Minutes of Roborough Investment Club Meeting
#11 - 14 March 2000

Attendees: Dave Johnston, Robin Rynhart, Don Parker, Andrew Watkins, Alan Martin, Wez Davey, Andy Davies, Richard Albon, Stephen Andrew, Kevin Forrest, Allan Proudfoot, Phil Ainsley, Cyril Bouhallier, Franz Fuchs, Chris Bailey, Martin Collinge, Geoff Floyd, Les Watson.

Apologies: Alan Worroll, Rick Haggitt

Agenda

1) Review Minutes of previous meeting.

The minutes were reviewed and the treasurer pointed out that they didn’t appear to be a fair representation of the treasurers report since an e-mail report was circulated to all members prior to the meeting. The minutes reflected that no information had been provided by the treasurer prior to the meeting. The Treasurer had modified the minutes (in RED) and the meeting accepted the changes to the published minutes highlighted in red.

 2) Review Treasurers Report

The treasurer summarised his published report which indicated that the total value of the club was £5921.92 with £1281.26 held in cash at our broker and bank accounts/ 3265 units have been issued worth 206p.

 Purchases during February included :-

 As the club has increased in numbers and the monthly total subscription has increased to £600 per month, the treasurer raised the question as to whether the club should now be purchasing shares in blocks of £500 or £1000 rather than £250 as is currently the practice. The club agreed to think about this over the coming month.

The treasurer has also spent some time over the past month investigating the tax implications for club members. The Proshare manual gives much detail as the process involved which basically seems to involve declaring individuals proportion of capital gain, dividend and any interest on bank accounts. The treasurer still believes that the proshare manual is open to other interpretation and requested that another member review the appropriate section of the manual.

11.1 (Chris B) Review the tax implications for members as identified in the Proshare manual.

3) Review of current holdings

As reported earlier in the meeting the unit value has increased again to 206p. The clubs web page is now up to date with the latest accounts. The question was raised as to whether the accounts pages (of the web site) could be updated automatically to reflect the current share prices. It was generally thought that although it would be an interesting exercise to perform it would be time consuming to organise and the guidelines of the investment club considered the unit value on a monthly basis.

 

 4) New Member Status

The club rules (Rule no. 5) indicates that the number of members of the club shall be restricted to a maximum of 20 people and that new members shall only be admitted after being proposed and seconded by two existing members and there being no objection from any other member of the club.

 Six new members were being proposed they are …

Alan Worroll, Chris Bailey, Allan Proudfoot, Phil Ainsley, Rick Haggitt, and Martin Collinge.

The members identified above were all proposed by Geoff Floyd who was seconded by Don Parker and the decision to accept the members into the club was carried unanimously.

    1. (Les) To review the membership requirements on attendance of the formal monthly meetings.
    2. The question was raised as to whether the club should minute the informal Tuesday lunchtime meetings and also as to the nature of decisions made at these impromptu meetings.

    3. (Les) To review the position over rules of voting, i.e. proportion of the club membership needed to carry a vote.
    4.  

      5) Review Investment proposals

      Proposals were made by a number of members …

      Geoff – Pizzaexpress – food seems to be horrible but the company is growing at 30% per year.

      Les – Trafficmaster – need and understanding of the business going forward.

      Phil – Unilever – When the bubble bursts (as surely it will) in the .com stocks, we should be moving into the old blue chips.

      Les – BP Amoco

      Richard – Tusker Oil

    5. (Richard) To review a purchase potential on BP Amoco.
    6. (Andy D) To review purchase potential of Prudential.
    7. (Robin/Franz) To review purchase potential of Rentokill (at an all time low)
    8. (Allan P) To review purchase potential of Dixons (recent recommendation in paper)
    9. (Geoff) To review Motley Fool survey.

 

6) Review Actions

7.1 (GF) To check the ProShare manual again to see if there is more information on the selling discount. - COMPLETED

9.3 KILL

10.1 - COMPLETED

10.2 - COMPLETED

10.3 - COMPLETED

 

7) AOB

It looks as though we are outgrowing the meeting venue, could all members think about other appropriate venues in time for the next meeting.

 

8) Agenda for next meeting

Next Meeting : 11th April 2000