Our day at the
Berkshire Hathaway 2010 Annual Shareholder's Meeting
by the Berkyville Parks and Recreation
7AM DOORS OPEN
Up at 5. In the car by 6. Parked by 6:40 in a close lot. Then we got in line...a long line...a very long line 2/3rds the way around Qwest Center. Doors to the event center opened at 7. By 7:15 we were racing through the exhibit hall to the arena to get a good seat.
{I will digress for a moment. We were not checked for knives or liquids or box cutters or explosives in our shoes. There was no fumbling through our stuff to send through a metal detector. All that was checked was that we had our Shareholder's badge. Here we were attending a function with 2 of the top 3 richest people in the world, 37,000 others including a number of folk who came in the 160 private jets sitting at the airport and all they did was check for our Shareholder's Badge! Wow! That was nothing near the security check we had at our grandson's high school graduation!}
. At the arena we found that the first 5000 people had saved 10 seats each for their friends. We did get seats between a group of Germans and a group of Japanese. We still were able to see Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger (Warren & Charlie to us Buffetteers) and the directors which included Bill Gates. (Close enough to see that Bill is getting a bald spot on top.) No pictures were allowed to be taken once the meeting started so the director's seats are still empty.
Can you see us in this picture? We are about 5 rows above the open doorway on the other side.
. 8:30AM ANNUAL MEETING MOVIE
This segment was a number of short videos in which there were many ads for Berkshire's numerous companies.
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We got a special kick out of videos with Warren.
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One where he sings in a Geico ad dressed as a heavy metal rocker.
And in another he was playing for the Boston Red Sox during the World Series and he was pitching to A-Rod of the Yankees. As he ran out to the mound, he was out of breath but they brought him a Cherry Coke (BH owns a lot of Coke). Then when his pitches were no good, he was brought See's Candy to make him stronger!!. Warren "The Whip" Buffett pitched a good one and struck A-Rod out and the Red Sox won the series. Nice dream.
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And the purported video of the January business meeting during which there was a vote for a stock split. There was a cardboard cutout of Charlie Munger that Warren would shake and then push a button where Charlie would say: "I have nothing to add". There were only 3 shareholders in the whole room. And during the meeting a janitor went thru pushing a broom. Cute!
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Warren has set up the Secret Millionaires Club for kids, teaching them how to invest. (THIS IS FOR REAL.) Below is one of the videos for kids. The video shown at this meeting had Bill Gates and Charlie Munger as special guests. The kids asked highly complicated mathematical questions. Bill hemmed and hawed, passes the question to Charlie, who says: "I have some See's Candy in my mouth now, I'll get back to you." Here's a sample of what the Secret Millionaires Club will teach kids:
Enjoying the fun? This video was played last year. Called "Nervous Nellie" you might like to watch it too:
9:30AM TO 3:30PM - Q & A SESSION
The stamina of Warren and Charlie at 79 and 86 years of age is amazing. They sat on stage this whole time with one break, an hour for lunch. What happened to their afternoon naps? That was a lot of public speaking and I only once caught a fumble from these two and that was at 3PM. During lunch hour, Warren went out and went through the company exhibits and played a ukulele with the band there. We got a kick out of seeing what was up at the dias with these two: cokes, bottled water, and candy. Lots and lots of candy: See's and Ethel M's. They must have gone through 5 boxes of chocolates this day.
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A few sound bytes:
"If I can be optimistic when I'm almost dead, surely the rest of you can handle a little inflation." CM
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"I have nothing to add." CM - many times
"Pursue your passion - do what turns you on." WB
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"... the interest rate now is so small at .01% that if you had invested in 1492 you would have doubled your money by now." WB
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"... our work has become evermore fascinating; no wonder we tap-dance to work."
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... Warren says he plays bridge on the internet 12 hours per week.
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... Charlie is really into solar and Costco. He won't put solar panels on his house as he thinks the price will go down if he waits. (What a kick!)
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Perhaps our most lasting impression was that Warren and Charlie do in fact have a uncanny grasp of financial and investing strategies. They were able to expound at length in response to every question posed for them (without having any knowledge of the questions beforehand). The things they said had the ring of truth and honesty. On occasion they had differing views on a subject. And on occasion their feelings were obviously quite strong. But virtually everything they said made good common sense. You found yourself thinking "Gee, why hadn't I thought of that in that way --- that makes a lot of sense --- why don't those dummies in Washington understand that".
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3:45PM TO 4PM - FORMAL BUSINESS MEETING
It didn't take even that long. Minutes were dispensed with. Proxy votes were in to validate the election of the board of directors. Then Warren asked for a motion to adjourn. That was it!
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EXHIBITS AT BERKYVILLE PARK
For a week this exhibit area has been set up as a park with displays by almost 40 Berkshire Hathaway customers. We had the option of getting a blizzard at the Dairy Queen booth, M&M's at the Mars booth, undies at Fruit of the Loom, cowboy boats at Justins, a new motorhome or a boat at Forest River, we could bid on a set of World Book Encyclopedias, sign up for insurance at Geico, buy a bowl at Pampered Chef, clean our rugs with a vacuum from Kirby. We learned more about solar energy, the BYD solar car, played video train engineer, walked thru a Clayton modular home, and got a Berky Buck at the Johns Mansville booth.
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As this was a park, there was the Berky Park Amphitheater, an area to play chess, gardens and trees and picnic benches. Fun!
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AND WAIT, THERE'S MORE...
In addition to the events at the annual meeting, the jewelry store Borsheim's held a hosted cocktail reception the night before and a brunch the morning after. Nebraska Furniture Mart held the "Berkyville Picnic" that evening after the meeting.
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We might have made it to the picnic but we had to go home and take a nap :0)
