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
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
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
An Interview With Dr. William J. Catacosinos, Chairman Of Laurel Hill Advisory Group, LLC And His Senior Colleagues
And Don’t Help The Corporate Cause At All… In Their Actual And “Model Responses” To Proposed Changes In The “Broker May Vote” Rule… Basically Flicking A Finger At The NYSE And Its Proxy Rule Committee
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.”
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.
The first commandment when it comes to tabulating and reporting Meeting results is this: “Always prove every item to the Quorum”
When announcing results at the meeting, the best practice is to stick tightly to the numbers.
Our Top “Practical Tips” On What To Do… To Head-Off A Potentially Career-Ending Snafu
Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere, you know of course that NYSE Rule 452, aka the “broker-may-vote rule”, aka the “ten-day-rule”
The season opened with a big loud bang, when Bank of America’s chairman Ken Lewis was stripped of his chairmanship by a binding vote to separate the Chairman and CEO roles.
We came away from the Society’s annual conference almost 100% certain that there would be “proxy access” in time for the 2010 meeting season.
A Delaware court ruled that a binding-bylaw proposal that would prohibit the company from seating any director who failed to achieve a majority vote in an uncontested election had to be included on the ballot at Trico Marine Corporation…
We Also Urge The SEC To Urgently Fix The Scandalous Defects In Our Old And Badly Broken “Proxy Plumbing” Systems Before Forging Ahead… And Tell Them How To Do It
An Interview With Michael Mackey, Managing Partner, Alliance Advisors, LLC
An Interview With Artie Regan Of Regan & Associates, Inc.
This interview first appeared in the Fall edition of Broc Romanek’s new publication, InvestorRelationships.com, which also covered another important “hot topic” in its inaugural issue, with a “Roadmap to Regulation FD under the SEC’s new website guidance”.
Listen to hear their insights on this year’s annual meeting season.