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Prestige. Membership in the CCP is membership in China’s intellectual elite. Current applicants need a straight A academic record accompanied by a strong CV and at least two moral sponsors who will remain responsible for the new member throughout their lives. Most Chinese mothers at any socioeconomic level regard such a person as a very desirable match for their offspring.A social peer group. One of the often-overlooked benefits of Party membership is that you get to hang out with other smart, dedicated people. And, instead of the usual inane small talk, members have real issues to discuss and projects they can cooperate on. It’s an action-oriented elite club – like a turbocharged Rotary Club that runs the country!The opportunity to serve others. Only 20 percent of Party members benefit financially – usually through career advancement – from their membership but the real benefits lie elsewhere. There is great satisfaction in serving others by, for example, assisting in the elimination of poverty in China (scheduled for 2020). Party members volunteer their time to help these programs. Here’s a great, first-hand narrative of a Party member on his first assignment. It’s called Gobi Diaries:“My adventure began with a phone call late one summer night. It was my boss, the deputy director of the state-funded institute of international studies. He had some unexpected news. The personnel department of our academy had selected me as a candidate for its Grassroots Service Program (GSP) in one of China’s most underdeveloped provinces, located some 1,500 miles from where I was living in Beijing. Before hanging up, he gravely informed me that all of my peers had refused to join the program — leaving me with little choice but to accept the offer.What followed was an incredibly difficult decision for me. As a sophomore researcher, I had spent the past year doing staff work instead of academic research, and I feared I might have fallen behind my colleagues. After consulting my wife, we agreed that the call from my boss was to inform me of my participation in the program, not to ask my opinion on the matter. I reluctantly called back and accepted his offer. In hindsight, most of us — the 17 researchers who accepted GSP posts — wished we had never received that call.The GSP also has a Chinese name: guazhi. Guazhi literally means “to hang your position,” in the way one hangs a coat, and it is a common phrase among China’s state-sponsored entities, including research institutes like the one I was part of. It involves temporarily moving to a new position for at least a year, while your old job is guaranteed upon your return. At the time it was common practice for young China Communist Party (CCP) members to take on this responsibility at some point. This temporary job sometimes has no relation at all to the cadre's previous field of work. For example, it would not be unusual for a researcher on U.S. foreign policy to be asked to manage rural development in the Gobi Desert..” ..read more…

Top 10 Business Networking Groups You Should Joinimage: https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a67dde285f3b572f567adcf74c3236e4?s=32&d=mm&r=g Brian Morris — January 22, 2013161,508 SHARESOne of the most common pieces of wisdom more experienced business people have shared with me is that business networking is the fast track to success. It’s also one of the most commonly ignored pieces of advice. That’s a shame, because that advice holds true. People will do business with other people they know long before they’ll do business with people they find through an advertisement.Business networking isn’t about making direct sales, though direct sales invariably occur as a result. Rather, business networking gives you professional connections, establishes trust, and lends business through new opportunities, increased knowledge, and the ever-so-valuable word-of-mouth advertising.Like many others, I was at first hesitant to join business networking groups. First, I hate public speaking. Second, I felt I wouldn’t be taken seriously – mostly because I was so nervous speaking in public. Third, I found it difficult to justify the time investment required to network effectively; thinking instead that I was better off working and making money. Still, a colleague convinced me to give a local BNI group a try, and I found that:Nearly everyone is nervous speaking publicly, andRather than hold that against me, they were empathetic and willing to help me do so more effectively, andI landed an amazing amount of business with minimal effort and next-to-nothing investmentThus, I’m a huge proponent of business networking groups; and if you join the right organizations, you will be, too. Here’s a list of my top 10 business networking groups you should join.1. BNI – Business Networking InternationalBNI is the world’s largest networking group, and one I highly recommend. BNI operates on the philosophy of “giver’s gain,” in which the more referrals you give to fellow members, the more referrals will be given back to you. BNI costs right around $400 per year; I clear about 20 times that investment every year from my membership alone.2. MasterMind GroupsMasterMind groups bring people together for a shared goal, or shared set of goals, such as better business. MasterMind groups allow you to tap into other perspectives, get support to achieve your goals, and create a level of accountability for taking action to do so. Learn more about joining or starting a MasterMind group here.3. LeTipLeTip is smaller than BNI, but works off the same principle: referrals instead of leads. How do they differ? A referral happens when someone you know gives you the name of someone they know who is already interested in buying from you. The customer already trusts you, because their friend recommended you. A lead is a cold call. Which would you prefer to invest your time in pursuing?4. Women In Business NetworkingIf you’re a business woman, don’t pass up an opportunity to join WIB. Women In Business allows you to work with others to achieve your goals. Being a man, I do not have personal involvement in WIB, but many of my women colleagues and clients swear by it.Recommended for YouWebcast, December 12th: Why Automating Your Cold Calls is the Best-Kept Secret for Driving, Qualifying, and Closing More Leads at Scale5. Chamber of CommerceOK, so almost everyone joins their local Chamber; but how active are you in it? Do you attend meetings, volunteer for committees or otherwise play a role as an active member of the group? If not, you’re undoubtedly missing local opportunities and connections that can propel your business.6. CVBYour local Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is tasked with catering to tourism, so if you do not own a business that likewise serves tourists you might not be a member. Join anyway, and become active, for two reasons: first, you’ll make local business connections that can lead to new business for you. Second, an improved tourist industry means an improved local economy, which means more profits for you.7. Local Merchant AssociationsBe on the lookout for local trade, merchant and industry-specific associations you can join. My area has a Young Professionals Association in which we meet monthly to listen to a business speaker. That’s all good, but the true value of membership is realized over beers after the presentation, when we get to meet, discuss, network and grow.8. RotaryRotary International is a service organization, but look at the membership list of your local chapter and you’ll see it’s packed with the movers and shakers you need to connect with to grow your business exponentially.9. KiwanisJust like Rotary, Kiwanis is a service organization whose membership is often comprised of the “powers-that-be,” those people whose testimonials are iron-clad. Join, get involved and reap the rewards.10.OptimistsOptimists are another powerful group of service-oriented professionals. Like the other groups mentioned here, don’t just show up and expect business referrals. Show up, get involved and believe in the cause. Over time, your reputation will be gold; and so will your bank account.Read more at https://www.business2community.com/strategy/top-10-business-networking-groups-you-should-join-0385283#sGJtjB45ie4R5aub.99i hope that could be more help

We actually had this back in the 19th and the first half of the 20th Century. There were large numbers of organizations like the Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Knights of Columbus, Kiwanis, Loyal Order of the Moose, Rotary, Lions Club, etc. Some still exist today, others have pretty much died out. Some were for men only, some for women only, some both, some formed by freed slaves, etc. They generally had three goals: public service, mutual aid, and fraternity. So they raised money and used it as a charity would, provided an early form of life insurance where if a member became sick and unable to work the other members would contribute to him, and, of course, they drank a lot. And wore funny hats.Tocqueville, back in the 19th Century, wrote of the American propensity toward coming together to solve problems:Americans of all ages, all conditions, and all dispositions constantly form associations. They have not only commercial and manufacturing companies, in which all take part, but associations of a thousand other kinds, religious, moral, serious, futile, general or restricted, enormous or diminutive. The Americans make associations to give entertainments, to found seminaries, to build inns, to construct churches, to diffuse books, to send missionaries to the antipodes; in this manner they found hospitals, prisons, and schools. If it is proposed to inculcate some truth or to foster some feeling by the encouragement of a great example, they form a society. Wherever at the head of some new undertaking you see the government in France, or a man of rank in England, in the United States you will be sure to find an association.(My emphasis on the last sentence)The interesting thing is how we've now become what Tocqueville points to in France, that we're now state-centered, especially as the welfare state grew, after the New Deal and especially after Johnson's Great Society. When the state takes over areas of responsibility where private charity and service-oriented organizations once were prominent, their reason for existence is diminished. Government, in a sense, sucks the air out of the room. It is not all that surprising that the membership of such service organizations is aging and declining. But the ad-hoc associations, we still see those popping up all the time. It is rather simple to create a non-profit corporation and collect funds for some charitable purpose.