perhaps a hundred pages of written material that covers in considerable detail all of the important aspects of the business and any matters of major importance that are coming up for decision. Management is quick to confess its mistakes and is the first to point out anything that is not going according to plan. The Directors do not need to feel compelled to see if there is something hidden under the rug because they know it will be revealed voluntarily. By the same token the Board has demonstrated its willingness to back up the recommendations of management and to support them once these recommendations are received with the staff work properly performed. This mutual confidence between the Board and the management is a very necessary ingredient for success. Secondly, we have endeavored to streamline the decision-making process so that action can be quickly and rapidly taken. We have only one committee in the company that is concerned with how the company operates and that is the Executive Committee, composed of four members of the Board that meets on call and is endowed with the full powers of the Board. These powers it uses discreetly, making decisions on its own on matters of lesser importance but reviewing in depth matters of major importance which it then presents to the Board with its recommendation. New investment is centrally controlled but, once a program has been approved, responsibility for its performance is decentralized and delegated. We have attempted to give wide latitute to our operating and staff people with reasonably clear definitions of their responsibility and authority. In this way their -12-