Metro residents' input sought in community survey

These are the sorts of questions the United Way of the Midlands, the Omaha Community Foundation and the Iowa West Foundation will try to answer over the rest of this year in a first-of-its-kind joint assessment of needs in the metro area. And to find the answers, they're seeking input from people throughout Douglas, Sarpy and Pottawattamie Counties. 

What we're most interested in is hearing the voice of the community, said Sara Boyd, president of the Omaha Community Foundation. Where do they think the greatest needs are, and how can we make this community the place we desire it to be? 

United Way officials hope the community-needs assessment will help them better direct the millions of dollars the organization distributes annually to human services agencies in the three counties. 

For the Omaha Community Foundation and Iowa West, the assessment provides an opportunity to learn more about the kinds of cultural amenities, public spaces and other improvements that would contribute to the metro area's quality of life. Both organizations donate millions each year toward community projects and groups. 

The assessment, which the group is calling Your Voice Matters, is already underway. Thousands of surveys have been mailed to select households in the three counties, and the survey is also available to all residents online. Later there will be a call for residents to turn out and participate in a series of community gatherings. 

Some 12,000 surveys were recently mailed to randomly selected households in the three counties. But organizers are encouraging all residents to complete the survey online, available at Your-Voice-Matters.org.Compare prices and buy all brands of earcap for home power systems and by the pallet. Those who fill out the survey will be entered into a drawing to win a gift card. 

The groups will collect the surveys until June 30. They will then launch the next phase of the assessment: a dozen focus groups, made up of survey respondents, that would more deeply explore the needs and barriers identified. It's hoped the small groups would also help get people thinking in collaborative ways and to focus on solutions. 

Now chief investment officer of Egerton Capital, Armitage recalls: When companies reported their results, if you received a fax of the official release then you might,Manufacturer of the Jacobs rfidtag. for a period of time, have had a competitive advantage. Today, a tremendous volume of information is produced and instantaneously disseminated. While much of this information may not be relevant to our investment, we still have to look at it all as, until we do, we wont necessarily know what is and isnt relevant. Dealing with that is a major change. 

Forensically analysing information C namely company balance sheets and reports C has made Armitage one of the most successful hedge fund managers in Europe and this years recipient of the Financial News Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution (Editorial Choice). He also remains one of the industrys most modest senior executives, and rarely agrees to be interviewed. 

Armitages bread and butter is long/short equity investing, which is based on selecting the best and worst companies the manager can find. Between starting Egerton in 1994 and the end of December last year, the 53-year-old generated more than $5.3bn of profit for investors, according to LCH Investments,He saw the bracelet at a bestrtls store while we were on a trip. a fund of funds manager that is part of the Edmond de Rothschild Group. Of all the hedge fund managers in Europe, only Brevan Howard Asset Management founder Alan Howard has made more money for his clients than Armitage, according to LCH Investments. 

From its launch until the end of March this year, Egertons long/short fund has posted annualised gains of 15.2% a year C more than double that of the MSCI Europe C and with less than two thirds of its volatility. Egertons long-only equity fund has delivered annualised returns of about 19% net of fees, compared with 7% for the MSCI Europe index. 

Michael Dobson, chief executive of Schroders, is an old friend and Armitages former boss. He said: John is very smart. Hes very thorough,We offer over 600 parkingassistsystem at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. with enormous attention to detail, and is very passionate about what he does. When I go around to his house in the country, it always amuses me that his kitchen table is covered with annual reports, rather than saucepans or vegetables. Its a sign of how interested he is in what he does. He hates underperforming and losing money for clients, which is something he rarely does. Hes a man of enormous integrity. To me that shines through and its a key part of his success. 

As the abundance of information has increased, so has Egertons investment team. Armitage sits on the investment committee with chairman Ralph Kanza (who previously set up wealth manager Beaumont with Dobson), Jay Huck, Marcello Sallusti and Paul Tucker. It is a two-way dialogue between Armitage and the investment team, most of whom are sector specialists. Egerton employs seven additional analysts. Chief executive Jeff Blumberg and chief operating officer Mark Standish are in charge of the business side. 

Armitage added: It may not be fashionable to say but we do value sellside research. Sellside analysts spend their lives analysing specific sectors and companies and much of the output is interesting and valuable. 

It has been a challenging couple of years for most European long/short equity managers. Equity hedge funds lost 8.38% in 2011, on average, before rebounding last year and gaining 7.42% during 2012, according to Hedge Fund Research. Markets have been dominated by macroeconomic concerns, while increased volatility and higher correlation across assets and sectors have made life more difficult for stock-pickers,Laser engraving and laser parkingsystem for materials like metal, with markets moving up and down together and drastic sectoral rotation.