Page 1 of 2

Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:37 pm
by Indices
Maybe we could have an annual Permanent Portfolio convention?

Just a thought.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:41 pm
by KevinW
Interesting idea.  Though I worry about the logistics with things like this.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 2:54 pm
by moda0306
If I realize my dream of being a self-employed tax preparer and financial planner by then, I might just be able to write the trip off.

I vote yes.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 3:00 pm
by Indices
Where would we hold it? I vote MediumTex's house. I think it's a cabin out in the woods, so there would be a lot space. He has a chainsaw to clear any trees as well.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 3:00 pm
by HB Reader
I might attend, depending on time and place.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 7:52 pm
by Odysseusa
I like this idea. How about in Southern California?

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:05 pm
by MediumTex
If we're throwing out ideas, how about Tahiti?

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 8:39 pm
by Verto
A annual meeting sounds fun!


Bahamas?

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:22 pm
by Indices
Ok maybe we could have a video conference instead? Traveling might be too difficult but surely a video conference could easily be achieved. There's a lot to discuss.

Even if that is not possible we could easily set up a chat room and meet once a month. Those are ridiculously easy to set up. Privacy would still be maintained and technical difficulties related to video avoided.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:26 pm
by TripleB
I like it. I'd suggest just having the first one be reasonably informal. See how the group dynamics work and the topics of interest to discuss. Then base a semi-formal meeting the following year based off the results of the first. By the 3rd or 4th year we can hold it in a hotel that rents out a small room for 50 people and have admission fees cover the rental. Then potentially get a larger and larger venue each year.

To be completely honest, I don't think it's a terrific idea unless we expand to libertarian principles because how much can we really say about the PP, year after year? The senior people won't want to sit in on hour long talks on the basis of the PP or the asset classes. The "new" people won't know we exist or if they do, won't be willing to fork over money for it.

Perhaps we could do a year-round up where we discuss news regarding ETFs that hold Gold, and go over prospectuses on where they hold their gold, etc. That would probably only be about 1 hour total. Then what would we talk about?

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:28 pm
by Indices
I think branching out to Libertarian principles is a surefire way of turning people off from the portfolio. The portfolio works regardless of your political affiliation. It's not very libertarian in that 50 per cent of it uses government bonds anyway.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 9:44 pm
by MediumTex
For some reason, I have this picture of a meeting room in a hotel full of more or less regular looking guys standing around making small talk while wearing leather chaps.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:04 pm
by Verto
Just MT in leather chaps and vest at the front of the room. The rest of us waiting on his every comman-err... word.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 10:15 pm
by MediumTex
Verto wrote: Just MT in leather chaps and vest at the front of the room. The rest of us waiting on his every comman-err... word.
Nothing says "I know what I'm talking about" like a vest and leather chaps.

Welcome to the first annual Permanent Portfolio enthusiasts' jamboree.

Image

Musical guests will include the Village People and Rob Halford playing songs off his new solo album.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:15 am
by smurff
Don't forget those of us up north, who have to wear fur-lined chaps with down vests.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:37 am
by AdamA
I love conventions, but I'm not sure what we'd do...

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:57 am
by MediumTex
Adam1226 wrote: I love conventions, but I'm not sure what we'd do...
We would probably just look at each other and marvel at how much less interesting we look in person than we do in avatar form.

That's the thing that's sort of fun and weird about getting to know people from the inside out--you see the mask at the very end of the process (if at all).  In real life the process typically happens in reverse.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 2:01 am
by smurff
Adam1226 wrote: I love conventions, but I'm not sure what we'd do...
We could converge on a bar to drink whiskey and shoot pool. 

We could play a version of PP Jeopardy:  Winner gets a silver coin.  (I thought about a game of Texas Hold'em, but then realized many investors in the PP might not be as into gambling as they are into drinking whiskey.)

We could also invite guest speakers, provided they're willing to be seen in public with us:  the folks at PRPFX, various financial bloggers/writers who recommend the PP, friends/relatives of HB, etc.  We could invite two economists (an Austrian and a Keynesian) and have them go against each other in a ring.  Or at least, have them take sides on an economic/monetary issue in a formal debate.

If we tag along with another financial conference, lots of the convention infrastructure (discounted hotel rooms, meet and greets, etc.) will already have been arranged.  The speakers we might be interested in hearing from might be there already.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 7:43 am
by Storm
We could crash a Bogleheads meet up and start gushing about the inflation protecting properties of gold...  ;D

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 8:25 am
by moda0306
Storm, consider your comment "liked."

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:34 am
by MediumTex
Storm wrote: We could crash a Bogleheads meet up and start gushing about the inflation protecting properties of gold...   ;D
We could set up a cabin tent in the foyer outside the BH meeting room and call it the PP convention headquarters.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 9:45 am
by HB Reader
Each year we could award the winner of the Suicide Portfolio contest a cheap crystal ball to honor their forecasting excellence.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 12:14 pm
by Indices
MediumTex wrote:
Storm wrote: We could crash a Bogleheads meet up and start gushing about the inflation protecting properties of gold...   ;D
We could set up a cabin tent in the foyer outside the BH meeting room and call it the PP convention headquarters.
I think they would storm the tent like the Democratic convention in 1968.

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2011 11:30 pm
by 6 Iron
Storm wrote: We could crash a Bogleheads meet up and start gushing about the inflation protecting properties of gold...   ;D
Paul Boyer has already done this, without back-up. Well played.

http://MadMoneyMachine.com/2010/10/16/m ... boglehead/

As an encore, we could throw in the pool the first guy that mentions how great his only gold investment has turned out (his wife's wedding ring).

Re: Annual meeting?

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2011 2:46 am
by smurff
The Bogleheads group severely limits the number of people who can attend their annual conference because of space limitations (at least that's my understanding--I could be wrong), and it's likely that if we tried to hold a PP sub-conference with them, few of us would be able to register as Bogleheads and get benefit of meeting along with them. 

Also, because of the hostility on that board against gold that seems to spread to a hostility against some of the people who champion the PP, I don't know if they would look positively on our attendance at that conference as a bloc--even if we set up our own tent (so to speak) off-site.  Paul Boyer could probably do it because (among other reasons) he is one person, not an entire subgroup of Bogleheads. 

But a conference dedicated to gold/silver investing might be perfectly happy to have us as a group, as they'd like the idea of anything that increases interest in the shiny metal.  Lots of those conferences are free or low cost, and registration is open to anyone.  I attended the New York Hard Assets conference in May, where keynote speakers included such luminaries as Eric Sprott and Rick Rule.

Check out the speakers for the San Francisco Hard Assets conference coming up in November:
http://www.hardassetssf.com

BTW, the San Francisco and New York Hard Assets conferences are repeated every year, in May and November.  You can find the New York conference info here:
http://www.hardassetsny.com/

As another example, check out the speakers at the Toronto conference or the Silver Summit in Spokane, WA:
http://cambridgehouse.com/

Now, if you're talking about crashing one of the regional Boglehead meet-ups, that might be more doable than going to their annual conference in Philadelphia/Washington DC region.