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…
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.
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?”
It’s still early-days as we write this, but a few trends are emerging that seem worth a mention
Last year, we attended the meeting of a long-term client where we were shocked! Shocked!…to see more women wearing hats and gloves – and more men carrying hats – than we have seen in one place since the 1950s.
Guess what? It’s been nine years since the first “virtual only” annual meeting…at Inforte…
What, If Anything, Can We Learn – To Better Prepare For 2011?
So far this season, there have been 20 “Virtual Shareholder Meetings”: About half were “totally virtual meetings” – held totally in cyberspace – and the rest were so-called “hybrid virtual meetings”
Indicative, We Think, Of A Serious Level Of “Inattention To Details” And A Serious Industry Brain-Drain
Great news for public companies, though bad news for most proxy solicitors, the 2011 Proxy Season seems to be shaping up as the least contentious one in a decade or more:
Regular readers know that we have been following developments on the “Virtual Only” Annual and Special Meeting front from the get-go, and that we are big fans of the concept – and especially of the big potential money-savings that can be realized.
While Virtual Meetings have been getting lots of notice of late, we think that Virtual Investor Forums have the potential to transform the corporate governance landscape in an even bigger and better way
An Interview With Chuck Callan, Senior Vice President, Regulatory Affairs, Broadridge Financial Solutions
The Optimizer Editor’s Annual Interview With Ellen Philip And Cal Donly Of Ellen Philip Associates
The Optimizer Interviews Dannette Smith, Secretary To The Board Of Unitedhealth Group, Incorporated, The Winner Of Corporate Secretary Magazine’s 2010 Award For Best Proxy Statement
Some Thoughts – And Lots Of Practical Tips – From Steven L. Brown, Director Of Corporate Governance, TIAA-CREF
Your editor had the honor to serve as the Inspector of Election at Intel’s 2009 annual meeting, the first “virtual annual meeting” ever.
The SEC – which was expected to vote on Direct Access to the corporate proxy machinery for the purpose of nominating director candidates on Nov. 8th, announced in early October that it would delay a vote on the final rules until early 2010 – to be sure that they would “get itright.”
This is the beginning of a totally new approach to Annual Meetings, and one that will ultimately result in a totally new A-M paradigm, we think.
If you missed the original webcast on this subject, sponsored by The Capital Markets Board, you can hear it on our website
It did not take a smart reporter very long to sniff out a problem with the way Apple reported its 2009 voting results – especially with regard to the “widely watched” Say on Pay proposal, which Apple reported had been defeated.
