Minutes of the Annual General Meeting s2

Minutes of the Executive Meeting

Wednesday February 9th, 2011 5:00 – 6:30pm

bcIMC 2940 Jutland Road, Victoria BC

Present:8 CFA Victoria Executive members were present for the meeting, with one guest attendee.

1. Review and Approval of the Minutes

· Minutes of the CFA Victoria Executive Meeting: November 17th, 2010 moved by Andrew Shortreid, seconded by Gord Walker and approved.

2. Programming – Donna Jones, CFA

· Dr. Jane Buchan – Feb 2 luncheon cancelled due to low turnout (7-10 confirmed). Yan Lyesin indicated that Paypal reimbursements had been done. Yan also indicated that Paypal fees for charges were not reimbursed. Likely this speaker was scheduled too close to the Forecast dinner, as the speaker is highly respected and generally draws good attendance.

· Upcoming Speakers:

o Andrew Heitzman – Investeco.

o Craig Alexander – March 29/31 – Anna - TBC

o April 26/28 speaker ideas:

o Stephen Jen, Blue Gold

o Stephen Reynolds

o Malcolm Hamilton

o Mark Carney – June 15, VBOT - TBC

o Possible presentation by Jaidev Iyer on risk management on March 16th (14th Seattle, 15th Vancouver). Donna suggested we may want to not have this speaker this time.

· A discussion ensued about other potential speakers, even broadening the topics to include topics not directly related to investment management (e.g. Int’l politics). Donna indicated that she understood that Robert Brown, former head of Canadian Actuary Society has moved to Victoria, and may be an interesting speaker.

· Upcoming Pacific Northwest Regional Economic Conference(PNREC) May 12-13 http://www.pnrec.org/. Chris Lawless, moderator of the forecast dinner, is organizing the event. Notice of this conference to be distributed through CFA Victoria distribution list and we will also allow for Paypal payments through CFA Victoria.

· Partnership with PRNEC:

o CFA Victoria provided all necessary information to integrate our PayPal account into PRNEC's registration system.

o Completed initial test for system integration

o PRNEC web-site is live now.

o first PayPal payment received on Feb 03, and information forwarded to PRNEC organizers.

o Waiting for official PRNEC brochure to evaluate possibility of awarding PD credits and distribute to membership (Donna Jones).

· Forecast dinner Feedback from the forecast dinner was generally positive. The event may have lost $1000 due to loss of sponsorship revenue this year. Marriott was great, but cocktail reception space is too tight. We may have to look at other venues (Delta or Empress). Food was generally well received, there were a number of organizational challenges: one protein option (steak) vs. holding costs down of having more options and not knowing if attendees require a vegetarian meal or have dietary restrictions as attendees are largely organized by those purchasing tables. It was suggested that going forward the notice should indicate clearly that attendees must provide notice of vegetarian or dietary restrictions in advance. Wine sponsor bottle labels were difficult to read– limiting effectiveness of having them on the table. Chris Lawless did a great job as moderator, but given Chris has done it for two years straight, we should consider that we might want to change it up for next year. Also a panel style might be preferable to individual speaker presentations.

3. Treasury – Patrick Ngo, CFA

· Review completed and circulated to the Board. Patrick was going to wait a week to allow for review and comment before considering the review final.

· Patrick will follow up on reporting requirements of the Society under legislation/regulation.

· Accounting software working well, although Paypal is difficult to reconcile with the accounts. Patrick reconciles cheques and statements to ensure everything is up-to-date. Canceled cheques are no longer provided, but confirmation that cheques cleared is provided along with monthly statements.

· Cash at the end of January is $60,000. Job posting revenue from CFA Vancouver was several thousand and covered a period of time.

· Patrick is exploring ING high interest savings account, and believes the controls are adequate as funds can only be transferred to and from the TD account which requires two signatures for withdrawals. Current interest rate is 1.25% plus an incentive program currently underway.

4. Public Awareness – Andrew Shortreid, CFA for Trent Moore, CFA

· Level 2 funding for a marketing strategy was approved for $5000. A discussion ensued about whom the strategy was targeting, what the goals were and establishing effectiveness. Andrew explained the strategy came out of the strategy session, and is intended as a three year plan. The first year it to conduct a survey and establish a marketing strategy, the second would be to implement and at the end of the third year we would conduct another survey to determine effectiveness. We need to engage someone shortly as the funding needs to be spent by Aug. 31st

· A question on what Level 1 and Level 2 funding from the institute arose. Andrew explained that Level 1 funding was lump sum and covered previous funding by allocation (programs, public awareness, etc.). Level 2 funding had to be applied for and was intended for specific projects on a cost sharing arrangement with the local society.

5. Membership - Millie Chow, CFA

· Membership survey: Formulated “hit” list for membership survey obtained by CFA Calgary society.

· Millie has identified 55 names of individuals to be contacted, to be divided up among board members.

· Current membership is 93 as some people have not renewed.

· Approved new members: Jerod Ayres, Shane Leech-Porter

· Sent welcome letters and lunch invitations to: Stephanie Andrew, Jerod Ayres, Shane Leech-Porter, Merv Miller and Joe Goodburn.

· Questions arose about membership and getting them to be more active and attend events. Events downtown and during lunch hours challenging for some members, suggestion of brown bag lunches or holding events outside of normal market hours. Also cross-promotion with other designations such as CFP, CGA/CA events and getting educational credits. Suggested to contact Candace regarding education credits, webcasts and cross-promotion of events.

6. Education – Rob Bennett, CFA

· Scholarships Program: CFA Victoria has selected 10 candidates from Victoria to receive scholarships from CFA Institute for the June exams. The ten were selected from 18 applicants, and the scholarships will be used to reduce enrolment and registration costs for each recipient to $US 245 (a value of up to $US 1,175). Thanks to Pamela Russell with for organizing the scholarship program this year.

· Investment Research Challenge: The teams, including UVic’s have submitted their written reports and graders have graded them. Amarjit (AJ) Grewal from bcIMC served as grader nominated by CFA Victoria. The teams are now preparing their presentations, which will be given in Vancouver on March 5. Andrew Shortreid has volunteered to be one of the judges. Practice exam: Preparations are underway for a 2011 practice exam. Steve Turner with bcIMC has agreed to help.

· Malaspina MBA students are interested in attending CFA events and potentially having someone come up to speak to them. Approximately 15-20 are interested in the designation.

· March 1st – Bcomm – Banking/Finance event. Andrew Hoge attending on behalf of the CFA Society.

· CFA practice exam – Dropping the fee from $60 to $50 to try and increase participation. Free ticket for scholarship candidates, and to be held 4-6 weeks in advance of the meeting.

7. Technology – Yan Lyesin, CFA

· Social Media and CFA institute. Yan indicated that the institute was interested in pursuing social media (Seee Below on Stewart Mader) and having local societies participate. Yan would like to set up LinkedIn profile for the local CFA Victoria Society. There would be no initial costs and Yan expressed a desire to pursue, and Executive approved.

o Stewart Mader

- Stewart Mader was recently hired as a Director, Social and Online tools at CFAI.

- During SLC meeting in Sep 2010, I asked institute about their vision and guidance on using social networks as an outreach channel.

- Stewart Mader contacted me on Jan 26 and offered to participate in pilot project related to CFA Victoria presence on LinkedIn and integration with CFAI LinkedIn company page.

- Phone call with Stewart Mader is scheduled for 8am on Feb 09, 2011 and I will provide update during the meeting.

8. Other – Andrew Shortreid, CFA

· Millie Chow and Rob Bennett to attend SLC in New Orleans.

· Newsletter – Gord Walker proposed a contest to name the Newsletter with a prize of $100 in form of a restaurant gift certificate. Executive agreed it was a good idea.

9. Adjournment