| Note: You must be a StockCentral subscriber and logged in to post messages. |
|
|
| Author |
Messages |
|
Amy Rauch Neilson
 |
| 08/29/2008 11:21 AM |
|
Dan Vitez echoes a saying that’s long been my mantra: No one cares as much about your money as you do. That became crystal clear to him about two years ago, when he wanted to take the money he had saved for retirement and invest it. “I dealt with several investment advisers, but I felt that they didn’t have my best interests in mind,” he says. “They were driven by commissions, and that frustrated me.”
Then, while meeting with a client for the landscape design company he owns, the subject of investment clubs came up. His curiosity piqued, Dan went online that evening and Googled the topic. The Crow River Investment Club came up on the search engine. “I couldn’t believe it – the club was located just five miles from my house,” Dan recalls.
The rest, as they say, is history. Dan contacted the club and, in March 2007, became a member of the Crow River Investment Club in Minneapolis, Minn. “I am so lucky to have been able to join a club with a member as knowledgeable as Lynn Ostrem,” he says of the club’s vice president.
Stroke of Luck
Club members think they’re pretty lucky, too. “Dan is a great addition to our club,” Lynn says. “Though he’s been challenged by the learning experience, he is advancing fairly quickly and, just as importantly, he's very positive and optimistic.”
Dan, who attributes much of his success as a member of the club to its active mentoring program and Lynn’s willingness to make herself available to answer his questions any day, any time, offers these tips for clubs who want to successfully mentor new club members:
- Match Veterans with Newbies – and Get Started
“This is huge,” Dan says. “A lot of the tools that investment clubs use are, at first, overwhelming to new members. It’s important for the club to pair veterans with newbies so that they can sit down together and start with the basics.
“How they do that is up to each individual club, but I’d suggest starting by familiarizing newbies with the basic investment tools. Many investment clubs use Toolkit and the Stock Selection Guide – both of which can be intimidating to a new investor. A mentor can sit down with a newbie and show him or her where those numbers come from."
- Teach Them What the Numbers Mean
“Show them not only how to find the information, but what the numbers mean,” Dan says. “I remember the first time I saw a Value Line report or a Stock Selection Guide. I could stare at it for hours and not have a clue about what I was looking at.
“A newbie needs to understand where those numbers are coming from and what they mean – sales, growth, and earnings. Once they understand those two things, it’ll take the intimidation out of the tools and help them to establish a basic level of confidence.”
One-on-one is the best way. “In order for a newbie to understand the Stock Selection Guide – to take the fear out of the SSG – he or she needs to sit down with a mentor and complete three or four Guides. They need to be able to take it step by step.”
It’s important for clubs to realize that these are goals that must be addressed outside of the club’s regular monthly meeting format. “If the only education you get as a newbie is during the two hours a month that the club meets, you can get dusted really quickly,” Dan says.
- Set Goals and Milestones
One of the best ways to help a newbie make progress is by setting goals to meet and milestone to hit along the way. “Those goals can be anything from completing an SSG on their own to joining one of the club’s outside committees.”
- Provide Guidance
It’s key to not only mentor newbies, but to provide guidance. “A prospective new member is required to attend our club’s meetings for three months before joining the club in month four,” Dan explains. “For those first three months, everything is laid out for them. But for the fourth month, the question is: Will they know what to do – how they should prepare for a club meeting?”
Dan says the Crow River Investment Club is creating a checklist for new members that would be available on the club’s website. “Newbies want to be prepared for the club’s meetings – but they need to learn how to prepare,” Dan says. “The checklist would provide a simple guide – such as print off stock reports, upload the updated club library to Toolkit, print off the club’s agenda for the month. Newbies need some guidance on how to prepare for club meetings so that they won’t be left in the dust.”
- Require Club Members and Newbies to Take an Active Role
“In order for the mentoring system to work, both club members and newbies have to be willing to participate,” Dan says. “Neither party can be sitting on the sidelines.”
Six months ago – about a year after he joined the club – Dan became a member of the club’s Portfolio Management Team. “Newbies should be required to take an active role in the club beyond that of club member,” Dan says.
- Teach Them to Look Outside the Club
In addition, newbies need to be aware that they likely will not learn all they need to know within the framework of the club. “A club’s mentoring program may be awesome, but new club members also have to be willing to look outside of the club,” Dan says. “Taking classes online, via StockCentral or Manifest Investing – even our club’s website has classes, as do other clubs. As a newbie, don’t just sit there and wait for someone to hold your hand and help you to move forward.”
Room for Improvement
Though the Crow River Investment Club has a pretty solid mentoring plan in place, there’s always room for improvement. “We’d like to put a more formal mentoring program in place,” Dan says. “Right now, the relationship is more or less based on our club’s mentors answering newbies’ questions as they come up. But, if your club has an influx of new members, that’s not necessarily a good system. Newbies can fall through the cracks.”
The system also fails if a newbie isn’t willing to do his or her part. “Newbies have to be willing to ask questions,” Dan says. “In my own investment education, Lynn has been a driving force. If I don’t understand how to set preferences on Toolkit or I get stuck on anything, I pick up the phone and call her and she’ll walk me through it. Just as with anything in life, what you put into it is what you’re going to get out of it.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Note: You must be a StockCentral subscriber and logged in to post messages. |
|
|
|
ActiveForums 3.7
|