Crow River Investment Club

Meeting Minutes of June 10, 2008

 

Opening

Diane Windingland called the meeting of the Crow River Investment Club to order at 6:30 pm on June 10, 2008. Tess Vigeland of NPR Marketplace Money came from California to record and summarize this regular meeting for a future nationally syndicated radio broadcast.

 

Lynn Ostrem, Carole Ripplinger, Craig Block, Marion Marshall, Sheryl Sostarich, Diane Windingland, Kim Windingland, Dan Vitez, Ron Thorson, Beth Silverwater, Mike Trisler, and Gary Quernemoen were present with payment. Steve Smith was absent with notice and payment. Eric Chlan was absent with notice but without payment.

 

Secretary’s Report

The minutes of the May 13, 2008 meeting were approved as posted.

 

Treasurer’s Report

Carole made a dues deposit totaling $410 and transferred $1,000 to the brokerage account. We paid $19.95 to Lynn for posting on Survey Monkey, $13.30 to Dan for paper goods for the BBQ, and $63.25 to Carole for the meat for the BBQ, leaving an ending bank balance of $15.52.

 

Carole bought 9 shares of General Electric for $300.44 and 11 shares of Infosys Technologies for $495.35 and 6 shares of National Oilwell Varco for $456.95. We received $1,000 in a transfer from the bank account and dividend income of $18.60, leaving an ending brokerage account balance of $1,406.74.

 

Unfinished Business--None

 

New Business

Resignation. We received a letter of resignation dated June 6, 2008 from Deantha Menon. After motions were made by Diane and seconded by Kim, we voted to pay Deantha Menon in cash for her buyout from the club.

 

Craig Block pre-announced that he would be resigning from the club due to family and work obligations.

 

New Stock Presentations

SAP AG by Beth. SAP is the world’s largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software. The company has a strong brand image and double the market share of its closest competitor, Oracle Corporation. SAP expects to grow its business by selling its products to small and mid-sized businesses. Beth chose judgments on the SSG as follows: 17% sales growth, 17% EPS growth, high P/E of 30, low P/E of 20, and low price of $43. Beth recommends a buy.

 

Stocks Previously Presented

Apple Corporation by Ron. We reviewed the judgments as a group and reset them as follows: 20% sales growth, 20% EPS growth, high P/E of 30, low P/E of 16.5, use the forecast low price.

 

Portfolio Managers Reports

Ron advised that we are beating the Vanguard S&P 500 index by 2 percentage points. Our emphasis on diversification has helped to boost our overall performance.

 

Dan is using a new screening tool with which to build a Challenge List. The Challenge List is being used to choose new stocks to present.

 

New Stock Watcher

The following stock watcher assignment is effective in July: Dan Vitez – Portfolio Recovery Associates.

 

Quarterly Stock Reports

A Quarterly stock report for Lowe’s (Gary) was posted to the message board.

 

Portfolio Activity

After motions were made and seconded, we voted to buy an additional $600 of Coach.

 

Education

Lynn Ostrem presented a portfolio management strategy developed by Mark Robertson of Manifest Investing. The Tin Cup Strategy would give us a disciplined approach to buying and selling stocks in our club portfolio.

 

Assignments for the July meeting:

1. Diane Windingland will give a new stock presentation on Quality Systems Corporation (Nasdaq: QSII).

3. Quarterly stock reports are due for FactSet Research (Craig) and Walgreen (Steve). Quarterly stock reports are to be posted to the message board no later than 2 days before the July meeting.

4. Carole will buy $600 of Coach.

5. Each member is to review the Tin Cup Strategy and be able to respond to the following questions:

  1. Is the Tin Cup model a viable strategy for our investment club?
  2. What modifications, if any, do we need to make?
  3. What time frame is reasonable for testing the strategy?

6. The Education session will be used to discuss the results of the Club Survey. A preliminary discussion of the Club Survey will be conducted on our online message board up until the July meeting; all members are encouraged to join in the discussion.

 

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 pm.

Sheryl A Sostarich, Secretary

 

The next meeting will be at Lynn’s in St. Michael on Tuesday, July 8, 2008.