MHBC Club Manual

INTRODUCTION

Market Harborough Business Club is a business network dedicated to sharing insight, ideas and experience. It’s not a typical networking talking-shop we focus on practical ways to grow your business, profit, and effective business management through group consulting, development workshops and shared experience.

This simple manual is designed to guide you through and inform you of all aspects of the club’s organisation.

Membership Levels

Membership is open to any business owner whose application has been approved by the club executive committee.

There are two levels of membership: Full or Associate Member.

Full membership includes the following elements:

• Bi-Weekly attendance at the MHBC
• Two presentations per year to the group and guests on their business products and solutions
• Full corporate details on the MHBC website
• Attendance at all social events
• Full voting rights on the committee members every 6 months

An Associate Member level includes the following elements:

• Quarterly attendance at the MHBC (Once every 6 weeks)
• Full corporate details on the MHBC website
• Attendance at all social events

Eligibility for Membership

Any business trading on a full-time basis as a ‘sole trader’, ‘partnership’, private or public ‘limited company’.

Representative

The representative of the organisation is the member, not the organisation, and shall be the proprietor, owner, partner, director or senior executive of the organisation.

Classification

Each member of the club represents their trade or professional classification. More than one member of any trade or professional classification is subject to approval by the committee if applying for full membership. The committee will arbitrate and retains the right on the final decision as to whom to accept as either a full or associate member.

Subscriptions and Fees

For a full member, the one-off registration fee is £50 and the monthly subscription is £35 payable in advance.

For an associate member, the one-off registration fee is £25 and the monthly subscription is £15.

Subscriptions to be paid monthly. To set up a subscription go here: https://marketharboroughbusinessclub.co.uk/subscription/ or create a standing order through your own bank/financial institution.

If you are unable to pay your subscription in any month then please let the Treasurer know as soon as possible: [email protected] to avoid losing your membership of the club. The club reserves the right to cancel your membership if your subscription is not paid within 30 days of the due date.

Attendance

Regular fortnightly attendance is a basic commitment of membership. Apologies should be given for holidays or business absence and substitution should be arranged whenever possible.

If no attendance in any three-meeting period, the member will be deemed as having resigned from the Club and advised to cease their monthly subscription payments.

The club may suspend the meeting for any week that includes a public holiday.

Fortnightly Meeting

The fortnightly meeting will commence with informal networking from 0645 and the meeting will start promptly at 0700 and finish at 0830 promptly on alternate Fridays.

Apologies

Members are responsible for letting the Social Secretary know by 0900 on the Wednesday prior to the Friday meeting. This can be by telephone, Group WhatsApp or email.

Substitution

When a member is unable to attend they are encouraged to arrange a substitution. A substitute may be a partner, co-director or senior executive or in the case of a sole trader with no employees the member’s spouse, partner or personal representative.

Visitors

Members are encouraged to bring visitors to meetings. You or your visitor is required to pay the usual breakfast cost of £10 although the first visit is covered by the club.

The benefit of visitors is to encourage membership at both the full and associate levels and increase the number of contacts you can share your business with.

A guest who is not intending to become a member should not visit more than two consecutive meetings.

1 to 1’S

Members are encouraged to schedule one to one meetings with their fellow members outside of the bi-weekly meetings. This will build relationships and referrals through developing your knowledge on your fellow members’ products and solutions.

This creates trust between all members and leads to robust introductions as and when you identify a potential lead whilst conducting your day to day business activities.

Club Organisation

The members run the club. Members elect a committee to run the affairs of the club. Members may nominate themselves for any office and are elected by a simple majority by a show of hands.

The office is held for six months but may be extended by agreement of the members.

New member applications are to be approved by the executive committee.

Club Executive committee

The committee comprises a Chairperson, Treasurer, Membership Manager, Events Manager and Guest Speaker Coordinator, and Social Secretary

The Chairperson

The chairperson is responsible for the conduct of the fortnightly meeting. The fortnightly meeting should follow the guidelines of the ‘standard agenda’ and must include a lead generation spot and business card distribution.

The chairperson must support the committee members by assisting and encouraging them in their individual roles. Emphasis should be placed on both the business development programme and new member recruitment.

Standard Meeting Agenda

• Arrival from 0630am to 0700am for informal networking.
• Welcome by the Chairperson – Notices and introduction of visitors (2 mins)
• Breakfast – Self serve buffet (20 mins)
• Business card distribution (1 min)
• New members and guests – Introduction and speak for 60 seconds each
• Speaker – Member or guest (15 mins)
• Lead generation new business – round table (5 mins)
• Announcements – Committee member(s)(5 mins)
• Closing message – Chairperson (3 mins)
• Informal Networking – Get up and circulate