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I fired up Apple News this morning and checked on the WSJ article about the upcoming meeting. I was surprised and happy to see a photo of Lyle McIntosh, a long time friend, with the ridiculous Yellow BRK hat. That hat was started by a likeable rogue named John Gartman. He used it to attract attention and meet people starting in the late 90's.

The origin of the Yellow BRK gathering was the old AOL board. We talked about getting together in Omaha. Another friend suggested we were taking the Yellow BRK Road to meet with the Wizard of Omaha, and the name stuck. Wearing yellow was suggested to identify ourselves, and Gartman took it to the limit. A poster on that board, Doshoes, helped organize early meetings. She turned out to be Warren's daughter. And Doshoes was a takeoff on Dorothy's Shoes from the movie, a favorite of Susan's.

Meetings were much smaller then, and you could actually rub shoulders with Buffett and family. He attended some of the first Yellow BRK gatherings, and would also show up at Andy Kilpatrick's Friday night party. Andy used to publish a huge book of stories about Berkshire each year. He pitched a great party and lots of celebs showed up to see and be seen. Soliciting new clients was an active game.

Time demands and the growing crowds soon put an end to Buffett appearances. And some of us started to use the break-out rooms to avoid the floor crowds. Easy to meet and no early morning hours and running for a seat. Lot's of room back then, easy access to food and bathrooms, etc. That too has disappeared I'm told. And room rents and restaurant costs started approaching Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Many of us would stay at the Embassy Suites, have breakfast every morning and a private dinner before Andy's party. We would gather around the bar late at night and reorganize the world. One evening a gentleman was sitting alone nearby and appeared to be listening, so we invited him to join us. Turned out to be Malcolm Chase, a BRK director. He told us his cost basis in BRK.A shares was $0.25 because of his ownership before Buffett acquired his family's company. He also said he would show up for the start of the meeting, spend most of the day at the Zoo, and then return for the later directors meeting. Then a Canadian group bought out the Embassy Suites for the meeting and that all ended except the private dinners.

I quit going many years ago as fewer and fewer old friends also stopped coming. Frankly, I wasn't really learning anything new from the Q&A, so visiting with friends became the main attraction. Age and the long drive from the DFW area were also factors. I flew once, fought the rental car issues, and decided the drive and having my own vehicle were worth the extra travel time. Also, I could leave early when spring tornadoes threatened the meeting activities.

Lyle is a long time friend with Debbie, Warren's old secretary and now executive assistant. She approached Lyle to say they were trying to improve the meeting and asked if he could gather suggestions. He approached a group of us and we polled the group for ideas. All long term shareholders. The almost unanimous one was to cut back on the many questions from the floor and to gather questions from shareholders prior to the meeting. Have selected analysts or media choose the best and ask them to Warren and Charlie. I'm sure we weren't the only ones with such suggestions. Nothing happened for a year or two, but then changes were made and the Q&A content improved. Less long speeches from the floor praising Warren, and kids asking how to get rich as they carefully read off their questions prepared by parents.

I miss seeing old friends but applaud that we can now follow the meeting via the internet. And even review old ones. But the people you get to meet and know at the meeting can be as valuable and enjoyable as the Q&A in my experience.

Have fun everyone. I'll be watching.

Thanks Texirish for sharing your BRK memories. I’d love to time travel as see what it was like back in the old days. Andy is a fantastic human being and the Berkshire historian and full of great stories. I always buy his latest Of Permanent Value edition-so good!

I’m leaving for Omaha tomorrow & been to the BRK weekend the last 4 years. I truly love the whole weekend. Beyond the huge CHI shareholders mtg, my agenda usually includes:

Drinks & Steak Dinners with friends
Chatting in Hilton bar/ lounge area & spotting “VIP”s
Stroll in Warren’s Dundee neighborhood, incl. WEB’s house
CHI Exhibition Hall roaming & shopping & talking with managers
Gabelli Conf. (Hilton)
Guy Spier VALUEx Conf. (Marriott)
Markel Dinner (Marriott)
Pre-meeting early CHI Center gathering & chatting (North entrance)
Markel Brunch meeting (Marriott)
Borsheims/NFM shopping
Walking around the Old Market
Visiting & sight seeing with a couple old school Omaha-based shareholders

We stay busy but the pilgrimage and whole weekend are so much fun. Obviously we lost Charlie and Warren’s ongoing active leadership is uncertain, so I appreciate these moments and sharing them with like minded owners and friends even more. We are all quite fortunate. Enjoy the meeting!

Thanks for posting some memories of the Yellow Brk'ers to this board, Tex.
For me, they were such intense and happy memories, mainly because everyone in that group were such nice people.
Unfortunately, because of time, we had to experience, one by one, the passing of so many members of the group. Gartmann was our leader for sure... and one of the first to pass. Charlie Page (Pagewrite) was another leader. I think he lived in Monterey or Carmel. I remember there were months long discussions or how we were going to celebrate when BRK/a hit $100,000. Charlie said we could come to his home. I was really trying to get that to actually happen. I wrote multiple posts on the AOL board about how all the Yellow Brkers would come and spend a epic joyful carefree weekend at Charlie's house. Everyone agree how great that would be, and I am so certain it WOULD have be so much fun. But, it never happened. Charlie passed a few years after that, can't remember how many years later.

And now Charlie Munger is gone. And people here are saying that Warren in going to resign this week. And people here are posting about how Berkshire as an investment isn't the same anymore. Not really any better of an idea than having a few broadly diversified mutual funds. And it's overvalued, so maybe it makes sense to sell. Either this week or next week.

It is all very sad and frightening to me.

Oh, and one more thing that Tex mentioned was that Susie
Buffett posted on that AOL board as Doshoes.

I remember in 2003 (or so, I'm too old to remember exactly) MsSherrie hosted a Yellow BRKer party the evening before the BRK AGM. WEB was supposedly going to come, but didn't.

What I do remember was that Sherrie made a cake and placed little figurines Of Wizard of Oz characters on popsicle sticks in the cake, and she associated each character with a AOL Yellow BRK'er. Susie (Doshoes) was obviously Dorothy. I think Gartmann was the Scarecrow. The Wizard was WEB.

I,(BBMD) was the Cowardly Lion. I didn't particularly like that assignment, but MsSherrie was dead right.

This week, I sold covered calls, lots of them, on my BRK shares. The shares I held so dearly and associated with all the joy an happiness of being a member of this group for such a long time.

Cowardly Lion...yeah that's me. I'm scared.

And I really wish Pagewrite threw that party at his house all those years ago.

Bruce (bbmd,

I recall it was Charlie Page that came up with the Yellow BRK'er suggestion. Charlie was a prominent citizen in Carmel and used to travel to the annual meeting with Bertie, although he kept that quiet. Didn't want to stand out in the crowd. He once told me that Bertie tried to get him to invest in BRK when it was under $3ks a share. Charlie said he said that was "too high" and waited until it "went down" to $8500 a share before investing.

We were good friends - he used to travel back in forth to Andy's parties in my car. We were a close knit group. One of the early years, the group gathering was at the French Cafe (IIRC). Buffett was in the audience with Susan and his bodyguard (I have a photo of wife and myself in the background. He had his baseball uniform on to throw out the first pitch at the local team baseball game that afternoon.) Charlie was on the stage, and helped present Debbie with a Tee Shirt saying "What Part of No Comment Don't You Understand?"

I remember Ms Sherrie (RIP)and the party she organized that year. We were still a pretty closely knit group then.

I also recall us trying to organize a $100k party at Charlie's home. It overlooked Carmel, part of a real estate package he bought early and later sub-divided into five properties. His was the best. It would have been a great party, but it never happened.

Later readers need to recognize that BRK shareholders were a relatively small group in the early days. This was before Buffett issued the B shares, so it took a sizeable commitment to become a BRK shareholder. I know friends who attended early meeting in a lunchroom with few attendees. Buffett deliberately didn't split the shares as a way of self-selecting shareholders committed to his principles and mode of management. That has changed to some extent now, but still largely remains IMHO. No "put down" on B share holders.

It was a different, and closer, time. It was a lot easier to get to know each other. But I think one thing still holds true - that Buffett continues to attract shareholders aligned with him and his principle. I think there's enough of us that nothing will change rapidly when Buffett is no longer around.

As part of my morning reading, I also reread the earlier WSJ article about Howie succeeding Buffett. One comment I hadn't noted before - Karen said that Howie said he didn't know if he could stand up to the 8 hours of the meeting like his
Dad. Was he implying that he will be on stage after Warren isn't? Part of that January 2025 article also said that Buffett had not intention of retiring early.

Hang on folks. We're still in the transition period. I would be very surprised if Warren announced he was stepping down - sort of a medical issue which would be a significant development. But I know nothing more than any of the rest of us.

Texirish:

I miss seeing old friends but applaud that we can now follow the meeting via the internet. And even review old ones. But the people you get to meet and know at the meeting can be as valuable and enjoyable as the Q&A in my experience.

I don't know if you remember (and my memory of the details is fuzzy now), but I'm pretty sure you drove me, JBenvent and one other person to either the event at the mall (where Borsheims is) or to one of the other hotels where WEB was appearing. It was a surreal weekend for me. Amongst other things:

* I met John Gartman.

* I met WEB as he was walking around that hotel and somehow ended up at the hotel bar with Peter Buffett and the "wallet guy."

* The coolest thing by far about that weekend was at the AOL group's pre-meeting party, I sat in a booth with former NASA engineer John Houbolt when he told us all about his involvement with the Apollo program. If you've never heard of John, read this book (it's fantastic): https://a.co/d/1xjLkBN

Learned a lot that weekend.

Wheezy

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