The Club Hub: Investment Club Learning Center

Learn how to start and run a successful investment club from Doug Gerlach, America's Investment Club Expert. Doug, the author of five books (including Investment Clubs for Dummies), has helped tens of thousands of clubs and their members to become smarter investors using sound, long-term stock investing strategies and common-sense guidelines for club operations. The "Club Hub" is a complete library of articles on starting and running an investment club written by Doug and his fellow club experts.

EXCELLENT addition to the site!!!

I agree - this is an excellent resource adding the link to Stock Central.  Good stuff!!

Hi, Francine!

First of all, welcome to StockCentral.  We're happy to have you here, and I hope that you'll return often, participate in discussions, ask questions, etc.

Second, you should know that StockCentral is NOT NAIC/BetterInvesting.  ICLUBcentral, the company that owns StockCentral, has a relationship with NAIC/BI.  ICLUBcentral creates software for clubs and investors, and much of their software is sold through NAIC/BI.  But, ICLUBcentral has other products and services.  This site and the Online Club Accounting service are two of them.  The "Club Hub" at the iclub.com web site is intended to be a source of information for club, club members, and other investors.  It does not offer a referral service for clubs or prospective club members.

I'm aware of the NAIC/BI "Find a Club" program.  I don't believe that there is any online forum that supports the Find a Club program.  NAIC/BI does host a few mailing lists, but they aren't official NAIC outlets.  There is also an NAIC/BI Forum at Compuserve.

But, feel free to use this site and our forums for your education and information exchange.  We'll welcome your participation!

Hi Ken, I was in a club for ten years served as treasurer for four, and it seems this is almost a certainty. At one point we just had to sit down and remind everybody that we are adults here, no one has the responsibility to look after you, it is not the treasurers job to seek payment. the treasurer should only receive and deposit and take care of the books.

Remind members that if they are not going to make a meeting be sure to send payments with someone. Get the agenda out as early as possible so there won't be the excuse of forgetting.  We used to put at the top of the agenda "Have your check prepared and include the acct. number on the memo line" This stopped people from not paying attention to the beginning of the meeting and passing papers back and forth and talking over whomever was speaking.

At the end of the year when we went over next years goals we also added "No Late Pays" as a goal. We had everyone sign on, once the goals were established.

Most of all remind the members that you are busy enough without having to take on e the duties of collections enforcement. Treat it like a business, pay on time, if they are not able to keep their word ask if they think this, the club,  is the right place for them. Good luck Ken

We stressed that the dues were due at the time of the meeting. We had a set meeting time every month so there should be no surprises. Usually the treasurer recorded the deposits and mailed the checks off the next day, we had a 48 hr deposit rule. Another reason is, we looked at it as costing the club money by not having all of our cash in our account. (I know it was a minimal amount).

Hello Danny,

Thanks for the heads up on this situation.

Ken

Hello Gene,

I do appreciate your time and effort spent in responding to my concerns.

Ken

Is there some way to get sample Partnership Agreements from other clubs or organizations?

My club has been together for about 12 years and we are currently undergoing a complete overhaul of our Partnership Agreement. We've added amendments over time, but we're finding our document in general to be a bit outdated. I've been perusing forums and that's really helpful. We need fresh information and insights.

Thanks for any suggestions or information.

Cindy
Minneapolis

Cindy, the very first entry in this forum from Doug gives the link to his resources for starting and running a club at IClub.   Here is the direct link:  http://www.iclub.com/clubs/iclub_hub.asp

You will find among the topics a sample PA and ByLaws.  Also, I'd be happy to send you a copy of our club's documents if you write me at  GeneRooks@cfl.rr.com

You are wise to review and update your PA, things change in the club's priorities, and sometimes the original PA has outmoded language and policies in some areas.

Gene Rooks