I have this thing about trying to improve my little corner of the world. There's a lot I'd like to fix in the world that is overwhelming, but I can try and impact the things within my reach. I figure if I do that, maybe others will be motivated to work on making improvements in the part of the world they interact with.

The investment club movement has always involved a lot of volunteers and a lot of giving of peoples time and expertise. I think that's part of the reason some of us belong to this community. In the world of finance, there are a lot of people making a lot of money providing "advice" and support for investors. But, many members of investment clubs are do-it-yourselfers. If you are willing to do some work on your own, you really can learn a lot from being associated with places like bivio where a lot of expertise is shared almost daily to help you learn and become better investors.

I also think we probably belong to one of the more giving communities out there. I thought about this when I decided to make a small donation this morning to support Wikipedia. It seems like I end up there a fair amount when I'm researching things and I appreciate it being there. I thought it was worth it to donate what I might have spent on a few cups of coffee at Starbucks to try and help support their efforts.

In that vein, we'd like to help support what your clubs might be doing to support your corners of the world, so I thought we'd do a little gift giving ourselves.

For the next 4 Mondays in December, we're going to do a drawing for a free 1 year bivio subscription for current or new bivio clubs. All you need to do to enter the drawing is to post on Facebook what organization or organizations your club, or the members of your club, are donating to. Make sure to let us know the reason you donate to them and also the name of your club.

You can get to our Facebook page here:

www.facebook.com/bivio

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season. Thank you for doing your part to make your corner of the world a better place!