Steps to Starting An Investment Club

STEP 8  Set Up A Message Board

Whether you’re just thinking about starting an investment club or you already have one in place, there are some questions you may be asking yourself about the Message Boards offered here at Chickslayingnesteggs.com:

Great questions! I couldn’t have done better myself. Oh wait, I guess I did. Silly me! Okay, let’s begin. I’ll answer these questions in the order you asked, oops, I mean I asked.

Why is a message board important to your club?

A message board is an essential communication tool for any club. The Internet is full of them! Our message board is one of the reasons the Chicks have been so successful. We can each write (post*) information about a company we’ve recently heard about or ask the other members questions. We can also let everyone know what’s been going on with each of our lives. All of this can be done when it’s convenient for each member. Great huh? Chick Susie can login, read and post at 2:00 am when her biorhythms are working the best. Chick Julie can log in at 2:00 pm when there’s a lull at the golf course, Chick Jeanette can log in right after church on Sunday morning and tell everyone about the sermon they missed. I think you get the picture.

If we were meeting in person and each bringing an article to edit or our research notes, that would be ten women reporting at one sitting. How boring is that? There’s not enough wine or brownies to keep my interest for that long! That’s why a message board works so well. You can have your brownie and eat it too, only you can space out that brownie throughout the day. A nibble and read in the morning, a nibble and a post in the afternoon and oh, what the heck, I’ll have the rest of the pan with my wine at 11:00 pm while I catch up on everything.

How Do You Get a Message Board?

It’s easy! You can use our website. Here’s how it works. First, think of a name for your club. That’s because the name of your club is usually the name of your message board. Log onto our site and from our homepage, go to Meeting Place. From there click on Start a Message Board.

Follow the prompts there. You’ll need to decide whether you want your Message Board to be Private or Public. A private message board is just what you think it is, no one (besides The Chicks) can see it, so it’s for your eyes only. On a public message board, anybody can read and post if they want to.

Why would you choose one over the other? It’s up to you! If you have a private message board you wouldn’t get anybody outside your club jumping in and saying hello or giving their two cents about a stock or company your club is researching. Sometimes that two cents is worth a whole quarter; sometimes it’s not even worth a penny. On the other hand, if your club enjoys newcomers popping in and saying hello and putting in those two cents, a Public Message board is the way to go. Can you see which one the Chicks prefer? The Chicks choose to have more input on everything. We’re kind of crazy like that; we think more is better. Again, it’s a decision for your club to make, so start thinking about it.

If your club decides to create a private message board, you are asked to list all the members that can read and post on the board. Your club members will need to register ahead of time, so you can list them on the private message board.

You’re then asked to give a brief description of the club. Check out the Meeting Place and see what the other clubs have done. I’m sure you can come up with something just as creative.

Once that’s complete, click on submit. You’ll see a confirmation on-line that says your Message Board has been requested. The Message Board Setter-Upper (That would be me!) receives the notification and sets it up for you. I’ll then send you an e-mail telling you that it’s ready to go and you can post away!

Are there any rules to the message board?

As a club, you make up your own message board rules. For the Chicks investment club, we recommend posting at least one investment related post a week and require that everyone read and keep up with the message board twice a week. That works for us. You decide what you want your rules to be.

Our website does have a few rules and when you become a registered user, you agree to them. Here’s the link if you’d like to review them.

I think that’s it, chickies! You now know why a message board is so important to an investment club, how to get one and how to use it. Now go ahead and get your club a message board and start asking your own questions and stop reading mine. Go on, your club members are waiting.

*Post - type a message then save it to a message board. It’s there forever for everyone to read.