In Focus

Don't Assume the Cheese-Head is Down

Chicks Make Mistakes Too, Part 2
by Chick Karin

I don't know if any of you watch Monday Night Football, but this past Monday night the Green Bay Packers took on the Minnesota Vikings. (I'm a huge Vikings fans, so be careful what you say or I'll send my Governor after ya.) It was an unbelievable game. The score went back and forth all four quarters and it ended up going into overtime. Green Bay won the toss (in football terms, that's the coin flip), and they got the first possession of the ball.

Are you on the edge of your seat yet? (Stick with me, it will relate to an investment club mistake in a sec.)

The Cheese-heads were getting close to the end zone, but it was raining so hard that throwing the ball into the air was risky. But, Green Bay did just that. Brett Favre threw the ball. My chicken wings were making their way up from my stomach. The Packer's receiver Antonio Freeman slipped on the wet grass and fell down. Minnesota's Cris Dishman was able to jump up and tip the ball, sending it to the ground. Then, the little curd of a grass-sniffer Freeman had the ball hit him on the shoulder, bounce off his chest and end up in his hand, without even touching the ground! All this while he was LYING on the field. Can you say "fluke not in my favor?" I assumed the ball would hit the ground, and so did the Viking defender Dishman. He thought the play was over.

Freeman got up, with the ball in his hand, and ran in for a touchdown. Green Bay wins, in Overtime. My chicken wings returned to my mouth.

Well, believe it or not, it's one of those lessons that you should carry over to your investment club. (Not the "stick to mild chicken wings if the game is important" rule, but that's a good rule too.) Don't assume anything. The Chicks have made various assumptions since our inception, and 90% were wrong. Here are some of them.

Don't assume your President is organized. She needs help.

Don't assume what you think has been decided at a meeting has been. It probably hasn't. Make sure you speak up DURING the meeting and say something like, "So, what we just discussed and voted on was this, (state what you think occurred). Correct?" If you have any doubt, put it into your own words and re-state. What has happened to the Chicks time and time again is that we combine too many points into one motion, and the waters get cloudy. To be clear, state each point separately, make a motion, vote on it, and then be sure your secretary gets that down.

Don't assume your secretary actually gets it down. Have her repeat it.

Don't assume your secretary can keep track of five conversations. She can't. Even if you are having a side conversation with three other girls and have a brilliant idea that needs to be incorporated into the club, you need to share it with the group. It has happened that Chick Jana and I will have a conversation on the phone, and a month later, I swear that as a club we voted and passed on it in a meeting. Then I find out we never even brought it up - we just thought we had.

Don't assume the meeting minutes are correct. Read the minutes as soon as you receive them. This is how you will find out if your point was not clear, or a motion was incorrectly made, voted on, or interpreted by the secretary. Minutes are not official until the next meeting, so there is time to correct them.

Don't assume that your tone is conveyed in an email. We have had many emails or message boards posts that were misinterpreted because someone's joke didn't come across, or another's bluntness came across as rude. Which brings me to my next point.

Don't be upset if you do misinterpret the tone of an email or post. It happens and that is the nature of written communication. Just contact the sender or poster and ask them their intent. I pretty much say, "Are you mad about something or did I just read that wrong?"

Don't assume someone has tallied the votes correctly. This would be the President's job and sometimes she is not very good at tallying. (Okay, I have never been good at addition.) Tally the votes along with the President. (This mistake goes back to Chick "Rhymes with Chlorine" blunder of yesterday.)

Don't assume that you've paid the treasurer. Ask her. The Treasurer gets tired of notifying everyone of impending tardiness. Best idea, write out a year's worth of checks, post-date them, and be free of the hassle.

Don't assume that you won't get caught if you copy and paste copyrighted material. Eventually, you will. As soon as the Internet lawyers find you, you're dead. It's always best to summarize an article that relates to your investment, and then link (paste the URL address) into your post. Besides, you learn more this way.

Now that we know how important it is NOT to assume, could I just assume that everyone is a Vikings Fan and will join with me in saying, "The Green Bay Packers are not worthy?"