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WILLAMETTE VALUE FUND
(a series of The Coventry Group)
Supplement dated March 8, 2000
to Prospectus dated July 31, 1999
At its meeting held February 17, 2000, the Board of Trustees of The Coventry
Group approved a proposal to permit Willamette Asset Managers, Inc., the
investment adviser of Willamette Value Fund ("Fund"), to appoint The Bank of New
York as sub-adviser to provide daily management of the Fund's portfolio. The
Bank of New York currently acts as sub-adviser to Willamette Small Cap Growth
Fund, another fund managed by Willamette Asset Managers, Inc. The proposal is
subject to shareholder approval, and a meeting of Fund shareholders of record on
March 10, 2000 is planned for May 9, 2000.
At the same meeting, the Trustees approved certain changes in the Fund's
investment policies, which would take effect upon shareholder approval of the
new sub-adviser. The Fund's investment objective, which is to provide above
average total return through a combination of capital appreciation and dividend
income, would not change. Under the Fund's current investment policies, the
Fund's portfolio is constructed in two separate components, each consisting of
approximately one-half of the Fund's total assets. One component is invested in
the ten highest dividend-yielding stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average
("DJIA"). The other component consists of certain stocks listed on the New York
Stock Exchange ("NYSE") that are not included in the DJIA. Stocks in this
component are selected by identifying the 400 largest capitalized NYSE stocks
that are not included in the DJIA, removing the 50 highest dividend yielding
stocks from that group and purchasing the next 25 highest dividend yielding
stocks. Each component of the Fund's portfolio is rebalanced annually using the
same criteria.
Under the proposed new policies, the DJIA component of the Fund's portfolio
would continue to be managed as it is currently. The other half of the
portfolio, however, would be actively managed using a "value" strategy. Stocks
would not be picked based on the NYSE formula noted above. Instead, under normal
market conditions, the sub-adviser will primarily select stocks that the
sub-adviser believes have certain characteristics of "value" stocks. These
characteristics include: low price to normalized earnings ratio, above-average
dividend yield, low price relative to net asset value, low valuation relative to
the security's historic average, and other factors. Management believes this
change will better enable the Fund to achieve its objective, although there can
be no assurance this change will improve the Fund's performance.
