Our club is having trouble finding a way to vote on our stock picks. Can I have some suggestions on how other clubs choose their stocks? ex. How many stocks are being decided on? How do you actually vote? Is there a % of vote needed for that stock to be selected?
 
  Thank you
 
 Tommy

Tommy,
My club picks a sector and everyone does preliminary reviews of companies in
that sector. I.E. perusing Valueline, Quicken one-click scorecard, and other
screening tools are used. Then four or five members present the "best of
the bunch" at the meeting and we use the stock comparison guide to help
compare them. If nothing looks good (is in the buy range, or has good enough
growth projections) we dump the whole lot and start again with a new sector.
If something is really good but too expensive, we put it on our watch list
and check up on the price each month.
When it comes to voting, we rank our top three preferences each with a
weighted scale (top pick=5, 2nd pick=3, third pick=1) and then tally the
votes. The highest companies (two or three) go on to the "finals". We look
closely at them and then vote again to select the best company. Sometimes we
get stuck on liking two companies from the sector. In that case we've split
the funds we planned on investing between the two companies. Its not as cost
effective to do that, but it keeps our members interested.
We use a majority vote to pick the company. We also work with a dollar
amount to invest and get as many shares as we can with that amount(we'll
usually round up and put out the few extra dollars).
Hope this helps you. Please note that our selection process is part of our
By-laws and procedures. That helps avoid confusion or changes from time to
time.
Good Luck,
Loretta Lombard
Playground Investment Club
Woodinville, WA

-----Original Message-----
From: club_cafe-owner@bivio.com [mailto:club_cafe-owner@bivio.com]On
Behalf Of Thomas R Baker
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 12:37 PM
To: club_cafe@bivio.com
Subject: club_cafe: Voting on stocks ?


 Our club is having trouble finding a way to vote on our stock picks. Can I
have some suggestions on how other clubs choose their stocks? ex. How many
stocks are being decided on? How do you actually vote? Is there a % of vote
needed for that stock to be selected?

  Thank you

 Tommy

Well, we (rapid stag) are not that organized when it comes
to stock purchases.

Usually, during the month those people who were born
interested in the nuts and bolts of investing keep current
on all of our stocks. We read the news, and if anything is
noteworthy for the club, we post the link to the article on
our web page. We usually have an explanatory subject line:
PENG earnings.

If, during the month, something strikes someone fancy, we
have them do some research, and fill out a form we built for
ourselves. This is not the in depth analysis that the SSG
requires. Most of the figures come off the Quicken
one-click score cord, and the stock fundamentals stats and
graphs.

We have a laptop at the meetings. If any questions arise,
we use the net to research the answers to those questions.
When discussion is done, we call for a vote. A simple
majority is required for a buy.

Using this method, you can see that we often don't purchase
new stocks.

We also set up an "income" fund for ourselves. A set amount
($100.00 a month) is used to purchase 1 of 5 stocks that pay
high dividends, and that are relatively unvolatile. We
purchase the stocks in order, starting at the top, working
our way down, then starting at the top again. That fund has
actually made money for us, where our "growth" fund is
pretty much flat right now - we down less than 3/10ths of a
%.

In our club, we have people with money and desire, but no
interest in stock research or analysis. We did not want to
discourage them from attending, and that is how we came up
with our somewhat laissez-faire way of choosing growth
stocks.

Thomas R Baker wrote:
> Our club is having trouble finding a way to vote on our stock picks. Can I have some suggestions on how other clubs choose their stocks? ex. How many stocks are being decided on? How do you actually vote? Is there a % of vote needed for that stock to be selected?
>
> Thank you
>
> Tommy


Tommy,
Our club consists of our maximum of 20 women (a wide
assortment of ages and backgrounds) with very little
knowledge of the market. We have a rotating research
committee, i.e., three people per month do research, each on
a separate stock they have individually chosen. These three
people make a 5-10 minute presentation of their research
findings at our general meeting. We are far from perfect
and each member presents their selection in any manner they
feel comfortable with. Some talk, some have handouts, one
of our members even does a slide show each time!!! The
partners then vote by a show of hands and/or discussion as
to which stocks we purchase and/or, which stocks are dropped
or put on a watch list. A quorum (majority as set forth in
your Partnership Agreement and/or By-laws) of those voting
must be attained for any purchases to occur. Some months we
buy "nada", others we buy 1, 2 or 3 stocks, depending on the
vote. (Also note that our By-Laws allow any one partner to
ask for a ballot vote rather than a show of hands, but this
group enjoys the open discussion. I also know of a near-by
club where they have a pre-printed ballot, each member fills
in the stock names presented that month along with their
vote on each and the vote is handled in that manner at every
meeting. We don't like the time it takes to tally up the
written ballots.)

Each month, one person on the rotating committee rotates off
and a new person rotates on. That is, each member must
serve a 3-month committment on the research committee before
they rotate off. This way, everyone does research and the
burden is not placed on just certain individuals. Its also
a learning tool - members learn alot while on the research
committee. The research committee meets briefly one night
just prior to the general meeting to discuss their
stocks/presentation (or by phone/computer). This method has
worked well for us and limits the number of stocks to vote
on. Only 3-4 stocks are presented for consideration.
However, please note that each research committee member
MUST complete a stock study research worksheet (we have 3-4
exampes for members to select from) or something similar for
the Secretary's files.

FYI: Just prior to the stock research presentations, we
discuss those stocks on the watch list, whether to continue
to watch, release off the list or to consider for purchase
with the other 3 new stocks for that meeting. And we always
review our portfolio in the beginning, including
industries/sectors and toss around any desires for more
weighting in certain industries to help those on next
month's research committee narrow down their search. In
line with that, we also have two volunteer stock monitors.
One out-of-town member sends updates on our portfolio and
watch list via e-mail between meeting dates, either a
general update or if any news/changes occur that might
effect the stock. The other monitor discusses our stock
holdings in general as of meeting date (any news, changes,
etc.) and she also keeps a notebook available with printouts
of anything pertaining to that stock and the notebook is
available for review at every meeting. It is subdivided
alphabetically by stock name.

Our group has a general meeting in a different member's home
each month and we try to keep our meetings moving quickly as
we ALWAYS have a social time filled with wine/food/talk -
everyone's favorite time! It is the hostess' responsibility
to provide the wine/food and we have a sign-up schedule in
order to rotate meeting locations so that everyone serves as
a hostess. We schedule many "fun" events throughout the
year; i.e., family swim parties, member/spouse/guest
dinners, wine tasting parties, Texas BBQ's, crayfish boils,
outside speakers or events which may or may not pertain to
the market, raffles for door prizes at the general meetings,
Christmas parties; we even take an annual vacation together
- 20 women on the loose! But then, we have some "party
  girls" in our group - never a dull moment. Because of the
  "fun stuff," interest has kept up and each member looks
  forward to what we might plan for next time. We've set up
  our own website...we even have a waiting list for
  membership! It sounds extremely social and it is as most
  members work all day and desire a little down time
  afterwards. Its been great as we have so much fun but at
  the same time, we are learning together by "bits and
  pieces." And our motto is that "no question is a stupid
  question!"

This is more than you asked for but I hope it helps.
Marla, Up Your A$$ets Investment Club, Texas