Early, every Wednesday morning, in the western suburbs of Harrisburg, PA, west of the Susquehanna River, the Elks Lodge of the West Shore begins to stir with activity as members of the LeTip of West Shore, PA begin to gather, before their 7 AM meeting. The room begins to fill with 58 members saying their hellos, getting their breakfast, visiting showboating tables and finally settling in for the start of the meeting. This sounds like the beginning of most chapter meetings. So, what makes this chapter stand out? Read on, to find out!
The LeTip of West shore chapter is coming up on its 30th anniversary, having been founded in November of 1993! At the heart of this chapter is a strong leadership team. Chris Coller, from The Clean Team, who holds the Commercial Janitorial Services seat of the chapter and serves as the chapter’s Mentor, said that the chapter boasts “a great core group of people at LeTip of the West Shore, who care about the success of the group, above their own personal success.” He added, “Our leadership has been consistent in that we are true to the core “why” we come to breakfast every Wednesday morning (which is creating business opportunities for each other) and we have been able to put our own spin on it and have some fun at the same time.” President, Bill Wurster, with Quality Copy Products, also shared some insights on the success of the board: “Getting the board involved and accountable has made us a strong chapter. We try to have a good blend of tenure with knowledge, and newer members with fresh ideas. The committee chairs play a huge role, as they are at our board meetings, providing leadership in their prospective areas and adding to the overall discussions. We meet offsite, on a Tuesday morning, to stay focused on the task at hand. LeTip of the West Shore has a long history of success and are hitting our goals with each passing month.”
One of the main the main things that keeps this chapter growing is their mentorship program. Mentor, Chris Coller, is at the helm of this process. He said that he would like to thank the Board for trusting him with the task and for allowing him the freedom to create the process. He also gives credit to the mentors that preceded him, for providing a sold framework and organization for the program.
Grab a highlighter, or get ready to take some notes because here is the breakdown:
GOAL:
Provide the new member the tools comfortably to navigate our meetings, create relationships within our group, be involved in chapter activities and most importantly teach them to educate our membership on how to effectively be an outside sales force of 58+.
HOW WE COVER IT:
· We emphasize that it is their responsibility to put the effort into learning our process, so that they can start to earn a return on their investment in LeTip, as quickly as possible.
· Mentor Requirements: Four (4) Mentorship Meetings; Ten (10) mini visitations; complete LeTip’s NTS on-line training; Invite at least five (5) businesspeople to a meeting (in an open category) via US Mail, Email or via LeTip Wired.
· Mentor Notebook: we issue a binder that contains the following:
- First page outlines the above requirements – each of them to be documented via signature – this is to be returned to the mentor chair upon completion of the mentor process.
- A list of important by laws, fines and ways to earn money at a meeting.
- List of twenty things you need to do when you invite a guest.
- A list of things you strive to do accomplish each month.
- A copy of the network training guide
· Mentorship Meetings:
- In the first mentorship meeting, we try to coordinate with the Communications Committee to make sure the new member is set up in Wired, our chapter website and private Facebook page. After that we go through the mentor process – outlining requirements noted above, attendance policy, and reiterate the responsibility of training our group on how to be an effective salesperson for you – and lastly the importance of creating relationships within the group.
- Second mentorship meeting, we try to cover how to create good commercials – we try to emphasize having two to four “go to” commercials, where you mention your name, company and category in each version of your commercial – try to avoid the same thing each week. We also cover mini visitations and the process of our monthly visitation and how to go about setting it up and executing it – IT’s ABOUT BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS.
- Our third mentorship meeting, we try to cover Speaker, Showboat and Official Greeter roles and how to be successful at them; we also cover the alternate process, how to request a Leave of Absence.
- Our fourth mentorship meeting is usually a quiz where we ask them questions about what we have covered; give them an opportunity to ask questions and usually bring another member to talk to them about why the get up every Wednesday and how the group has benefitted them.
· Once they complete the process we put them on the program list for speaker, greeter and show boater and explain that the Mentor is still their support and to answer questions, concerns etc.
Chris emphasized the team effort that it takes to run a successful mentorship program and how the group has, readily, participated with anything asked of them, to help with the mentor process. At 58 members strong, this group has been doing something right!
Another outstanding thing to note about the LeTip of West Shore chapter? The tipping! This chapter just reached their FIFTH month in a row of every member hitting their tip minimum! We spoke with Mike Stahl, from Commercial Flooring Professionals, Inc., who serves as the chapter’s Tip Master, about this success:
“When I took the position of Tip Master, I continued, as my predecessors had done, with reporting the weekly tipping, monthly tipping, top tipper, etc. Each month always had those members that were willing to pay a fine rather than do what they had contractually agreed to do, by giving a minimum of 4 tips per month. This needed to be addressed.
It was in November 2022 that I started to rectify this problem. It took two months to get us moving and now we are working on our 5th month in a row, of everyone tipping the minimum and more. First, during my reports, I started with a reminder of what our purpose was with being a member in good standing and then proceeded to read off, by name, those that didn’t fulfill their obligation. Then, in the
last two weeks of the month, I started sending out personal emails or making direct calls, to all those members that needed to get their tips recorded.
January of 2023 was the first month of success! I passed out “We Did It” pins for everyone to wear. The third month, I brought out the “Triple Crown” pins. The fourth month was the “Hambone”, significant to four strikes in Bowling. For that, we cleaned the ham off the bone and provided ham sliders at the meeting for everyone. This past month was “Cinco IN Mayo”. The top tipper got a Mexican Sombrero, which I wore to give the report, to the tune of the Mexican Hat dance. Runner ups got maracas. All of this has created a lot of energy, with no one wanting to be the one to drop the ball. Our chapter of 56 (now 58) members passed 410 tips in the month of April. 11 members were in double digits from 10 – 26.”
Between the leadership, the mentorship, and the tipping, this chapter is sure to continue celebrating major wins. The one thing that remains clear is, that it is “definitely a team thing!” LeTip of West Shore, PA, thank you for being a part of our LeTip family, and congratulations on 30 years! We wish you much continued success!
