NAAIM Newsletter
President’s Letter
June 2008
NAAIM has incredible power that is just waiting to be tapped. I am just beginning to appreciate that fact.
The light bulbs came on in February when listening to Search Engine Optimization wizard Mark McFall talk at the Marketing Cram Session. Mark commented on how a member’s link to the NAAIM web site is a big factor in search engine rankings due to NAAIM’s longevity, the traffic on our site, and the fact that we are a dot-org rather than a dot-com.
It occurred to me that the NAAIM franchise carries with it a lot of authority and we have only scratched the surface in exercising it. I intend to mine that resource to increase the visibility and value of our organization within the industry with a series of projects each of which alone has the capability to put NAAIM on the map. Executing them all will move NAAIM from being an undiscovered gem to being one of the most respected and sought after organizations in the industry.
Our first effort in this direction was to publish the NAAIM That Trend Survey of Manager Sentiment this past winter, and have seen a steady pick up in interest in it as awareness increases. On June 10th, Schaeffer’s Investment Research posted a nice write-up about the survey on their site. You can see it at http://tinyurl.com/schaeffers.
We are gearing up to publish a second tool, the NAAIM Index of Actively Managed Funds. NAAIM members who manage an equity fund will be eligible to have their funds included in the Index. My vision is that this new Index will both promote both NAAIM and active management at the same time. Ron Rowland is spearheading this effort, so if you are coming out with a new fund, please let Ron know.
Jerry Wagner has proposed holding an annual Academic Symposium where NAAIM will award a significant prize, perhaps $10,000, for the best paper supporting active management. It is possible that our winners each year can be nominated for the Nobel Prize for Economics. If you have a doctorate we will want you on this committee. Please let Susan know if you have a PhD and would like to help on this exciting project.
Greg Morris has agreed to begin compiling a Library of tools and resources relating to active management on our website. The sales tools will be kept on the private, members only side of the site, but a glossary and library of white papers may be made public. This looks like this will become a terrific resource for NAAIM members as time goes on. If you have material related to active management that you would like to share, please forward them to Greg Morris or Susan at the NAAIM office.
Any member who has been to a NAAIM conference can appreciate the unique synergy created when members get together and start sharing and brainstorming. Wanting more of this, a group of members from Ohio and Michigan have been getting together at a central location for a networking session. I hear they have a great time at these monthly meetings.
That area of the country has a high concentration of members with few drop outs and growing assets bases. This is a healthy bunch of members and I think the existence of their regional group is a significant factor. As a result, NAAIM wants to replicate this group in other areas of the country.
To help make this happen, NAAIM has just subscribed to RIA Database, which allows us to create lists of RIA firms by zip code if we want. Non-member firms can be invited to get a taste of NAAIM at these regional meetings, and can be encouraged to join if they want to continue participating. If you have a few other members within driving distance to form the critical mass of a new regional group, and would like to start one in your area, contact Susan at the NAAIM office and we will help you by emailing or snail mailing invitations for you. 3 or 4 committed members is all it takes to make a group work.
This is going to be an exciting year in NAAIM. Contact me if you have ideas or comments.
Will Hepburn
President
