Through Moxy Vote, Johnson & Johnson will offer their individual shareholders the ability to vote their proxies and receive important information from the company.  This new avenue of communication gives J&J the ability to have dialogue directly with those shareholders as well as all their interested stakeholders on Moxy Vote.

When we founded the company, we wanted to create a marketplace of ideas, where companies and shareholders could freely communicate. For the first two years, we concentrated most of our efforts on getting and engaging shareholders. We knew we’d have to eventually get companies to participate too, and my goodness, J&J is now on board.

Thank you to J&J for once again being ahead of the curve.  We look forward to helping you with your stakeholder communication.

Have you ever heard of if? View This Poll

In 2010, Whole Foods shareholders submitted a proxy ballot resolution requesting a CEO succession plan. Later that year, the company agreed to the shareholders’ request [PDF link], stating “It is the policy of Whole Foods Market, Inc…  to be prepared for an eventual change in leadership – either planned or unplanned – to ensure the stability and accountability of the Company during periods of transition.”

Own shares of Whole Foods? The 2012 Whole Foods ballot  is now available to vote on Moxy Vote. The ballot features two shareholder resolutions regarding board members and directors.  Want a say in the director elections and resolutions? Be sure to get your vote in before March 8.

If you’ve ever launched a business, you know what it means to start from nothing. We launched Moxy Vote with exactly zero users, and the first twenty people who signed up, bless their hearts, were employees, friends, and family. And then they started reporting bugs.

A few short hours ago, we got our 100,000th user. Six digits, baby.

Yay!

Now, we work on our second comma.

The first proposal requests a conflict of interest report, disclosing board members’ investments that could be viewed as financial conflicts of interest, board members’ role in the development of corporate policies, and any potentially beneficial financial policies.

The second proposal plays off of executive say-on-pay resolutions, asking for shareholder input on director pay. Specifically, the resolution points out, “This proposal is similar to our management’s proposal…enabling us to cast a vote in regard to the pay of our executives. This shareholder proposal simply extends the shareholder voting opportunity to apply to our directors. Some of our directors are paid more than $1 million for work that may take less than 400 hours per year—or $2500-plus per hour.”

The third resolution concerning board directors requests a majority voting standard for director elections. According to the resolution submitted by CalPERS, “The voting standard described in this proposal would provide shareowners with a meaningful role in uncontested director elections, in contrast to the Company’s current voting system that effectively disenfranchises shareowners when directors run unopposed.”

Finally, the ballot also features a resolution requesting disclosure of political donations, including policies and procedures for political contributions and an itemized report of donation amounts and recipients. As an election year, donation disclosure may play a prominent role in resolution topics.

Want to see who has opinions on the ballot? Take a look.

• Majority voting (2010)
• Performance-based compensation (2011)
• Executive equity retention (2012)

In 2010, the majority voting resolution received support from 73.6% of shareholders.  However in 2011, performance-based compensation was not supported by the majority of shareholders.

Well this year the executive equity retention resolution received support from 36% of shareholders.  Shareholders are speaking up and letting Walgreens know what is important to them!  Will Walgreens listen?

Want to learn more about the 2012 Walgreens annual meeting?  Read this New York Times article to see what is on the horizon for Walgreens in the New Year.

In the middle of Indiana’s corn country, SIA’s 22 year plant history has endured a few recessions and the automobile bankruptcy crisis.  Through this endurance, they have never resorted to lay-offs or pay cuts for their employees.  Instead they have provided their employees with annual raises, premium-free healthcare, paid overtime, the ability to earn a Purdue University degree on site — you know, just to mention a few of the employee perks!  All this, while still producing over 3 million vehicles and get this — they recycle 99.6% of their waste!

Last year, Tom Easterday, SIA’s Vice President estimated that they saved $5.3 million by ‘obsessively reducing, recycling, composting, and incinerating’.  This helps with job assurance for approximately 100 of their 3500 employees whose annual salaries range between           $50,000 – $60,000.

The article does point out a downside to some of their methods, some employees feel over worked with 47 hour workweeks, that include two Saturdays a month.

Want to learn more?  Take a look at this Motor Trend article.  It has amazing pictures along with more interesting information about the plant.

What do you think?  Should more automotive companies follow in Subaru of Indiana’s footsteps?

Did you know that on average airlines create about 880 million pounds of waste every year?  Now, 75% of that waste can be recycled, but only 20% actually is recycled.  To help visualize that 880 million pounds – envision 9,000 tons of plastic, enough aluminum cans to build 58 Boeing 747 jets and enough newspaper to cover a football field 230 meters deep.  (To learn more, check out this report published by Green America on the airline industry.)

Want to do something about it?  Well an easy way for you to get involved (that won’t affect those winter travel plans) is by joining forces with Green America and tell U.S. airline companies to get on board with recycling by signing this Letter to Management.

According to the press release, Seidenberg’s $20 million came from above-target payouts on performance stock units (PSUs), a form of restricted stock. The Association of BellTel Retirees presented a proposal regarding PSUs on Verizon’s 2011 proxy ballot, and has resubmitted the resolution for vote this year.

Over the last 12 years, The Association of BellTel Retirees has pursued corporate governance topics such as executive golden parachutes, overuse of shadow profits from the pension fund, performance stock awards and an independent board.

If you own shares of Verizon, keep an eye out for the ballot this spring and follow The Association of BellTel Retirees on Moxy Vote to see all their voting recommendations.

• Bank of America (7,590)
• Citigroup (5,464)
• Tyson (3,389)
• Hormel (2,377)
• Coca-Cola (3,230)
• Campbell’s (1,952)

That is over 24,000 signatures in a few months, tackling issues like disclosure of political contributions (Bank of America & Citigroup), ending the use of gestation crates (Tyson & Hormel) and getting rid of BPA in cans (Coca-Cola & Campbell’s).  We love you passion over here at Moxy Vote so a virtual applause is being sent your way!

Oh and just so you know – we have already begun reaching out to these companies to tell them how you feel!  We will keep you posted on any updates and feedback we receive from them in the New Year.

Thanks again for being passionate.  We look forward to helping you address more issues in 2012!