www.newsmaker.com.au
BNI Middle Harbour is the first of the 6,600 BNI chapters representing 170,000 members in 58 countries worldwide to join the global campaign for a Kinder World thanks to a local initiative, Feel Good Feb.
The chapter will be hosting a Signing Ceremony on the 8th of May in the presence of special guests including the General Secretary to the World Kindness Movement, the peak global body, local community and business leaders. The City of Sydney and Gold Coast along with numerous local Councils, Schools, businesses and NFP organisations across Australia have already taken the first step and signed Declarations of Support since Australia was elected at the London 2012 General Assembly to spearhead global strategies to create a kinder world.
Locally “Kindness is Catching” is finding its way to the Northern Beaches inspired by the success of a grass roots campaign, Feel Good Feb (ref Manly Daily Jan 2015) which started with a local Manly mum, Linda Pang, who wanted good news stories to refocus media coverage from the negative to the positive. Mrs Pang joins an impressive list of recipients of the Cool To Be Kind Award along with Dame Marie Bashir and City of Sydney Councillor, Christine Forster.
During the Feel Good Campaign BNI Middle Harbour executive embraced the Kindness Movement and invited special guest speaker, Mr Michael Lloyd-White Chairman of World Kindness Australia and General Secretary of the peak global body, the World Kindness Movement to address its members and VIP guests. “The World Kindness Movement engages nations and organisations from all sectors to participate in a global campaign for a kinder world and BNI is an ideal candidate to become an agent for positive change” says Mr Lloyd-White. “Business has an important role to play to create positive change and it’s not about making donations, it’s about being engaged in your community. Kindness is not about flowers and hearts it is often about taking the path of most resistance and often requires courage to seek the kinder option.”
BNI Middle Harbour President, Pru Chapman
“As a local business group we feel that we can have a greater impact and wanted to put our collective energies into a positive future. As a group we were captured and inspired by the World Kindness Movement and see this as a great step in moving towards a friendlier future in which we recognise and are grateful for one another. We hope that in taking up this initiative we can inspire other local businesses to do the same, and spread the kindness movement through the Northern Beaches and beyond.”
BNI Middle Harbour Vice-President, Jason Pang
“We believe that having kindness as a core value of business will build stronger long-term relationships with clients, suppliers and the local community. It provides direction and acts as a moral compass for business to act in a socially responsible way instead of focusing solely on the bottom line. Individually the member business will have kindness as a principle tenet, and collectively we will support kindness initiatives to contribute towards creating a kinder world.”
BNI Middle Harbour meet weekly at Balgowlah to collaborate, share ideas and network to support local business members. For more information please visit http://www.myteam.net.au
Background World Kindness Posted WKA FB 10th April 2015
“Just a quick update since Feel Good Feb campaign we welcome Konica Minolta as a new corporate member, Caring for You Nursing Agency Melbourne, William Roberts Lawyers and NSW Parents’ Council and BNI Middle Harbour as our newest members. World Kindness Movement International Council Meeting last night, which we chaired in our capacity as Secretariat. Apart from Australia this includes China, France, India, Korea, Nigeria, Switzerland, Thailand and USA, which comprise the international board. We will be attending the official launch of World Kindness France in Avignon on 27th June and facilitating a 2-day workshop and Council Meeting on developing global strategies to create a kinder world as a prelude to the world leaders’ summit the K20. The London Times contacted our office as part of a feature story they are doing on the growing global campaign and social media buy in which we look forward to sharing. If your organisation or city/council is looking to participate and support this global campaign please contact us at ambassador@worldkindnessaustralia.org”
