Hello all,

I am new to club cafe and have read some of the emails
already. I'm hoping to get some additional thoughts on an
issue that is plaguing my investment club from those of you
who are also in NAIC based clubs.

My club has been around for around 4 years. 7 of the 9
members have been in the club for close to 3 years now, 1
member has been in the club a year, the other around 2
years.

We are not yet at the point where everyone can do the SSG.
There are some members who feel comfortable with the SSG and
are also comfortable looking at annual report data and more
advanced concepts like the PEG, PERT, etc. A few of the
other members are "intimidated" when more advanced topics
are brought up in the meeting or when looking at a company.
We've unamiously agreed to use the SSG as our analysis tool,
but are not able to have fruitful discussions with the
entire membership because there are a lot of members who
can't even fill out the SSG, much less, apply judgement.

Has anyone faced a similar situation with their club and do
you have some recommendations for how best to handle it?

Thanks!

Hello Michelle,

I'm guessing that the holiday is responsible for the lack of replies. There
are plenty of NAIC clubs that call bivio home.

Any good club would be lying if they said they didn't have problems with
members
learning the tools. All our members can produce an SSG, but some of them
still have a difficult time with the judgments. That point was driven home
last week when I announced a beginner's SSG training for our 3 new members
and I received 7 RSVPs!

But in my club, we never leave anyone behind! We set aside a MINIMUM of
10-20 minutes out of every 2 hour club meeting for education. We try to
spend 30 minutes. For you, I recommend (in this order):

a) If you are close enough to a chapter, get your members to an SSG class;
b) If you are close enough, ask for a road class where they come to YOU;
c) See if there's another club in your area who can send a member to help
train you;
d) Buy the SSG handbook from NAIC and take one chapter at a time for your
club education program.
e) Take 10-15 minutes out of every meeting to do a "stock to study". We
used to get ideas out of Better Investing Magazine, but they've done such a
bad job with their picks these last 2 years, we've chosen our own. Anyway,
everybody has to bring a completed SSG on the same company. Then we go
around the room, sharing our judgments, and explaining why we chose them.
Believe it or not, this is a great learning opportunity.

We've got some education stuff on our website at www.bivio.com/crowriver and
so does the NAIC Florida Space Coast Chapter at http://www.naicspace.org/.

The key is to get organized, keep it simple, learn it in bite-size pieces,
and make everyone participate. Set a realistic goal of 1 year for everyone
to be able to comfortably complete an SSG. Try to hold trainings in between
meetings, if they'll go for it.

Good luck. Write back if you need more info.

Lynn Ostrem, Vice President and Education Chair
Crow River Investment Club
garbagecop@earthlink.net
www.bivio.com/crowriver

Yes to many of the suggestions--seek out chapter volunteers,
buy the book, etc. BI also has a new learning center and
online tool that will help newbies learn. Some chapter
volunteers I know have looked it over and like it.


Lynn Ostrem wrote:
> e) Take 10-15 minutes out of every meeting to do a "stock to study". We
> used to get ideas out of Better Investing Magazine, but they've done such a
> bad job with their picks these last 2 years, we've chosen our own.

Given that we're long term investors, on what basis do you
make this claim? I don't like some of the picks myself, but
according to MI, the average quality is 67--in the blue
range. Nine of the stocks are in the Top 40, and of your
club's 11 stocks, three of them were chosen as Stocks to
Study since that time. What's interesting is that some of
the lowest rated ones have had great returns--MAN, DOX, GME
and HET. Of course, we're talking short term here.

Mel,

> Given that we're long term investors, on what basis do you
> make this claim? I don't like some of the picks myself, but
> according to MI, the average quality is 67--in the blue
> range. Nine of the stocks are in the Top 40, and of your
> club's 11 stocks, three of them were chosen as Stocks to
> Study since that time. What's interesting is that some of
> the lowest rated ones have had great returns--MAN, DOX, GME
> and HET. Of course, we're talking short term here.

And your last statement sums it up! <G> I have every single issue of Better
Investing Magazine since I joined in May, 1995--even these terrible recent
ones. I safety rely on my past experience, and a 5-year report card that BI
used to publish in the magazine until a change to bad management changed the
team of people who pick those stocks. The returns got so bad they quit
publishing them.

On what do I base my claim? The reason I don't feel compelled to defend my
position, Mel, is because I have championed NAIC for many years. I have
been on well over 200 club visits. I've been featured in BI Magazine (and
I've been quoted in their latest handbooks). I was the "start a club"
poster child for over 3 years. My article on the subject earned me the
privilege of receiving 60-90 emails a month from new investors. I help over
100 of them start their own clubs. I have taught advanced classes for 2
chapters, written classes for 4 others, and I've got the busiest club on
bivio with an average of 2,200 hits a month, the last time I checked.

So...If anyone has the right to critique NAIC, it would be me. The
descending quality of the magazine is a well established fact, I'm afraid.
Adam Ritt swept in and removed many of our favorite authors who actually
understood our concepts. In his quest for a million members, Mr. Holthaus
ordered a more "general" approach to the menu of articles being published
every month. If you had an opportunity to see issues from the good years,
you would see what I'm talking about.

Putting this back into context (since I don't feel a need to defend my
statements OR my club's wonderful portfolio), we have found that choosing
"Stocks to Study" that suit our needs, either for diversification, growth or
return, has yielded far more interesting SSGs, and has sparked better
debates. This is probably due to the fact that they are more plausible
picks for our portfolio. The members have a bigger stake in the results.

There's a disparity between the current NAIC organization and the original
legacy. And that legacy lives on in many dedicated volunteers and clubs
across this country. George Nicholson was a brilliant man and avid student
of Benjamin Graham and other great investors of the day, and he inspired and
built a grassroots organization that is as viable today as it was back then.
And it doesn't necessarily mean it will live on through NAIC.

On the subject of NAIC, many of us who have worked hard for this
organization have come to believe that their current efforts are too little,
too late.

Lynn Ostrem, President
garbagecop@earthlink.net
Crow River Investment Club
www.bivio.com/crowriver