing everyone’s businesses through passed referrals. Our expectations are outlined below.
- Attendance to the group is acceptable via in person or via the zoom link.
- Another individual outside of the group may represent you at a meeting. They are expected to represent you/your business and not themselves. You will need to be responsible for providing them your “ask” for the meeting.
- Please let the leadership team know in advance if you are not able to attend or have someone represent you. “No call, no shows” will not be taken well.
- After two missed meetings, the leadership team will discuss if we should continue the relationship of the group member. This decision will be based on length of relationship, how many referrals have they given to group members, is this a one-time thing or is this habitual, etc.
- The President will reach out to you to let you know the outcome of the meeting.
Visitors will be welcome to attend two meetings with no obligation. After that, the expectation is that if someone wishes to continue coming to our meetings then they will need to go through the onboarding process to officially join the group.
If you wish to join our group as a new member you will be asked to follow our onboarding process.
Step 1: Sign a document stating that you have read our bylaws and agree to abide by them.
Step 2: Pay your annual dues into the group’s fund within the next 2 scheduled meetings.
Step 3: Your first meeting after being accepted into the group you will be expected to present yourself and your business. This will be your opportunity to really highlight who you are, what you do, and who your ideal client is so we can help you grow your business.
A large fee should not be required to participate in a networking group nor should one be necessary to make someone feel like they have “skin in the game.” However, there are minor costs that come up when running this group. Every group member will contribute $50 cash per year. These funds will pay for the website, social outings, etc.
The Community Coordinator will be responsible for collecting and tracking the use of these funds and report any updates at each meeting. It is very important to us that we are intentional about keeping our costs as low as possible.
The $50 contribution will be due for existing members by February 1st to align with the transition of the new leadership team. We will allow a 30-day grace period. After that you will receive one 15-day warning from the Community Coordinator. If your payment is not received by the next meeting following that email you will be asked to leave until that is received.
For new members: If you join the group between January 1st and June 30th you will pay the full $50. If you join the group between July 1st and December 31st you will pay $25. In either case, the full $50 will be due again each subsequent year you are a member.
Our current leadership structure is a President, Secretary, Community Coordinator, and a Technology Coordinator. The responsibilities of each position are as follows:
President:
Our president is responsible for leading meetings and keeping them on topic and on time. We value everyone’s time and try very hard to keep our meetings to an hour.
The president will also be responsible for contacting any members who we are parting ways with for attendance or any other reason, and for taking the lead to resolve any grievance that a group member has.
Secretary:
Our secretary role will be responsible for preparing the agenda document for each meeting, sending out both meeting reminders and meeting Zoom links, and for updating our attendance tracker.
Community Coordinator:
Our community coordinator will be responsible for managing the finances of the group. They will take the lead in collecting the $50 from each group member and will track all transactions of the use of the group’s funds.
The community coordinator will be responsible for setting up two social events for our group to attend each year. By setting up at least two such events, our hope is that every member of the group can attend at least one, if not both. Attendance is not mandatory at these events but strongly encouraged. The only way you will see referrals being passed through networking is if you are making a conscious effort to further your relationship with the members of the group.
Technology Coordinator:
Our Technology coordinator will be responsible for managing the website for the group. They will be sure that all contact data is updated in a timely manner if members have any changes.
They will also keep track of the blogging responsibilities of the group. Their role will be to set the schedule of who is to blog and when, sending email reminders as necessary to ensure the blog stays active.
We will elect new leadership every year with the voting process starting on January 1st. A third party will be selected by the group to tally the votes. Votes will be emailed to the approved third party. Final votes will be tallied and counted by the end of January with the new leadership team starting February 1st of the new year.
If any member has a grievance that they wish to be addressed, it will be their responsibility to contact the group President. The president will then investigate the issue and bring it to the leadership team to discuss a resolution. The leadership team will be expected to come to a resolution within 30 days of the grievance being submitted.
Attendance will be recorded after each meeting by the Technology Coordinator.
If you invite a guest and that guest attends a meeting it is your responsibility to mark yourself as having a guest on our tracking sheet.
If a group member takes the time to have a one on one meeting with another group member, each member will be responsible for making sure that they receive credit for taking that time to further that relationship.
If you receive a referral from another group member it is the responsibility of the member who received the referral to report that referral from another member.
Anyone in the group is free to use our website blog if they wish at any time.
We want to make sure that our blog stays active. To that extent there will be an assigned schedule where each group member will be expected to update the blog when it is their turn. This assignment can be found on our tracking sheets. It will be each member’s responsibility to find out when they are expected to blog and do so.
All updates to the bylaws will be submitted in writing to the President. The update will be voted upon during the next meeting. If 75% of the group approves the change, we will then update the bylaws with the change taking effect immediately.