The 2022 Season Starts Out With A Big Bang
As Liz Dunshee reported in her March 13 blog, “This voting outcome arrives at the same time that the UN Environment Assembly has agreed to negotiate a legally binding treaty to tackle plastics, which many are calling the next ‘Paris Accord.’ That comparison is...Are VSMs “On The Wane” As ISS Asserts?
Not by our reckoning: After reading the ISS assessment in their quarterly update, we went straight to the books - and to our own records of 2022 Shareholder Meetings scheduled as of April 1, 2022. That day, we had 480 meetings booked where our team of Inspectors were...Revised Rules of Conduct For In-Person, Virtual-Only and Hybrid Meetings of Shareholders
XYZ Corporation welcomes you to its __th Annual Meeting of Stockholders. In fairness to all stockholders in attendance, and in order to provide stockholders an opportunity to be heard – and in the interest of conducting an orderly meeting, within a reasonable time...A Sample “Run-Of-Show” For A Satisfying And Successful VSM
With our comments on the most important best practices to adopt - and on bad and worst practices to avoid: Twenty minutes prior to the Meeting time there should be a welcoming message on the Meeting site - with a visually pleasing background, easy-to-read typefaces...Our Shareholder Meeting Playbook For 2022
First and most important, it should be a fully-written-out and carefully annotated script - ideally color-coded - with large, easy-to-read type and clearly written cues for all participants - with color-coded speakers’ and technicians’ names - and with easily accessed...Annual Meeting Advice: PICKING THE PROPER LOCATION & MEETING FORMAT
Now that you’re done with the preliminary homework of scoping, mapping and analyzing your shareholder demographics, the next step is to review your meeting options with regard to “location” - and to decide on a venue, an agenda, and the technological tools - including...Our Detailed Playbook For A Top-Flight Shareholder Meeting In 2022
In light of the hundreds and hundreds of shareholder meetings your editors have attended - and especially in light of the many meeting critiques we have published, covering both the best - and the worst meetings - and the many blunders and bloopers we’ve seen - we...Covid Boosts “Virtual Inspections Of Elections” A Big Potential Money-Saver… Our Tips On Acting Smartly
In 2021 - thanks largely to sensible Covid-era precautions - U.S. companies overwhelmingly relied on “Virtual” attendance of Inspectors of Election - and auditor representatives too - at their shareholder meetings. Our sister-company, CT Hagberg LLC, logged fewer than...The Outlook – And Our Advice – For In-Person, VSM And Hybrid Meetings In 2022… Straight From The Frontlines
The number-one question we’re being asked as readers gear up for the 2022 Meeting Season, and as Covid cases began rising again, is “What are most companies planning to do this year?” So far, as our sister-company, that will provide Inspectors of Election at over 500...ESG Voting Far Exceeds Our Own High Expectations For 2021
Our 2021 Special Supplement, available only at OptimizerOnline.com, featured nearly a dozen interviews with prominent shareholder meeting observers - all of whom - including us - predicted record-breaking success for ESG proposals this season - although we’re not sure...The Best, Worst and a few So-So VSMs of 2021 to Learn From
To get a good idea of how to run a well-run, shareholder-friendly and useful VSM, start, we say, with our run-throughs of this year’s VSMs of last year’s winners - UnitedHealth Group and UPS… UNITEDHEALTH GROUP’s Board Secretary Dannette Smith once again guided us...VSMs – At A Tipping Point We Say – Our Predictions For 2022
Now that the U.S. economy is ready to open up for public meetings once again - and with plans for the 2022 Shareholder Meeting Season already needing to be considered - there has been a lot of speculation on the ultimate fate of Virtual Shareholder Meetings. Here are...VSM Service Providers Enhance Platforms To Improve Access For Street-Name Holders
Good news: The top-four VSM service providers - Broadridge, Computershare, EQ and Mediant - worked together as a sub-committee of the “End-to-End Vote Confirmation Committee” - and, as we’d predicted they would, they have come up with ways to make it easier and surer...VSMs Come On Strong As Preferred 2021 Meeting Venues
As the Covid pandemic continues to make in-person shareholder meetings a poor choice for most widely-held companies, most of last year’s VSM users - and a large number of companies that used “strong keep-away rules” last year instead - have been lining up extra early,...Give Shareholders a Premier Virtual Meeting Experience – SSA Webinar
Join Carl Hagberg from Carl T. Hagberg and Associates, John Kim from General Motors and Rick Hansen from HP on Thursday, March 4 at 2 p.m. EST for this practical exploration of delivering a virtual annual meeting that exceeds shareholder expectations.
Here’s Another Useful Development To Smooth The Way At Your VSM: IROs Finally Get A Prime Seat At The AGM Table
One of the most interesting - and encouraging - and useful developments with regard to VSMs - has been the fast-growing importance of the corporate Investor Relations staff - both in terms of preparing for the Meeting, and often, in playing a significant on-air role...The Biggest VSM Blooper To Avoid: Lost Connectivity Here’s How To Get Set For 2021 – And To Prepare For The Worst Things That Can Happen With Your Meeting Technology
We have had many decidedly up and down experiences listening to the all-too-numerous webinars on VSMs of late where the guidance was flatly wrong, or important facts were omitted: Most notably on what to do if you lose “connectivity” during the course of your...Several Serious “Bloopers” In The 2020 Q&A And Voting Periods That Are Very Easy To Fix For 2021
Our good-friend and fellow VSM-reporter Doug Chia recently posted the following, from widely-followed shareholder proponent Jim McRitchie: “Here’s one for you. I just got off the virtual meeting of [XYZ company - name redacted by the OPTIMIZER since they were far from...Issuers: Big Investors Are Raising The Bar On Their Expectations For VSMs Big-time: We Predict A Potential Shortage Of Top-quality VSM Providers Vs. Expected Demand… Start Your Engines Now!
Glass Lewis’s late November release of its 2021 policy guidelines pretty much summed up what every major investor says they will be looking for in Shareholder Meetings in 2021: We look for robust disclosure in a company’s proxy statement which assures shareholders...Inspectors Of Election: More Important Than Ever With VSMs
Since the very first VSM hit the airwaves the OPTIMIZER has been advising that the Inspector of Elections should be playing a key role - mainly because, with everything taking place in cyberspace, investors really need some added assurances that all of the voting is...The Five Best VSMs To Review – And To Learn From… The Most Noteworthy Feature Of The Very Best VSMs? Women!
A month or so ago we suddenly realized that a feature that made the best VSMs so special had gone totally unremarked. So we emailed a little preview of the article we intended to write in this issue to our great friends at TheCorporateCounsel.net. “Here’s another...Real-Time Voting At AGMs – The Peskiest – And The Stupidest Issue At VSMs – Plus… Our Own Suggested Workaround
As public companies have learned to their dismay and consternation this year, a “Virtual-Only” Meeting of Shareholders requires issuers - and the service suppliers they utilize - to give both registered and street-name holders the ability to cast their votes in...Plan For A VSM – Or – For A “Stringently Limited In-Person Meeting” In 2021… Now
It’s October 2020, and the chances that public companies will be able to responsibly host in-person Shareholder Meetings any time before October 2021 are virtually ZERO - unless in-person attendance can be strictly rationed to include only the most essential...The Virtual Shareholder Meeting Q&A – and How to Tackle It
The most troublesome issues at 2020 VSMs - by far - have revolved around the Question and Answer Period: Just as we had warned, many activist investors took pains to submit questions - both in advance, via an e-mail to the company’s Investor-Page - or by typing into a...
