In this issue: new members, new intern, upcoming events, AIMA Canada Handbook, payee policy, Research Award sponsorship, use of AIMA Canada logo, FREE job postings, media corner AIMA Canada Newsletter, New Year 2012 AIMA Canada Newsletter - New Year 2012 James Burron, COO jburron@aima-canada.org +1 416 708 8098 Fernando Kou, Associate fkou@aima-canada.org +1 416 453 0111 Edit your email preferences: click here Join our Linked In group: click here New Members to AIMA Canada: Castle Hall Alternatives Inc., Clairwood Capital Management Inc. and Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. Changing of the Guard As you likely know, AIMA Canada has a tradition of hiring interns that assist with the myriad of administrative tasks that happen behind the scenes. Jovine Chan, our Fall 2011 intern, returned to the University of Waterloo at the end of December to continue her Accounting and Financial Management baccalaureate. Taking her place until the end of April is Fernando Kou, also from U of Waterloo and taking Mathematics and Chartered Accountancy. He has experience in similar organisations and looks forward to attending to your requirements!
Please wish Fernando a hearty welcome and make note of his email (in the masthead, above). If you send emails to Jovine's address, Fernando will get them now. Upcoming Events and Conferences AIMA Canada Annual Ski Day 2012 - February 2, Collingwood AIMA Canada is pleased to announce the 3rd Annual AIMA Canada Ski Day for AIMA members and guests. Enjoy an opportunity to meet and network with industry colleagues at Ontario s premier ski club, Osler Bluff, Collingwood. Click here for more details. IMN's 11th Annual Canada Cup of Investment Management - May 31 - June 1, Toronto This 2-day conference discusses risk management strategies, best investment practices and the future of the industries. For more information, visit the conference site here. Free passes for AIMA Canada hedge fund manager members and 15% discount available for all other members. 8th Annual AIMA Canada Charity Golf Tournament - June 5, Angus Glen Golf & Country Club, Markham Save the date! More details on sponsorship opportunities and registration coming in the next week or so. Please set aside June 5th for this greatly anticipated event. 2012 AIMA Canada Handbook - Nearing Completion If you are an AIMA Canada member, you probably received a few emails and calls about our Handbook--either from the defatigueable Paul Patterson of IAM or me. The idea is not without precedent, AIMA South Africa (2006) and AIMA Singapore (2007) created their own editions but ours has a bit more going on. For one, we are including a member directory with key contact information. We hope this will give an appropriate feel for readers and members alike. The articles cover the Canadian hedge fund industry from many angles: background in Canada, registration, on-shoring of service providers such as fund administration, prime brokerage trends, capital raising and even a few pages on the major financial centres in Canada. The Handbook is now in the editing and proofing phase, which will include a review by AIMA HQ, after which it will be distributed to thousands of recipients around the globe.
We are also supporting this endeavour with 'a few' adverts in the booklet. 16 ads on 4 pages (1/4 page per ad), to be exact, in tombstone format. Pricing is $1,000 per ad and are limited to one per member-- we do not tie ad space to article-writing, and vice versa. Any excess after paying for printing and distribution will go to our charity fund (with the Ski Day and Golf Tournament monies). 11 of the 16 ad spots are booked thus far. Membership Renewal Discount Ends Soon Members (except our 10 new members who joined in the last 3 months of 2011) received their renewal notices (sent out on December 12th). Like most things AIMA, there is a discount for early payment (5% in this case) but after January 31st the full amount of annual dues will be required to keep your membership in good standing. Thank you for continuing your support and if you are not a member (or know someone who should be) please contact James. "AIMA Canada" Only (!) As some members and sponsors might know, our bank prefers the name AIMA Canada so much, it may reject cheques made out to entities other than our exact trade name. (Thankfully, the use of "Alternative Investment Management Association - Canada Inc." is not required.) Please ensure that cheques coming to us are made out to "AIMA Canada". Thank you for your sponsorships and support! AIMA Canada (Your name here) Research Award The submission window for the 2011 ACRA is now closed and the papers are under the perusing eyes of the Adjudication Committee (whose identities are not public, but are key academics at universities across Canada). The award this year was self-funded by AIMA Canada (your dues at work!) but we would greatly appreciate a deserving member taking on sponsorship of the 2012 installment. The
benefits are many: inclusion (as appropriate) in the name of the award; universal acclaim via our website and emails; and clamorous acknowledgement at the 'big cheque' presentation ceremony (performed at our Annual Debate in Q2 each year). The cost: $10,000 for the award. If your company may be interested in sponsoring the 8th annual 2012 installment (or further, we are happy to entertain a multi-year commitment), please call or email James or the Executive Committee member of your choice. New Developments on the Email Front Incredibly, we do get unsubscribes from our lovely email & newsletter subscription list (only one or two a month). Perhaps we connect with some too often. We are cognizant of your time and have arrived at a solution: opt-in/opt-out options! We have five categories of contact (plus the internally-controlled one of "member list" to send certain emails to members only): Newsletter (almost monthly) - as you know, chock full of information. AIMA Canada events (e.g., luncheons, workshops) - if you only want to keep up with our many events and functions. AIMA Canada socials (e.g., wine tastings, ski day, golf day) - all play? Check this box. Regulatory issues (e.g., comment letters, regulator surveys) - usually from the Legal & Finance Committee, dealing with compliance and such. Conference discounts (provided by third parties) - 15% to 100% off conferences for members. If you have not notified us otherwise, you are signed up to all five categories; if you would like to un-check any options click here, you can change your preferences at any time. From time to time you may get an email that is not from your opt-in list--this would be for an issue that is deemed by the relevant committee to be important and/or urgent as well as outside the typical parameters. Over time we may amend the categories, and you can be sure we will keep you up-to-date with any changes. We hope you like this personalisation feature and will continue to get what you like out of your involvement with AIMA Canada.
AIMA Canada Logo on Your Site Some AIMA Canada members choose to add our logo to their corporate website, which we encourage (of course). Members can feel free to use our logo on their site, provided they follow the simple rules located here. (You will have to login to the member-only part of the site; if you forgot your login details, please contact Fernando.) Or you can login to the member area of the site, click on Member Resource Centre then AIMA Head Office and finally AIMA Name and Logo Policy. FREE Job Postings for 2012 for AIMA Canada Members You may recall my piece on CAIA in November s newsletter. The designation has been described as either "CFA for alternatives" or CFA Level 4 as it assumes a great deal of understanding of traditional investments and strategies and enlightens candidates as to the efficacy and idiosyncracies of alternative (and even alt-alt) investments. The CAIA Association has a great Job Board, viewable only by CAIA members (you need to pass both tests and meet other requirements to earn membership). From the ones that I know (and there are many) virtually all are employed or in the alternative asset management industry: whether as PMs, C-suite, fund administrators, sales, research or a host of other positions you may be looking to fill. Membership is global, so there is a vast pool of talent to choose from. (Stats here.) Your member benefit: all AIMA Canada members can post to the CAIA Job Board for 2012. All you need to do is click here and enter AIMA2012 as your code. This allows you to have unlimited 30-day postings (all you have to do is re-post it if you do not find anyone). Posts will be moderated such that they can ONLY be for jobs in the alternative investment industry (but I'm sure yours will qualify). Enjoy! Media Corner We plan to videotape more events in 2012, building on the library of four from last year (located in the members-only area of the website. We do not want to keep all of this to ourselves, though. To this end, we are allowing the attendees of the Foundations, Endowments and Not for Profits conference (held on Jan 17-18 in Toronto) access to our Benchmark Series' December 7th event video "60/40 is Dead. Long Live 60/40" featuring
Bill Moriarty of UTAM and John Ilkiw (formerly of CPP-IB) and moderated by David Finstad from OMERS. (At least until the end of February.) We hope the endowments and foundations, which are proponents of alternatives in the US, will benefit from hearing how these two plans (UTAM and CPP-IB) view alternatives and how they measure their performance in their portfolio. We also hope they become members or take adavantage of our offer to institutions that, although it does not bestow full member benefits, allows them access to due diligence and sound practices documents and information. Please also turn your eye to the CBC News site, where AIMA Canada Chair Gary Ostoich is quoted speaking about the growth of hedge funds in Canada. You can see all of our press releases and other media here.