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Forum Report:
Electronic Participation in Shareholder Meetings
Surveys of Practices for Conduct of
Shareholder Meetings
Results of two similar surveys of corporate practices for the conduct of
shareholder meetings have been reported this week, one by the
National Investor Relations Institute (“NIRI”) of its member investor
relations officers and the other by
TheCorporateCounsel.net of its subscribing corporate secretaries and
legal officers:
·
July 16, 2010, National Investor Relations Institute (“NIRI”): “Results
from AGM Survey Conducted at 2010 Annual Conference” (6 pages, 63 KB,
in
PDF format)
·
July 20, 2010, TheCorporateCounsel.net: “Survey Results: Annual
Meeting Conduct” (1 page, 24 KB, in
PDF format)
Although both surveys involved only informal samplings of a limited number
of respondents, the combined results were consistent in showing that
approximately a third of the companies represented were using webcasts in
one way or another – audio-only or video, with or without archiving – for
their shareholder meetings:
|
|
NIRI |
CorpCnsl |
Combined |
|
Total Responses |
55 |
68 |
123 |
|
Number using webcasts |
17 |
23 |
40 |
|
Percent using webcast |
30.9% |
33.8% |
32.5% |
It was notable that the number of NIRI respondents using press releases to
announce meeting results, 18, or about 33%, was roughly the same as the
number using webcasts. The report did not indicate, though, whether these
communication processes were used together by one company or as
alternatives by different companies.
The survey conducted by TheCorporateCounsel.net, which is offering
its subscribers a
program of “practice pointers” for conducting “virtual” shareholder
meetings on September 14, also included useful questions about issues
that had been addressed in Forum discussions about allowing attendance by
non-shareholders (23 of 68 respondents, about 34%, allow attendance
without verifying ownership), and about time limits imposed on
shareholders (39 of 67 respondents, about 58%, limit time to 3 minutes or
less, while 25, about 37%, did not impose any stated limit).
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments about these
reports, either for Forum participants or for the organizations that
conducted the surveys.
GL – July 20, 2010
Gary Lutin
Chairman, The Shareholder Forum
c/o Lutin & Company
575 Madison Avenue, 10th Floor
New York, New York 10022
Tel: 212-605-0335
Email:
gl@shareholderforum.com |