Berkshire Hathaway 2002 Annual Report Download - page 24

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23
shareholder. On Saturday, we will be open until 6 p.m. Borsheim’ s operates on a gross margin that is fully
twenty percentage points below that of its major rivals, so the more you buy, the more you save (or at least
that’ s what my wife and daughter tell me).
In the mall outside of Borsheim’ s, we will have some of the world’ s top bridge experts available to
play with our shareholders on Sunday afternoon. We expect Bob Hamman, Sharon Osberg, Fred Gitelman
and Sheri Winestock to host tables. Patrick Wolff, twice U.S. chess champion, will also be in the mall, taking
on all comers blindfolded! Last year, Patrick played six games simultaneously with his blindfold
securely in place and for the first time suffered a loss. (He won the other five games, however.) He’ s
been training overtime ever since and is planning to start a new streak this year.
Additionally, Bill Robertie, one of only two players who have twice won the backgammon world
championship, will be on hand to test your skill at that game. Finally, we will have a newcomer: Peter
Morris, the winner of the World Scrabble Championship in 1991. Peter will play on five boards
simultaneously (no blindfold for him, however) and will also allow his challengers to consult a Scrabble
dictionary.
We are also going to test your vocal chords at the mall. My friend, Al Oehrle of Philadelphia, will
be at the piano to play any song in any key. Susie and I will lead the singing. She is good.
Gorat’ s my favorite steakhouse will again be open exclusively for Berkshire shareholders on
Sunday, May 4, and will be serving from 4 p.m. until 10 p.m. Please remember that to come to Gorat’ s on
Sunday, you must have a reservation. To make one, call 402-551-3733 on April 1 (but not before). If
Sunday is sold out, try Gorat’ s on one of the other evenings you will be in town. Show your sophistication by
ordering a rare T-bone with a double order of hash browns.
There won’ t be a ball game this year. After my fastball was clocked at 5 mph last year, I decided to
hang up my spikes. So I’ ll see you on Saturday night at NFM instead.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Next year our meeting will be held at Omaha’ s new convention center. This switch in locations will
allow us to hold the event on either Saturday or Monday, whichever the majority of you prefer. Using the
enclosed special ballot, please vote for your preference – but only if you are likely to attend in the future.
We will make the Saturday/Monday decision based upon a count of shareholders, not shares. That
is, a Class B shareholder owning one share will have a vote equal to that of a Class A shareholder owning
many shares. If the vote is close, we will go with the preference of out-of-towners.
Again, please vote only if there is a reasonable chance that you will be attending some meetings in
the future.
Warren E. Buffett
February 21, 2003 Chairman of the Board