Minutes of the May meeting held on 6th May 2001

Present:

Julian Kern

Terry Emmony

Phil Jones

Roy Brown

Andrew Smillie

Debbie McDonnell

Apologies:

Steve Spence

Peter Sweeney

Julie Grundy

Cynthia Brooke

Ann Nurse

Mike Arkless

Di Lane

Rod Wood

Ron Pierce

Paul Holden

1) Terry has posted the monthly position on the ExEC website for you all to view.

After falling to a marginal loss last month we are now showing a 5% profit again, an improvement of 6.9% in the month.

Last month's investments have done well, Avon up 12%, Carlton up 13%, Energis up 15%and Thus have moved up to 62p

2) We decided against selling any shares, but to watch Psion, Computacenter and Wiggins for next month.

3) With the £500 to invest we had a couple of recommendations:

Tertiary minerals, Coates Vyella, Iceland, BT and P&O Princess

We decided to invest in Iceland, and to watch Tertiary minerals for next month.

4) Terry has now get the ExEC website up and running.

If you have not had the email telling you about it, I've pasted it here with the instructions on how to access it.

Hello everybody,

As you may have seen from Phil's last set of minutes, I have been working on a web site for the club and it is now at a stage where we can start using it - the address is www.execinvestments.co.uk.

The web site will improve the frequency and variety of information about our performance in terms of unit valuation etc but also make it easier for everybody to contribute to the running of the club and have a say in the investment decisions if attendance of meetings is difficult. It should also enable us to be more responsive to developments between meetings.

Below is a brief outline of the site:

    Entry is password controlled so only members will have access. The "username" is BGEC and password is Centrica13. the system is case-sensitive so type these in exactly as written here.

The menu that appears has the following options:

Latest Unit Valuation - a daily report on the value of our portfolio. (It may not be done every day though!) The Company names contain links to their web sites.

Price changes last week

Monthly valuation - the valuation that I've been giving to you once a month.

Discussion/gossip area - our very own bulletin board. There are some "topics"set up that you can contribute to either by adding to an existing "thread" or starting one of your own. These probably should be mostly investment related but (more or less) anything goes and if there's some gossip that you want to share, feel free.

Add useful links - an area where we can share our favourite web links with the group. Simply select add a link to add your own to the most appropriate category.

Diary - Upcoming dates that are of interest to the group. This page has the facility to write to Phil and tell him whether or not you plan to come to the next meeting, and if you want lunch etc. (After typing your name, you are just 3 clicks from sending the message).

I hope you will find the site interesting and useful. Of course any suggestions for additions/improvements will be gratefully received.

I also hope that we will make full use of it not only to become a better investing group but also so that we can have more interaction than just at the monthly meeting.

Terry.

5) Roy brought an article about a competition for investment clubs asking whether we wanted to enter it next year.

Details are on the website discussion board.

The question also came up about whether we might want to diversify our portfolio and invest in a bond, and not just shares.

Bonds offer semi guaranteed returns, and are meant to be held for a specific period of time, can be in specific companies or portfolios. Please let me have your thoughts on investing say £1000 in a bond in the future.

Next meeting 12.30 on Sunday 3rd June at the Griffin unless suitable alternative location is suggested. Please advise me of attendance numbers prior to that.

Regards,

Phil