In a recent BNI Education Slot, Darren Jamieson of BNI Chester delivered a light-hearted but firm reminder to members about one of BNI’s most important rules of etiquette — don’t poach visitors from other chapters.
Darren began with a tongue-in-cheek roleplay, showing exactly how not to behave when substituting at another chapter: greeting a visitor and then trying to convince them to join your own group instead. While funny, the message was serious.
He explained that every visitor in a BNI room represents someone’s effort. Members work hard to invite those guests, and encouraging them to join elsewhere undermines that work. He compared the situation to football clubs, where larger teams like Liverpool buy players from smaller clubs like Southampton. In BNI terms, that behaviour turns small chapters into “feeder groups” — something no region wants.
Darren went on to clarify that visiting and substituting are both encouraged within BNI, as they promote collaboration and wider networking. What’s not acceptable is trying to recruit visitors from another group, whether through charm or pressure.
He emphasised that while BNI Chester doesn’t have this issue, some smaller chapters in the region have raised concerns. The message is therefore being shared across the area to ensure all groups understand the importance of respect and balance.
Darren closed by reinforcing the collective goal: for every chapter to grow and flourish. When each group succeeds, everyone benefits through stronger business networks and greater financial success.
This session summed it up perfectly — BNI is about cooperation, not competition.
Full Transcript
[0:00]
Tell you what, why don’t you come to my group next week? It’s bigger. It’s a better venue. It’s got a better breakfast. Yeah. Come along to mine next week. Don’t join here. Come to mine.
[0:20]
We had a sort of leadership teamy meeting kind of thing yesterday for the BNI regions, and one of the things that came up was that we needed to do an education slot on this. It’s not really a problem in Chester BNI, but it is for some other chapters.
[0:36]
So in terms of the local region, for those that haven’t been to BNI before, there are lots of different BNIs in the region of which we are one. We’re Chester. We’re 29 members. So there’s a lot more than 29 people around the room as you can see here.
[0:50]
There’s BNI Roman, which is 31 or 32 members. All right, it’s not a competition. Thirty-one, thirty-two members. There are some chapters that are below 20. I think the smallest chapter in our region is 10, 11, 12, something like that.
[1:08]
It’s kind of like football teams. Any football fans in the room? There’s one there. Brilliant. But you’re Tranmere — it’s not really a football team.
[1:19]
Football teams like Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea — big clubs — buy players from smaller clubs. Southampton have often been called Liverpool’s feeder club because we keep buying their players.
[1:31]
If you’re at Southampton, you’re going to go to Liverpool. If you’re at Brighton, you’re going to go to Chelsea. That’s how it happens. And the thing we don’t want to happen in BNI is to have feeder chapters because that’s not good.
[1:44]
Now, as a BNI member, for our visitors, if you were to join us today, for example, you would be able to go to other BNI chapters and visit them as well. You can go along and substitute for somebody.
[1:56]
We have quite a few members from other chapters in the room today who are substituting for members who can’t be here. That’s how it works. The substitute programme doesn’t cost them anything to come along because they’re going to read somebody else’s 60 seconds.
[2:07]
They get to network with everybody, promote their business, and you’re encouraged to do that. That’s great. But the one thing you don’t want to do — and the one thing we can’t have — is that when you go to another chapter and see a visitor you’ve not met before, and you go:
[2:19]
“Let’s see visitor. You all right? Hello. Do you like this? It’s nice. Yeah. It’s all right, is it? Yeah. Absolutely. Tell you what, why don’t you come to my group next week? It’s bigger. It’s a better venue. It’s got a better breakfast. Come along to mine next week. Don’t join here. Come to mine. It’s much better.”
[2:40]
We on? Yeah. Give me some skin, bro. There we go. Thanks.
[2:43]
We can’t have that because effectively you’re going in and poaching visitors. Someone’s worked hard to get a visitor in the room, and if another member from another chapter comes in and steals that visitor — either by luring them seductively like I just did there, or by chucking a bag over their head and bundling them into a van — that can’t happen.
[3:05]
While it’s not a problem for us, it is a problem for smaller groups because they see their potential members getting poached by a bigger room.
[3:14]
That’s something all of the chapters in the region are going to be covering in education slots to make sure it doesn’t happen, because we want every chapter to grow, to flourish, and to reach 40-plus members so everyone across the region is earning well and doing great.
[3:30]
Is that okay? Perfect. Thank you very much.
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