"You Never Know......."

"You Never Know......."

When I last wrote this email, none except for Maruf caught that I had made a mistake in my pen name. I had written Bobbins, instead of Batuta. No matter, hopefully I won't make that mistake again. This was my first trip to the NY/NJ area since being with Saturna. Last year, similar to an event done in Houston, ISNA had sponsored a Financial Planning seminar in Princeton last March. Unlike Houston, I was surprised at the number of people that remembered this day long seminar.... So here is a summary of my travels:

The trip began on an interesting note. For whatever reason, I miscalculated the time it would take me to get to SeaTac Airport and as such got there 35 minutes before departure. As usual, as soon as the agent typed in my name, something popped up asking her to make a phone call. She hung up, and mentioned that today, I was going to get the VIP treatment. As I got my boarding pass I realized that there was no seat assignment and that there were SSSS written all over it. Even though they knew I would be late for my flight, the security put me in a special line for VIP where the priests of security bless you by waving a wand all over your body and then repack your personal belongings. Unbeknownst to me, they also did the same thing with the baggage I checked in. I was the last one on the plane and the agent made me run down the jet way and as soon as I boarded, they shut the door for take off.

Friday April 2, 2004

I gave the sermon at mosque where I later was going to give my presentation with an attendance of approximately 250 people. That evening, to my surprise, there were approx. 100 people in attendance at the seminar I gave. I was surprised as the number because this was only organized after we had sent out the emails to NJ announcing my seminar in Piscataway. When we sent this out, I received an email from a resident of this mosque and he was also an Amana shareholder. He wanted us to do a seminar in his mosque as well: Islamic Society of Old Bridge (near Lawrence Harbor). In fact, these emails serve a good purpose of not only informing people about the seminars but also by giving leaders of communities the idea that they can provide a service to their mosque as well. In fact, I got other invitations from the NJ area, but only accepted this one due to time constraints. I told the others that I would be back again to do others at their respective mosques. There were quite a number of shareholders present at this seminar, higher than normal, and many were supportive of our efforts to promote Amana.

Saturday April 3, 2004

On this day, I gave the seminar at the MCMC (Muslim Community of Middlesex County) in Piscataway, NJ. The shareholder that helped me organize this seminar was disappointed with the turnout of only 40 people. He said that he had distributed close to 400 fliers at the various mosques in the area. Of note in this seminar was a attendee who drove 2 hours from a city a little north of NYC. He is a PhD in Compute Engineering and is working for Philips Electronics. He invited me on my next visit to come and speak to mosques in that area. The reason why I bring him up, other than the fact that he drove quite a distance to hear me speak (he was happy with what he learned), he told me that back in 1993, when he was a graduate student making only $7000 per year, he scrounged up $1000 to invest in the Amana funds for the long term. He was happy with the performance and from that $1000, he now has many accounts with us for his wife and children. He said that if he could save money on his salary at the time, no one had an excuse not to save even a little.


Sunday April 4, 2004

On this day, I gave the seminar at the Islamic Center of Long Island. I could tell this would be a quality crowd because as I drove through the parking lot looking for parking, literally every other car was a Mercedes (most of them were 500 series). There were approximately 35 people in attendance, but, as I said, most were well to-do physicians. Last October, we had made an agreement (by word only) that if were to place an ad in their fundraising booklet, then they would allow us to come speak. This is a very wealth community and I think we should even consistently place ads in their newsletter. This is also the community from which of the the members gave a donation to Sen. Clinton which she turned down do to claims by her opponent that she was accepting money from terrorists. The check she turned down was for $50,000. No proof was ever found of this allegation, but the damage had been done. New York has made a reputation of turning down money from Muslims. Mayor Guliani turned down at donation of $10 million from Waleed ibn Talal after 9/11. In any case, one of the participants of the seminar was encouraging us to begin advertising on Arab and Pakistani Satellite as it reaches many Muslims in the US. She also said that she would get me in touch with someone from the Arabic networks who could potential do a story on us (free marketing). I think this is a good medium and now they even can geographically segment commercials to US, as opposed to our ads airing all over the world. Although for all the ex-patriots that work abroad, it wouldn't be a bad idea to look into the cost of worldwide distribution.

Observations:

With all the emails we send out, and the envelopes we mail advertising the seminars, the amount of people that show is still unpredictable. In places where I thought a few would come, many more show up, and in places where I expect a lot of people, we get a crowd on about 20. I think the mailers are still a great idea because it gives us face time and from talking to shareholders, many do read our mail. On more than a few occasions, I have had people come up to me thinking I know who they are, cause I sent then an invitation letter that was personally signed. I guess they don't know that we send out hundreds, cause when they come up to me, they expect me to know them on a first name basis!!! So far my strategy has been to schedule seminars around times that Muslims show up to the mosque anyway; Sunday school, Friday or Saturday evening programs, etc. Maybe if we make food available, more people would come, but I don't think mere numbers is that important. Is food an incentive that brings those on the edge to a seminar, or does it bring those that come just for the food? I await the day that Amana organizes a seminar and we get a minimum of 50-100 people. As we grow our shareholder base, and as people realize that our seminars are not product pitches but intended to educate them, I think this will happen!!!!

On another note, New York City is a huge city (no surprise), and it also has a large population of Muslims, probably the largest in the country. And if you combine this area with that of NJ, which is relatively not too far away, it just adds to the population. It is a good area to do more advertising, but I am not sure that we should concentrate on it as much as on CA. The only reason being that it is very expensive. It costs more to fly out there from Bellingham, it is a 6 hr. flight, and the hotels, car rentals are much more expensive than say, LA or SF. But going around to various mosques, I did get an idea of some of the newspapers in circulation, some of which we don't advertise in. After Friday prayer, I usually watch for which newspapers and newsletters are being distributed and which are the ones people are reading. I think this is a good way for us to see hands on what the popular ones are and which ones we should advertise in.

As I close, I wanted to add one last thing. With all the flying I have been doing, I finally got an opportunity to sit in First Class. It has been a while, and definitely the first time I am sitting in First on a domestic airline on a domestic flight. Growing up the son of a pilot, I am used to flying first class international, British Airways, Saudia, etc. I can see that it is a much different experience. On these domestic flights, the only difference between Economy and First is the size of the seat and the food that you get (food is the same, just served in better trays). I don't see why someone would pay the extra cost of flying First and now truly understand that it is an extra service that airlines provide to their frequent fliers. In the long term, I see the model of discount airlines, with no First class winning out, because it is expensive to run. Not having it means you can put more seats in (more revenues) and have less flight attendants (less cost). As for perks, I could easily see the major airlines reducing the number of miles it takes to fly free (now 25,000) to maybe 20k. I, along with other travelers, would easily take a free flight over a first class upgrade.

International flights are a different story......... I remember in First Class of Saudia, for dinner, they had an International Chef on Board and he would bring out a tank of lobsters and you could choose which one you wanted. On the 747, the upstairs was a lounge with sofas where First Class passengers could relax (very good for 13 hour flights). If I was an international jet setter, and was going to London say for 2 days for meetings and then coming back, I would pay for First Class where I could recline my seat to 180 degrees and sleep the entire way, then wake up, freshen up, and then start my meetings as soon as got out of the airport. Here also, I think the international airlines have an edge. One cannot compare the First Class of Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, British Airways, or Saudi to an American based carrier. If I used my miles to travel international, hands down, I would pick a partner airline over American. They just seem to have the expertise, whereas the American carriers have not figured out the balance between cost and benefits.