• Site membership.  By now, you should have received an email from me (or Netcipia) as a formal invitation to become a member of this site.  Whenever you want to write to this site, you will need to login using the information in the email (NOTE: that you can change your password in your profile).  To get used to writing to this site, go to the introductions page and edit it by adding your information.
• Clickers. If you are in the 12:35 section, I (hastily) told you to return your clicker.  Apparently, 22H is about the only room in COB that doesn't have a clicker receiver (despite the odd looking box in the corner of the room).  Despite of what I told you in class,  PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR CLICKER.   I am trying to change our classroom to one that is equipped with clickers and will update you in the next few days.
• Assigned groups. For the Market Watch project (which will be introduced next week) and for homework, you will work in a group.  Check out the assignments page for the groups that I randomly chose.  For the market watch project, you will likely have to rely on these people for specific tasks.  However, for homework assignments, I encourage you to do the problems by yourself since the assigned problems are good practice for exams.  You are responsible for the material on the exam, so I encourage you to take the time to do the homework individually.  After everyone in the group does the problems individually, I encourage you to get together as a group and compare answers - a sort of check and balance approach.  Work as a group to create one assignment to turn in with the names of all the group members (one paper, multiple names).
• Homework #1.  Homework #1 is posted under assignments and is due on Wednesday, September 3rd at the beginning of class.  This short assignment asks you to review some of the functions we introduced on Baseline.  If you would like a review of the Baseline functions that we introduced in class, check out the U: drive which contains a 10-15 minute video that illustrates Baseline functions.  Everything you would need for Homework #1 questions about Baseline is illustrated there.
• Market summary page.  Apparently this beautiful page that I put together doesn't appear to work in Explorer - only Firefox.  If you or anyone in your family works for Microsoft, please do not be offended as it was not my intention.

• Please be sure to bring your clickers on Wednesday, August 27.  Also, be sure that your clicker code is entered on iCampus.
• You are encouraged to attend the first Financial Management Association (FMA) meeting of the year, which will be held at 7pm on Monday, August 25th in 366 COB.  FMA is a great transition from school to the job market which often has great tips on what finance jobs are like, job search tips, and other activities related to finance.  The speaker for the first meeting will be Mr. Jeff Telling, the Central Illinois Regional Manage for Family Credit Management.  He will discuss issues realating to student use of credit, the recent subprime lending crisis, and careers in credit counseling.  He will also offer general advice on career planning.  Pizza will be served around 6pm in the faculty lounge (234 COB).

If you missed the first day, I passed out the two-page syllabus which contains contact information and the course URL. (NOTE: the syllabus I passed out on the first day of class contains an error in the "Grading policies" section.  See the "Syllabus error" note below.) The "full syllabus" has more policies and procedures - be sure to take a look.

The notes for the entire semester have already been posted.  Please download the notes and print them out before coming to Wednesday's class.  This way, you don't have to spend all of your time writing and trying to keep up.

Other announcements:

Clickers. For information on using your clicker, check out the following link: http://www.ctss.ilstu.edu/clickers/students/index.htm.  In particular, be sure that your clicker is registered through iCampus so that you get credit for everything in class.

FIL 242 web site updates.  If you would like to receive an e-mail notice each day this site is updated, provide your e-mail address here.

Jr. Experience Day. On Friday, August 22, 2008 all College of Business juniors are encouraged to participate in a series of activities that will take place from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. in the College of Business Building. Several prizes will be given away as well as free ice cream in the lower level atrium. During this time you will be able to meet College of Business faculty, learn more about your major and student organizations, and interact with advisors, Career Center staff, and student organization members.

Syllabus error.  The two-page syllabus that was passed out on the first day of class contains an error.  Under the "grading policies" it includes 100 points for the "top 4 quizzes".  I used to have formal quizzes in the class that counted significantly toward the final grade.  However, past students did not like the quizzes so THESE QUIZ POINTS ARE NOT PART OF FIL 242.