Annual Meeting Seaon 2013
A List Of Practical Tips And Resources To Bone Up On
An Early Look At The 2013 Annual Meeting Season
Our top – two predictions: (1) More investors will demand more face – time with CEOs than ever before—before, during and after the shareholder meeting…and (2) Low voting support for management positions will turn into much higher drama than ever before—at shareholder meetings—and at board meetings too.
Our Number-One Tip For “Annual Meeting Security”
Having Safe, Sane, Sensible And Scrupulously Fair Rules Of Conduct In Place… Plus, The Very Important Tip Number-Two
Rules And Procedures For The Conduct Of Annual Stockholder Meetings
XYZ Corporation welcomes you to its 20th 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 period – we require you to honor the following rules of conduct:
Our Top-Ten Tips On Dealing With Activist Investors, Shareholder Proponents, Gadflies – And Other Would-Be Speakers – At Shareholder Meetings
Our Top-Ten Tips On Dealing With Activist Investors, Shareholder Proponents, Gadflies – And Other Would-Be Speakers – At Shareholder Meetings
“Ninety-Nine-Percenters” Try To Take Over A Dozen Or So Annual Meetings This Year
Still More Tips On Being Well Prepared
Virtual Inspection Of Elections
An Intriguing Moneysaving Option: But Is This A Good Option For Your Company? We Offer Some Important Considerations
Virtual Shareholder Meetings
Industry Thought-Leaders Are Working Hard To Develop Best-Practices For “Virtual Shareholder Meetings”
Inspectors Of Election: Some Questions And Answers On “The Basics”
Business codes typically call for publicly traded companies to have one, two or three – or sometimes more – Inspector(s) of Election to oversee and certify the vote – whenever there is an Annual or Special Meeting of Shareholders.
Protests, Market Dips, Unemployment And Uncertainty In European Banks—Oh My!
by Rhoda Anderson, founder of Rhoda Anderson Associates and EZOnline Documents
Lots Of Fresh Questions…And Answers… On Meeting Adjournments, On “All Other Business”
And On Calculating, Reporting On And Describing Those Say-On-Pay And Say-When-On-Pay Results….
Early Returns From The Annual Meeting Front
Lots Of Good News, But Some Big, Bad Surprises Are Still In Store For The Unwary
What’s The Next Big Thing On The Corporate Governance Front?
Holding Directors’ Feet To The Fire Over The Cost Of Capital – And Especially Over Their Stewardship Of The Company’S Stash Of Shareholders’ Cash: Finally…A Governance Reform Worth Making We Say
Appeals Court Vacates The SEC’s Proxy Access Rule, With Major Criticisms Of The SEC’s Sloppy Work
But Beware Of What You Wished For Issuers….You May Be Worse Off Than With The Access Rule
Our Final Wrap-Up On The Spring 2011 Annual Meeting Season…
The biggest take-away from this season – as we noted last issue too – is the ease with which Says On Pay sailed by: A just-released Conference Board study
Our Top Ten Tips On Preparing For The 2012 Proxy Season
Our number-one tip is simply to understand exactly what kind of voters OWN your stock as of the record date, along with the percentage of the total voting power that each segment owns and how each “segment” voted…or failed to vote at your last meeting.
A Few Early Warnings As We Begin To Gear Up For The 2012 Annual Meeting Season
For Starters; “Svedes – Get Set To Chase Dem Drunk Norvegians Trew De Veeds!”
Getting Your Message Across “Effective Engagement Is Critical…”
Some practical advice from Ken Bertsch, President of the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals – and a prominent institutional investor analyst and spokesperson in his former career.
Getting Your Message Across To Investors
The Shareholder Service Optimizer’s Top-Ten Tips DECIDE ON THE OVERRIDING MESSAGE you need to put across to your audience: …and how each of the subordinate messages relate to it: Most of the time – whether you are gearing up to visit with investors or preparing a 200+...Apple Computer Does It Again – With A Raft Of Annual Meeting Gaffes: How Can Such A Smart Company Be So Dumb On Ir Matters?
Let’s say for starters that we LOVE Apple Computer. We bought when it was around $7…and love it more every day. We love their products too. And we love Steve Jobs – and think he is one of the smartest, savviest, most-focused and most dedicated managers in the world....Consent Solicitations
By Merrill Stone and Matthew Kane, Kelley Drye & Warren* Back in 2000, we discussed in the Optimizer how would-be acquirers were increasingly using consent solicitations in attempts to ambush boards and to effect changes of control. Consent solicitations still...OMG! The Fastest Way To Vote Proxies In 2010 Turns Out To Be Snail-Mail!
This year we are paying much closer attention to the proxy packages we receive than we ever did before. And we know we’re far from alone here, although how carefully most other individual investors will attend to these matters…
“Dofra”, “Dodfra”, “Direct Access” And The “Proxy Plumbing Release”… Get Out Those Plumbers-Helpers Pronto!
Whether you call it “DOFRA” as Pat McGurn calls it, or “DODFRA”, to give Dodd and Frank equal billing, the Dodd-Frank act passed both houses of congress as we were drafting this issue and will likely be law before we go to press.
Meeting Admission Criteria – One Of This Year’s Hottest Topics
So far this year, we’ve gotten more questions about annual and special meeting admission criteria than about any other topic…except that is, for the perennial question “what’s up with those transfer agents?”
Some “Early Returns” From The Annual Meeting Front:
It’s still early-days as we write this, but a few trends are emerging that seem worth a mention
