Club of the Month: May 2001

Dividends Divas

Club Members (starting on the bench, then clockwise):
Jan, Katie, Julie, Karee, Tamara, Tanya, Shannon, Chamie (on the floor). A Diva named KC is not shown.

CHICKS: How did you all get together?

DIVIDEND DIVAS: Well, Diva Katie decided to start the club after listening to Chick Jana rave about her club for years. She invited some friends and acquaintances to join and it went from there.

Where does your club meet?
We all live in the San Francisco Bay Area and meet in person once a month.

And you've been together... how long?
We started meeting in September of 2000 and officially became a partnership in November of 2000.

Would you accept any new members?
We have all voted and agreed on 10 members maximum. Right now we have 9 members, having just added 2 new members in February. Yes we are open to adding 1 more member.

What prompted you to start the club?
As stated above Diva Katie and Chick Jana have been friends forever. Katie loved hearing about the Chicks and what they were doing and how much they were learning about the stock market and investing. She finally got her act together with much prompting from Diva Shannon and decided to give it a go, and it’s great!!

Dividend Divas -- How did you come up with that name?
Everyone submitted a suggestion and then we voted. A friend that decided she couldn’t join actually came up with the name. The runners up were the San Francisco Skirts and the Bay Area Betty’s.

How are your stocks performing?
Right now we own EMC and Starbucks. We're getting slammed hard on our EMC purchase, but Starbucks is holding steady. We are currently researching the biotech, digital radio, and cosmetics (retail) industries for our next purchase.

What do you think is the greatest benefit of being part of your club?
The new found freedom of navigating around the financials and learning how to do research on a specific company. Besides that we get to eat great food every time we meet. Our meetings started out with snacks but now whoever is hosting goes all out and prepares a fantastic dinner.

Okay... We always like to hear the funny stories. You got one?
Picture Day -- At our December meeting we all brought out our calendars and Palm Pilots and tried to come up with a Saturday or Sunday that everyone could meet on. The plan was to have our monthly meeting over brunch in the Marina and walk outside and have our picture taken with Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.

WELLLL as you can imagine it was difficult enough to come up with a date (we normally meet on the first Monday evening of the month). We had to reschedule a few times. When we did finally meet on March 4th one member never made it because her car got trapped in the driveway by her MIA roommate. The rest of us made it but by the time we finished brunch it was pouring rain outside. We got so frustrated we just stepped outside into the parking lot (between all of these old Fort Mason warehouses) and had someone take our picture under umbrellas, in the rain and standing in puddles. Needless to say the picture didn’t come out too well. We wound up taking another photo at our April meeting sans KC who had a class that night. Whew! We hope you like the picture! We are submitting both pictures to the Chicks so they can at least see we tried to do something special and unique to San Francisco for their cool website.

What has been your greatest problem running the club?
Two things.First we had three members drop out, but that was at the beginning so it was ok, since they realized they just couldn’t make the commitment. Finding quality people that really want to make this work for the long haul, it wasn’t easy but now we have a solid group.

Second, realizing that there is so much to learn, sometimes we feel overwhelmed on where to start or where to go next. We have decided to keep to the basics then branch out from there.

Any advice for other clubs?
For those of you starting out, if you have members drop out it’s OK. In fact it is better because then you know the people who do stay are committed and will contribute. Keep your meetings organized and stick to the agenda. Most important, have fun and remember that you are there to learn together.