Things are really hotting up in The Motley Fool's Staff Investment Club, or TMF SIC as Licence has christened it. We now have our own message board that we are using to discuss our seedling thoughts regarding that scary first purchase. If you have any comments about any of the stocks we are discussing please feel free to chip in. Of course we're keen that any discussion on this board doesn't dilute the discussion on the company's own message board. Therefore whenever there is a thread about a particular stock we'll post a link on that company's message board as well.
On October 6 we held meeting number three. Many a pop group have stumbled over that "difficult third album". Would meeting number three prove similarily traumatic for our club? If you want the full gory details, you'll find the complete minutes below.
We were delighted to have a number of new attendees at this meeting, namely strollers TMF Jenko and TMF Keith as well as our new bookkeeper TMF Symphony. This meeting was the first time that the Fools had rolled up their sleeves and discussed potential purchases. Fur flew in all directions -- we wouldn't have it any other way. TMF Eagle led the way with 'The Case for Chorion'. In his former life Eagle flew around the AIM market in his capacity as a writer for Small Company Investor magazine. We stipulated that his proposal should come from this much maligned den of penny shares. Despite this restriction will Eagle's recommendation prove to be that elusive ten-bagger?
Obviously in awe of Eagle's devastating initial presentation a number of Fools then passed on the option to put forward their ideas. But not TMF wonder techie TheBoyEwan who takes 'this investing lark' quite seriously. He enlightened us with British Aerospace which has fallen quite significantly since the meeting. Does the market know something that Ewan doesn't or is this just a good buying opportunity?
I swiftly followed up with Tesco (much better than Somerfield). A controversial proposal, according to some, although initial polls have revealed some support in outlying areas. And last, and by all means least TMF Essex gave us GEC ("the obvious choice"). He never passes up the opportunity to ramp one of his own shares. You wouldn't catch me doing such a thing! But GEC has also been garnering early support, so far most vociferously from TMF Keith.
After each proposal the rest of meeting chipped in with their initial thoughts. Most of these can be found in the message threads following on proposals on the TMF SIC message board. There's no clear favourite at this time. All the suggestions have their strengths and weaknesses.
But only four ideas to start with? The meeting was hungry for more, so everyone was pressed for some glimmer of what they might propose for the next meeting. There are a number of interesting glimmers to look forward to, so keep watching this space. We are going to wait until we hear these ideas in full at next month's meeting before any rash decisions (like GEC) are made about buying that difficult first stock.
The meeting closed with the second most crucial voting matter -- the biscuits for the next meeting. I'd hate to spoil the suspense so you'll have to read the minutes in full to see what the Fools will be nibbling at the next meeting on November 3.
In other club news, we've registered with Lloyds TSB's Internet banking service, so it'll be interesting to see how that performs. And TMF Essex is still searching for the ideal broker: can you help him out?
Minutes of the Third Meeting of the Motley Fool Investment Club
Location: Room 6, 79 Baker Street
Time: 13:00 hours
Date: Wednesday 6th October
In Attendance: Bruce Jackson (TMFGoogly); Toby Mason (TMFToby); Nick Jenkins (TMFJenko); Martin Wake (TMFSorted); Norma Boylan (TMFSymphony); Ewan Wilson (The BoyEwan); George Row (TMFGrow); Keith Milner (TMFKeith); Phil Southgate (TMFPopper); Rob Davies (TMFEssex) (in the chair); Chris Spink (TMFEagle) (taking minutes); and Stuart Watson (TMFTiger) (looking after the cheque book). Who are these Fools?
Apologies for absence
These were received from Dr David Berger (TMFFoolUK) and Alan Oscroft (TMFAlan).
Not a peep was heard from Nigel Roberts (TMFNigel); Renée Rosen-Wakeford (TMFPurr); Winfried Rauter (TMFBerlin); James Kraft (TMFJam); Christina King (TMFCiao) and Stephen Bland (TMFPyad). Then some members pointed out that Nigel was on holiday, Renée was at Fool US HQ and Winfried was in Germany. Others remembered that James had said he wasn't going to join. Nobody could recall whether Christina and Stephen wanted to join or not. It was later discovered they were not keen.
This leaves membership standing at 17. New Fool James Carlisle (TMFJimmyC) has subsequently been invited to join and has accepted, which takes us to 18. New Fools will be asked as they sign their contracts until we hit a maximum of 20!
Minutes of the previous meeting
TMF Pooper was congratulated on preparing the minutes, and doing it in joined up writing.
Matters arising
Qualiport company Lloyds TSB(LSE: LLOY) are the club's bankers. An account has been opened.
Selection of broker: this is proceeding slowly.
Mr Chairman was keen on Charles Schwab, since the company offers free dealing in the first month after joining. He also said they appear to be friendly to investment clubs. Others, notably message board stroller extraordinaire TMF Keith, pointed out that Schwab has a reputation for bad service amongst many posters on the brokers board.
DLJ Direct was rejected.
The numerous investment clubs of guru TMF FatBlokeMarge use Stocktrade.
Halifax on-line has a £5 per trade introductory offer.
E*Trade are not technically on-line yet
No one knew about Redmayne Bentley's RedM service in great detail.
Members agreed that the club wants to stick with one broker if possible and ideally the broker should provide an on-line service. A shortlist will be produced at next month's meeting after further Foolish investigation.
After a short discussion it was determined that the club will obtain CREST membership for its share dealings, so the club can receive annual reports, dividend payments directly, vote at AGMs and appear on share registers.
Application to join ProShare, names still needed: this is continuing.
Outstanding contributions stand at £575. Mr Tiger the Treasurer has received £850 in entrance fees and subscriptions so far.
Membership -- Since the last meeting Norma has joined and Yvonne has left. This means there are now two vacancies but see note 1 for latest updates.
Treasurer's report
TMF Tiger gave a full and detailed report on the progress of the club's investments to date. Once all monies are received the club will be sitting on an idle cash pile of £1,425.
Investments
Fools wishing to make suggestions for a share to be bought for the portfolio were invited to make a two-minute presentation outlining the investment case, followed by three minutes of questioning from other Fools.
It was decided that votes would be cast electronically for each investment. Votes would have to be sent to the secretary by e-mail, within a week after the club decides to vote on a particular investment.
Four Fools decided to run the gauntlet at this meeting. TMF Eagle kicked off with Chorion(LSE: COR), an AIM wonder-stock. Then Foolish Techie Ewan chipped in with defence giant British Aerospace(LSE: BA.). TMF Tiger proposed Tesco(LSE: TSCO) for its internet potential and TMF Essex told us about GEC(LSE: GEC) and its new exciting direction. The detailed proposals and discussions about these stocks can be found on the new TMF Staff Investment Club message board.
Mr Chairman tried to get more members to put up suggestions. Keith was coerced into looking at doggy supermarket Somerfield(LSE: SOF) or equally canine Storehouse(LSE: SHS). Norma declined to talk about Marks & Spencer(LSE: MKS) commenting that the retailer was "not particularly good". Bruce said he might venture IT services company RoyalBlue(LSE: RYB) at a later date. Martin was keen on whipping up interest in Express Dairies(LSE: EXD). Toby thought Prudential(LSE: PRU) was worth egging up on. He also mentioned a private American software company called Akamai, which provides ad banner software for websites. Nick will gem up on Gemplus, a French smartcard developer similar to TMF Googly's Aussie five bagger, ERG. Ewan might raise a glass to Scottish & Newcastle(LSE: SCTN) or enlighten us with Imagination Technologies(LSE: IMG). George will take a bite out of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) and Phil may take a look at BSkyB(LSE: BSY). Chris might peer at Pearson's(LSE: PSON) prospects.
Speakers
Due to Wavering's change of plans there was no surprise guest speaker.
Any other business
There was heated discussion about last month's biscuit decision. The proposal to set up a sub-committee to monitor the biscuit-buying decision process was not followed through. Thus a democratic vote was taken on next month's choice. Mr Chairman threw doughnuts into the ring and other biscuit suggestions were made as well. Five votes were cast for Jaffa Cakes (BISC: JAFF), two for Milk Chocolate Hob-Nobs(LSE: HOB.M), and either one or none for the other six suggestions. Thus Jaffa Cakes won easily. Toby said since a box only contains twelve Jaffa Cakes why not buy a tube of them? He added that Safeway currently has a three for the price of two deal on them as well.
Date, time and location of next meeting
This will be held between 1pm and 2pm on Wednesday 3rd November in Room 6 of Fool UK HQ.
The meeting finished at 2:35pm.
To comment on this feature, or anything else regarding the Fool's staff investment club, visit the club's message board. For other investment club queries, try the Investment Clubs board.
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