LeTip of Boca Raton, FL – you may remember this chapter for winning Chapter of the Year back in March of 2021. A lot has happened since then! We sat with several of the Board and Chair members and talked about the challenges they have endured, what they have learned and how they are emerging from the storm, stronger than ever.
Where to begin?? Well, when the conversation began, we started discussing the successes of their chapter and how in recent years their membership went from 30 members before the pandemic and meeting in person, to meeting virtually now and going down to a core membership of 8 or 9 members. The chapter is currently well on the path to making a strong comeback. They are at 18 members and feel really good about the future.
Doug Bressler, Image Plus Graphics, chapter President and printer of the group, emphasized the importance of quality members and a cohesive group culture. He said that as far as chapters goals are concerned, number of members isn’t one of them. Through LeTip of Boca Raton’s regrowth, the focus has not been on quantity, but rather quality. There is an emphasis on leadership potential and the benefits that a prospective member could bring to the group. Eddie Mohamed, Business Funding category added that they “turned up the heat” on inviting quality guests that are converting. Elise Gross, Attorney Wills Trusts and Estates, who is Sergeant-at-Arms for the chapter said she definitely wants to work on a more cohesive mentoring process for the newer members now that the chapter is growing.
What are they doing to grow? Alex Sanchez, VP and mortgage lender of the group said that the took a look at the chapter history and circled the “old guard” – the ones who had been in the chapter a long time. They had to hang on to the rope and evaluate what the group needed to do moving forward. They needed people that understood the value of the group. They also realized that they needed some younger people. He said they needed to focus in on younger people that were really growing their business and needed the services offered in the group. The new people brought a lot of energy into the group and in turn brought more people in. Alex feels that now there is a really good mix of “old guard” and new younger members, which adds a lot of dimensions. Younger newer people in the group are taking positions of leadership…integrating into committees and adding new viewpoint and energy and new partnerships. They are linking up organically to power partners, which has been fantastic to see and experience. The chapter is also hosting mixers once a month. Steve Scop, IT Consultant of the chapter is in charge of the business mixers and is doing a great job with organizing it and finding new venues each month. Those in person events strengthen the group. They feel its nice to meet outside the structure and it is an opportunity to bring in guests in a not so structured way.
John Lebrevelec, Tip Master of the chapter and Property Management seat, stated that with the leadership under Doug and Alex, the chapter does a good job of transmitting their commonsense approach to things and the sense of family. The desire to help others is strong. “Doug took over as president during the most difficult time in the 10 years I’ve been a member of LeTip. Although modest, he has fostered an atmosphere of openness, inclusion, consistency, and dedication. In my opinion, it is much more difficult to turn around and rebuild than to keep a good thing going. The true success of the rebuilding of our group is due in large part to his stewardship,” said Alex Sanchez, Mortgage Loan seat and Vice President of the chapter. This is a board that is pretty tight, they have been in the group several years together and always look to come up with tweaking the program and improving flow. They meet socially, as a board, to strengthen their bond as leaders, which trickles down. They lead by example.
Next we touched upon some chapter success stories:
Trey Kaufman, eCommerce seat, joined the chapter February of 2024. Shortly after joining, he launched his own business. AS part of launching that business, he teamed up with Ira Heckt, Attorney Business, with Amber Silvey, CPA and really collaborated with other members as part of launch of his business. It was exciting to support and have other members of the chapter also receive business, as a result.
Dave feather, their most tenured member, was an Allstate agent and seven to eight years ago, started his own agency. He said he could never have done it without Letip.
Eddie Mohamed owner of Alliance Business Solution, joined in 2021, having owned his business for about a year and can relate to the success stories. He has been in business for four years now, thanks to a lot of support from his LeTip family.
In closing, though they felt everyone probably says this, they said their chapter is like a family. They share in the good and the bad and are always there for each other.
