September 17, 2007
As a shareholder of many corporations, I strongly oppose making it harder for shareholders to get proposals/resolutions plased on the anual proxy material/proxy vote.
It should if anything be made harder for companies to avoid putting proposals up for vote.
The percentages of subsequent votes, now: 3%, 6%, and 10% should stay that way, and should definitely not be made10/15/and 20%, or anything in between.
To allow companies to "opt out" is totally unaccepable.
Reasons:
It is hard enough as it is, as a shareholder to have any influence on the companies we own. Just as an example are the totally monsterous pay increases the management is able to put through for them selves via boards that they in most senses control in one way or another.
Many companies are now bigger and more influential than several countries in the world, and allowing them to wreck more havoc around the world without effective means of discouraging such behavior is not acceptable.
You can allow, and make easier Electronic shareholder forums, but that should be in addition to existing rules, not to sustitute them.