Club of the Month

Wannabee IT

CHICKS: Tell us how you met and how long you've been together as a club.

WANNABEE IT: Our president and founding member, wannabee Mel (We had to make her president just because it was her idea... that's a sad excuse isn't it?... but you know what? wannabee Mel makes an excellent president and we're not looking at impeachment anytime soon!). Mel had read the story of the Chicks in a Business Edge Magazine in February 2001. She asked her sister, wannabee Bev (an older and wiser sister) and a good, long-time friend, (notice - we used long-time instead of old), wannabee Joyce, if they would be interested in forming a group. They were very enthused about the idea and everyone started thinking about whom else to invite into the wannabees.

Wannabee Mel wanted "bees" with similar personalities and yet different enough to make the group interesting. (I believe I can speak for everyone when I say that wannabee Margo is as different as they get!!!) The inquiring started and in no time at all we had 10 committed members. (Yes, committed. If you ever have a chance to meet us in person, you'll understand!) Everyone read the Chicks book, did some thinking and research and said... yahoo!! Let's go!!

Where are you located?

WIT: Well... right now, I'm sitting in the study working on the computer... oh that's not what you meant... Oops!
Five of our wannabees are located near the foothills of the Rockies where Chinook winds blow except not today! (At the time of writing this, the temperature is a cool -34º C, - that's about 29º below zero for our American friends.) As I was saying before I got a chill and ran for my slippers, five of us are from Calgary, Alberta. The other five wannabees reside in beautiful Kelowna, B.C., on the other side of the Rockies where Chinook winds don't blow but there's no need. The climate is quite nice even though it still does have some cold days.

Do you meet online, or face-to-face?

WIT: Initially four members met face-to-face to set up the rules and regulations. (Yep, these were necessary items to get the club started in the correct way.) Before we were all set up on computers, we had three meetings via telephone conferencing (ahh, the joys of technology.) We now meet on-line once a month and twice a year we have our face-to-face meetings.

Our first f2f was at Big White Ski Resort in B.C.; then we were off to Sylvan Lake, Alberta; and our up-coming f2f will be in Radium Hot Springs - not actually in the hot springs... no I take that back... probably in the hot springs! We make all of our buying decisions at our f2f and we figure, if we're all relaxed in the pool we're bound to make good decisions.

How did you come up with your club name?

WIT: Wannabee IT stands for wannabee Investment Team. Apparently, one of the "founding four" at their first formation meeting exclaimed, "yes, I wanna be it!! Of course, we were not privy to that first meeting... no, we are just lowly worker bees trying hard to please Queenbee Mel.

How has your portfolio done?

WIT: Our portfolio has done as well as, or better than the markets in these volatile times. We have made some excellent purchases that we are proud of including one that we are proud of but we're waiting for it to make a move upward - hey, we're patient. (We're in no big rush to become millionaires. Some of us wouldn't know what to do with all the extra money!!)

What's been the greatest benefit of being together as a club?

WIT: High on our list of benefits is the great people that we meet, the friendships we are building and the fun places we travel to for our f2f meetings. Researching companies, learning and gaining confidence in investing and the stock market continues to be fascinating to us. We are ever so proud of our much-improved computer competency. (We're almost true blue computer geeks now.)

What's your club's biggest challenge and what do you do about it?

WIT: Our greatest challenge was to get our members in place. Picking the right people to make a cohesive group is very important and takes a great deal of thought. Next, getting our computer stuff set up (chat room, message board, etc.) You see, we were at different levels of computer competency when we started, but we were all interested in learning and we had our "Web Goddess" to help us along!

Now our problems are minimal - getting a place to accommodate 10 people for our f2f meetings and what will we serve those Kelowna girls for breakfast? (We take turns serving each other breakfast at our f2f... man, the dedication to this team is mind-boggling isn't it?)

Any good stories to tell?

WIT: My, oh my... .where do we begin! We have so much fun! OK, we'll give you some highlights of our first f2f. You see we wanted to have pj's like the chicks, except with our mascot - bees, on them. Good idea! We had a sewing bee to make our jammies but... we couldn't sew. Well that's not true, wannabee Bev (remember that older and wiser and talented seamstress sister) was exceptional and the rest of us were sewing-challenged!! Some of the wannabees had too much time on their hands and decided it would be fun to sew up the arm holes of some pj's. "Bees" were flapping around the condo saying "I believe there's something wrong here!" (Oh yes, we are a quick bunch!) Other little entertaining moments of our first f2f were the midnight snowball fights in the bedroom while people slept (or tried to!) and watching our "pet" mouse and wisely keeping it a secret from some of the bees!

Our second f2f was equally filled with laughter and good times. On behalf of a certain bee, who enjoys wearing hats, all the bees gathered, adorned with their wackiest, tackiest and most outrageous hats, as we left our condo to go on a Dinner Cruise on Sylvan Lake. When we got to the boat, there was a problem - the dinner cruise boat had no food on board!! (Something tells me they were just jealous of our headwear and wanted us to leave!)

We made our own fun by having dancing lessons in the living room; having a golf tournament that started on the golf course and ended with a shoot-out in the kitchen (you see, we needed a tie breaker so it was off the kitchen table, through the chair legs and into the coffee can - no problem!); and using the old wives tale method of using a button on a thread to check if certain foods were good for you. As an added bonus, the button also said if we were pregnant or not! (We tried using the button to help us make stock picks but we found it to be unreliable.)

Some other things we have done include deciding to buy a gold coin for our anniversary every year; starting a scrapbook of our memories; and being a positive influence whenever we can. (We helped out at the Bell Walk - raising money for the kid's help phone line.)

One last humorous story... our first purchase was Cubist (a pharmaceutical company). It was an expensive purchase but we had confidence. We bought it at $ 34.00 US and in about a week it went down... no, it dipped... well, perhaps it dropped would be more accurate... no, actually, it dove down and down and down. We actually thought something had to be wrong with our computers. (Ahh... we were so naive and so young back then... we've come a long way baby!)

Any advice for new clubs?

WIT: Choose your members wisely - members should have the same philosophy and same outlook on the club - we are here to have fun and learn.

(OK our job is done now. I hope we are still members after this gets posted!!)