$15,000 to buy into an 'in'

In this era of BlackBerrys and text messaging, NormaJean Frumento says she believes there's no substitute for good old-fashioned eye contact if you want to get to know high-powered decision-makers.

The kind of access that a $15,000 membership in Business Clubs America, or BCA, affords.

"There's no face, no punctuation, no emotion in an e-mail or through BlackBerry. This makes it real," said Frumento, 46, sales manager for the Hub, a meeting-and-events facility with three locations in Philadelphia, during a BCA networking function in Center City last week.

BCA, which calls itself "the Mercedes-Benz of relationship-building groups," is looking to expand. It currently has 11 chapters nationally, including Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Phoenix, and it has 50 members in Philadelphia.

The local BCA chapter is owned and operated by former Eagles quarterback Ron Jaworski and managed by his daughter, Joleen.

BCA's mission is to help members sharpen their interpersonal skills and, of course, generate business for one another. Its social gatherings, roundtables, and breakfast speakers' series work toward these goals.

On Friday morning, 170 people networked and got some pointers from Olympic gold medalist/businessman Mark Spitz.

The winner of seven gold medals at 1972's Munich Olympics chronicled his journey to becoming a world-class swimmer.

"I've always embraced competition," Spitz said. "I wasn't the greatest athlete, but I competed against those who were great, which brought out my best." His record of seven gold medals at 1972's Munich Olympics stood until Michael Phelps broke it last year.

The nearly three-hour gathering at the Union League was part pep talk, part sermon, as members shared sales tips and other advice on surviving the economic downturn.

Jaworski, 57, no stranger to business as an owner of golf courses and an equity owner of the Philadelphia Soul arena-football team, was a featured speaker at BCA events in other cities before taking the BCA concept locally.

He said he began toying with the idea of having a Philly BCA chapter in 1999.

"What BCA is about is what I did all my life," Jaworski said. "I know when you put a roomful of decision-makers together in a room, they like to work together."

He recruited his eldest child, Joleen, 33, to start the Philadelphia chapter in June 2005. At the time, she was living in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Jaworski used his powers of persuasion to get her to move back East. The chapter held its first event in January 2006.

Membership is based on referrals, an application, and interviews in a meeting environment by each chapter's board of advisers. BCA allows membership to one company per business sector - for instance, the Philadelphia chapter selected only one mortgage company, Allied Mortgage Group Inc., of Bala Cynwyd. The group says it often rejects applicants who the board of advisers thinks will not be a good fit.

Philadelphia BCA members include Magellan Hill Technologies, Comcast Spectacor L.P., and Susquehanna Bancshares Inc.

"We're not the cheapest [to join]. We're one of the most expensive," Joleen Jaworski said of the chapter's annual membership fees, which range from $15,000 to $75,000, depending on the level of branding and recognition that a company receives.

Kistler Tiffany Benefits, a group-insurance brokerage and employee-benefits consultant firm out of Berwyn, became BCA's exclusive title sponsor in January and paid the maximum $75,000 membership fee. That includes having the firm's logo on all BCA literature, advertisements, and event banners.

Frumento, the sales manager who joined BCA three months ago, said she was already starting to see returns on her company's $15,000 investment in joining: Referrals are trickling in to her three-year-old company from contacts she's made through the group.

"Oh, it's worth it," Frumento said as she made a beeline to introduce herself to another potential contact at last week's networking event. "When you're a young company, you want to get your name out there."