From The President

president@philasecurities.com

Members,

On behalf of the officers and board of The Philadelphia Securities Association, we hope you and your family and friends are all safe and healthy.

As the corona virus is being fought, the officers and board members have met, virtually, for our regular meetings, plans for the PSA (post pandemic), expansion of the by-laws to allow for a more diverse composition of the membership, the ability of the PSA to open our platform to include the general public via potential seminars and/or public panel discussions, as well as, our general annual meeting and elections.

Elections:

This year, we will have our elections via an online process. I have created a PSA account at Survey Monkey to provide the membership the ability to cast their ballots in the election and for the future needs of the association. We will be sending the election ballots to the email addresses of all PSA members via Survey Monkey. Members may also cast their ballot at the Annual General Meeting via Zoom on December 7th. A Zoom registration will be available in a few days. If you know of members who still do not utilize email, please ask them to call Jay Weinberg or Calvin Rose to cast their ballot. We will allow 1 week to receive the responses from the membership. Final vote is December 7th. It is very important for all members to utilize our website and email, especially in today’s environment, as we will continue to use only online registration, email communications and Survey Monkey for various tasks throughout the year.

The officers and board members are listed below. Please do not respond to this email. You will need to cast your ballots on the official Survey Monkey ballot as that is being tracked and tabulated for this purpose.

Officers:

President – Jay Weinberg

Vice President – Rickie Taylor

Treasurer – Calvin Rose

Secretary – Don Gudhus

Board of Governors:

Michael Carberry

Denise Furey

Eric Gartland

Donald Gudhus

Richard Muhlberg

James Nolan

Committees:

Programs – Richard Muhlberg

Scholarship – Pending

Audit – Donald Gudhus

As we make changes to our association each year, we always seek to add members to positions on the various committees (Membership, Audit, Programs, etc.) It is now more important than ever to have member participation. We began having board member rotations to get new perspectives and ideas. Without members stepping up into new positions, the process behind this strategy breaks down. Please contact any board member or officer to inquire about joining us to help the PSA to grow and prosper.

PSA By-Laws:

There has been a motion to amend the by-laws of the PSA that will expand the membership of the association and also to expand the scope of the association’s objectives. The by-law proposal is posted to the PSA website. You must log in to the PSA website to view the proposal. It is listed under Membership –> Member Documents.

To summarize the changes, the PSA will broaden the allowable categories of possible members to include Advisor Representatives (IARs) and Broker Dealer Agents, Accountants, Attorneys, Pension Consultants, and Sports and Entertainment Agents who provide investment advice should also be included. In addition, aside from the regular format of PSA luncheon/dinner meetings, the PSA may offer public seminars where the general public may attend panel discussions on the various topics within the financial planning realm. Lastly, the PSA will explore the possibility of beginning a philanthropy program where the association will create a scholarship program fund that may be used to provide financial assistance for high school or college students interested in finance and also provide support for Philadelphia schools that are identified in need of basic supplies.

I have contacted PSA member, Jerry Kline, who is an attorney at Obermayer Rebmann Maxwell & Hippel LLP for his opinion on the proposed changes to our by-laws and I am pleased to report that these changes will have no effect upon the PSA’s tax status as a not for profit association that we currently enjoy.

Dues:

After careful consideration and discussion, the board has decided to keep the dues at the same level as this year. The dues will be $175 for 2021. We feel that the membership realizes the value that the members receive for the dues paid. We also realize that we, as well as many other organizations, were greatly affected be the pandemic of 2020 and we do expect that 2021 will be a much better year and therefore many more events. We encourage all members to renew their membership as soon as possible. We do anticipate that we will be able to continue to have luncheon meetings and social events resuming in 2021.

In Memorial:

We, the officers and board of the PSA, want to express our thoughts and prayers for those family members, friends and associates who were affected by the COVID-19 virus over the past year. We hope that when the vaccines are available for distribution that all will have faith in the science and research behind theses vaccines and will get vaccinated.

It’s an honor and privilege for us to serve our PSA members.

Wishing you all health, safety and piece of mind. We’ll see you all soon.
Be well and please stay safe.

Sincerely,

Jay A. Weinberg

President