BNI started in the mid 1980's in California. The founder Dr. Ivan Misner, is still the Chairman. The organization has grown throughout the last 20 plus years and now boasts chapters all over the world.

What is BNI all about?

When joining an existing chapter or starting one on your own, you'll want to keep two things in mind. One thing, you'll want to know who will be good referrals for the others in the chapter. And of curse you'll want to be constantly recruiting new people for membership.

On the average members are expected to pass at least one referral per week to other members. If you don't have a referral to pass and you bring a visitor to the meeting you'll still be in good standing. If you don't have a referral or bring a visitor, you are expected to give a testimonial about someone in the group you have had professional dealings with.

How can you benefit from membership?

The more referrals you pass, the more you can expect to receive - the "givers gain" theory. Do you remember the last time you received a gift from someone over the holidays and didn't have one to give back to the giver? Same concept.

You'll want to always be bringing in new members. The strength of the chapter is the size because you will lose some members on a continuous basis. And don't forget, the more members, the more referrals.

Summation

BNI is a very well structured and worthwhile organization. Some chapters have difficulty because of an attitude of strict adherence to the bylaws, others benefit from them. The one member per profession can certainly be considered a strength of the organization.

A few things you might want to keep in mind. BNI does not allow its members to join other networking groups with the structure of one person representing each profession. And also, even though BNI is a large MLM organization, its frowned upon to represent an MLM or similar business opportunity, only its products.