| Club Manual
- Supplemental Guide
The Club Manual is the
place to find answers to questions you have about your club. At this
point, it is a supplemental guide rather than a comprehensive manual
since much information is already online. The Club Manual has been
designed to expand and grow, as we will be adding new topics when
members have questions about the club's operation or how the web site
works. Some of the topics will have links to club pages to help you
navigate or locate a page you have trouble finding.
If you are not clear about
a topic or have a question about any aspect of My Referral Club,
please contact us. We will get you an answer and the topic may end
up in the Club Manual.
Cookies,
What Are They?
Our favorite is chocolate
chip. However, regarding the internet, a cookie is a collection of
information, usually including a username and the current date and
time, stored on the local computer of a person using the Internet,
and is used chiefly by websites to identify users who have previously
registered or visited the site.
At My Referral Club,
we use a cookie for each of our members so that we can identify you
and welcome you to our site, and to also store small amounts of information
that allow your computer to form club screens much quicker. The cookie
we automatically download to your computer will make using our web
site more enjoyable and much more efficient.
If you have disabled your
browser from accepting 'cookies', please re-enable it through your
browser controls (at least during the times you are accessing the
club). Most people leave cookies enabled.
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Dial
Up Internet Service
We have found that if
you don't have access to cable or DSL, an excellent service for access
to the Internet is though the company Net Zero, the fastest growing
Internet service company in the USA. They have a $14.95 per month
service that allows you to surf the net up to 5X faster than standard
telephone modem systems. They are able to do this because of a proprietary
compression program. Check them out at www.netzero.com.
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Doing
Business With Non-Club Members
This is an extremely touchy
subject, yet probably one of the most important questions club members
must address as they create relationships with other club members.
We recognize that club
members will have existing business relationships and that some of
these ties will be strong ones. We would not presume to attempt restricting
club members to do business with only club members. We do hope that
you will do your best to work with all of your club partners. Please
review the MRC Agreements page under I'd Like More Information Section.
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Fines
- Incentives
Each My Referral Club
is unique and therefore the Home Office has not mandated the use of
fines at the meetings. Fines however can be used very effectively
by a club to help enforce rules and regulations and to use in an empowering
way for contests, etc.
For example, a club may
fine its members if they are late or miss a meeting. If a Speaker,
Greeter or Exhibitor doesn't show up when they are scheduled, they
could be fined. If a member is late with the quarterly meeting dues
assessment they could be fined.
Setting up a program of
assessing fines is the responsibility of the Board of Directors. If
they propose to initiate a fines program they need to determine which
fines the club will use and notify the membership. If a club decides
to have fines, it's best to have the member call a fine on him or
herself when they incur an infraction and put the money in the referral
basket when giving their 30 second commercial.
A good example of using
a contest with monetary incentives would be to have a contest to bring
guests to the next meeting. Decide all members will put money ($5.00
for example) in the referral basket. The member who brings the most
guests to the next meeting wins the amount in the basket. If you want
to make your club grow quickly, up the dollar amount and hold the
contest frequently.
Another incentive that
will help the treasury is to allow a member to pay for the privilege
of placing a brochure or flyer at each seat before the meeting starts.
There are usually only two people at a meeting who are allowed to
bring flyers/brochures, the Speaker and the Exhibitor.
Here are some possible
fines to consider:
- Miss a meeting $2.00
- Late to a meeting $1.00
- No referral past 2
weeks $1.00
- Speaker misses meeting
$10.00
- Exhibitor messes meeting
$10.00
- Late with quarterly
payment $10.00
- Miss a Board meeting
$3.00
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Member
Conflicts of Interest
There will be times when
members with different business categories will offer the same products
or services. A good example would be a Financial Advisor and Life
Insurance salesperson both offering to sell mutual funds. It would
definitely be in a club's best interest to have both of these categories
in the club so one of the members would need to agree not to promote
mutual funds to the other club members. If an agreement can't be reached
between the two members, the Board of Directors would make the call.
In this situation we would
recommend that the Financial Advisor be allowed to sell mutual funds
to the other club members because selling securities is his/her primary
business. When a conflict like this does occur, look to the member
whose primary business most closely matches the product in question.
That's the member who should be allowed to promote and sell it to
the other members in the club.
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Meetings;
Frequencies, Start Times and Locations
Every local My Referral
Club has the authority to choose the frequency, starting time
and location of its business meetings. We recommend that our clubs
meet every other week in the evening. However, some clubs will want
to meet in the morning or for lunch once a week. If that format can
be successful for a club, it's fine with us. It can indicate this
on their web site through the Club Administration section in the Edit
Meeting Information page.
Some clubs, especially
our Organization Clubs, may choose to meet only once a month and that
is also provided.
Our local clubs have the
option of meeting in just about any location they choose. Any facility
that makes club members happy and doesn't turn off potential members
would be suitable.
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Remove
A Member From The Club:
There will be times when
a member has failed to keep up with his/her club agreements. A good
example would be a member giving only one or two referrals over a
three or four month period. Clearly that member is not contributing
to the overall welfare of the club and should be considered as a candidate
for removal from the club.
Should a member fail to
meet the club's minimum requirements, the secretary, who is responsible
for monitoring the club's statistics, should bring the matter before
the Board of Directors. The Board would then make the determination
to either 1) ask for the member's resignation or 2) give the member
specific requirements for retaining his/her membership and a time
line for compliance. See By Laws: Article 3, Section3
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The
Joke Master
This is an unofficial
position local clubs may want to include as part of their meeting
program. At each meeting the joke master can be called on to tell
a great joke or story. A little humor always seems to be appreciated
and is usually a welcome part of the business meeting.
The key to having a Joke
Master present a joke or story at the meeting is the professionalism
and ability of the member. Each club will need to determine if this
is a good idea for them, and insure that the member or members chosen
to tell the joke or story are good at doing it.
The joke or story should
be kept short and only one or two of them should be told at each meeting.
Remind the Joke Master that the bylaws stipulate, "any racial,
ethnic, gender, age, religious or any other type of discrimination
is strictly forbidden".
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