During a July 23 meeting, the Executive Leadership Team met and had the opportunity to reiterate our chapter’s policies as they relate to membership absences, substitutes and dues.   There was a feeling that we have been too lax and perhaps also unclear regarding official BNI policy in each of these areas over the past few years and that this over-permissiveness was negatively affecting our chapter.Here is a summary of key policies we are enforcing in our Chapter:

• Absences - In any given six-month BNI term (current term is April 1 through September 30), a member is entitled to three absences without a substitute. Arriving late or leaving early counts as a half absence. When a member reaches 3.5 absences, they will be placed on probation for the remainder of the term, unless they reach 4.5 absences, at which point they will be asked to leave our Chapter. If a member is placed on Probation, we will accept applicants in their niche and the member on probation could potentially lose their niche to a new member.
• Substitutes and Guests - Per BNI policy, a non-member of our Chapter may attend as a substitute only two times EVER in their lifetime. Additionally, a non-member may attend twice in their lifetime as a guest. The purpose of this policy is to encourage visitors and subs to become members.

• Dues — Our Chapter dues (currently $55 per month) are due the first of the month (in our example, call it Month 1). If the Treasurer has not received the dues by the 1^st of the following month, i.e., Month 2, he/she will call the member to remind them of this situation. If, by the beginning of Month 3, the Treasurer still has not received the member’s dues, that member will be asked to leave our Chapter.
• Late Fees — In addition, we have repealed the $10 per month late fees, moving forward, as they have not been shown to be a deterrent to paying dues late. As a courtesy to members and to increase timely dues payment, our current Treasurer has agreed to send out an invoice the last week of the month on the everyone [ a t ] bniembarcadero [d o t ] com email address.