Minutes of the semi-annual meeting held on 28 January 2006

All 6 members were present, with Daniel in the chair and John writing the minutes.

1. A career development grant of £500 for Joseph was agreed to.

2. An immediate top-up investment in the F&C MultiManager Growth Accumulator Fund of £300 was agreed, plus a further £150 every quarter.

3. No new rules for buying and selling stock would be put into operation, but Daniel would operate the Frequent Trader Account to benefit from short-term market swings.

4. We agreed to sell our holding in Vodaphone which was showing an overall loss of 27% and falling, and to double our speculative holding in African Platinum which was showing positive signs.

5. We agreed to a new investment of £1000 in Google.

6. An annual PIC Charity was instituted, to which we would give some of our profits and do some fund-raising. It would raise our awareness of charitable/developmental issues and be a focus for some joint activity. For 2005-06 it was agreed to support the development of a rural health centre near Aira in Ethiopia that Janet had visited recently, and we aim to raise $1000 by July. Two members offered personal donations. See progress on "Our Charitable activities" page.

Report for December 2005

December was another decent month with the FTSE100 rising 3% and our portfolio rising 2%. The Unit Value is now at 109.5, a 1% rise on the month.

Best performers in the month were WPP (up 11%) and Tesco (up 8%), with BHP Billiton and Severn Trent not far behind.

Since the July AGM Vodaphone have fallen by 14% and we need to prepare to make a decision soon about selling these shares. Apart from O2 (which appears here for the last time), there have been strong performances in the half-year from BHP Billiton and Speedy Hire. African Platinum has had a few wobbles, and has yet to show its true potential.

And 2006 is looking good already!