Minutes 5 September 2003Apologies: Brenda Noble, David Pankhurst, Martin Smith
Minutes of Previous Meeting
These were approved and signed.
Matters Arising
The social event with the Midas IC had been a great success and Bonnie read out the four thank you letters we had received. They would be offering to host a skittles evening with us at some time in the future.
We had received no reply from BAE Systems to our request to visit their facility in Plymouth. The second edition of Otter News had been distributed and Dacre outlined how he would amend it for future editions to save member’s paper and printer ink. Contributions from members were needed, they can be in any format and Dacre will knock them into shape.
Treasurer’s Report
We had £2490 of which £2300 was available for investment.
Share Monitors’ Report
Most of the current news on our holdings was in the Otter News. After a short review it was decided to continue all our current holdings.
Dealers’ Report
Nothing to report.
Future Investments
Following our decisions in principle at the last meeting the following were put forward as potential purchases:
Banks - HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS, Lloyds TSB. Northern Rock, Barclays and Alliance & Leicester
Oil - BP, Shell and Cairn Energy
Bonnie outlined the research she had done on the banking options. After a period of discussion, which showed how difficult a comparison between the options was, it was decided to purchase £800 plus dealing costs of HSBC.
The decision regards the oil sector was more straightforward and it was decided to purchase £800 plus dealing costs of BP. We would carry out further research into Cairn Energy with a view to purchasing a holding in the future.
It was also agreed in principle to purchase another Asian IT. Dacre would write to our preferred choice Aberdeen Asian Smaller Companies to see if they offer similar facilities to our current IT companies.
The following were put forward for further research before we would make an investment decision.
Clarkson - Shipping brokers
Alltracel - Pharmaceutical company on the AIM
Anite -
AOB
Rexam offer a dividend reinvestment scheme and it was agreed we would take up this option for our holding. John Winson would process the paperwork for us.
Some members still need to provide their choice for our new monthly competition.
Dacre suggested that we might like to consider investing in local companies such as Rok Group, Flybe etc. Members were asked to investigate such companies and come up with suggestions.
The option of holding our meetings in a fixed location instead of moving around members’ homes was discussed but it was decided to continue our present system. It was agreed that we should aim to hold our meeting on the first Friday of each month and Dacre would produce a list of proposed dates and hosts for the next 12 months at the next meeting.
Next Meeting(s)
This will be held on Friday 03 October hosted by Mike West and the November meeting on 07 November at John Winson’s.
Signed:
Date: 03 October 2003
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