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...Our Short-List Of Must-Listen VSMs
Topping the list - and the very best VSM we listened to - is STARBUCKS - where we provided some background info and wrote up in detail in our last issue. They put “the shareholder experience” first and foremost, worked hard to make it engaging and informative, and...Our Hall Of Shame For VSM “Bounders”
Topping our 2020 Hall of Shame list is the Transfer Agent that advised all its clients to postpone their Annual Meetings until July at the earliest…simply because they were not able to handle the work involved…and shamelessly implying that this advice was pursuant to...Our Predictions On The Fate Of Virtual Meetings In 2021
First we should note the key assumption, and one we fervently wish for; that ‘the Covid coast will be sufficiently clear’ by year-end to allow people to plan for the possibility of in-person meetings. If not, all bets are off, and likely, there will be many more VSMs...A Word To The Wise: Big Brother Is Watching – And Listening To Your VSMs… Taking Notes… and Gearing Up To Push Back
Yes, a number of “Big Brothers” ARE listening in - some of them to offer constructive criticism and even a few words of praise - but some looking to name and shame - and even, in one extreme case, reported below, to actually threaten executives of companies they...Our “Insider’s Summary” Of The Big Picture At Shareholder Meetings Through June – With A Special Focus On VSMs
From January through June, 2020, the CT Hagberg LLC Team of Inspectors of Elections will have served at 477 Shareholder Meetings - a pretty hefty sample, we’d say, that included a big number of Fortune 500 companies, lots of well-known large-cap companies and a great...Some Timely Reminders On Meeting Etiquette – At In-person And Virtual Meetings
Way back in 2013 we published “A Little Primer on Annual Meeting Etiquette: Our Top Ten Tips on Meeting Manners, Plus One to Think On” - noting that “We’ve never done so from the perspective of meeting-attendees…And, after all, that’s what etiquette is all about, no?...Learn From The Best: Check Out The Starbucks Webcast For A VSM How-To “Playbook”
Starbucks Corporation held its first-ever virtual only shareholder meeting on March 20th, mobilizing quickly to address the looming impact of COVID-19 on its 2020 annual meeting
Don’t Let Covid-19 Crash – Or Trash – Your Annual Meeting: Our Updated And Expanded Advice
Let’s put it bluntly: Your company - and you - simply can not afford to let anyone who might potentially be carrying the coronavirus “crash” into your meeting-space this season. So step one has to be to immediately - and drastically - limit the number of “physical...A Quick Look At VSMs – A Shout-Out To Microsoft – And An Oddball Non-VSM Event To Avoid
Virtual Shareholder Meetings (VSMs) continue to gain traction - perhaps a tiny bit slower than in previous years - but this year, a seminal event we say; the successful adoption by Microsoft of a Virtual-Only Shareholder Meeting. We were skeptical about their ability...THE NIFTIEST NEW THING WE SAW THIS SEASON: ONLINE – AND MOBILE – “MEET THE BOARD” FEATURES
It’s been a while since we last reviewed EZOnlineDocuments web and mobile-optimized proxy statements…but we were absolutely bowled-over by the quick demo we saw at the Society conference this year…
Hot Issues for Proxy Tabulation and Vote Reporting
Did you know that there are at least eight kinds of proxy tabulators out there these days?
Early Returns from the 2017 Meeting Season
While it’s still early-days as we write this, the 2017 season is off to something of a roaring start, with howls of protests from activist investors about “Virtual Only” shareholder meetings.
An Update on Virtual Shareholder Meetings
A Great Thing, But Look Carefully Before You Leap
Striving To Deliver Greater Convenience and Control
An Interview with John Dunn, Vice President, U.S. Corporate Issuer Sales at Broadridge.
Virtual Meetings Gain Traction
This year, through June, Broadridge has enabled 140 Virtual Shareholder Meetings – almost all of them “virtual-only” – with no in-person attendees
What To Do If The Power Goes Off At Your Shareholder Meeting… While The Fire Alarms Shriek Alarmingly
How’s this for a shareholder meeting horror-story to take to heart?
Re-Tooling your IR and Governance Tool-Kits
How we communicate with each other, investors, and consumers is rapidly changing
An Interim Report On Virtual Annual Meetings
Guess what? It’s been nine years since the first “virtual only” annual meeting…at Inforte…
Some Notes From The Virtual-Meeting Front
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”
