Mark Fetting
President, Legg Mason Funds

We have been working very hard on this event, and we are very excited to watch it unfold. I would like to welcome you all here. I would like to ask you all to review our disclaimer documents. When we are talking about performance relative to the funds, we will adhere to regulatory disclosure. We will discuss our portfolios during this event. We report on the performance of our portfolios on a quarterly basis. We make our quarterly holdings available to all shareholders on our website, and all discussions here will be based on our holdings as of September 30, 2003. If you see any funds that interest you, then we encourage you to call us for a prospectus.

I would also like to comment on the current issues surrounding our industry. We do respect these issues as being very important. The topics of order processing and market timing have been getting a lot of media attention. We posted a statement on our website in mid-September. I would like to read one or two sentences from this statement.

"Like numerous other mutual fund firms, Legg Mason has received and responded to a subpoena from the New York State Attorney General into inquiries from the SEC regarding late trading and market timing on mutual funds. Consistent with our longstanding policies, Legg Mason will cooperate with all applicable regulatory authorities, and will make no public comment on these pending matters."

We have posted for our shareholders to see all of our policies regarding order processing, market timing and fair value pricing. We hope you can understand, therefore, that it would be inappropriate to make any further comment. We pledge to keep you informed as and when appropriate on these matters.

Before introducing Bill Miller, I want to talk about the concept behind this event. Especially in this climate, we thought it appropriate to spend several days focusing on our current investment thinking. We have put together a singular session with leaders from the portfolio companies, the academic community, and investment professionals. We have invited all of our shareholders - both the institutional and the retail fund shareholders. We believe that this is not frequently done, but we believe that it is a terrific concept. We hope that you will agree. We also selected a destination location that would make it convenient and interesting enough for you to spend your time with us. This is one of the best conference facilities that we have been able to find. Most of all, we encourage your feedback. As you experience the conference, please share with us your feedback so that we can keep this going in the right direction for our shareholders.

I would now like to introduce Bill Miller. Talking between Mason and Miller is like being put between Gehrig and Mantle, or, for those of you who remember the old Baltimore Colts, between Johnny Unitas and Ray Barry. They are a great combination.

In today's Wall Street Journal, there is a great article on Patrick O'Brian's sea novels called "A Master and the World He Commands". The lead character in these novels is Lieutenant Jack Aubrey. He is an absolute master in his field. In the movie that is coming out based on these books, the title role is being played by Russell Crowe. It is a very interesting exercise to compare Aubrey with Bill Miller. He is truly a master. He is a leader who leads with hard work and genius. He confronts those foolish inconsistencies that are the hobgoblins of little minds. He challenges us to think more broadly and innovatively. Captain Aubrey is known to enjoy a fine glass of wine, as is Bill. At times he has been described as rumpled in his appearance, as is Bill at times! There are moments when Aubrey and his lifelong partner, Dr. Stephen Mattering, actually play duets of classical music. I don't think that Bill plays classical music, but I know that he and Lisa Rapuano have been talking recently about their book collecting hobbies. This is the same spirit of colleagues enjoying diversions while also attending to their craft. It is a great pleasure to me, on behalf of all of the shareholders of Legg Mason Funds, to welcome our master, Bill Miller.