Bison Fund Proposal

Table of Contents

 Qualifications (1)

 Background (1-2)

 Objections (2)

 Plan (3-4)

 Conclusion (4)

 Appendices (4-5)
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Qualifications
Hele helu has found that the Bison Fund could use our expertise in order to help their club. Hele
Helu is composed of three members. All three members are business majors related to
Finance. One member, Calvin, runs a very successful Youtube channel. He has the experience
needed to craft a plan and implement a plan with the goal of increasing visibility of the club and
increasing membership. John Mann is a member of the club and the public relations officer. So,
if anyone should have the skills and know-how, it should be him. Otherwise the club might have
much deeper issues…

Background
The Bison Fund is a club on the NDSU campus that invests approximately $1.3M for the
university. That number fluctuates depending on how well investments are doing and whether
the university pulls money to pay professor salaries. However, it is generally in that range. The
purpose of the organization is to teach students investing skills and give hands on experience in
equity research. In addition, the club teaches networking skills and expands student’s networks
through events and trips.

The entire club meets on Tuesday nights. This meeting is usually about an hour long. It is
run by the president. If there are any relevant current events the president will discuss them.
Any upcoming trips or events will also be discussed and planned. In addition, any equity reports
will be presented on and voted whether to buy by members. Tuesdays meetings essentially
keep everyone in the know about what is happening with the fund.

One other night during the week people will meet in small groups. These small groups
are lead by a more senior member of the fund. This is when the actual research occurs. These
small groups will find a company with potential, research everything about it, then present it to
the fund on Tuesday nights.

There are two types of members in the fund: general and Analysts. General members
are anyone who joins the fund. Analysts are members of the fund who have the power to vote
on fund matters, such as whether to buy or sell a company. In order to become and analyst one
must meet the following requirements:

 Have been a general member for one semester;

 Maintain a meeting attendance record of at least 90%;
 Submitted a research report and presented their work during a fund meeting;
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 Earn the Bloomberg Market Concepts certificate and submit a copy to the executive
committee
 Submit a well-constructed resume to the executive committee and have an active
LinkedIn account
Once these requirements are meet a member becomes an analyst. Analyst status also makes
one eligible for election to the executive branch. The executive positions have their own set of
requirements and further responsibilities. Requirements include:

 The rank of associate analyst or higher;

 GPA of 3.2 or greater;
 Taken FIN 320 and is enrolled in FIN 410
 Two full semesters of experience as a fund member

Trips are made to New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Omaha. Not everyone can go on the
trips, so who gets to go is based on executive membership and attendance. Events are also held
in which every member is encouraged to attend along with members of the public. These
events are usually speakers who speak about topics of finance.

Objections
The survey and interview conducted both echoed two of the same issues. Membership
and meeting structure.

The club roster claims that there are about 40 members. However, the number of
members who show up to meetings regularly is closer to 25. Even that number depends on
what you consider “regularly” to mean. There are 16 voting members and 9 executives. The
upcoming spring semester will be the first time that every executive position has been filled.
However, according the Vice President of operations, the club would ideally have 40 dedicated
members. It is estimated that there are about 15 members who could be considered dedicated,
with about 4 leaving due to graduation.

Meeting structure was the biggest issue that members had with the club. Currently,
Tuesday meetings have little to no structure. Meetings that do not have any structure make it
less likely for students to stick around, as they feel as though they are wasting time.
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Plan
After listening to the concerns of the members and getting a picture of the goals of the club,
Hele Helu has created a plan to increase dedicated membership and improve the overall club.

Increasing Membership

The first goal is to increase dedicated membership. Hele Helu has three ideas to
accomplish this task. Those three ideas are to encourage current members to recruit/word of
mouth diffusion, Event booths and event presence, and increase social media/internet
presence.

Hele Helu has come to the conclusion that encouraging members and others to recruit
via word of mouth. A majority of the members surveyed heard about the club via word of
mouth. Whether that was through a counselor, tour guide, or friend. When current members
recruit members those people are more likely to commit their time to the club or at least stay
longer than someone who heard about it through an impersonal channel. Anything that gets
people into the doors and experiencing what the club does and its benefits is a big step in the
right direction.

Our second Idea is to have a booth at the memorial union and at relevant events around
campus. This should get similar results to word of mouth diffusion. However, this method is a
little less personal than the previous, but manages to reach a wider audience. Having a booth
with a charismatic, friendly individual managing could do wonders in recruiting a wide range of
members.

Our third idea is to increase the club’s presence on social media and the internet. The
only way for people to be aware of the club online is via their MyNDSU webpage or if members
make a personal post on social media. Although, for some reason, members tend to forget to
give the club a shout out when they post their travel pictures from New York on Instagram…
This is why we propose that the club begins to post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and
LinkedIn. This idea works twofold, it increases the visibility of the club to outside members and
gives current members recognition and something to brag about.

To improve the club overall and encourage dedication Hele Helu has created a 3 part
plan. The three parts are to structure meetings, award class credit for membership, and plan
more trips and events.

Overall Improvements
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One of the biggest complaints of the members and the executive interviewed was that
the unstructured meetings hurt attendance of the club. So, we propose that the executives
create structured meetings for Tuesday meetings. The executives could give small
presentations about relative news in finance, financial topics, and teach skills students will need
in the future. This should encourage members to actually attend meetings because they won’t
be a waste of their time.

The second part is a challenge but is already in works. Dedicated members of the club
put in 10+ hours into the club every week. It is essentially a part time job. Class credit would
reward them for their efforts. Class credit would also be an incentive for others to join. On top
of those benefits, the club would then have an experienced instructor assigned by the college
of business.

The third and final idea is to increase the number of trips and speakers/events. Trips and
events are a great way for members to work on their networking skills and increase their
network. In addition, students can also learn valuable information and lessons from trips and
speakers that they will not get from the classroom.

Conclusion
Overall, our goal in this collaboration is to increase dedicated membership and improve the
overall club. We believe that the club can achieve these goals through our ideas. The ideas will
take significant involvement from executives and time commitment, but will pay dividends in
the long run.
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Appendices
Executive Questions
What does the club do?

Outlook on leadership?

What is the purpose of the club?

Benefits of membership?

How would you describe the culture and is it improving?

Are there any membership requirements

What are your needs?

What are your values?

What are your goals?

How would you describe your vision of the club?

What does it take to get kicked out of the club?

Where did you hear about the club?

Survey Questions

General Questions

 Gender?
 How long have you been a member?
 Are you an executive?
 Did you hear about Bison Fund before you came to NDSU?

Likert Scale questions

 This club is full of dedicated individuals.

 Leadership is competent.
 Incoming leadership is competent.
 The university adequately supports this club.
 I find the lack of female representation in the club concerning.
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 Do you feel that being in the club benefits you?

 Do you enjoy Being in the club?
 I’ve learned valuable skills since joining Bison Fund.

Short answer questions

 Why Did you join the club?

 Where did you hear about Bison Fund?
 How would you improve the club?