I wanted to drop by and express my sincere thanks to each of you for allowing me to be President of our excellent chapter of LeTip.  I hope to everything I possibly can to make our meeting even more exciting, more informative, and most importantly, help our chapter GROW.

I went to one of the Salem LeTip chapters last week and was thoroughly fascinated and completely awed by this group of nearly 50 members!  73 tips worth $12,600 were exchange in that week alone!  Plus, there were 7 … count’em 7 guests!  How exciting is THAT?

I want our chapter to have those same opportunities.  And I will need all of your help to get us there.

Creating excitement in a business networking meeting is a challenge.  Not because we don’t get excited about stuff, but we have to keep our purpose in mind … sharing tips, sharing information, growing our businesses.

When you are the GREETER please remember your duties not only include greeting everyone who attends, but to ensure visitors sign the guest book and get a name tag, AND to point folks in the direction of the showboater’s table.

When you are a SHOWBOATER please remember this is your time to shine!  You have an 8′ long table to create a display that not only promotes your business but informs us about it, gets us excited by it.  Be certain you have some swag and information items for us to take to our clients and associates.  I know it can be a pain in the butt to drag a bunch of stuff to the meeting, but how can we get excited by waving a dollar bill as your display?  Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow chapter members to help you come up with ideas and displays.

As a SPEAKER you have our attention for over 10 minutes.  Use that time effectively by having a GREAT presentation planned.  Work in some humor or trivia about your business … give us some selling techniques so we completely understand how we can pitch your business to our contacts.  Also, bring us some materials we can share with those contacts … create a “sales” packet with a dozen cards, a dozen brochures, some swag and give each of us one to take with us.

TIP: If you do bring materials for us be certain to distribute them prior to the start of the meeting or hand them out after the meeting ends; otherwise, if you hand them out during your speech, we’ll be opening packs, brochures, and fiddling with the materials instead of paying attention to YOU (Its human nature.)  … And, you want our attention on you, don’t you?

These recommendations will be even more important as we grow because there will be TWO Greeters, TWO Showboaters, and TWO Speakers during every meeting!  LeTip Bylaws, Article VIII, Section 1, final two sentences …  “Chapters over 20 members will have two showboaters, two greeters, and two speakers.  Chapters that grow past fifty members will have three showboaters, three greeters, and three speakers.”