Champions SoCal BNI President's Weekly Letter

Woooooooooo, CHAMPIONS!

Adios, Au Revior, Sayanara, etc. Today was not goodbye...it was so long! Today marked the end of our term as a leadership team. We left the plane in great hands with Gary Lorge, Aric Gless, Kris Hansberger, et al! I have composed a brief recap of the last six months April 2011-September 2011 for your viewing pleasure.



I will remember fondly all of the Champions who served in this year's leadership term:

Vice President, Greg Beck-Greg has served in many positions but not VP until this year. When I was asked to be President, I told Lem Bucago...under one condition...that Greg will agree to be VP!

Secretary/Treasurer, Rosanne Grigsby and Joe Davis-Only one choice in my book...Rosanne! Thanks Joe for ably filling in when Rosanne was sick.

Membership Committee Chair, Aric Gless-accomplished the task with the skill and precision of an architect...oh yeah...he is an architect!

Mentor Chair, Steven Stakley-My personal mentor long before he held the position! Certain people just fit the role...Steven fits the role!

Education Coordinator, Jim Sando-WOW!

GRC, Michael Figueroa-Michael took over the position when Emily Davidson left the chapter. Michael learned by fire and performed brilliantly!

Visitor Host, Angelo Dionisiou-Angelo also took over lead visitor host when Tom Roberts left. Working with a president who was a former visitor host and a "glorified visitor host" this year is not easy. Mix in a commute from Carlsbad and a new baby and the task becomes extremely tough. Angelo set the bar this year with his effort!

Members at Large-Y'all are the best!

Congrats to Alex Ribble...number 31! Also thanks to Hema Dey of Premier Professionals...you know why!

A special thanks to Lem Bucago (great keynote on BNI Connect), our Director; Bernadette Lazzara, our ambassador, Lonie Misner-Feigerle, and Jeremy Ball from the San Gabriel Valley and Inland Empire Region , Tom Galan (visitor for a second time), and Russ from Dream Team for attending my swan song! It was great to have you all witness the power of the Champions!

Remember, your leadership term is a journey and don't stop believing!

Make it a Champion week, y'all!

Your faithful President,

Allen Buchanan

President's Weekly Letter, Champions SoCal BNI

Woooooooooo, CHAMPIONS!

...From our very own, Miss Kitty, AKA, Kitty Rudometkin, our chapter placement specialist and a guest she infused to our chapter today...

Tommy Galan visits Champions BNI today...and had the following to say in the follow up phone interview.

"Kudos to you and your awesome Champions!!! I just got off the phone with Tommy and he had 3 words to describe his experience this morning - "supportive, efficient and uplifting!!!" He plans to return next week with the owner of the company to show him just what BNI is all about!!! VERY COOL!! Way to go.....Kitty"

And that is what I am talking about! Champions, you rock! One of the elements of our vision for this chapter a year ago was to make the visitor experience the best that the visitor had ever seen. Today, with the feedback above, we achieved that vision and much, much, more!

The image above depicts that our leadership terms are nearing an end. This isn't the end but you can see it from here.

Below is a video clip of my fondest memories of the first six months of our leadership term...October 2010-March 2011. I hope you enjoy strolling down memory lane as much as I enjoyed sharing the memories.



Make it a Champion week everybody!

Your faithful President,

Allen Buchanan

President's Weekly Letter, Champions SoCal BNI

Woooooooooo, CHAMPIONS!

In this week at the "after the meeting" interview, we highlight four special people to Champions SoCal BNI...you are ALL special but these three plus one are your incoming Leadership Team for next term which commences October 1, 2011 (our first meeting is the 4th). Watch here and learn what each new leadership team member learned from the recent Leadership Team training. We also hear from Lem Bucago, the Director to the Champions and Director of Training about what he teaches the Vice Presidents and Membership Committee members.

...And once again, our President select, Gary Lorge is the copious note taking guest blogger for this week.

“We started a little late but really got cookin’. Our visitors really brought the energy up in the room. They were: Patrice Sorokin, Alex Ribble (second time), Bryan Mataya, and our Director Lem Bucago.

Our EC got us thinking: Am I playing the child’s game “telephone” with my customers? If we don’t have a short and simple elevator speech we may be. We need to be concise and memorable in order to give those valuable referrals.

Our leaders for last month in 1:2:1 meetings: Greg Beck, Donna Cahoon and a tie for first place with 15 1:2:1’s with Bo Lowe and Kris Hansberger.

Our ITA took a swerve and was awarded to a first time winner this week. Past winners were not eligible. Brett missed his chance as he was away this week and the award went to Jim Salem. Congratulations Jim!

Our Keynotes delivered spot on presentations. Robert Perez explained why he is the best choice for video production. He has a broad background and is able to do many of the tasks that his competitors farm out. This allows him to keep costs down. We know that his quality is second to none. The list of products that he offers is amazing.

Joe Salazar made it perfectly clear that we should not be yelling at our computers, we should be calling him. He had some great ones: “Jiminy Cricket, Holy Moly, and a Disco dance were all used and I came right back to the office and made sure I was backed up. The Net Whiz is truly a whiz and brought his “A game” to the Keynote speech this morning.

Jim Salem and Kathy Penton were delivered their 4 star ribbons by the small but mighty Lem Bucago. And lastly our President reminded us that we don’t want to be the slow gazelle- so hit the ground running in the morning.

Until next week….”

And as prefaced...A lion awakes early, running hoping to catch a speedy gazelle. A speedy gazelle awakes early running hoping to outrun the slowest among him lest he be eaten by the lion. The moral...whether you are a lion or a gazelle, you better rise early running

Make it a Champion week everybody!

Your faithful President (almost EC),

Allen Buchanan

President's Weekly Letter, Champion's SoCal BNI

Woooooooooo, CHAMPIONS:

Well last week worked so well that we decided to make it official...Gary Lorge is scribing and I, your faithful president, am doing what I love to do...greeting the visitors...after all, we are ALL visitor hosts. Take a look and find out why the Champions SoCal BNI stresses making our visitors feel prepared, valued, connected and comfortable. We are happy to have received an app today from Johnny Maravelis...Phoenix Afterglow...rise up! Please don't hang up, however, as there is a lot more to read from your president select...Gary Lorge! Rock on Gary...

"Greetings Champions from your guest blogger!

We start off this shortened holiday week with an explosive number: $795,000. That is the number Greg has calculated for our TYCB for the year. WOW, great job everyone.We had a number of visitors that started their week with the Champions: Patrick Sharples, Randy Hurtt( 2nd visit), Johnny Maravelis, and Karl Bonham. Thanks go out to all of you for joining us. Are there applications in the works? Remember, an approved application locks out your competition.

I learned from Jim Sando that size of a chapter does matter. It makes sense that the more members we have the more referrals we pass and receive. The more visitors we have the more become members. Bottom line from the best EC in the business: Get your letters out for Visitors Day people!

We have a returning leader in the category of referrals for August: Donna Cahoon. Our other leaders-Dr. Paul Kwik and Robert Perez for Visitors and Kris Hansberger and Greg Beck for 1:2:1’s. Congratulations all (who will oust Ms. Cahoon next month??).

The ITA winner this week proves that anything can be accomplished with a dead gopher and political nepotism. It took guts not to go with the guy who brought a gun and an axe, Kris.

Our CPA has tallied some impressive numbers for us: 2715 1:2:1’s 1288 Referrals 109 Visitors These are fantastic numbers and really give us something to shoot at next year.

Randy Clement gave us some insight into what a typical day looks like for him. (Lots of sunglasses.) Litigation, Arbitration, Negotiation- Clement and Ho does it all in a day. It boils down to this: A full service law practice with comparatively lower prices than the competition.

Our Founding Father also spent 10 minutes enlightening us this morning. Steven Stakley, with Burnham Gibson, explained what to expect when we get him involved in our customers retirement. He puts the needs of his clients first, many times at the expense of his own because that is what is right. I think that is a very powerful statement.

Happy Birthday to our Sec/Treas to be Kris Hansberger- 29 and holding.

Our President finally gets what he has been waiting for from Greg Beck- a Testimonial! Allen delivers more for the money.

Dues are due and see you next week!"

Make it a Champion week y'all!

Your faithful President,

Allen Buchanan